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Futurama Reviews: S10E05 -"Scared Screenless"

It kind of feels like the panic around kids being addicted to their phones -once a trite and dull observation- has come all the way around to being relevant again. I think because of the sheer number of devices that kids have access to now and how it does genuinely seem to be a problem -particularly in this generation of kids-for their emotional and psychological development. "Scared Screenless" certainly taps into that in some dispiriting ways -even as it offers no real comment on the issue ultimately. But it does make for a decent enough context for an unexpected character arc.
Written by veteran Futurama writer Bill Odenkirk, the episode contextualizes a typical strained relationship between father and moody teenage son here, with Axl frequently on his phone and spurning any chance at quality time or conversation with his dad Kif. He's not the only one with a tech addiction, as both Dwight and Cubert also spend most of their time in online or VR spaces to the annoyance of their parents. The Professor tries turning the wifi off at Planet Express only for the kids to get access from a sketchy robot in the park in a funny bit that feels directly descended from "Hell is Other Robots". Eventually Kif suggests enrolling the kids in a DOOP-sponsored Scared Screenless camp run by Zapp Brannigan. Because he occasionally is online too much himself, Bender is forced to go too.
I've commented on Futurama of late feeling like it is running out of ideas, but that is not quite true of the boys’ camp set-up here, even if it is not as holistic a satire as such an episode would have been twenty years ago.  We see the kids struggle to pitch tents and start a campfire, though the main focus remains their dismay at being left without technology -all while Zapp gets to enjoy such luxuries. The boys are sent out into the jungle of this dense planet on a classic snipe-hunt where they discover that positioning Bender in the ray of the sunlight gives him power bars -effectively rendering him a wifi hostpot. They manage to retrieve their confiscated phones and bask in their glorious internet addiction until a snipe comes along (turns out it is real!) and nearly mauls them before they are rescued.
In the meantime, Leela, Amy, and LaBarbara have a ladies’ night out drinking, during which Leela is visibly annoyed by how all the others can talk about is their kids. For a moment it looks like the story is going to steer interestingly into Leela's feelings about children herself -though as soon as this is hinted at the whole subplot is dropped until the end of the episode; the story chooses instead to focus on the guys and Kif having their own wild night of reckless driving, partially to get Kif's mind off of his concern for his son (where his and Amy's other two children are in all this is unknown). Zoidberg drives them into a police station and they are all subsequently jailed -forced to hand over their devices too -except for Zoidberg, whose phone of choice is two cans. Luckily there just happens to be an old pay-phone in the cell with them.
On their camp planet, the kids' saviours turn out to be a commune of anarcho-primitive (and inbred) hippies. Here we meet more of the Waterfall clan, the first appearance of Phil Hendrie's collection of radical left-wing stereotypes since Into the Wild Green Yonder. Groovestick and Bliss, luddites to the core, shun the kids’ technology -soon blaming it for an eclipse that blocks out the sun (cutting the wifi power for even all of Zapp's comforts) and attacking them. The script tries to wring a lot out of the irony of warmongering hippies as Kif manages to call Zapp's emergency phone. And there proceeds a nifty technological de-evolution as the emergency phone is damaged, requiring the boys to hook a cable up to Bender while on the other end, Kif, having pulled the receiver off, the chord is connected to one of Zoidberg's cans -allowing Kif and Axl to communicate across space with effectively the most primitive form of a telephone. Axl realizes his love for his father as Kif, projected out of Bender's head, scares the hippies with his violent threats.
The eclipse ends a moment later, and just a moment after that the hippies become corrupted by the technological devices around them; and as he mourns this, in classical Waterfall fashion Groovestick is devoured by a snipe. Back home, the gang is let out of prison as the drunken ladies are brought in, and Kif is moved to receive a heart notification from Axl.
Regarding its theme, "Scared Screenless" espouses the value of older forms of technology without coming down hard on their newer cousins, though also not saying anything of substance about device addiction in youth. Likewise, the relationship between Kif and Axl as the character angle isn't particularly strong -given Axl spends most of the episode not thinking about his dad and his emotional breakthrough is deliberately muted. Yet I still found myself enjoying this episode a touch more than the others this season so far. I think because it does commit to its concept and context, is structured very organically, allows some recurring characters to drive the story, and expresses real interest in a new dynamic on the show -I like the side of Kif we see here. Not exemplary, but as topically relevant episodes go, it's perfectly fine.
Time now for some stray observations:
  • I liked the VR world that Cubert was spending time in. Of all the times Futurama has changed animation styles for a gimmick, I might have liked to see more in that one.
  • This episode more than most really encapsulates how far the show has come in mirroring the present. The internet of “A Bicyclops Built for Two” was advanced, but still just a novelty only casually used, and that persisted for a while. Now of course it is everywhere, taking up the space TV used to on the show.
  • Jotting notes on a computer as I watch the episode, I feel called out by Bender’s PSA.
  • Dwight and Axl competing over heart rates is wild. Even wilder is how enthusiastic Hermes and LaBarbara are about going back in time and erasing their son.
  • Funny how Bender is just able to extend his legs casually to reach up into the tree branch to retrieve their devices -almost as though his whole height insecurity is completely meaningless.
  • This episode doesn’t seem to remember the dimensions of the Futurama world -can’t the guys’ car just levitate above the rest of the traffic?
  • The iBlaster and the iHatch both need to connect to a server in Des Moines to work. Appreciate the show recognizing that Apple will still be shit in a thousand years.
  • There are no coins anymore since suicide booths started taking Venmo. A great bit of capitalist satire and some fitting world-building to explain away the use of coins during the show’s run.
  • The Professor becoming a tough con feels a touch related to “Three Hundred Big Boys”. Apart from that I just appreciate it as a funny joke.
  • We’ve seen Bender headless a number of times but never in this way where his eyes and circuitry are still exposed and it is freaky! Never has he looked less anthropomorphic.

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