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Futurama Reviews: S10E06 -"Wicked Human"

If any episode should feature an appearance from Dr. Bongo! Wasted opportunity. Especially since "Wicked Human" is kind of a sequel to "A Clockwork Origin" once again pitting Professor Farnsworth and his resolute adherence to science against religious faith. In the earlier episode it was around the idea of creationism, here it is much more specifically focused on the end-times, the rapture. 
And Futurama feels a little bit late to that topic, if only because several of its adult animation peers, including American Dad! and The Simpsons, have done takes on that theme years ago. But this show's unique context opens the potential for a unique interpretation; and to some degree that is what eventually happens here, if it unfolds in a fairly mediocre way.
That starts with the episode opening on the Professor attempting to fine-tune his oft-seen smelloscope by inventing a Naser (nasal laser), and needing crystals to power it he goes to get them from a fair of pseudo-science vendors. The Fortune Teller bot is there, and when the Professor lashes out at all the spiritual charlatans, tries to convince him to at least entertain faith in a higher power. Of course in the middle of his ardent defence of the scientific process people start floating up into the sky, apparently being raptured.
In spite of the phenomenon, the Professor maintains a scientific explanation is at the heart of the situation as more and more people ascend into the clouds. Rather than focus on determining that explanation however, the Professor decides instead to counteract the narrative of faith everyone is supposedly buying into by preaching the virtues of science, which he and the crew do in lab coats waving signs outside a church while spreading the "Good Word". This gag of turning the Professor's devotion to science into a cult is cute, but fairly uninteresting as a joke. The observation that cultish behaviour can arise out of anything, even the exact opposite of what cults are supposed to epitomize, not a terribly astute one. There is a scene where the Professor convenes with a series of religious leaders -including the PreacherBot, gloating at his religion having apparently been right. And the religion vs. science debate that ensues comes down to each side being unable to discredit the other's convictions, the Professor's rationality equated with belief. Futurama has never been so confrontational in its atheistic stances so its effort here at honest discussion feels toothless and tame. Perhaps a little bit too like it is stalling for time.
This is tangible also to the digressions concerning characters being raptured -the Planet Express crew going one by one. In the case of Hermes, it is funny -Dwight and LaBarbara moving on with Barbados Slim being raptured alongside them, leaving Hermes behind alone. Fry tries to tie his and Leela's shoes together to keep them from being split up only for it to happen anyway after some slapstick. But then there is an extended sequence involving Amy being kidnapped by Kif and the kids to get her off her science propagandizing and onto some mystical cleansing performed by the Grand Midwife. Amy explains herself and her reasoning to Kif and he is satiated, only for them all to get raptured anyway. It's a tiny conflict so miniature and not sustained beyond a few scenes that it feels brazenly tacked on to give the episode the additional four minutes Hulu seems to demand of the show.
Eventually the population on Earth comes down to a few dozen people, the Professor, Fry, Bender, and Hermes among the last holdouts. Having never figured out a logical explanation for the rapture, the Professor concedes to a God and prays. A cheese puff appears floating in mid-air and Fry bites at it but is yanked up and out of the atmosphere, arriving on a fishing trawl manned by aliens with thick Boston accents (all voiced by John DiMaggio of course). These aliens have merely been fishing the entire population of Earth, depositing catches into either the ice bucket (where they are frozen solid) or the chum bucket. The Professor follows in the ship and Hermes confronts the aliens on the various violations of their fishing licence and fisheries laws more broadly. The Coast Guard arrives and sanctions them, forcing them to release their entire haul. It's a fun explanation that hits at Futurama's absurdist ethos (the only reason humans aren't regularly fished off their planet is due to bureaucratic bylaw), but it does make the Professor look particularly clueless. Like one flight above Earth’s atmosphere from his or any ship would have solved the mystery. It strains credulity.
It is the best part of the episode for being inventive and funny though, which is a relief at the end of a show that clearly liked the idea of doing a rapture episode way more than actually developing a rapture episode. Veteran writer Eric Horsted's script has some decent gags here and there, most from the Professor, but there is plain disinterest in the ideas of the premise -as evidenced by the dryly predictable final beat. Maybe the whole concept was better left behind.
And here are some stray observations:
  • Subtitle this week: “recommended by four out of five algorithms” -wish that were true.
  • And the latest in ‘Fry is too dumb to live’, he can’t figure out how to put his signature jacket on…
  • Morbo is a believer. Who knew?
  • Dwight making that comment about going to church was odd given his family celebrates Kwanzaa regularly. Then again I don’t know if it and Christianity are mutually exclusive. But certainly it doesn’t justify a weak joke.
  • This episode marked more rounded appearances of a couple background or referenced religious characters I don’t think had been in the spotlight before -namely the Space Pope and the leader of the Amalgamated Church.
  • “Who left the roof open?” was a pretty funny gag the first time. Unfortunately, Futurama is now in its 2010s Simpsons stage of taking jokes that work and hammering them over repeatedly until they are obnoxious.
  • That Coast God coast gawd gag was entirely obvious and still funny. I guess I’m a sucker for a Boston accent bit. I’m realizing too the episode title itself is a Boston joke.
  • Hermes lets the aliens keep Barbados Slim. That would be one funny way to write off the character.
  • The whole concept of people ascending to heaven perhaps came from space fishermen. It’s a theory that shouldn’t be ruled out.

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