The latest episode of Futurama, entitled "Law and Oracle," borrowed a common plot from Matt Groening's other show, The Simpsons, in which one of the main characters get a new job. Instead of Homer finding employment as, say, the voice of Poochie the rocking dog, Fry becomes a police officer. In a clever, well done opening, the show mimics the beginning of the pilot, with Zoidberg stepping in as the kid that insults Fry and Leela as Mr. Panucci.
Fry once again finds himself dejected with being a delivery boy, when a visit from everybody's favorite stabbing robot Roberto has an unintended consequence. Seeing how happy Smitty and URL are with being police officers, what with the constant promotions and adoration from sexy ladies, Fry decides to enroll in the Police Academy.
This begun, naturally, a Police Academy parody, in an episode particularly laden with extended pop culture references. Fry becomes a police officer, showing unusual competence, and finds himself paired with URL after Smitty's early retirement. After Fry and URL capture a particularly egregious speeder, one going faster than the speed of light, and finding he has drugs, the two receive a promotion from the chief, a gruff woman who is a parody of similar male character, only with a focus on the female body as opposed to the male. It was a joke that Futurama beat into the ground, but fortunately it never quite got annoying. The high speed chase was an elaborate Tron parody, but at least they worked in a reference to Schrodinger's Cat.
Meanwhile, the folks over at Planet Express are missing Fry's presence, even if he was pretty much useless around the office. Bender and Leela miss him in particular, as without him they have nothing to talk about on long trips, having to stoop so low as to listen to The Eagles. In another pop culture reference, Bender and Leela's deliver is to Pandora, the "3D Planet." It is, obviously, a reference to Avatar, but the planet serves mostly as a joke about cheap 3D and Leela's inability to see in it due to her only having one eye. Although, knowing the folks over at Futurama, the 3D probably actually worked if you had the proper eye wear.
Fry once again crosses paths with the Planet Express crew once he gets a job solving future crimes, it what was a play on Minority Report. After Pickles, the crime predicting robot, foretells of a robbery by Bender, Fry is determined to keep Bender from committing the robbery and changing the predicted future. In the end, it turns out Pickles was setting them up so he could in turn steal the Maltese Liquor, but Fry and Bender pull one over on him, and he is arrested. Fry is then fired from the force and goes back to work at Planet Express, with the now meaningless title of "Executive Delivery Boy."
Well, after an elaborate adventure, everything is where it was when the episode began, another staple of The Simpsons. Still, it was an enjoyable ride while it lasted. The pop culture reference may have piled up, but at least there were some good jokes in there, and the story moved along well while finding plenty of time for jokes. The mirroring of the pilot was particularly inspired, and there were plenty of funny lines along the way. We also find out that the Professor only said "Good news everyone" for Fry's benefit, a scoop if there ever was one.
Since Futurama returned to TV thanks to Comedy Central, the show has been more hit and miss than in its glory days on FOX. Fortunately, "Law and Oracle" was more hit than miss. Sure, for the second week in a row Bender and Fry were in direct conflict, but the episode still worked and Fry's adventures in the world of being a police officer brought plenty of laughs in what was a silly, reference heavy, but still really good episode.
Chris Morgan - Chris Morgan is a writer, covering mostly sports and pop culture. You can find his work on Twitter: ...
Join the Conversation