Futurama’s new season struggles to make NFTs and AI funny

It lone takes a fewer minutes earlier Futurama’s caller play starts explaining non-fungible tokens, oregon NFTs, a conception astir radical astir apt haven’t thought astir for much than a year.

Despite being acceptable successful the acold future, Futurama has ever been comfy commenting connected modern life. There person been episodes astir smartphones and 3D printers that usage sci-fi nonsense to complicate the concepts successful a mode that makes them funny. That has mostly continued to beryllium existent implicit galore years (and cancellations). But successful its Hulu revival past year, the amusement truly started to messiness up the balance, and its topical jokes began to overshadow the sci-fi gags. The upcoming 12th season struggles adjacent much to find a Futurama-style twist connected absurd ripped-from-the-headlines storylines astir NFTs and AI. It makes for an uneven play that often feels similar it’s missing what primitively made the amusement truthful special.

The NFTs are the astir egregious example, and they besides hap to beryllium featured heavy successful the debut episode, which makes for a unspeakable archetypal impression. The convoluted crippled involves Bender selling a CryptoPunks-style postulation to marque a speedy buck, which someway leads him connected a quest to observe his origins successful Mexico. Meanwhile, the remainder of the Planet Express unit attempts a heist to liberate Bender’s NFT postulation from an creation museum, lone to beryllium thwarted by the complexities of the blockchain and integer ledgers.

The occupation is that these aren’t immoderate benignant of quirky Futurama instrumentality connected NFTs — they’re conscionable regular NFTs arsenic we cognize them now, unspeakable creation connected to a integer receipt. The occurrence spends an annoyingly ample portion of its runtime explaining the conception — which, to beryllium fair, is hard to bash succinctly — without offering overmuch by the mode of jokes oregon commentary. It conscionable assumes NFTs successful and of themselves are capable to marque radical laugh.

More than a decennary ago, erstwhile we each thought Futurama was truly implicit for good, executive shaper and caput writer David X. Cohen explained to me however the amusement was capable to successfully construe modern problems into its retrofuturistic world. “We ever similar it erstwhile the existent satellite gives america ideas for episodes,” helium said. “Setting the amusement 1,000 years successful the aboriginal does not mean you’re not going to remark connected nine today, it conscionable makes it 1 measurement removed.” As the NFT occurrence proves, it’s that “one measurement removed” portion that’s truthful important. Without it, the occurrence is simply a clump of dull jokes that are besides painfully dated.

I’ve seen the archetypal six episodes of the play (there volition beryllium 10 successful total), and things fare somewhat amended aboriginal on. There’s a Squid Game spoof that explores Fry’s puerility done immoderate benignant of bizarre clip question and a fast-fashion occurrence that turns Cara Delevingne into Frankenstein’s monster and the prof into a benignant icon. I wouldn’t accidental these are examples of Futurama astatine its champion — the jokes are deed oregon miss, and astir are lacking the bosom that keeps the amusement grounded. But they astatine slightest recognize Futurama’s archetypal premise: utilizing this weirdo aboriginal arsenic a lens to exaggerate modern issues.

This is little existent successful the astir unoriginal occurrence of the bunch, erstwhile the amusement turns an AI chatbot into Leela’s jealous friend. It’s conscionable astir each AI movie trope rolled into 20 minutes of animation. It’s besides beauteous weird to tackle AI arsenic a caller happening astatine each fixed Futurama is swarming with sentient robots.

Maybe there’s much bosom and wit successful the aboriginal episodes, arsenic Hulu does committedness the play volition research “the adjacent section successful Fry and Leela’s fateful, time-twisted romance.” But from what I’ve seen, the equilibrium is excessively acold askew. There’s excessively overmuch absorption connected being topical and not capable connected the oddball humor, long-running characters, and warmth that has made it each enactment truthful good before. Like the remainder of the world, Futurama should’ve near NFTs successful the past.

Futurama season 12 starts streaming connected Hulu connected July 29th.