uturama's fifth—and perhaps final—season premiere takes on issues
of global proportions with "Crimes of the Hot," when the Planet Express crew find themselves playing an instrumental role in saving the Earth. As the episode begins, Fry (voiced by West) and the crew are struggling with an ever-increasing heat wave caused by global warming.
The solution to the problem in the past had always been to drop a giant ice cube into the ocean. So, sure enough, President Nixon's head calls, offering the crew the job to take care of the problem. As Professor Farnsworth (voiced by West) explains, they must travel to Halley's comet and drill for the ice.
They do, but unfortunately Halley's is out of ice, like "an outer-space Motel 6."
Facing the end of "banana daiquiris as we know it and life," the Planet Express heads back to Earth in time to discover the global implications of what will happen without the big ice-cube drop. Perhaps most touched by the situation is Bender (voiced by Di Maggio), who rescues a migrating African
turtle because he believes they have some things in common.
But it's Al Gore's head (voiced by Al Gore) who takes the bull by the horns and holds a summit in Koyota, Japan. A reluctant Farnsworth attends, with the crew in tow. The professor does indeed have something to say at the summit, and he makes a shocking admission about the part he has played in
the global warming troubles. And even more shocking is the discovery that saving the Earth may lead to the sacrifice of one of the Planet Express' own.
Funny and irreverent, but scattered
Futurama has always been funny and irreverent, and the fifth-season premiere continues in that vein. While not one of Futurama's best episodes, "Crimes of the Hot" happily takes on the big subject of global warming and spins a tale around Fry and the crew. Al Gore is a stitch playing is own head, Bender has some special moments and Farnsworth has a stunning admission, which make the episode well worth seeing for Futurama fans. While there is plenty of humorous material to mine, the episode ends up being just a bit too scattered to take a place as one of the best episodes.
As always, the episode is richly drawn and wonderfully voiced. The writing is sharp and witty, with the show's typical wry observations about the world around us. And as with most episodes of Futurama, "Crimes of the Hot" starts out small, focusing just on the crew, and then expands the action to take the story to strange and wonderful places. However, there's a little too much stuffed into the episode.
Despite that, this is another solid effort from one of the most underrated and unrespected series on the air. Even when Futurama is only pretty good, it's still funnier than most other half-hour comedies on the air. And considering it is undoubtedly the most pre-empted series ever to grace the airwaves, it's had a remarkable run. How unfortunate it got stuck in such a terrible timeslot, insuring that only true-blue and faithful fans could find it. If Futurama had been paired with The Simpsons, there wouldn't be any consideration of making this the last season for the show.
That said, if this is Futurama's final season, it's had a grand run in impossible circumstances. Executive producer David X. Cohen has promised that this will be the show's "sexiest season ever," and "Crimes of the Hot" proves there's plenty of material and guest stars left to come. Even better, the Cartoon Network has picked up the series for syndication, so fans will
have a chance to catch up and new viewers will have the opportunity to get a taste of what they've been missing.
