las, this fourth installment of Futurama DVDs collects the final episodes of the series. Devoted viewers may still mourn its untimely cancellation over a year ago, but may take solace in the fact that, like its predecessors, volume four is chock-full of truly great SF entertainment.
This set contains a number of significant character developments that keep the show's overall storyline as lively as ever. The romantic relationship between Amy Wong and Kif Kroker moves to another level in "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch," Leela the one-eyed adult orphan learns the origins of her birth (this time for real) in "Leela's Homeworld," and in "The Why of Fry" Philip J. discovers that the accident that cryogenically froze him a thousand years ago might not have been an accident after all. ...
The misanthropic, booze-swilling automaton known as Bender is also put through not a few ordeals in this collection. He has a romance with the Planet Express ship (played by Sigourney Weaver) in "Love and Rocket," proves to be a terrible role model for children in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV," delves into his feminine side (again) in "Bend Her" and in "Obsoletely Fabulous" trades in his metal body for a wooden one after feeling threatened by a new robot at work.
In these concluding episodes, Futurama takes on big issues like global warming, in "Crimes of the Hot" (which sees the return of Al Gore) and free expression in "A Taste of Freedom" (when Dr. Zoidberg eats a flag). But worlds collide (for nerds, anyway) when the series offers up an homage to Star Trek (the original series) in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." The show ends on a high note, literally, in the musical finale, "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings," which has Fry trying to win Leela's heart (again) by becoming diabolically good on the Holophoner.
Parting is such silly sorrow
Like its predecessors, volume four has colorful, attractive packaging and menu design and, like volume three, audio clips of various Futurama characters taunting viewers at its animated menu screens (which are even more elaborately animated than those on volume three). Its special features are decent—lots of deleted scenes and clips of the show's animating process, 3-D models of a number of the CG elements from the series being the coolest of these.
As usual, however, the best special feature on these Futurama DVDs is the audio commentary. Creator Matt Groening and executive producer extraordinaire David X. Cohen again rep-re-sent, with a wide variety of animators, directors and writers joining them along the way. In the voice-acting category, Billy West (who plays Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan, among others) and Maurice LaMarche (Lt. Kif Kroker, Morbo, Calculon, et al.) are heard the most. The interaction among all of these very smart and very funny people on the commentary is, at times, nearly as entertaining as the episodes themselves. (On what other DVD commentary can viewers hear an explanation of a visual joke about diodes?)
And these episodes are hilarious, witty and gorgeous right up until the end. "Where No Fan" is graced with the voices of all the principal cast members of the original Star Trek series (except James Doohan) and will likely leave most viewers beaming with joy at all the SF culture in-jokes. And even though "The Devil's Hands" is far from the greatest of conclusions for such a rich and deserving series, its operatic theme does possess a certain dramatic finality and, as traveling music for its characters, strikes a moving chord. An operatic ending is also appropriate for Futurama in that its tragic flaw—its terribly smart, quirky humor—led it to be struck down oversoon by the cruel, capricious gods of the entertainment industry.
