Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Part 3 of 4. In Volume 1 we looked at the series in general, in V2 we looked at the use of recurring characters. In this volume we will look more in depth at the writing.

This is my favorite season for a few different reasons. First, it has more episodes than any other season. Second, it shows an improvement in the writing. And finally, the DVD shows outstanding creativity.

I said in #1 that the writing lacked because of little emotional range. That changes in #3. When I first saw "Luck of the Fryrish" I didn't like it because it didn't end on a humorous note. When I had the chance to watch it again on DVD the sentiment sunk in a little more causing me to praise it. There is some good comedy early on with a nice, touching twist at the end. Season 4 gives us a few more touching stories, but this first one is the best. For one thing I couldn't figure out where they were going with it until they got there. The flashes from present (from Fry's perspective not the viewer's) to past build suspense nicely showing some prowess on the part of the director. Another tear-jerking episode showing more of how Fry's disappearance affected those around him is "Jurassic Bark" in season 4.

Though they aren't all because of emotional range, the majority of the episodes I count as my favorites from the entire series are in this season. You'll get more plot details when you get to the episode list, but my favorites are "Parasites Lost" for the internal struggles Leela and Fry face, "The Cyber House Rules" for the comedy of Bender dealing with kids (and the touching ending which I won't give away), "Insane In The Mainframe" for the concepts of crazy robots and Fry in a robo looney bin, and "Anthology of Interest 2" (which is where the title of the review comes from) for its unusual concepts and video game references.

As a Southerner and fan of Foghorn Leghorn since I was very young, one of my favorite recurring characters is Hyper Chicken. "Bwaaaak!! I'm sorry, I thought you was corn." I also like Roberto the knife-wielding robot a lot. We do see both of those characters introduced and used the most in this season, so there's another plus.

Content:
I haven't been going through counting words, but it seems to me that the strong language has been toned down some. There are a few episodes with little or none, and no episodes that stand out as particularly bad. The nudity is another story. The guys show their butts on several occasions which is nothing new, we've been seeing that since the very first episode, but there's a lot of it. What we haven't been seeing except in partiality is female nudity. Leela and Amy give us full moons (along with the guys) in "Time Keeps On Slipping." There's sexual dialogue here and there (especially episode 1) and some mild comedic violence.

DVD:
The DVD packaging has been changing so I won't go into detail on that, but the original release had thin clamshell cases in a box with a lot of original and very cool artwork. You can also get this volume, along with the other 3, in the Bender's head set.

Each disc plays the standard warnings and stuff we don't care about then has a ratings screen that is worth reading. After that is some great animation leading into the interface. Each interface has a different theme and host. Fry, Zapp and Kif, L'rrr and Ndunda, and the Nibblonians give us a little humorous dialogue over the main menu then a brief, comical description of each episode when the respective interface is selected. These are definitely the funniest and most creative of all the Futurama interfaces and are among the best I've seen for any TV show.

As is the standard for Futurama we get 2.0 surround. Maybe not as good as 5.1, but it sounds good. Picture quality is great. Chapter division is well done and usually logical.

Extras:
You probably expect to have a commentary for every episode by now. Not only do you get that, you also get actors Maurice and Tress joining the team along with Billy and John. The voice talent tend to add a lot of entertainment to most commentaries. Other speakers include creator Matt and exec. producer David X along with various writers and directors (the ones that worked on that episode if possible and fill-ins where necessary). As usual you have high spots and low spots. Mostly they are entertaining and /or informative although they can be dry and dull at times. They're worth checking out if you have even a mild interest in commentaries.

Another feature every episode has (which I mentioned briefly already) is a description by one of the characters. When you access the episode's menu someone will tell you what they like about it. For example, Kif likes the ones that feature Amy a lot, and Bender likes the ones that showcase himself.

Other features include a Play All feature for each disc (finally! I've been wanting this since #1!), and 4 galleries. My favorite of those is the 3D section. It includes numerous models with commentaries. Another gallery is a large one of new characters. The other 2 are how to draw Fry and Leela. The best thing about these is the background art. Read each screen for some hilarious stuff.

Remember how the first 2 volumes had a posters and yearbook pictures hidden throughout them? There's nothing like that this time. There is, however, a long montage of opening title quips that were never used. At the "Amazon Women in the Mood" menu move right to highlight the viewscreen. There are tons of titles including one I recognized as having been used. The bad thing about this feature is that you have to watch it as a slideshow. It would be better as a controllable gallery so that you could linger or skip past them as you please.

That list may not sound like much in the way of extras at all, but keep in mind that most episodes have deleted scenes, and there are storyboards, animatics, and other hidden features that I will list with the related episode below.

Episodes:
As I'm sure you know by now the production and airing dates don't match. Therefore the list below may not match what you remember as being season 3. You get 22 half hour episodes (which without commercials translates into roughly 22 minutes per episode)

1) Amazon Women In The Mood: The crew, Amy, Zapp, and Kif end up on a planet of huge, man-hating Amazons. The Amazons capture the others and sentence the men to death by snu-snu (sex). As the women try to save the men (mostly Amy trying to save Kif) Bender discovers a secret about the Amazonian leader.

Bea Arthur guest stars.
This one has several funny deleted scenes and some international clips on disc 4.

2) Parasites Lost: Fry is infested with parasitic worms. This is actually a good thing since the worms make him stronger, smarter, and able to heal extremely fast. He's smooth enough to make Leela fall for him. The others have infiltrated Fry's body with tiny, robotic versions of themselves, but Leela stops them when she sees the good the worms are doing. Fry is worried she loves him for what he has become rather than what he really is so he sets out to purge himself in order to see if Leela will love him as a regular guy.

This one has some great deleted scenes and a storyboard gallery. It's hard to read the notes and are so long they can get dull, but it goes from beginning to end for those of you that love that sort of thing.

3) A Tale Of 2 Santas: The crew is given a mission to deliver letters to Santa. When the maniac comes after them they manage to incapacitate him. Seeing a chance to do good they initiate Bender to be a good Santa and actually deliver presents to people. Paranoia is too high, though, and Bender Claus is attacked at every turn. "But I come bearing Triominos!" he pleads. Finally, he's arrested and sentenced to execution until the real Santa reappears to wreak havoc.

Coolio has a cameo.
This one has a couple of weak deleted scenes. There's a table read if you go to the episode menu and move right to highlight the picture frame. It's funny and fun being basically the whole episode (including the clever musical number) without visuals. It would be better if we could see video of the actors as well. We can't hear the narrator (David X?) well.
There is yet ANOTHER hidden feature if you highlight the corner of the viewscreen at the menu. When you do it right a Santa hat will appear (I had to use a mouse). It's a video presentation by David X talking about the censorship of the episode. It's VERY corny; probably only geeks and nerds will like it. Incidentally, I thought it was hilarious.

4) The Luck Of The Fryrish: Fry's luck stinks. Maybe he is still an idiot, but when he had his lucky 7 leaf clover he had amazing luck. His older brother was always jealous of his clover trying to take it from him and outshine him in everything. When Fry decides to reclaim his old clover from its hiding place he discovers that his brother found and took it. He then finds out his brother became an international hero because of the luck the clover brought. It was Fry's clover so fame and fortune should have been his as well. He is determined to find his brother's grave and reclaim the clover at all costs, but he doesn't realize how his disappearance affected his family.

There are a couple of deleted scenes with jokes they were wise to cut.

5) The Birdbot Of Ice-Catraz: Planet Express is hired to haul a dark matter tanker past a penguin preserve. Rather than fly the ship Leela goes to the planet to protest. Bender fills her shoes but ends up dumping the matter on the planet in a fit of mad sobriety. To escape punishment he disguises himself as a penguin, but a malfunction causes him to believe he really is one. It's a race against time when the penguins turn nasty and start attacking Leela. If Bender can't remember who he really is none of them stand a chance.

Phil Hendrie guest stars.
This one has several good deleted scenes including an unaired Scary Door episode! (The should have collected all those into one menu).

6) Bendless Love: Bender's innate desire to bend things starts causing problems so he gets a job bending. He falls for a buxom fembot coworker. He's unsure of her devotion, though, when he discovers that she was once seriously involved with Flexo who also works at the plant. He devises a plan to catch Angleyne being unfaithful to him, but it backfires.

Jan Hooks guest stars.
This one has several decent deleted scenes.

7) The Day The Earth Stood Stupid: An ancient race of brains steals the intelligence of all sentient beings on Earth. Only Fry is immune. Nibbler suddenly shows his true colors. He is not a dumb animal, but part of a highly intelligent ancient race who are the arch-rivals of the brains. Only Fry can beat them, but only the Nibblonians can get him on track to do it.

This one has a couple of mildly funny deleted scenes.

8) That's Lobstertainment: Dr. Zoidberg is determined to become a comedic actor. His uncle Harold was famous for his comedy at one time so Zoidberg wants his help. Harold, though, is old and broke and thinks he has a rich doctor nephew. Both are wanting to ride on the other's coattails. When they decide to make a movie it's up to Bender to convince Calculon to fund it. Calculon will do so but only under the guarantee that he will win an award for it. Failure to win will result in Harold's execution.

Hank Azaria guest stars.
This one has a decent deleted scene.

9) The Cyber House Rules: Bender adopts 12 children for the government assistance checks but realizes he's spending more than he's making. Leela reunites with a guy she had a crush on in the orphenarium, now a successful surgeon, and they hit it off. He grafts an artificial eye on her making her look normal. Fry is upset, though. He liked her when she was weird so why should she want to be with another guy that only likes her with 2 eyes? Leela must decide whose acceptance is more important.

This one has several good deleted scenes.

10) Where The Buggalo Roam: Amy and Kif go out again and start getting more serious. She wants him to meet her parents on their buggalo ranch. He's trying to impress the Wongs but is not doing a very good job of it. When the buggalo herd is rustled, Kif sees his chance to be a hero. Instead, Amy is kidnapped. Kif can't fail in his rescue mission this time because the fate of his love is at stake, but Zapp may screw it all up.

This one has a decent deleted scene.

11) Insane In The Mainframe: Fry and Bender are implicated in a bank robbery and sent to a robot insane asylum which is a problem for Fry. Fry is released only when he is cured of his "delusions" of humanity. Leela and the others try to convince him he's not a robot, but it doesn't work. When the criminal Roberto escapes from the same asylum he takes the PE staff hostage, and battle droid Fry is the only one that can save them.

This one has some deleted scenes with weird voice jumps.

12) The Route Of All Evil: Dwight and Cubert decide to start a paper delivery service. They do so well that they buy out Planet Express and its staff. It's all to make their dads proud, but instead they're jealous until the kids get into a scrape they can't get out of that is. The dads come in to save the day and learn a lesson in fatherhood.

13) Bendin In The Wind: Bender is attacked by a savage can opener and rendered paralyzed from the neck down. Beck is his roommate and encourages him to not give up hope. He gives Bender a set of mechanical arms that attach to the neck and allow Bender to scrape his ripped torso like a washboard. Beck invites him to join the band. Bender becomes the hero of broken robots everywhere until he can suddenly move again. This could mean the end of his career unless he can pretend to still be broken.

Beck guest stars and sings.

14) Time Keeps On Slipping: The Harlem Globetrotters challenge Earth to a basketball game. No one is stupid enough to take the challenge except Farnsworth. He has a plan, though. His race of atomic super men are the only chance Earth has. Problem is they're still infants. He has the crew collect chromatons from space to accelerate the growth process, but the disturbance of them causes time to skip forward at random intervals speeding the universe to its doom. It will take the combined intelligence of Farnsworth and Bubblegum Tait to find a way to stop the destruction of time.

This one has some decent deleted scenes.

15) I Dated A Robot: Fry downloads the personality of Lucy Liu to a robot that also takes her form. It's essentially Lucy except she's Fry's love slave. Everybody else thinks this is an abomination and set out to stop the company offering the downloads. They discover that the company is kidnapping the real people to make copies of them. When the crew rescues the real Lucy the company sends an army of ninja Lucy's to get the real one back. In the end Fry must decide if having a Lucy copy is better than having a real person.

Lucy Liu guest stars.

16) A Leela Of Her Own: While playing a friendly game of Blurnzball Leela proves to be the worst pitcher imaginable. She keeps hitting the batters in the head. It's so amusing for the spectators that she's recruited for the Blurnzball league in order to sell tickets. She's excited about being the first female pro Blurnzball player, but soon comes to realize she's making more of a mockery rather than setting the standard. Though she tries to improve, it may be too late to keep from being deemed the worst player in history.

Bob Uecker and Hank Aaron guest star.
This one has a deleted scene that's kind of dumb.

17) A Pharaoh To Remember: Bender is even more obsessed with his greatness than usual. He's worried that no one will remember him when he's gone so he keeps trying to make his mark on the world. When the PE crew is taken captive by an Egyptian society, Bender sees his chance to become great. He weasels his way into being Pharaoh and has the slaves build an enormous statue of him. The subjects revolt throwing Bender, Fry, and Leela into the tomb. There they will be trapped forever unless Bender can get over himself.

This one has a deleted scene that is worthy of having been cut.

18) Anthology Of Interest 2: Another episode involving the What If Machine. This is a collection of 3 stories in a frame story reminiscent of the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes. Part 1: What if Bender became human? This is possibly the grossest episode ever, but it is funny. Part 2: What if life were more like a video game? Fry is asked to help defend the world against invaders from Nintendu 64. Many video game references abound. Part 3: What if Leela... went to Oz? This is a Wizard of Oz parody with Leela as Dorothy and Mom as the witch. The end has a new spin, though.

This one has an animatic which is basically pencil drawings with temporary dialogue. If you like the episode it's fun to see this alternate version of it.

19) Roswell That Ends Well: The PE crew goes back in time. Zoidberg, it turns out, was the Roswell alien. In a nod to Back to the Future Fry becomes involved in the life of his grandfather when he pushes the unsuspecting man out of the way of a jeep. He's trying to make sure he doesn't keep himself from being born while Farnsworth and Leela work on finding a way back home.

This one has a funny deleted scene and an extra commentary that is very informative and way longer than the actual episode.

20) Godfellas: Bender gets shot into space and lost. While Fry and Leela look for a way to find him he drifts farther away. After going through an asteroid field Bender finds himself inhabited by tiny people. He becomes their god. As the society grows another darker one develops on his back. Eventually the two sides come at odds with each other with war being the only option. Distressed at being a failure as a godhead Bender meets what could be the real thing.

21) Future Stock: Fry meets a businessman from the old days who was frozen until a cure for his boneitis was discovered. Having so much in common from the same time period he and Fry become fast friends, and Fry nominates him for the position of CEO of Planet Express when the time comes to vote. Their stock soars under the new leadership to the point that they can all sell and get rich until the businessman's uncured boneitis comes back to haunt him.

This one has a few funny deleted scenes.

22) The 30% Iron Chef: Bender is determined to become a great chef. He finds a mentor who trains him to beat Elzar in a cookoff. It's a tough competition, but Bender has a secret weapon, the essence of taste. Zoidberg, meanwhile, is riddled with guilt over framing Fry for the destruction of Farnsworth's favorite model ship.

This one has a couple of deleted scenes that are pretty good and a couple that are weak.

Final Thoughts:
The one thing that could have really made this collection great is video of the table read. I love the imagination and effort put into the design and content. Like I said, it's my favorite season in every aspect. A well deserved 5* for this one.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older