The following contains spoilers forFuturamaseason 12 episode 3, “The Temp,” now streaming on Hulu
Summary
Futuramaworks really well as a horror show, and I’m so glad to see it embracing that direction in season 12. Over the years,Futuramahas been many things. While it remains first and foremost a sci-fi comedy, it’s also been a bittersweet meditation on life, a sweeping romance, and full of epic cosmic battles. One of the best other genres the show has ever played with though has been horror. The world ofFuturamais one with a lot of frightening elements that flesh out the background, but the show has also put horror at the center of episodes.
That’s already happened twice inFuturamaseason 12, which leaned heavily into horror. “The Temp,” like “Quids Game” before it, feels thoroughly likea classic episode ofFuturamathat also works as a horror story. It’s also beenthe bestFuturamahas been since coming back on Hulu.Futuramahas always been good at using horror to inspire and influence stories and jokes, but I hope the show continues to lean fully into that genre going forward. It’s so far proven to be a great way to highlight the cast and could be a driving tone ofFuturamaseason 13.
10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching Futurama Season 1, 25 Years Later
Season 1 of Futurama has some missing elements and rough edges that make it hard to return to after the heights of the show’s later seasons.
“The Temp” Is One Of Futurma’s Most Unsettling Episodes Ever
The Plot Of “The Temp” Is Genuinelly Creepy
“The Temp” is one of the most unsettlingFuturamaepisodes ever, and speaks to the effective ways the show can embrace horror while still retaining its silly elements. “The Temp” reveals that years ago, Fry was briefly replaced with a temp named Frank while he went on vacation. Forgotten and left behind on a mission, Frank developed the ability to hypnotize people, allowing him to trick the eventually returning crew into believing he’s Fry. The episode even opens in-media-res, with the first act treated as a typical episode, but with Fry replaced and the crew unconcerned for an unexplained reason.
It was effective, and as a longtime fan of the show it was darkly compelling to watch the mystery behind Frank unravel. It’s not explained to the viewer until the second act, leaving us completely out of the loop before revealing how he stole Fry’s life. The show takes it further by having Frank’s presence even be subtly creepy in-universe. Assuming Fry’s life means Frank is “dating” Leela. However, “Fry” makes Leela uneasy, leading her to stay with her family instead. It’s a bizarre but understandable fear of being replaced taken to an extreme degree, working as a psychological horror.
Futurama’s World Is Quietly Horrifying (And Still Hilarious)
FuturamaIs A Quietly Very Dark Setting
Fry almost being left to die on a rotting trash heap world is far from the only timeFuturama’s world has been frightening. Part of the show’s tonal balance is between the wacky and horrifying aspects of the distant future. This ranges from the existence of suicide booths to a casual attitude to destruction — with characters like Bender, Zoidberg, and Zapp having surprising body counts. Episodes like season 2’s “The Honking” and season 10’s “Murder On The Planet Express” played more overtly with horror themes, butusually the terror inFuturamais kept to the worldbuilding in the dark background.
Existential horror is quietly baked into the premise of the show, going all the way back to season 1. Fry is beset by the strange and often lethal customs of an ever-expanding galaxy. There’s a society of mutants underneath New York City, and every robot can be remotely taken over by a maniacal industrialist. The show has threatened the world several times,killed off its entire cast more than once, and never shied away from the dangers of the setting. It’s also never stopped mining those elements for comedy, often undercutting the horror by revealing a pedestrian element to it.
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Futurama just brought back two of my favorite versions of Bender, and the season 12 premiere was the perfect place to see them come back.
Futurama Season 12 Is Fully Embracing The Universe’s Horror
Season 12 ofFuturamais utilize horror more thoughly, with “The Temp” and the previous episode “Quids Game” working very well within that framework — albeit in very different ways. “Quids Game” was a parody ofSquid Gamethat actually introduced a lot of tense games and challenges that many of the characters didn’t overcome. Moments like the game of musical chairs that ends with the losers being eaten alive gave the episode real stakes. There was also an element of cosmic horror to it, as the entire game was run by three sadistic aliens who could kill with a thought.
By contrast, “The Temp” is a far more creepy form of horror, focused on unsettling the audience by revealing how a man with enough skill and patience could take over someone else’s life. The comedy of “The Temp” is amplified by the sci-fi trappings around it, but theunderlying story is the kind of thing you’d see in the more cerebral and surreal horror storiesof filmmakeers like David Lynch. Both of these episodes, along with the earlierFuturamastorylines that embraced a horror theme, have highlighted how wellFuturamaworks when it fuses the cosmic comedy with sci-fi horror.
Futurama’s Revival Should Continue The Show’s New Sci-Fi Horror Focus
Futuramaseason 12 has been an interesting development for the series, and I think it’s on the right track. In some ways, it’s continued to suffer from the flaws that always seem to hauntFuturamarevivals. However, “Quids Game” and “The Temp” both reinforced the show’s long-running emotional themes while being consistently silly and scary. They’re two of the best episodes to be released sinceFuturamawas revived on Hulu, and I’d be ecstatic if it became a more consistent direction to takeFuturama.Embracing more cosmic horror could giveFuturamasome more emotional and epic stakes to contend with.
Episodes dealing with cosmic threats have been common in the show over the years, but leaning more into the unsettling horror of “The Temp” could giveFuturamamore inventive directions to explore.The frightening episodes have also all been effective at showcasing the emotional bonds that exist between the characters, like Bender and Fry’s snarky but committed comradery in the face of threats. The series could poke more fun at the genre with a return of the in-universeTwilight Zoneparody, “The Scary Door.” I thinkFuturamais surprisingly good at being scary, and should play with that genre more.
Futurama
Cast
Futurama is an animated science fiction series that follows Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from late-20th-century New York City. He is accidentally cryogenically frozen for a thousand years and becomes an employee at Planet Express, a delivery service in the retro-futuristic 31st century.
