Season 8 Episode 7 - Rage Against the Vaccine [Discussion and Spoilers]

It really feels like these episodes were written in 2020 which already makes them feel dated and played out.

Every “pandemic” episode is uncomfortably played out imo
- The only good one was Mythic Quest's
- It's true. I watched superstore a lot, and when the pandemic was raging, they had some pandemic episodes. They were pretty good, and kinda smart, because they could still film them because they were wearing masks in the show, which us pretty rare i think. But after just two or three episodes i got kinda sick of it and stopped watching, because the whole mask no mask debate was annoying enough irl. But going back is even worse, because now it feels outdated.
  Maybe i'll watch it when the next wave hits or something
- Episodes of shows couldn't be made during the pandemic, so as soon as they were able to film them, they were already far too late. Pandemic episodes at their core are flawed.
They probably were
I just watched it and I kind of disagree. I haven’t seen this version of a pandemic episode yet - anger being the virus.

All of us were angry if doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do.

I thought it was a good episode.
- I liked the twist of anger being the virus, but felt like the satire was pretty muted compared to what they could have done with the concept.
  
  The sharpest jab, I think, was subtle. That was when Hermes narrated the typical scifi/magic mumbo-jumbo that comprised the solution (like, reverse the polarity of the dark matter tachyon field in the SIF and feed it into the spacetime rift through the deflector array), but in this case it was an accurate description of a real vaccine. Dressing up the vaccine with the language of shady miracle cures might have worked in the real world, if it weren't for those pesky medical ethics.
- That was a nice twist and I sort of enjoyed the omicronians "omicron" mutation.
- There are infinite ways to change the specific virus for a parody. That doesn't really change that it's parodying a situation that was already parodied to death by 2022.
  
  I think it's mostly well written, and there are some good subtle and non-subtle jokes, but it came way too late.
- Yes, the episode is good. Still the topic feels dated and beaten to death.
And they weren't good to begin with.

I'll admit the 'covid still dragging on a millenium later' was funny, but this just felt like someone failing to mould a story around an idea

The vaccine plotline feels so forced to me for some reason. I didn't like this episode, at least the crypto episode was less cringe as it at least had something original

They successfully turned that into an abstract comedic premise and it was one of the better so far I think.

So I've worked out whats been bugging me about the new episodes, not just for futurama but also all the new simpsons episodes for a while too. They've been trying to run distinct A and B plots at the same time without any interplay in them beyond happening to occur in the same space of time. The result is that instead of an interesting A plot with a small B plot running alongside we instead get what's pretty much two completely seperate half length plots that end up feeling underexplored and rushed.

The momazon episode is a good example, we started with leela moving in to fry and benders appartment and the emotional effect that has on bender, but then bender just goes to work at momazon so abrubtly that it doesn't even feel like a consiquence of the earlier events so much as a really forced way to segway into the momazon plot, the appartment plot is then pretty much completely ignored for the whole episode only to come back up right at the end for a last minute resolution. The result is basically a rugpull on the apartment plot while leaving too little time for the momazon plot to really get interesting, they just jump right from problem straight to solution with no real obstacles that don't immediately resolve themselves.

Both plotlines could have been served far better if the momazon plot had been the main focus with the apartment situation being sprinkled in as interactions during the momazon plot; this would have given the A plot the full screen time to properly play out while also keeping the B plot relevant throughout the whole episode. I think a good example of this would be the episode where nibbler gets flushed down the toilet, the A plot is finding nibbler and a B plot between bender and leela/nibbler takes place within the A plot without cutting into its run time.

TLDR: B plots have become too seperate from the A plots and end up detracting from them rather than complimenting them.

I kind of enjoyed the first 5 minutes or so of the episode. Then it just got bad. I've been watching the season hoping the quality might improve and it seems to keep declining. I'm still watching and complaining about, but we're more than half way through the season and have yet to watch a "great" episode.

I feel like they successfully pissed of both ends of the political spectrum while getting little to no good bits in. It just wasnt funny. I was so excited for the new season and have just grown pessimistic of every episode now.
- The whole Voodoo thing just fell completely flat to me.
I've actually been enjoying a lot of them after the first episode. But this one felt like a major step down for me.

The whole LaBarbara cheating thing hasn't been funny to me in a long while. And their desire to stay in the middle of the vaccine culture war felt pandering, plus a lot of the jokes have already been done, like the Zoom stuff.

I know it's been done, but I did still get a chuckle at how every person wore their mask differently.

Amy saying that the moonlanding was faked was pretty misplaced. It should have been said by Dr Banjo, after that someone could have stated that he lives on the planet of the apes.

I’m disappointed with the way they’re puppeting the corpse of my favorite show.

The writers lost track of the characters’ personalities. It’s not character growth, it’s wild left turns

wow they really are killing it this season, ill see myself out, woop woop woop woop woop

I'm glad I'm pirating this season.

I just watched it and I kind of disagree. I haven’t seen this version of a pandemic episode yet - anger being the virus.

All of us were angry if doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t do.

I thought it was a good episode.