“Futurama” has always had a satirical streak. The series is a comedy, and the biggest joke is that 1000 years later, life isn’t that different from today. Since the series was revived at Hulu, though, most episodes have felt hyper-topical. “Futurama” has been parodying trends or events that sometimes already felt dated when the episodes premiered.
Seasons 11 to 12 “Futurama” featured episodes about Amazon, streaming TV, the Covid-19 pandemic, cancel culture, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and chatbots. The newly premiered season 13 keeps the cultural satire going.
“The World is Hot Enough” is about global warming and our ongoing inaction preventing it. (If you want to get super depressed about how little this problem has been addressed, “Futurama” already did a climate change episode in 2002, “Crimes of the Hot” guest-starring Al Gore.) “Scared Screenless” is about those damn kids and their screen addictions. “Murderoni” parodies the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which might’ve been biting back in 2016 but is past its expiration date now.
Not every episode was like this, granted. Season 13 was the most balanced of the Hulu “Futurama” seasons yet, relying on character-based episodes as much as current event lampooning; perhaps the show has requisitioned its groove back.
The season finale, “The White Hole,” was an especially strong episode. It probably helped that it was written by Patric Verrone, who has been with “Futurama” since season 1, all the way back in 1999. “The White Hole” is titled after the phenomena that opens up in the sky light years away from Earth. White holes are hypothesized by real scientists and are the opposite of black holes; while black holes suck everything into an inescapable void, white holes cannot be entered by matter, energy, or light. In “The White Hole,” the hole is the site of a new universe being born; the Planet Express crew chart a mission to observe the hole and the nascent universe inside.
Many “Futurama” writers are as passionate about STEM as they are about comedy and cartoons; co-creator David X. Cohen is educated in physics and computer science, writer Ken Keeler has a Ph.D. in mathematics which he used to write a real mathematical theorem for the body swap episode “The Prisoner of Benda,” etc.
Often, the science-fiction of “Futurama” would have a kernel of reality to it. Less “South Park” and more “Star Trek,” “The White Hole” sees Planet Express boldly going where no-one has gone before.
