The following contains spoilers for Futurama season 12 episode 6, “Attack of the Clothes,” now streaming on HuluProfessor Farnsworth’s latest error inFuturamahas highlighted a harsh reality about how the show approaches a common element of the sci-fi genre.Futuramais gloriously committed to its silly and often subversive approach to sci-fi. The show will undercut genre conventions just as quickly as embrace them, but it’s also used the cosmic scale of the series to tell surprisingly personal stories about love, faith, and self-worth. That ability to tell very personal stories on the biggest scale possible has always been a huge strength of the series.
However, there’s a counter-point to that strength that speaks tothe wayFuturamaapproaches big epic storytelling. The kind of threats that would be game-changers in other shows are treated as throwaway jokes. This is especially true inFuturamaseason 12’s latest episode, “Attack of the Clothes.” The plot turns a mistake by Professor Farnsworth into a potentially apocalyptic scenario. However, the show seems ultimately unconcerned with this turn, highlighting howFuturamaapproaches sci-fi conceptsdifferently than other shows.
Futurama Season 12 Finally Admits A Harsh Reality About Leela’s Story
Turanga Leela has long been in the heat of the action throughout Futurama’s storied history, but an issue with her story is highlighted in season 12.
How Futurama Dooms The Earth Again In Season 12
How Professor Farnsworth Seemingly Dooms The World
Futuramaseemingly doomed the world again in season 12, highlighting how the show has repeatedly used massive stakes for comedic purposes — at the cost of tension. “Attack of the Clothes” largely focuses on Professor Farnsworth’s latest creations, including a genetically modified silkworm that can make beautiful outfits with ease. To accommodate this, he creates a series of wormholes disguised within waste baskets, encouraging people to throw away their clothes after use. Even after discovering this has seemingly smothered a planet, Farnsworth is unconcerned. However, the end of the episode reveals the portals were actually through time instead of space.
As a result, humanity has been dumping untold amounts of clothing over their world, seemingly dooming it. The episode ends with the first portals opening and the Planet Express Crew huddling together as the world seems on the verge of destruction. It’s a foreboding ending that seems to imply the Earth is doomed,even as the show is unlikely to directly deal with the aftermath. It’s also far from the only timeFuturamahas utilized stakes of that magnitude, with several episodes over the course of the series putting the world (and the entire universe for that matter) at risk.
Futurama Has Already Destroyed The World Several Times
The World Has Been Wiped Out Before InFuturama
Thanks to the heavy sci-fi setting where entire worlds can be destroyed as part of a throwaway gag,Futuramahas done multiple storylines where the fate of the Earth is on the line. This was established early in the show, going all the way back to the earliest episodes. Episodes like season 1’s “A Big Pile of Garbage” put the entire world at risk, which eventually started a cycle of escalation that eventually encompassed the universe. Episodes like season 3’s “Time Keeps on Slippin'” have shown Farnsworth’s other inventions breaking universal constructs and almost dooming the universe.
FuturamaEpisodes Where The World Ends Or Almost Ends
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“Anthology of Interest I”
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7
“Attack of the Clothes”
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This escalation continued over time, with the non-canon season 2 episode “Anthology of Interest I” and canon storylines like Season 7’s “The Late Philip J. Fry” focusing on the end of the universe. The scope of these universe-wide threats and the interconnected elements ofsubplots like Nibbler’s long-running missionto help Fry give the series a genuine sense of epic scale. The show’s blunt and darkly comic approach to such dangerous stakes is also a fun subversive approach to the genre,but it does have a major effect on how the show can approach stakesand tension.
Futurama Officially Revives A Subtle Horror Gag That Was Forgotten After The Original Series Finale
Futurama has always had a strange connection to this type of horror character, and the running gag has finally come back in Hulu’s season 12.
Futurama’s Doomed World Threat Confirms A Harsh Reality About The Show’s Stakes
WhyFuturamaNever Feels Intense When The World Ends
Stakes don’t really matter inFuturama, which is a harsh truth about the show’s approach to sci-fi. Several episodes have risked all of existence, only for the plot to be resolved by the end of the episode. Many episodes of the show are effectively non-canon, further allowing the creatives to push boundaries. As a result, the series rarely ever actually feels tense from the universal threats at play. Even the potential end of the world in “Attack of the Clothes” is more of a gag than an actual threat.Universal stakes amount to little tension inFuturama.
Instead, the tension inFuturamastems from a character focus. Audiences are far more drawn in by the dangers posed toFuturama’s main characters and their relationships than they are to the threats toFuturama’s world. This is something season 12 has actually illustrated well with episodes likeSquid Gamesparody “Quids Game"and “The Temp.” In those episodes,it was the emotional connections that were at risk, and the stakes felt far more important. It givesFuturamaa unique approach to tension that has benefited from a strong cast and character focus over the last twelve seasons.
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.
