New season of Futurama struggles to make NFTs and AI fun

In minutes FuturamaThe new season of begins explaining a concept that most people probably haven’t thought about in over a year: non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Although it is set in the distant future, Futurama has always been comfortable commenting on modern life, using sci-fi nonsense to complicate and amuse concepts in episodes about smartphones and 3D printers. That’s been the case for years (and even after its cancellation). But in its Hulu revival last year, the show started to lose its balance, with topical jokes starting to overshadow the sci-fi gags. In the upcoming 12th season, it will likely struggle to find that balance even more. FuturamaIt’s a ripped-from-the-headlines, absurdist storylines about NFTs and AI with a stylized twist, which has resulted in an uneven season that often feels like it’s lost the original elements that made the show special.

NFTs are the most egregious example, and are featured heavily in the debut episode, making for a terrible first impression. The complex storyline sees Bender trying to make a quick buck selling his CryptoPunks-style collection, which somehow leads him on a journey to discover his roots in Mexico, while the rest of the Planet Express crew stage a heist to steal Bender’s NFT collection from a museum, only to be thwarted by the complexities of blockchain and digital ledgers.

The thing is, these aren’t weird things. Futurama The take on NFTs is the same as the regular NFTs we know today: terrible pieces of art tied to digital receipts. The episode spends an agonizingly long time explaining the concept with barely any jokes or commentary, which, to be fair, is hard to explain succinctly. It just assumes that NFTs themselves are enough to make people laugh.

More than 10 years ago, we all Futurama After the show was truly and truly over, executive producer and head writer David X. Cohen explained to me why the show was able to successfully incorporate modern issues into its retro-future world. “It’s always nice when the real world can provide an idea for an episode,” he says. “Setting a show 1,000 years in the future doesn’t mean we don’t comment on modern society. We just take a step away.” As the NFT episode proves, that “step away” part is crucial; without it, the episode would be a bunch of lame jokes and terribly outdated.

I’ve seen the first 6 episodes of this season (10 in total) and the second half is a bit better. Squid Game A parody that explores Fry’s childhood through bizarre time travel, a fast fashion episode that turns Cara Delevingne into Frankenstein’s monster and a professor into a fashion icon. Futurama The jokes are hit or miss, and the show mostly lacks the heart that underpins it. FuturamaThe original premise of was to use this strange future as a lens to exaggerate modern-day issues.

That’s not so true in the show’s least original episode, in which an AI chatbot transforms into Leela’s jealous friend, which packs every AI movie trope into 20 minutes of animation. Treating AI as something new is also pretty odd. Futurama Sentient robots are swarming.

Hulu promises that Season 1 will explore “the next chapter in Fry and Leela’s fated, timeless romance,” so there may be more heartwarming wit in the later episodes. But from what I’ve seen, the balance is just way too off: too focused on current events and not enough of the quirky humor, enduring characters, and warmth that’s made it all work so well thus far. Like the rest of the world, Futurama NFTs should have been left in the past.

Futurama Season 12 will be available on Hulu from July 29th.