There are many holes in my geek knowledge, and for the longest time Futurama was one of them.  It still is to some point.

Because I never watched Futurama.

I know I know!  And I really have no excuse.  I watch almost every other cartoon on FOX but for some reason, this always slipped through my viewing cracks.  Even the repeats on Adult Swim.  Sure, I’ve seen an episode here or over there but never with any consistency.  Until we started looking for something short, funny and intelligent to watch before bed.  My fiance suggested Futurama and I had no reason to argue.  One episode quickly became two, then three, then hours of watching it during the day.  How did I not watch this from the beginning?!

For the few of you who don’t know, here’s the plot.  Fry is frozen in time in 1999.  He is thawed out centuries (eons?) later, meets the humans and aliens of the day, makes a tight group of friends, and misadventures ensue.  Very simple but nothing else about this show could be called simple.

Sure, there are the man out of time episodes.  But Fry is our guide.  Everything has to be explained to him, and thus to us.  Brilliant.  He’s the outsider and we’re able to get tons of exposition when needed without it seeming forced.

I never got into the show until the last couple of months.  All of a sudden it clicked with me.  This isn’t Simpsons in space/future.  This is one of the greatest sci fi TV shows of all time.  And I need to treat it as such.  This is one of the richest most layered shows not only in the scifi genre but all of TV.  The creators made a universe, and in some cases many universes.

Apologies to those of you who love this show, I’m not deep enough in it to know certain specifics.  I know the show started with Fry, then Bender and Leela and the Professor.  I still have no idea how Amy, Hermes or anyone else is added to the show.  I’m aware that they are main cast, but I have no idea how they got there.  However, it was a side character that brought all of this together for me.  One episode I realize that the trash guy has showed up multiple times.  Then I started paying attention.  All of the robots make multiple appearances.  Then it just exploded.  While creating the town of Springfield, in which every background character has had their own episode and backstory, is an impressive feat.  This is a galaxy of characters.  Now repeat viewings have more meaning.  I look for favorite guests, inside jokes, and so much more.

Plus, like all good scifi shows, there’s a message.  One of the great things about good sci fi is that they always sneak in a message.  Whether its the value of all life, or the importance of family, or how war doesn’t solve problems.  It may be under the surface, or it may be overt, but there’s always some great point to be made.

I say under the surface and it reminds me that I haven’t mentioned the surface.  Its a funny ass show!  Broad, gross, subtle, smart, they got all your humor needs under one roof!

Learn from me.  If you didn’t like this on the first time around, come back.  Maybe it wasn’t the right moment, maybe you weren’t in the right frame of mind.  But don’t miss out on it any longer.

Available on Netflix streaming.

Also, if the episode with Fry’s dog and the pizza shop doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, you have no soul.