Every Futurama finale was of its time
“It just won’t stay dead!” reads the subtitle of “Bender’s Big Score,” the bombastic feature-length return of Futurama after it was canceled in 2003.
Looking back, the tagline seems like quite the statement to make after being canceled just once. The show would ultimately end again in 2013, after climbing back out of the mud after its initial cancellation. Futurama’s trips between the graveyard and the screen have become something of a 21st-century tradition, with the latest renewal arriving on Hulu on Monday.
Despite being taken out back with a loaded shotgun on two occasions, each cancellation carried a silver lining — the creators of the show were able to craft definitive finales every time, giving birth to “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings,” “Meanwhile,” and the feature-length, direct-to-DVD Into the Wild Green Yonder, which was produced when the series was in limbo between syndication deals. (Another potential finale, “Overclockwise,” was aired at the end of the sixth season.)
The ending to a show should attempt to find some resolution to the series’ main tensions while offering one last dose of what gave the show its fundamental identity. For Futurama, that meant resolving the will-they-won’t-they tennis match between Fry and Leela amid a whacky sci-fi adventure. Each finale shoots for that exact balance, but they don’t all hit it head on — though they all show love for a particular strand of Futurama’s identity.
The show put in a lot of work to ensure that Fry and Leela’s romantic tension sustained its entire run, often having to walk back previous definitive endings or find creative solutions as to why they aren’t together just yet. Some are more successful than others — Leela’s proclamation that “you’re a
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