Futurama 11×2 & 11×3 Review: ‘Children of a Lesser Bog’ and ‘How the West was 1010001’

Babies and Bitcoin are the plot beats of the second and third episodes of season 11 of Futurama.

I was provided with free advanced screeners for Futurama season 11 for review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

I wrote in my review of episode 1 that season 11 of Futurama was like the show never left, and episodes 2 and 3 continue that tradition.

Episode 2, ‘Children of a Lesser Bog’, has Amy (Lauren Tom) reminded that she and Kif (Maurice LaMarche) are due children (a reference to the season 4 episode ” Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch” where he gets pregnant) and are ready to emerge from the swamp. But there’s a problem: Leela (Katey Sagal) had helped contribute DNA to the three children who emerge, and the motherhood is contested. It doesn’t help matters when Kif is called away on duty, and Amy is forced to take care of the three babies on her own.

My biggest issue with this episode is that there is a subplot about Bender (John DiMaggio) making more honey candy that Fry had. And while it helps introduce Amy’s plotline, it doesn’t seem to do much more than that. It feels sort of stuck in there just to set up the A plot, but then continues for no apparent reason. But it’s a minor issue in an overall mostly decent episode.

In episode 3, ‘How the West was 1010001’, Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) is in debt to the robot mafia due to investing in Bitcoin. So, the team heads to the ‘unruly West’ to mine for thallium, the element that the new mining chips are made of.

This episode is a hilarious send up of Westerns overall as well as several jabs at Bitcoin in all its iterations (they go to ‘Doge City’, for example). Leela winds up as a waitress and is offered work in the back room brothel. Dr. Zoidberg (also voiced by West) becomes a doctor next to the psychologist, and Fry (yep, Billy West again) becomes a sidekick for The Borax Kid (LeMarche). Meanwhile, Hermes (Phil LaMarr) has brought his son Dwight (also LaMarr) with him in the hopes of the outdoors will let the two bond. There’s even a shootout that goes full 360° amongst six of the characters.

So far, ‘How the West was 1010001’ is my favorite episode.

Futurama airs Mondays: episode 2 on July 31, 2023, and episode 3 on August 7, 2023.

More information can be found on Hulu’s website.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others.

She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

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