User Reviews

As the show once again undergoes a season finale, it uses the last episode in the season lineup to deliver something compelling and emotional but with somewhat mixed results. It once again follows Bender undergoing and existential crisis but this time it's over whether he is real or artificial. The episode delivers an important message that we should not worry about if our lives are real or fake. All that matters is that we should make our lives fulfilling and meaningful.

With that aisle I have some negatives to say about the episode. It overuses Zoidberg abuse jokes and has too much toilet humor. There are basically around 7 jokes done at Zoidberg's expense within the first 5 minutes of the episode. I don't understand why the writers like to use Zoidberg as a punching bag so much this season but right now it has become very mean spirited and the writers really have to stop using these kinds of jokes because they have become stale. The toilet humor does not help either as it gets to the point of becoming very disgusting.

Since this is the conclusion of a broadcast season that was basically hit and Miss for reception and quality, the writers really have to get a grip on the next broadcast season for the show. They need to stop cramming in political and cultural trends and they need to stop trying so hard at making the show relevant. They should just stick to original stories and reverse the Flanderization that has occurred this season because it has caused quite a bit of damage towards several characters.

This episode features Professor Farnsworth creating his own small simulation. They start off as mere sprites (is that the correct word?), but then evolve into looking just like the character. The simulation then creates their own simulation and wonder if they themselves are in a simulation. I'm glad they didn't add more levels to that. It was a lot like that "Rick And Morty" episode. Hey, new "Rick And Morty" is coming up too!

So anyway, Bender goes into a crisis about his own existence and doesn't want the simulation to find out who they are. He briefly takes control of simulation Bender, but finds out the simulation beings don't care if they're real or not. He goes back and Farnsworth gains the power to keep the simulation going. Everything is slowing down to the real world, but not to the simulation. The episode closes as Fry and Leela are about to kiss. It's one of the more philosophical episodes and certainly makes up for the last bad episode. ***1/2.

I must confess i was completely flabbergasted out of my brain after watching the S7. E7 "The Late Phillip J Fry" episode and literally watched it over and over again about 100 times!!! After watching this episode, i'm beginning to hope that maybe the Futurama team will really deliver and come up with an episode that is just as good as that amazing episode because this episode was at least about half as good as the "The Late Phillip J Fry" episode!!! In many ways, this episode had even more philosophical footprint than the "The Late Phillip J Fry" episode and made me wonder for a while whether we are all in a simulation and what that fact all means to us... The plot of this episode is a very futuramaish theme where you explore into the fact that our world is a simulation and creating a story out of that in a way that Futurama excels at. BTW, i think that if our world really is a simulation, that really explains a lot!!!

Best episode of the season. Only flaw is the Quantum Mechanics argument to the Universe being a simulation. The way quantum mechanics actually works makes it even more computation intensive than a classical deterministic universe, not the other way around. The whole "being in both places until an observation is made" is, according to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, due to all trajectories taken place at the same time until one of them is observed by a particular observer. In order for, say, an electron travelling throught a two-slit experiment be simulated, the computer would have to compute all the trajectories taking place, even the ones prohibited by the classical laws of motion. It is actually an evidence AGAINST the simulation theory, not in favor of it. Charlatans like Elon Musk and Neil Degrasse Tyson would lie and make you believe otherwise for their own selfish egocentric reasons though.

It was a cleverly written story nevertheless.

This was a fun episode. It felt very "at home". And felt like I was watching an older classic episode. The only reason why this is an 8 out of 10, is because the whole "fry and leela" leading up kiss thing. Not only have we seen these two kiss, but we have seen them get married and have a literal life together frozen in time. Yes I know they technically don't remember that, but the audience does.

Other than that, it was a solid episode, and you could tell the writers had fun with the material. I am unsure if the writing staff is the same, but I know at one point they had like a dozen doctorates, dozen masters, and of those there were degrees in astrophysics or something.