3ACV01: Amazon Women In The Mood First UK airing: Sky One, 8:30pm, 12-2-01 "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is spongy, and bruised..." Two romantic episodes in a row? Not only that, but a romantic episode that actually had consequences that will have to be followed up in future stories? Woah! I think that's the first time since the pilot that the reset button (™ and © Rick Berman/Brannon Braga 2001) hasn't been hit at the end of a show. Although I still think that Fry and Amy are better suited for each other (they're the people who are intellectually closest to each other in Futurama, plus Kif is still far too wet!), it's good to see this kind of development in the show. After all, it's been a key component of shows like Friends -- which I'll just casually remind everyone that I got a VIP visit to the set of last week -- from day one. Whether or not you think that's a good thing is up to you, but hey, I like both shows. It's interesting to compare this episode with The Simpsons. In a decade of Simpsons episodes, there have been maybe six which actually affected continuity, and none of them concerned the Simpsons themselves -- instead, it was Skinner, Krabappel, Apu, the Van Houtens, the Flanderses and Barney who were affected. (I haven't seen enough new shows to know whether Barney stays on -- or is it off? -- the wagon yet either.) Personally, I like shows with continuity and character relationships that change -- in a sitcom, it's hardly a channel-switchingly shocking moment if you realise a character is dating somebody different after you miss a few episodes -- but then I like watching Voyager just so that I can mock its laughably bad continuity (and appalling science, but that's another thing entirely). Anyway, away from my ramblings, this was a good show on the whole. I did think that the male/female differences bit was a bit clunky and obvious, almost coming across like the 1950s attitudes to men and women that it was supposed to be parodying, but the rest of the episode had some genuine classic moments. When I realised what song Zapp was singing -- and the Shatner style he was singing in, plus the fact that he obviously didn't have a clue what the song was really about -- I cracked up even more than I did at the sight of Zoidberg's Village People shell. All that and Nibbler's squishy hairball, Zapp's chat-up lines, Kif slapping about on the ceiling and the whole 'death by snu-snu!' thing. Excellent. Two little notes: firstly, in the flashback, did you see Bender dumping the Countess' bracelet in the trash? And secondly, was that a sneak preview of a future episode when Leela saw a reflection of herself with two eyes in the puddle? Rating: