3ACV20: Godfellas First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 5-5-02 "This looks like a job for God!" The vagaries of scheduling are a funny thing. Last week we had a Bender episode where he behaved like an absolute shit for 22 minutes and got away with it, learning nothing; this week, we had a Bender episode where, despite himself, he was forced to deal with the consequences of his actions and as a result actually ended up doing a selfless good deed at the end of it all. This being series television he'll probably be back to an average state between the two extremes next week, but I thought it was interesting to note. Another odd scheduling coincidence was that right after 'Godfellas' (an episode where Bender meets God) on Sky, the Simpsons episode was 'HOMR' -- the one where Homer gets smart after having a crayon taken out of his brain and as a throwaway gag proves the non-existence of God. For us Brits it's something of a non-issue -- God may exist, or may not, but either way the trains still don't run on time -- but I sometimes wonder which winds up the more fervent American religious types the most; shows that take an atheistic line, or ones that have the blasphemous audacity to portray God in any way, shape or form. After all, Dogma -- one of the most pro-God, pro-faith films of recent years -- was caught in a shitstorm of protest from members of the same religion its creator follows on the grounds that it had some naughty words and fart jokes in it. Or maybe they were just outraged that God is Alanis Morrissette. Hey, so long as it's not Celine Dion... Speaking personally, I wouldn't follow any religion whose God doesn't possess the best sense of humour in the universe. But that's just me. Theology contained in my writings may not be entirely accurate. But enough religious controversy; after all, I suspect that 'Godfellas' wouldn't have aroused any such thing when it was aired because it's on Fox, which is both watched by hardly anyone and in the hands of a possible minion of Satan (hey, Futurama got cancelled, what more proof do you need?), thus ensuring no easily-offended types would have seen it. Was the episode actually any good? I thought so -- the setup was handled staggeringly quickly and with plenty of good jokes along the way (like Bender's earplugs), and Fry's determination to find and rescue his best friend despite all the odds was another little hint that he can be a lot more than a lazy dimwit when he (and the writers) wants to. Considering how often he's turned out to be right in the end, despite his veneer of idiocy ("idioticness"?), maybe Leela should be paying closer attention to him! The visuals in this episode were outstanding as well. From the pirate galleons at the beginning to the beautiful space backgrounds -- I'm a sucker for astronomical photographs, and recommend that anyone who likes to experience a bit of awe every now and then should check out the book 'Magnificent Universe' by Ken Croswell, especially the pictures on pages 113 and 127 (plug plug) -- it was one of the most impressive-looking shows Futurama has ever done. They even synced the lighting effects and shadows on Bender to the flashing stars when God was talking to him - -now that's attention to detail! My only real problem with 'Godfellas' was that it was a bit too reminiscent of the 'Lisa creates a microscopic civilisation' segment ('The Genesis Tub') of one of the Simpsons Halloween episodes. But I can live with this. Like I said at the beginning, it was good to see Bender actually show remorse for his actions without having to be forced! Sci-fi-wise, the whole business with the monks was reminiscent of Arthur C Clarke's short story 'The Nine Billion Names Of God' (you know, you could probably use Visual Basic or whatever to run that program in a matter of days now...), and the bit about the PE ship being at maximum speed brought up that eternal raging geek nitpick about Star Trek's impulse drive. "It's a function of acceleration, not velocity, you jerks! [Smack]"* Another nitpick -- that was a damn good picture for a radio telescope... Not a good showing for Ms Wong, though. Do the guest stars record several episodes at once? It hardly seems worth Lauren dragging herself down from her very very very nice house (check out the link to Very Nice House magazine, or whatever, on her homepage) to record one line of dialogue. On the other hand, since I think actors get paid the same however many lines of dialogue they have in an episode, maybe it's not too bad a deal after all. Shame the same doesn't apply to magazine editors. I'd love to be able to roll into work, edit one line of text and then head for home again on full pay... Rating: *If you're wondering "the hell?", Star Trek treats "full impulse" as an absolute speed -- 1/4 the speed of light -- when even an idiotic excuse for a moron could tell you that as long as you have fuel, you can keep accelerating indefinitely to any speed below C, according to Einstein. Don't get me started...