Futurama surprisingly made its comeback after ten long years with new episodes on Hulu in a major revival series, and with Season 11 now at an end it’s the best time to look back at all of the episodes to see how everything shook out in the end! Futurama last aired on Comedy Central ten years ago, and the series continued its experience with cancellations and returns with yet another revival. Futurama brought back the staff and cast from original runs of the series, and in many ways it was like the series had not lost a step since it last aired.
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Futurama Season 11 is the first wave of episodes of its planned revival series with Hulu, and the new episodes not only followed up on some major lingering storylines from the first two runs of the animated series but also took some some hot topics that have popped up in the last ten years since the series last aired. It was a notable return for Futurama that fans were excited to play out, and has already released some of the most memorable episodes in the series to date.
Read on for our picks of Futurama Season 11’s episodes ranked from worst to best, but naturally our choices could be much different from your own. Let us know your favorite episodes from Futurama’s newest season with Hulu, and let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
#10 – Rage Against the Vaccine
Original Air Date: September 4, 2023
Futurama Season 11 came back with its very of the most distinct events of the last ten years since the series last aired, and that of course led to Futurama’s own take on the COVID-19 pandemic. Imagining a future where society doesn’t find a cure for COVID-19 until the year 3023 at the earliest, Futurama takes it to the next level by instead making it a virus where people are filled with rage instead. The major downside of this, however, is that the episode unfortunately uses all of the jokes that media poking fun at the COVID-19 pandemic has already made. Sure there was a science fiction twist, but this one felt like it was coming too late.
#9 – Zapp Gets Canceled
Original Air Date: September 11, 2023
Unfortunately that’s also the case for “Zapp Gets Canceled.” This is the episode of the season that tackles cancel culture, and while it leads to a fun idea where Leela, Fry, and Bender actually join DOOP, it ultimately spends the majority of its time focusing on Zapp dealing with the fallout of everything he’s done to Kif over the years. Instead of letting it be an episode where it maybe focuses on Kif’s side of things as Zapp finally faces a real punishment of some sort, it treads the same kind of cancel culture jokes that we’ve seen elsewhere. Though there is a bit of fun at the end as we see how crooked DOOP really is, this felt like it focused on the wrong things.
#8 – Related to Items You’ve Viewed
Original Air Date: August 21, 2023
The last of the truly hot button topic issue episodes featured on this list is also the best of the three as Futurama shares its own take on the rise of the Amazon online store in the last ten years. This is also the only episode of the season that brings back Mom in a full capacity, and it helps it stand out from the others. There’s also a fun science fiction twist on her “Momazon” intelligence as it soon grows a mind of its own and eventually overtakes the entire universe with its size. It has one of those endings that felt like perfect Futurama too as the Planet Express crew just accepted it and went on with their lives.
#7 – Parasites Regained
Original Air Date: August 14, 2023
This one earns this spot on this list because it makes great strides by bringing back a classic element from the original runs of the series with the return of the parasites (who were last seen when Fry ate an expired egg salad sandwich), has some visually experimental scenes, and features Nibbler in a major role for the only time in the season. But unfortunately it falls in a few areas as the Dune parody ends up being a single joke that runs on for too long, and it sets back Nibbler and Leela’s relationship in some significant ways.
It makes a big deal about Nibbler no longer having his high intelligence, but since it doesn’t factor into the series much it’s not that significant of a conflict. Making it worse by the fact that Leela forgot he could talk in the first place. It just felt like a step back in some big ways.
#6 – The Prince and the Product
Original Air Date: September 18, 2023
The big anthology episode for Futurama Season 11 is definitely a divisive one. It’s format made it awkwardly shoved into a “standard” Futurama episode as the commercials for products, and that overarching story ended up rubbing a lot of fans the wrong way as it broke up Fry and Leela once more (only for them to explain it away with a “science spell”). The stories themselves were fun as they imagined the world as cars, rubber ducks, and wind up toys and it means some very visually interesting makeovers for the Futurama world itself. It’s just a fun outing without a lot of weight behind it one way or the other.
#5 – How the West Was 1010001
Original Air Date: August 7, 2023
This might have felt like it was taking on a more recent concept at first with its introduction of Bitcoin mining to the Futurama universe, but thankfully it feels like a classic episode of the series as it makes it a very real thing. Instead it uses the idea to take the Planet Express crew on a Western adventure with some fun ideas. It’s also the only episode to feature a returning Roberto (which means it automatically makes it to the Top 5 for that alone), it brings back the Borax Kid (an original character introduced during the Comedy Central run), and also features Hermes’ son Dwight saving the day. A real fun one.
#4 – The Impossible Stream
Original Air Date: July 24, 2023
Futurama came back from its second cancellation with one of the best episodes of its revival overall. It tackled not only the idea of coming back during the streaming era, but even had a fun take on the idea of binge watching itself before urging fans to instead watch Futurama the way it was meant to be seen (one episode at a time). “The Impossible Stream” had the unenviable position of following up the best series finale, “Meanwhile,” and thankfully gets everything right back on track by setting up for several weeks of fun.
#3 – Children of a Lesser Bog
Original Air Date: July 31, 2023
“Children of a Lesser Bog” is the best episode in terms of following up on a major thread left from the first runs of the series as Futurama finally revealed the full extent of Kif and Amy’s children. Not only does it handle this with a great deal of emotional depth (with one of the most heartfelt endings of the season overall), but it makes a major change to the status quo with a great addition to the canon. It also sees Amy coming full circle from the person who wasn’t ready to be a mother 20 years ago to someone who would fight for the right to keep her children.
#2 – All the Way Down
Original Air Date: September 25, 2023
Futurama Season 11’s finale was the most experimental episode of the season, and it explored the rise of artificial intelligence as the Professor created a simulation that resulted in that simulation making one of their own. It started to question Futurama’s place in reality, and ultimately whether or not it mattered at all. The episode ranks up there with some of the best episodes in the series that explore those kinds of greater ideas (“Godfellas” to be example), and ending on Fry and Leela once more gave it an even greater series finale kind of feeling. It just hits you right where it hurts and makes you think at the same time. Like Futurama’s best could do.
#1 – I Know What You Did Next Xmas
Original Air Date: August 28, 2023
But the best episode of Futurama Season 11 really had everything. It had returning characters like Robot Santa (and Kwanzaabot, which features Coolio’s final voiceover role), the return of the Professor’s time machine (which also goes back in time now), a fun science fiction idea, heartwarming looks at the rest of the crew enjoying the holidays with their respective families, and Bender and Zoidberg teaming up for the first real time in the franchise.
It was such a fun episode that wraps things up in a satisfying way that one really hopes that the Bender and Zoidberg scumbag continue in the future. If you watch any episode from this new season, it’s this one. Futurama’s really back and there’s no better example of what it does best.
