Futurama - Season 5 [Blu-ray]

After around seven years off the air after a premature cancelation and four great (If sometimes lacking...) specials, Futurama, the best western animation that has ever been created, finally returns to our screens as an actually serial series, and it is about time!

As some have commented, this set technically includes the first 13 episodes of Series 6, but in the UK it seems to be known as Series 5. In America it seems that the specials Bender's Big Score - Into The Wild Green Yonder are classed as Series 5, whiles here in the UK, Series 6a is being considered Series 5. Bit confusing, but if the next 13 episodes are classed as Series 6 it should get us back on track with the US!

What impresses the most about this series is how quickly the show has regained its spirit. The majority of episodes are absolutely wonderful, being both funny and skilfully written. Highlights of Series 5 include the touching The Late Philip J. Fry, which rightly won an Emmy; Proposition Infinity, which is a wonderful satire of the ridicules same-sex rows, and the crazy and fun The Prisoner of Benda, which contains a wonderfully heart-breaking scene, featuring Scruffy of all people! The best of the lot however is Lethal Inspection. It is one of the best ever episodes of the entire series in general, being both hilarious and emotionally touching at the same time as Bender discovers his own fragile mortality. Fellow fans of Jurassic Bark and Leela's Homeworld (My favourite episode) will love it!

Despite the high quality of the episodes, there are some episodes, such as In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela (Could they give the Zap/Leela thing a break now? Please? It was funny the first four series, but now I would love it if they wrapped it up a bit...) and the wasteful The Duh-Vinci Code, which fail to stand-up with the rest in terms of quality. But this is only a small complaint in a series that constantly impressed.

One of the strengths of Futurama has always been the characters, who, despite being one-eyed, robots and crab-like, have always felt very real and engaging compared to certain other animations (Yes, I'm looking at you Seth...) and I am glad to say that in this series the Planet Express team are as wonderful as always. They continue to evolve and expand through great writing and voice acting from the still-original cast. One of the surprises this series offers is the unlikely team-ups of characters, which allows us to see sides of their personality's we had yet to glimpse. The best example is Hermes and Benders joining up in Lethal Inspection, but other great team ups include Bender and Amy, Amy and Nibble and Zoidberg with Cubert.

The special features on the disks include wonderful commentaries on each and every episode, featuring the gods that are Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, along with various voice actors, producers and many others (Given the number of people participating in the commentaries, I'm surprised they can fit in to one room!) As usual, these commentaries are great fun to listen too while being informative and interesting at the same time. Also included is a live read-through of the episode The Prisoner of Benda (Which shows that the cast do have a great time reading the scripts), a music video featuring Bender and a comic written by Fry himself! There is at least one Easter Egg hidden within the menus too. While these features are more than enough, it would have been nice to see some actual interviews with the cast and crew, given how the commentaries can sometimes fly by.

The Collector's Edition contains the 13 episodes on both DVD and Blu-Ray and comes with a well-designed T-shirt (Sized Large) and a wonderful script book of the episode The Late Philip J. Fry, which I personally think justifies the higher price.

It is fair to say that with a series this great Futurama is not only back, but it is back to stay for a long while yet (Series 7 has been confirmed!) and I for one think the world is a slightly better place because of it.

Well worth the wait. The second generation in our household have always preferred Futurama to The Simpsons and could never understand why Futurama was given the boot. Thank goodness someone had sense and here we have Season 5. Both my Husband and I are in our late 50's and love Futurama. Roll on Season 6.

I absolutely love Futurama no doubt about it! I quote it often on a daily basis!
So after the success of the 4 movies and continuous pressure from fans to bring it back Futurama has returned with great gusto!

What I love about the new Futurama is how the writers drop references and characters from earlier episodes back into these new episodes, showing a great deal of care and genuine affection they have for the franchise. My personal highlights of this Season 5 boxset have to be 'The Prisoner of Benda', 'Lethal Inspection', 'Proposition Infinity' and 'The Late Philip J. Fry', very clever episodes for the true diehard fans such as myself. I'm not surprised 'The Prisoner of Benda' was nominated for an Emmy. And Bender dressed up as Leela at Comic Con 3010 declaring himself 'Every nerd's fantasy' is the highlight of the whole box set. Plus Matt Groening and the writers poking fun at Futurama being cancelled with their 'new' series Futurella!
Futurama has definitely still got it!

I must go now. I feel like I'm coming down with a case of 'Circusitis'. What's this you ask? Just buy this box set! Simple.

Bring on Season 6! Hail Futurama!