8x02 Children of a Lesser Bog

[7.7/10] If Futurama is going to come back decades after its debut, I love the fact that it’s going to pick up on story threads it launched twenty years ago. Following up on “Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch”, to not only revisit the tadpoles Kif hatched, but also Amy’s changed perspective on being a parent, is a worthy thing to explore in a revival.

Once again, I appreciate how this feels like Futurama. Everything from the impetus to the whole thing being Fry sucking on his jacket because it reminds him of the past, to the designs and attitudes of Kif and Amy’s kids, to the scornful attitude of the whale-turned-bear biologist come off just right. The worry about revivals is that the magic wears off and the show ends up feeling off-brand. But whether you love or hate the episode, it still comes off as of a piece with what came before, which is nice.

I particularly enjoyed the return of the Grand Midwife! She was a fun one-scene wonder character from the original episode, so seeing ehr get to have more to do here was a treat. Her trying to vamp before the “winnowing” of Kif’s offspring begins got a big laugh out of me. Tress MacNeille is a treasure.

Most of all though, I Really enjoyed the exploration of Amy's journey as a parent. The humor is here, but there's also a pretty frank (no pun intended) depiction of the challenges of child-rearing, from the pure love mixed with pure chaos that is having young kiddos to look after. Seeing Amy’s undying affection blended with total exhaustion feels well-observed.

But I also like the deeper angle the episode takes here. Amy is jealous of Leela, who’s technically the kids’ biological mother, and gets to play the fun aunt. It’s understandable for parents of any stripe to worry that they’re not good enough, or fear that their kids love some other family member more. Magnifying that through the unique birthing experience of Kif’s species adds a surprising amount of weight to Amy’s story.

And I’m over the moon for the finish, which headfakes an elaborate challenge, and lands on the fact that all that's necessary to be a valid and worthy parent is to love the hell out of your kids. It’s a beautiful message. Flipping the story to where Kif’s the one who’s almost absent before arriving just in time makes it poetic with the prior episode. And the running gag with Bender’s treacle is a nice self-aware way to take the edge off the schmaltz.

The episode isn’t perfect. Leela forgetting the events of the prior episode with the excuse that she was drunk seems like a pretty dumb excuse to recap what happened. Kif’s adventures on the tardigrade planet have a sweet ending, but go on a little long with the obvious fake out. And I worry they’ve run out of juice with Zapp at this point.

Nonetheless, this was an unexpectedly touching sequel to one of the show’s classic episodes, which is both worthy as a successor, and commendable in how it advances things for both Amy and Kif as characters that feel true to modern times. Overall, another encouraging sign for the revival.