REVIEW: FUTURAMA “THE THIEF OF BAGHEAD”
Bender becomes a paparazzo and tries to photograph a well-known actor whose face has never been seen.
Spoilers Below
While checking out the new aquarium exhibit with the rest of the Planet Express crew, Bender runs into TV celebrity Calculon whom is really just there with his co-workers for contractual reasons. Being the ever-opportunist Bender snaps a bunch of photos of the famed celeb-bot then flies to Hollywood so that he can take his ‘talents’ to Us People Magazine. The editor becomes so impressed with Bender’s work that he offers the budding photographer a position as a paparazzo.
No surprise to anyone Bender seems to always find a way to get the big shots but the biggest assignment comes in the form of Langdon Cobb. You see, no one has ever gotten a picture of Langdon’s face because the son of a bitch wears a paper bag over his head whenever he does an acting role. But, Bender’s the man and as such he breaks into Langdon’s house, steals a snap shot, and takes off back to Planet Express HQ. One there, Bender starts showing off his new pic to the rest of the staff but something strange happens. Turns out, if someone who has a soul looks at the pic, that person gets vaporized! That’s right…VAPORIZED! As a result, Amy, Fry, and Hermes ALL get vaped.
Turns out Langdon is from a planet of Lychans that feasts on the adoration of on-lookers and keeps an effigy of all those souls nearby that pretty much represents his ego in the form of a really big monster dog. In order to get Amy, Fry, and Hermes back to their normal selves, Bender, Leela, and Farnsworth set off to an acting contest between Langdon and Calculon with the hopes that if Calculon wins Langdon’s ego will be so diminished it will dissipate and the dormant souls will be set free. Once at the contest, despite Calculon’s best dead efforts, he loses and Langdon’s ego is out of control. In an act of desperation, Bender makes a copy of the photo he shot earlier of Langdon and shows it to him. As a result, Langdon’s ego gets SO big it explodes thereby freeing all the souls!
Overall, I thought this was a good episode. The scene where Bender kept showing everyone Langdon’s picture could’ve gone on for 20 more minutes because it was probably the funniest thing all season. Having said that, this premise has been done countless times mainly because of how easy it is to do plus the story was all over the place. Still, a valiant effort by sir Futurama.
"There are also other characters that come and go (also owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate media company)."
Huh. Is that just referring to other characters from the show itself, or is this implying that the new season is going to have cameos from other WBD IPs