Review: The Freak Brothers “Gender Non-Binary”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The Freak Brothers are at a local bar, wondering how they get laid, and fail miserably. Phineas and Freddy go to a science and technology convention, while Franklin joins Gretchen’s book club. Phineas falls in love with Tess, a girl he meets at the convention, but she has a secret that threatens to tear them apart, while Franklin’s sex appeal draws women to him.

Our Take

This episode delved into the realms of science fiction and some social commentary, as the main part of this episode was about Phineas getting a robot girlfriend named Tess, who was set on him, after they met at a science and technology convention. The series continues to be irreverent, with lots of sex and nudity throughout this episode, perhaps more than any other episode up to this point.

There was an interesting parallel between Phineas getting a robot girlfriend and Franklin trying to impress Gretchen but ending up attracting the women in her book club, who wanted to have sex with him. At the same time, Kitty and the dog, Chomsky, smoked pot and got high. Their funny banter and interactions were some of the episode’s highlights. However, they were the only characters who were high in the whole episode, meaning the series is not living up to being the “dopest animated series.”

Phineas originally is shocked to realize he is dating a robot, but then he proudly declares he is in love with a robot. Later, although Franklin feels that Gretchen’s friends are exploiting him and he wants a real relationship, these same people claim that the relationship Phineas has with Tess is wrong, with Tess just programmed to make him happy. Even Freddy tries to get in on the action, but ends up with a sex worker who is pretending to be a robot in order to get some money for food and to pay off student loans.

There is a social commentary of sorts about corporate ownership, as the person who created the robot girlfriends, like Tess, says that Tess wasn’t his property, even though they never ask Tess what she wants. Tess is basically treated as an object, not even something with its own mind. But, it is possible this will change in the future, and the robots will rise up like they did in Isaac Amisov’s I Robot,the book that Gretchen proposed at her book club in the episode.

Interestingly, Gretchen comes to Franklin’s defense, saying her friends are treating him like a “dildo in a cowboy hat” and admits she has feelings for him. She even gives him a friendly kiss. In some ways, the episode is circular, as it ends where it began, with Freddy believing the jukebox has eyes for him, Phineas thinking he isn’t cut out for dating, Franklin says that Gretchen has feelings for him.

While the episode was dramatic and exiting at times, I didn’t laugh once. In fact, the Futurama episode “I Dated a Robot,” was much funnier and stronger than this one. And that episode came out over 20 years ago in May 2001! In that episode, Fry illegally downloads a copy of Lucy Liu into a robot, with a swarm of them sent to kill the crew after Bender steals Liu’s head. While the episode of this show ended similar to that one, the Futurama episode was more dramatic with the Liu bot dying after saving Fry and his friends, along with having a propaganda film claiming that robosexuality (robot-human relationships) is wrong. This episode had nothing like that.

I have to admit that my interest in the series is flagging and I am beginning to dislike it, more episode to episode, and it is becoming less enjoyable to watch. I hope that my opinion on the series will change, but I am not completely confident.