In the Season 7 premiere, Bender becomes a father after a fling with the office soda machine.

Spoilers Below

The Professor makes the single greatest purchase in the history of Planet Express…a new Soda Machine! “Bev” as she likes to be called is already a hit around the audience with the exception of Bender who really isn’t crazy about her due to the lack of booze in her drink selection. Fry, on the other had ends up drinking a shit ton, so much so that he turns his entire body into that of a glow-in-the-dark green glow.

Eventually, the sexual tension between Bender and Bev becomes so obvious that they just go ahead and do it. Having never heard of where “Bots” come from, Bender gets a bit of a surprise when Bev gives birth to a baby bot named “Ben”. At first, Bender has no interest in being a dad and even puts together a notorized document claiming that he is distancing himself from the lil’ bastard. Unfortunately, Bev takes off anyway and Bender gets stuck with the kid. As luck would have it, eventually Bender starts to take a liking to the kid and raises him right up until his “Bot Mitsvah” where the little tyke becomes a grown-up. Everything seems so honky dory until Bev crashes the party wanting custody Ben and she won’t rest until she gets it!

Ben has no interest in being with his mother and instead wants to be a bender just like his dad, so they take off into the woods where they hope no one will find them. That lasts for all about 2 seconds when the Po-Po show up with Bev in an attempt to arrest ’em all for kidnapping. That is until Bev brandishes Baby#2 aka URL’s new baby. As a result, Bender keeps Ben but not for long as the still young dude is coming into his own and wants to go to the top bending school, so in exchange for losing his memory of his time spent with his pop, Ben gets upgraded with a new chip installed specifically made for Benders.

In order to make it in time for registration, the crew takes off in the ship which proves to be easier said then done due to the inclement weather. Thankfully, Fry takes over in the “cockpit” and leads everyone to safety.

Boooooy, did I miss me some Futurama! This episode was great for two reasons, one it gives long time Futurama fans a good time and a great way to kick off the new season. On the other hand, I felt this episode was a great way to maybe introduce the series to newcomers! Mainly because, just about everyone gets a good amount of time but the buck stops with Bender and its such an awesome show because of this. I thought Wanda Sykes as “Bev” made a great pairing with Bender as I really thought the dialogue was strong between them, but this leads me to my one gripe, which is pretty big when you consider how much he had to do in this episode…Ben! How the hell did Ben turn out to be really NOTHING like his parents? You would think the very least all that time with his dad learning how to pick-pocket and rob banks that Ben would be a bigger pain in the ass to deal with but for some reason he’s just OK? I also thought whomever voiced Ben left a lot to be desired, as you would think he’d pick up some funny dialogue given how noisy both his ‘rents are.

That all being said, Futurama is back and you should be watching it because the laughs are all there. Its definitely the best animated series on Comedy Central not named South Park.

(8.0 out of 10)