REVIEW: FUTURAMA “THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MON”

Hermes makes physical upgrades by replacing his body parts with robotic prostheses when he tires of being inferior to machines.

Spoilers Below

Hermes does an audit of Planet Express and discovers that he is the most useless member of the team and he fired himself only to get replaced by a robot that can do his job better. Later on, Hermes and LaBarbara are walking in the park when all of the sudden a droid named Roberto comes out of nowhere to try and rob them, only to be thwarted by the nearby police one of which is a robot. This causes Hermes to decide that its time for an upgrade.

The first upgrade isn’t all that weird is it?? Well, Hermes gets a harpoon installed where his insides used to be and now that he’s a bit more inspired because of his usefulness, he decides to rehire himself back to work at Planet Express. However, his upgrades haven’t ceased as Hermes decides to get another gadget installed, this time a robotic arm with about a thousand different functions built in. Weirdly enough, Hermes’ usual glutton for punishment Dr. Zoidberg isn’t happy about the fact that the insults aren’t what they used to be and as a result he actually steals the Jamaican’s body parts and builds an effigy of his former opponent thereby creating a puppet in a new ventriloquist act.

Eventually, Hermes’ implants get really out of control and as a result turns himself into a giant “Mecha Hermes” with the main difference between him and Bender being that Hermes has a human brain. It isn’t long before Hermes and the gang are audience members in Zoidberg’s new stand up routine, and despite everyone else giving him rave reviews, Mecha Hermes is kind of pissed off. As a result, he opts to get a new robot brain installed but his normal doctor refuses leaving only one option left…FARNSWORTH!! As such, Hermes, Farnsworth, and Bender go to a freshly made grave plot and dig up a dead robot and steals the brain. Oh yea, and guess whose brain that belongs to?? The recently deceased, Roberto!!

Fortunately, LaBarbara interrupts the surgery before Hermes goes through with it and Farnsworth decides against performing the operation. As such, Zoidberg volunteers and takes Hermes’ old brain and puts it into the ‘dummy’ he built, and continues to install the Roberto chip in the Mecha-Hermes…and boy is he PISSED. The Mecha Hermes turns into a Mecha-Roberto which then tries to eat the recently animated Hermes corpse, but instead is melted when the Jamaican’s skin tastes too  spicy. Oh yea, and Hermes and Zoidberg still aren’t friends.

Another really great episode of Futurama as it looks like the show is finally starting to hit its stride. The one gripe I had though is why wouldn’t there be MORE of a feud between Mecha-Hermes and Bender vying for whomever is the more relevant bot?? Having said that, the plot was really great with a couple of twists and turns in there to keep you guessing what was going to happen next. I really like the Hermes character and I hope he gets used more and more as he provides for a nice change of pace, and Fry for whatever reason seems to have better one-liners when he isn’t the focal point for the show. Often providing comical sneers and explanations of ration, providing for a nice jolt of energy if the dialogue gets lax.

(9.0 out of 10)