Key findings

• Bender steals the show in every episode, embodying the humor and misanthropy of Futurama with sharp dialogue and hilarious antics.
• In the last few episodes, Bender fails to provide good material, wasting potential for development and depth in his character.
• Although Bender is a central character, his storylines often lack the courage to fully explore his moral dilemmas.

Below are spoilers for Season 12, Episode 4, “Beauty and the Bug,” Futurama, now streaming on Hulu.

Futurama features a large cast of unique characters and most fans have their favorites among both the Planet Express crew and its huge ensemble of supporting characters. Still, there’s no question who the star of the series is: Bender Bending Rodriguez, who attracted all the attention from the first momentThe misanthropic robot is perhaps more Futurama’s Poster boy as even Fry and Leela, as Bender has been a consistent source of good storylines. This includes several episodes where he appears as a solo character, perfectly embodying the show’s iconoclastic sense of humor. Voice actor John DiMaggio has made no secret of his fondness for Bender, who he describes as a part of himself.

One of the problems with Futurama’s The problem with the series’ recent revival on Hulu is that it’s been difficult to find good material for Bender, even though he usually has a prominent place in the schedule. Season 12, Episode 4, “Beauty and the Bug” initially seems to be a big step forward in this respect as by far the strongest episode of the new season with a sharp piece of social criticism. It represents Futurama at its best and gives Bender something to sink his teeth into. Unfortunately, the episode’s code undoes much of that, leaving it feeling like severely wasted potential that the show increasingly can’t afford.

Bender was the first star of Futurama

Futurama always seemed to revolve around Phillip J. Fry, a twenty-something Generation Xer who is transported to the distant future of the 31st century, where the world has become both funnier and scarier. Bender should be his buddy, because he always wanted a robot buddy, and they live together as roommates in the Robot Arms Apartments. Theoretically, this puts Bender in the same category of lovable robots as R2-D2 and C-3P0 in the star Wars franchise that forms the central joke. Bender is a self-serving misanthrope, an obvious master criminal, a selfish hedonist, and an all-around jerk. Of course, he’s also the funniest character in the series, and that’s partly because of the way they use him.

To put it simply, Bender has the best lines and John DiMaggio delivers them with impeccable timing. Most importantly, the character remains strangely lovable despite her rampant amorality. He is brutally honest about his habits and makes no secret of the things he does. In fact, he finds his own behavior terribly amusing and often laughs about it with his friends. He has compassionate moments when he is forced to face the consequences of his actions and he can even be oddly loyal when he feels like it. He has saved his friends on more than one occasion and his likable nature means they can usually forgive him.

That alone is more than funny enough to sustain the show. In his own way, Bender is just as callous and unfeeling as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 Terminator or any of pop culture’s countless other killer robots. He’s just less deadly. He really doesn’t care about people unless they amuse him or have something to offer him. Ironically, his intermittent efforts to do better are all the more heartfelt. Although it often goes wrong, he is sincere in his efforts and they can sometimes pay off in surprisingly touching ways. Perhaps more importantly, he offers a window into Futurama’s Robot world, which has proven to be a comedic goldmine for the show.

Alongside fan favorites like Robot Santa and Calculon, the show is remarkably adept at showing how robots have integrated into this future world, as well as their own unique holidays and subculture. Their awkwardness makes for great falls and physical humor, giving Futurama Part of its distinctive retro look. More than once, the show dedicated an entire episode exclusively to robot culture. Bender serves as an important audience surrogate in these stories, getting things like exposition done quickly and allowing the episode to explore all sorts of outlandish concepts without fear of losing the audience. This makes him absolutely indispensable, above and beyond everything else the character brought to the series.

Bender’s fights matched those of the show

It is probably not surprising that just like Hulu’s Futurama The revival struggled with fresh material and Bender suffered as a result. DiMaggio is as sharp as ever, and longtime fans are just happy for the character to be his hysterically insufferable self. That being said, however, the series has missed some big moments with him, most notably in Season 12, Episode 1, “The One Amigo,” in which he is sent back to his hometown in Mexico. It’s an amusing subplot, especially when Danny Trejo drops by to lend his voice to a “related” robot that looks and acts a lot like Bender. Ultimately, though, the plot goes nowhere, as a final reveal more or less aims to get him back to Planet Express.

The subplot is typical for Futurama’s Brawls since returning to television. It’s not a real flop, but it doesn’t do much with the basic concept other than just present it and let Bender do his thing. It provided a great opportunity to show the character’s development and change, especially since Bender has recently embraced his Mexican heritage. Unfortunately, the potential cannot be realized and the question of his family remains just another episode amidst the drama. The rest of the show is also stuck in second gear and while it hasn’t sunk below basic qualities, it’s clear that the series has lost some of its freshness over the years.

The new Futurama episode squanders a strong premise

For most of its running time, “Beauty and the Bug” represents a great improvement: it is not only the best episode of the season so far, but it’s also a great Bender episode. The gang finds themselves on Mars, where Amy’s parents are preparing for the start of the annual “Buggalo Fighting” season. Buggalos are giant, ladybug-like insects bred for food, and fighting them is an open parody of bullfighting, right down to the “running of the buggalos” to kick off the festivities. Bender falls in love with a beautiful matador robot and vows to learn the secrets of buggalo fighting to get closer to her.

Bender’s quest leads to a lot of expected physical humor as the Buggalos fight hard and the majority of the episode focuses on Bender. John DiMaggio is unbeatable as always with his vocal performance and the romance is expectedly silly and funny. And more importantly: The episode goes a step further by giving the whole thing a satirical message about animal rights. The Buggalos are considered mindless creatures, which is why their killing for food and sport purposes is readily accepted by Martian society.

I don’t usually do the right thing, but I ruin everyone’s day, so it evens out.

Amy, however, sees things differently, similar to Lisa Simpson in the The Simpsons Episode “Lisa the Vegetarian”: She strictly refuses to eat Buggalo meat. When Bender learns that the creatures are actually quite intelligent, he vows to put an end to the fighting before another Buggalo is killed. It presents the robot with a real moral dilemma, and that is typically the point where the writing around it begins to shine. Bender finds a way to maintain his misanthropy while defending the creatures, leading to the best line of the episode: “I don’t usually do the right thing, but I’m going to ruin everyone’s day, so it balances out.”

Unfortunately, the episode squanders this in the last minutes with a surprising revelation: the Buggalos love to fight in the arena and don’t want it to stop. Outraged by Bender’s betrayal, the Matador robot joins them to finish Bender off as the episode draws to a close. The surprise is more or less there for its own sake, and defeats the whole point of Bender finding the better angels of his nature. In doing so, it also defeats the rest of the episode’s message about animal rights, rendering Bender’s change of heart moot and restoring the status quo once again at the end of the episode.

This shyness has really hurt the series since its return. “Beauty and the Bug” could have been a first-rate episode if it had stuck to its convictions. It didn’t have the courage to do that, and instead compromised its great story with yet another cynical rejection. In this case, it also damaged what should have been a triumph for Bender. The series will certainly survive, but the more episodes squander its potential, the more trouble there will be. Futurama will have.

New episodes of Futurama stream every Monday on Hulu.