It is genuinely fucking insane that this show is still hilarious and emotionally relevant after all these years. This episode proved that. I am so, so happy.
We're back, baby!
Wow it really has been 20 years since "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" aired.
Better than the first episode, I do have a growing concern that the show's style is becoming tainted by today's PC culture. Hoping for more abstract adventures and not an endless season of callbacks or lesser vulgarity and more of a 2023 adgenda.
Also I'm very much hoping this show doesn't do episodes like Solar Opposites - Hululand where the 4th wall is broken too much to promote Hulu. When Futurama was put back on the air on Comedy Central (Reincarnation) the coded joke they did in the first scene eventually leading the professor to say "Yes, it's kind of a comedy central channel, and we're on it now!" was hilarious perfect writing.
We see the Hulu logo at the end of the show and that's enough. You paid your "Hulu dues" in the first episode, so please keep it there and let my favorite show go back to what it once was!
Found this pretty boring. Lacked purpose.
I was not expecting Kif to quote StarCraft as a throwaway line, but it had me making excited noises at my TV!
This is def better than the first episode. An ode to a classic old episode was nice,
On a personal level I just don't give a shit about Kif's kids in any capacity, not a great episode for me.
HULU says this is Season 11 Episode 2.
Why are some television shows out of sync?
Fun Episode.
This episode did not disappoint. It is just as bad as I expected. The original episode didn't need a follow up in any way. And it was better than this episode.
This is definitely better than the first one.
''Stop licking my velour and stay away from my scrotums''
''Scruffy stuff gets around" while reading XXX TOPIARY
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-08-16T22:04:34Z
[7.7/10] If Futurama is going to come back decades after its debut, I love the fact that it’s going to pick up on story threads it launched twenty years ago. Following up on “Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch”, to not only revisit the tadpoles Kif hatched, but also Amy’s changed perspective on being a parent, is a worthy thing to explore in a revival.
Once again, I appreciate how this feels like Futurama. Everything from the impetus to the whole thing being Fry sucking on his jacket because it reminds him of the past, to the designs and attitudes of Kif and Amy’s kids, to the scornful attitude of the whale-turned-bear biologist come off just right. The worry about revivals is that the magic wears off and the show ends up feeling off-brand. But whether you love or hate the episode, it still comes off as of a piece with what came before, which is nice.
I particularly enjoyed the return of the Grand Midwife! She was a fun one-scene wonder character from the original episode, so seeing ehr get to have more to do here was a treat. Her trying to vamp before the “winnowing” of Kif’s offspring begins got a big laugh out of me. Tress MacNeille is a treasure.
Most of all though, I Really enjoyed the exploration of Amy's journey as a parent. The humor is here, but there's also a pretty frank (no pun intended) depiction of the challenges of child-rearing, from the pure love mixed with pure chaos that is having young kiddos to look after. Seeing Amy’s undying affection blended with total exhaustion feels well-observed.
But I also like the deeper angle the episode takes here. Amy is jealous of Leela, who’s technically the kids’ biological mother, and gets to play the fun aunt. It’s understandable for parents of any stripe to worry that they’re not good enough, or fear that their kids love some other family member more. Magnifying that through the unique birthing experience of Kif’s species adds a surprising amount of weight to Amy’s story.
And I’m over the moon for the finish, which headfakes an elaborate challenge, and lands on the fact that all that's necessary to be a valid and worthy parent is to love the hell out of your kids. It’s a beautiful message. Flipping the story to where Kif’s the one who’s almost absent before arriving just in time makes it poetic with the prior episode. And the running gag with Bender’s treacle is a nice self-aware way to take the edge off the schmaltz.
The episode isn’t perfect. Leela forgetting the events of the prior episode with the excuse that she was drunk seems like a pretty dumb excuse to recap what happened. Kif’s adventures on the tardigrade planet have a sweet ending, but go on a little long with the obvious fake out. And I worry they’ve run out of juice with Zapp at this point.
Nonetheless, this was an unexpectedly touching sequel to one of the show’s classic episodes, which is both worthy as a successor, and commendable in how it advances things for both Amy and Kif as characters that feel true to modern times. Overall, another encouraging sign for the revival.