That's okay, because this new season of episodes fit right alongside every other Futurama cartoon, so all that season versus volume confusion can just be ignored. So what does this season have that should make all past fan's rejoice? Quite simply, the same characters, crazy plots and geeky humor we've all come to love.
The season kicks off with "Rebirth" where we are treated to the convoluted story about why the show is back and being aired on Comedy Central. While a great episode, plenty of better ones are also in this collection. "Proposition Infinity" goes after anti-robosexual beliefs when Amy and Bender start hooking up and decide to get married.
In "Lethal Inspection," Bender discovers that his backup system that essentially makes him immortal was never installed. With the realization that he is mortal, Bender decides to hunt down "Inspector #5" who marked Bender as fit for the field. With the help of the crew's own bureaucrat, Hermes, Bender finds that this illusive inspector seems to not exist in any database or file at the Central Bureaucracy. Bender might have to not only live with the fact that he is mortal, but never know who passed him in the quality assurance lines all those years ago.
The Planet Express crew decides to mess with time again in "The Late Philip J. Fry," when the Professor invents a time machine that only goes forward. When the Prof. slips on the controls and Farnsworth, Fry and Bender are sent far into the future, their only hope is to continue going forward in time until they find people that have invented a time machine that goes backwards as well.
A personal favorite though is "The Mutants Are Revolting" when Leela's being a mutant comes out and she is thrown back into the sewers to live with her family. Refusing to take the situation lying down, Leela bands the mutants together and begins a revolution and starts demanding equal rights for mutant-kind. In this same episode, Leela and Fry's relationship has some shaky moments when she doesn't think Fry knows what its like living as a mutant. As a result, he decides to swim in the toxic lake and comes out a revolting blob of tentacles and eyes. This also marks the show's 100th episode. It's a shame that it took the series 10 years to reach this point, but being cancelled for five of those years can hinder the amount of episodes being put out.
The volume wraps up with an episode celebrating the holidays. Not only is X-Mas covered with Robot Santa making his customary attack, but Bender sings about Robanukah and Hermes invites the crew over to celebrate Kwanzaa. The Kwanzaa segment, of course, brings in Kwanzaa-bot, but results in the crew having to visit the space bees because they need to use real beeswax for their candles.
Special feature-wise, the Blu-ray version of Futurama: Volume 5 comes with enough extras to make most fans happy. There is a table read for the episode "The Prisoner of Benda" where mind-swapping causes many hilarious situations while Bender tries to use the technology to switch bodies with a visiting robot-emperor. There is also a music video for the song "Bend It Like Bender" as well as a comic book Fry writes in the episode "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" complete with a commentary track.
Futurama: Volume 5 is definitely a set that fans of the show will want to have. Not only are the episodes pretty darn good, but the animation looks great and crisp on Blu-ray.
