I was worried Seth rogans part would effect the show somehow, but he blended in well for this final episode.
I enjoyed Season 1 a little bit more than this season, but its still almost as good. Possibly because of less time travel which is what i got a real kick out of with season one compared to this one, and some of the jokes were a little more flat this season compared to last. But over all most of it was funny, the writing solid and the acting just as good as last time.
S one 8 1/2 otta10 S two 8 outta 10.
4 Reviews
A Fresh Start
matthewjmiles23 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Season 2 of Future Man concludes in a satisfying way, detailing the trio's interrogation by show creator Seth Rogen in the far future for their 'time-crimes'. Like the first season, this is not the best episode, rather it takes place after the season-long storyline has reached its climax and been, presumably, resolved. As such, the preceding episode, The Brain Job, is the one I would award the honour of best episode. This finale only pales in comparison because it lacks the presence of the season's supporting cast and the rich future world that the writers had built up, but that isn't the fault of the episode, as the story moved on, and so it should. I really am impressed, however, with just how good the world and its characters was this season. I mentioned in my review of the first season that it would be necessary to stray away from the time travel aspect and develop the characters in a new, different scenario for the second season to really work - and this is exactly what happened. The alternate future, the 'NAG', the Mons, the separation of the main characters and the greater role of Haley Joel Osment's Stu Camillo all work and blend together to create a multi-faceted and interesting environment. Season 1 worked largely because of its elements of parody and its exploration of sci-fi and time travel tropes, but Season 2 has a genuinely unique story and world and has no need for parody. My favourite aspect of this was Stu Camillo, it was interesting to see the reasons for his development following the first season and through a great performance delivered a morally ambiguous character who you do feel for at certain points and he isn't just a blatantly evil antagonist.
What I can really appreciate about this episode is its treatment of the time travel concept, which was factored back in for the climax of this season. So many pieces of media flock to the use of time travel without much consideration for its rules, or even to keep it consistent. For instance, if one were to travel back to a place where they had already existed, they wouldn't just take over the body of their past self, they would exist independently from their counterpart. I don't even want to get into the 'butterfly effect' convention and how many stories make it not make sense. Future Man's writers, thankfully, clearly have a lot of knowledge about these sorts of things, and we get the payoff in this episode that a new timeline was being created each time they time travelled or something was changed. That means every timeline they abandoned still existed after they left it, and every alternate version of the characters and the duplicates thereof still existed and pursued their goals after we stopped following them. As a result, major time-space disaster. We have been watching our versions of the main characters seemingly succeed in a blundering, lucky manner, but the reality is that for every time they failed, that entire timeline remained irrevocably screwed. This is immensely satisfying to see as a fan of sci-fi. The drama and character moments that result in this episode feel natural, and Seth Rogen's appearance definitely adds to it rather than just feeling like a forced cameo.
Then, if the 'future execution' scenario wasn't enough, they subvert it yet again, and we get a new, intriguing glimpse into what is to come in Season 3. If they keep up the quality and the fast-paced nature of the story, I have no doubts that it will be well worth a watch, if not as great as the first two seasons have been.
What I can really appreciate about this episode is its treatment of the time travel concept, which was factored back in for the climax of this season. So many pieces of media flock to the use of time travel without much consideration for its rules, or even to keep it consistent. For instance, if one were to travel back to a place where they had already existed, they wouldn't just take over the body of their past self, they would exist independently from their counterpart. I don't even want to get into the 'butterfly effect' convention and how many stories make it not make sense. Future Man's writers, thankfully, clearly have a lot of knowledge about these sorts of things, and we get the payoff in this episode that a new timeline was being created each time they time travelled or something was changed. That means every timeline they abandoned still existed after they left it, and every alternate version of the characters and the duplicates thereof still existed and pursued their goals after we stopped following them. As a result, major time-space disaster. We have been watching our versions of the main characters seemingly succeed in a blundering, lucky manner, but the reality is that for every time they failed, that entire timeline remained irrevocably screwed. This is immensely satisfying to see as a fan of sci-fi. The drama and character moments that result in this episode feel natural, and Seth Rogen's appearance definitely adds to it rather than just feeling like a forced cameo.
Then, if the 'future execution' scenario wasn't enough, they subvert it yet again, and we get a new, intriguing glimpse into what is to come in Season 3. If they keep up the quality and the fast-paced nature of the story, I have no doubts that it will be well worth a watch, if not as great as the first two seasons have been.
Season Two Review
southdavid22 October 2019
I let this sit on the planner for a long time before ploughing into this second season of Futureman. I did somewhat enjoy the first run, though felt it was patchy. That's probably a fair assessment of the second season also.
Seemingly successful in saving the world, Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) arrive back in the future to discover a . . . somewhat . . . better world, the human race living in caves but at least no longer fighting the war against the Biotics. Josh (Josh Hutcherson) though, is left serving multiple life sentences for the terrorist act in the season finale. This is until he's too whisked to the future by a terrorist cell looking to bring down the tyrant ruler of the new world, Stu Camillo (Hayley Joel Osment).
Mostly shorn of the time travelling element to focus on this one world, season two is admittedly underneath the first season, in terms of quality, in my opinion. The single scenario to this run hurt it a bit, given the freedom that the reboot of time travel allowed in the first. It's noticeable that the best episodes of this run are the last two - where jumping through time features heavily again, and in a clever way I've not seen utilised on TV before - and with an interesting philosophical point about the nature of time travel, which again, I've not seen before.
But there's a lot of padding to get to those last two episodes, and some of those early shows really struggled to keep my attention. So much so that when the plot actually needed me to remember who was who, and what the groups motivations were, I found I couldn't remember. Again, that also didn't end up as too much of a problem, as it pulled me back in the in the final few episodes.
I'll be back for Season three, but I'm somewhat glad that, that will be the end of the show.
Seemingly successful in saving the world, Tiger (Eliza Coupe) and Wolf (Derek Wilson) arrive back in the future to discover a . . . somewhat . . . better world, the human race living in caves but at least no longer fighting the war against the Biotics. Josh (Josh Hutcherson) though, is left serving multiple life sentences for the terrorist act in the season finale. This is until he's too whisked to the future by a terrorist cell looking to bring down the tyrant ruler of the new world, Stu Camillo (Hayley Joel Osment).
Mostly shorn of the time travelling element to focus on this one world, season two is admittedly underneath the first season, in terms of quality, in my opinion. The single scenario to this run hurt it a bit, given the freedom that the reboot of time travel allowed in the first. It's noticeable that the best episodes of this run are the last two - where jumping through time features heavily again, and in a clever way I've not seen utilised on TV before - and with an interesting philosophical point about the nature of time travel, which again, I've not seen before.
But there's a lot of padding to get to those last two episodes, and some of those early shows really struggled to keep my attention. So much so that when the plot actually needed me to remember who was who, and what the groups motivations were, I found I couldn't remember. Again, that also didn't end up as too much of a problem, as it pulled me back in the in the final few episodes.
I'll be back for Season three, but I'm somewhat glad that, that will be the end of the show.
Boring end to a funny season
cdrw662226 November 2019
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