Futurama Season 11 Episode 1 Eviscerates A.I. And Poor Treatment Of WGA Writers

Contains spoilers for Futurama Season 11, Episode 1 — "The Impossible Stream"

"Futurama" may be set 1,000 years in the future, but it has always addressed the issues of our current time. After 10 years off the air, the animated sitcom is finally back with a new season on Hulu, and it hits the ground running with a premiere that covers some of the most pressing topics in Hollywood. The episode, "The Impossible Stream," satirizes the notoriously harsh working conditions of streaming TV writers and just happened to release at the most prescient time possible: in the middle of the ongoing WGA writers' strike.

"The Impossible Stream" revolves around Fry (Billy West) deciding to watch every episode of TV that has ever existed. To do so, he straps himself to a machine that will let him binge-watch ad infinitum. But things go predictably wrong, and Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) warns that Fry will die if he runs out of TV to watch. To buy time, Leela (Katey Sagal) and Bender (John DiMaggio) reboot the robot soap opera "All My Circuits," rushing the production with a grueling schedule to keep the content flowing to Fry's headset.

After Leela's production is forced to stop shooting because the writers aren't churning out scripts fast enough, Calculon (Maurice LaMarche) blames "those damn lazy writers," whom he says "can't even manage to write an hour-long episode every 15 minutes." Bender steps in, saying he'll write the scripts because "any idiot can be a TV writer." He is quickly proven wrong in a manner that reflects the real concerns of Hollywood writers as the WGA strike continues.

The first "Futurama" episode since 2013 addresses the abysmal working conditions that have become the norm for Hollywood writers in the streaming era. The WGA is currently on strike after negotiations to improve those conditions fell through with AMPTP.

Among the WGA's many demands is increased pay, including residuals, for streaming shows. While traditional television often kept writers employed for most of a year, streaming series tend to hire writers for shorter periods with less pay, making it harder to earn income and gain necessary on-set experience for career advancement. Additionally, the AMPTP refused to concede on issues of A.I., which writers fear could be used to further undermine or replace them. Disney CEO Bob Iger responded by calling striking writers "disruptive" and "unrealistic," a statement that received immediate pushback from WGA members. "Futurama" is notably owned by Disney thanks to its acquisition of 20th Century Fox.

"Futurama" isn't shy about its stance on the matter. As Bender replaces the writers, he is clearly a metaphor for using artificial intelligence. But the rushed production and decreased quality of writing leads Leela and Bender's show to become unwatchable, and Fry later remarks on the drop-off in quality. Meanwhile, the studio executives are a trio of robots who literally steamroll over anyone in their path. It's the least subtle metaphor possible, but perhaps the writers weren't paid enough to be subtle.

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. To learn more about why writers and actors are currently on strike, click here for an up-to-date explainer from our Looper team.