The fifth entry in this year’s batch of new Futurama episodes is, once again, an unexpected surprise. It’s Leela’s first own story and while it could almost have been a soap opera, One Is Silicon And The Other Gold turned out to be a brilliant and funny story about the pitfalls of finding friends in the future. Having Leela strike up a friendship with a chatbot is not even that futuristic – instead of heavy science-fiction, the episode cares more about the series’ characters. A return to Leela’s story arc was long overdue and the proper return of everyone’s favourite one-eyed Planet Express employee is very welcome.

Number four of Futurama 2024 will probably be known as “Bender goes Buggalo-Fighting” but thankfully there’s more to the second Bender-centric story of the new season than meets the eye. First, Beauty and the Bug is a return to Mars and that means the return of Amy’s parents Leo and Inez Wong and their Martian empire – and we get to see more about what’s happening on the red planet culturally. This time it’s Bender who gets involved into something new and also falls in love again with a special robot lady.

The third episode of Futurama’s 2024 season manages to come up with the first big surprise of the batch – it’s not a story about Fry, Leela or Bender, but about Frank, The Temp. Wait, who? Exactly! It would be unfair to reveal too much about the episode, so I’ll try to keep it spoiler-free. David A. Goodman, who already wrote two wonderful Futurama episodes besides being a prolific television writer for over 30 years, brilliantly insert a new tale into events from a popular third season story to create an everyday workplace horror à la Twilight Zone – or even better The Scary Door.

Last week’s new Futurama episode brought up a lot of complaints because of its half-baked current affairs satire and this week’s effort already has been unfairly mangled because of its worrying title. Luckily Quids Game only takes the bare concept from the Korean Netflix series and turns it into a surprisingly heartfelt all-ensemble episode that includes some wonderful flashbacks to Fry’s past. Written by Cody Ziglar, whose only other Futurama episode was Rage against the Vaccine from the previous half-season and directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson, who started to direct for the series in 2010, Quid’s Game is a pleasant surprise after a slightly lukewarm start.