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.

Of course the concept of aliens forcing the protagonists to a barren planet to let them play deadly games is as old as science fiction itself – Star Trek episodes like The Squire of Gothos, Bread and Circuses and others have done this before, so it feels more like a general genre parody than just a simple imitation of Squid Games. The viewer certainly doesn’t have to know anything about the Korean series to understand the story. The only obvious reference is maybe that it gets a little gory sometimes – the episode has a bit of casual fun with that, but at the same time also successfully primes the tearducts a little.

The main plot is not just a way to facilitate the flashbacks, but does a deep dive into Fry’s Character development. While The One Amigo added to Bender’s lore, this episode is another entry in the complicated story of Philip J. Fry – luckily this time without any time travel and other shenanigans. Episodes that look into Fry’s past life are always welcome and this one is no exception. Making it all about Fry’s aversion to his own birthday is a completely original idea that has not come up before in the series. Writer Cody Ziglar mentioned in a Threads post that he wrote the episode shortly after his mother passed away and you can really feel the emotion in the flashbacks.

Quids Game probably also breaks the record in how many characters can appear in a single episode, because the writer decided to invite everybody, and I mean everybody to Fry’s birthday party. Apart from all the main characters a lot of other minor folks show up and everybody gets at least one line – before they all get “eliminated” from the alien’s birthday game in various horrific, dramatic and sometimes funny ways. There is probably an excel sheet in the authors files to keep track of all the characters and their various fates. The only other characters in this story are the three aliens causing all the havoc – generic superficial “monsters of the week” written as unconspicuous and forgettable as possible which feels like a deliberate attempt not to give them too much attention in favour of the main characters.

The animation is on the basic side in this episode, since most of the story plays out either in a recreation of Fry’s childhood home or in the original house in the past. There are lots of lovely little details and it looks pretty good, but of course nothing epic is happening in the visual department – and there’s no need for it. The voice actors, however, have an absolute ball with so many characters around and alll the characters get one or more funny, well written lines in. Since it’s a Fry episode Billy West especially has his time in the spotlight and gives a wonderfully funny and emotional performance.

With Quids Game the series went back to its roots and succeeded with a well-written, funny but also heartfelt story that balances the emotions very nicely. What could have been a soap opera turned out to be one of the best Futurama episodes about Fry’s life.