'Futurama': finally, a show worthy of a good review

Someone asked me the other day if I just seek out bad shows to bash them. The answer is no. I don't look for bad shows. \nThey find me.\nBut every now and then I come across a good show, something that reminds me of a time before I became totally disenchanted with television.\n"Futurama" is such a show. It takes place about a century from now and features characters such as Bender, the pessimistic, hedonistic and sarcastic robot that reminds me a lot of myself; Dr. Zoidberg, a large crab creature who is more fond of parasites than defense attorneys; and Fry, a stupid oaf who was cryogenically frozen in 1999 and thawed out in 2099.\nBut it's not as dumb as it sounds.\nWhile "Futurama" (Fox, 7 p.m. Sunday) is no "Simpsons," it has developed its own sense of humor that deserves praise. Even though "Futurama" is less concerned with exposing fundamental truths than "The Simpsons" used to be, it does espouse a contempt for all living things that translates into pseudo-Mark Twain wit.\nBy now you should be reading this and screaming, "Oh my God, he's writing a positive review!" Don't worry; hell hasn't frozen over. \nIn fact, I was talking to God last night. Communicating with me telepathically through a 6,000-year-old dog, God said to me: "Jeff, I want you to write something positive about my son, Matt Groening. If you don't, I'll have Fox renew 'Grounded for Life.'"\nSo to save civilization, I must write about the virtues of "Futurama." But it wasn't always like this. When it premiered in 1999, every episode featured the same gag over and over again: They went to some planet and got into a wacky situation. "Futurama" was as predictable and unenjoyable as a Shakespearean comedy.\nNow I don't know where the writers get the ideas for "Futurama"'s plots, but the show's episodes have the energy of an anal-retentive caffeine freak. For example, the episode I saw about a race of aliens known as brain spawns bent on destroying all thought in the universe gleefully sacrificed one of my favorite sacred cows: literature.\nThrough a series of events too complicated to explain, Fry ends up throwing down with the big brain in a library. He tortures the big brain, which reads people's thoughts, by reading from "The Bonfire of the Vanities."\nThe big brain fights back by literally pulling Fry into the supposed classics such as Moby Dick and Tom Sawyer, calling them "dense, symbolic" drab and a "cheesy slice of Americana" respectively. \nWhy did I laugh during this scene? Because I have been fighting a four-year war against symbolism. "Futurama" gets high marks for iconoclastically smashing the American obsession with symbolism! Take that Mrs. DeLuca, my senior year English teacher.\nI tried to determine if other people liked "Futurama" as much as I do, so I called up my editor's roommate. I tried typing as he spoke, and this is what I wrote: Some guy named "Bhavin" said, "I don't tbink it's wuite 0as good as the 'Simpsons,' but I think it serves its purpose."\nYou see, I'm not alone. I can loudly proclaim: Behold, I actually like a show!\nDon't get used to it though.