'Futurama' Season 11 Finally Makes a Much-Needed Change for Fry and Leela

The Big Picture

• Fry and Leela's relationship in Futurama has moved past the tired will-they-won't-they trope and is now in a more mature and stable place.
• The revival of Futurama has allowed Fry and Leela to make progress in their relationship, including moving in together.
• The current status of Fry and Leela's relationship in Futurama shows growth and maturity for the characters, and the new season has been more enjoyable because of it.

It’s 2023, and the television landscape has experienced a dramatic shift from what it was ten years ago. With all the changes in streaming services and how we take in our favorite shows, one thing that is comforting is that Futurama is back with new episodes as part of Hulu's lineup of original content. With all the changes since Futurama was last on the air in 2013, the show is still consistently great. While Season 11 of Futurama kicks off with most of the status quo largely restored, one of the biggest changes involves the status of Fry (Billy West) and Leela's (Katey Sagal) relationship. Season 11 thankfully begins by opting not to reset Fry and Leela's relationship back to square one. Their fulfilled romance has provided excellent progression for the series and the two characters. With that in mind, let's take a look at how Fry and Leela's relationship has been a refreshing change of pace for Season 11 of Futurama.

Futurama

Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year's Eve 2999.

Fry and Leela’s Will-They-Won't-They Loop Makes Up Most of 'Futurama's Original Run

Ever since the show's initial season, Fry and Leela are set up as the show's designated romantic pairing. However, even if Fry and Leela are destined to be a couple, the pairing results in a will-they-won't-they trope. Whenever Fry and Leela make progress and something finally happens in their relationship, they take a couple of steps forward and then five steps back. Finally, in the direct-to-DVD Futurama movie Into the Wild Green Yonder, Fry and Leela declare their love for one another, and it even seemed like Into the Wild Green Yonder was the formal end to the series. The adventure ended with the entire Planet Express crew as fugitives and about to travel through an unpredictable wormhole, but at least they were all together — not to mention that Fry and Leela finally had a breakthrough in their relationship and were together at last.

However, that all changed once the show was revived yet again, this time with a new season on Comedy Central. Unfortunately, despite what happened in Into the Wild Green Yonder, the Comedy Central premiere, "Rebirth," puts their relationship back into an uncertain status, as Leela still needs to work out her feelings for the newly regenerated Fry. Fry and Leela would eventually get back together and start dating again, but the regression of their relationship was disappointing and felt contrived and artificial after everything they'd been through up to that point.

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"Could he be the Quiznos Cadillac?"

In the show's previous final season on Comedy Central in 2013, Fry sought to propose marriage to Leela in the episode, "Meanwhile." After a sequence of typical Futurama shenanigans, the episode concludes with a heartwarming, bittersweet, and emotional moment. Fry and Leela are together, but the rest of the universe has been frozen, locked in a single moment after Fry inadvertently destroys Professor Farnsworth's time button. Fortunately, Fry and Leela live a happy life together for decades, and they aren't lonely because they have each other. However, the end of the finale discloses an elderly Fry and Leela meeting Prof. Farnsworth, revealing that he repaired the time button to reset the universe back to the time before he conceived the device. Although the incident will reset the universe back in order, Fry and Leela will also lose all their memories of themselves as a couple. Fry and Leela are happy with the idea of going "around again," creating another lifetime of memories as the time button is pressed, resetting the universe and their relationship.

'Futurama's Revival Finally Moves Into New Territory for Fry and Leela

Ten years later, the latest revival of Futurama picks up right where "Meanwhile" left off in the season premiere, "The Impossible Stream." However, it looks like the "antichroniton blast" didn't completely erase all of Fry and Leela's memories after the reset, and they're still embracing each other in the same location. Following the reset, they regain their genetic youth. As the episode progresses, it's later made clear that Fry and Leela are still in a relationship when Hermes makes it clear that Leela should not pass her "girlfriend duties" onto him. This is a welcomed confirmation that the series kept Fry and Leela’s romantic relationship intact, and it isn't resetting years of progression that gets them to that point.

This refreshing change shows that the overall story has finally moved past the rut of Fry and Leela being stuck in their previously perpetual will-they-won't-they loop. While Fry and Leela being together is part of the newly established status quo, it hasn’t hurt the show at all in terms of quality. Season 11 is continually exceptional, mixing Futurama's unique blend of sci-fi and comedy, topical humor, along with some superlative emotional, heartwarming episodes, such as "Children of a Lesser Bog" and "Parasites Regained."

More importantly, now that Leela and Fry are finally together, the show is taking a chance to make some decent progress in their relationship. In the fifth episode of season 11, "Related to Items You’ve Viewed," Fry and Leela move in together. Of course, the egotistical, narcissistic Bender isn’t happy about Leela getting all of Fry's attention, so he retaliates by getting a job at the Draconian "Momazon," owned by Carol "Mom" Miller (Tress MacNeille) of MomCorp. Fry and Leela adjust to this new step, even bickering about all the new furniture they bought from Momazon cluttering up their apartment in true couple fashion. The fight isn't a major obstacle for them because it's simply their first "moving in together" fight and they even reconcile with Bender at the end. The episode concludes with Fry and Leela still living together, at least for now.

What's Next for Fry and Leela in 'Futurama'?

What's great about the current status of Fry and Leela is that, although the characters are largely still the same, they've returned with some level of maturity. With the new season in play, it seems Futurama's characters are gradually growing and moving on to the next steps in their lives. Case in point, in "Children of a Lesser Bog," Amy and Kif finally return to Kif's home planet to collect their children, and despite some initial struggles, Amy has embraced motherhood and loves her new children. The drama of Fry and Leela's relationship history is understandable, but after 24 years, the uncertainty of their romance would be tiresome at this point.

Throughout the original story arc, Fry and Leela went through many trials together. The absence of having to worry about them breaking up makes it far more relaxing and easier to enjoy the show. If anything, this shows that time has only made them stronger. The new season of Futurama is thoroughly enjoyable with the writers allowing Fry and Leela some happiness together and not frustratingly resetting their relationship back to where it was years ago. Hopefully, this is a lasting change that continues through Hulu's run of the series.

Seasons 1 through 11 of Futurama are currently streaming on Hulu in the U.S.

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