Desperate to teach their spoiled kids some manners, Amy and Kif agree to volunteer at Leela’s old orphanage. But something waits for them there. Something… adorable…

Another fun episode! It gets dangerously close to some very old chestnuts with the beanie baby-esque main plot but ends up saying some interesting things about obsessive collecting which land nicely. It also neatly evolves Amy who has been stuck on ‘rich, kind of an asshole, everyone’s okay with it’ for a very long time. Here, her obsessive collecting realising to her neglecting her kids and realising she’s been unspeakably cruel to an orphan is a welcome beat for a character who’s often just been a punchline.

It helps too that Kristin Gore’s script is actually, frequently, very funny. There’s a deeply earned Bart Simpson cameo and some excellent Zapp and Kif stuff. Zapp realising he’s in what amounts to an early Star Trek episode and not being remotely okay with it is very funny, as is his ridiculous, wall-breaking entrance in the finale. There’s some real zingers too including the glorious non-sequitur ‘Damien did it with his brain’ and Kif getting a note perfect button gag regarding the Admirella’s map suit. Also Doop headquarters has the motto ‘Aim low. Shoot first.’ It’s consistently funny, often very funny and is helped still more by a plot with a conceit and an ending. The invasion of the (legally distinct) beanie toys is the sort of slightly maniacal threat the show does very well and the way it’s resolved is sweet, resonant and just convenient enough for Fry to comment on it.

Verdict: It doesn’t quite fire on all cylinders, and the ‘one episode one character’ focus continues to be hard to adjust to but this season really seems to have broken stride. Funny, energetic, inventive and a solid, if dark resolution. Nicely done. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart