In three thrilling instalments the Futurama crew embody legally distinct detectives! This! Is the Futurama Mystery Liberry!

This one is fun. Mostly. From the jump to the ending this is one of the strongest episodes of the season. The framing device gives us another great guest appearance, this time from Levar Burton in a curious book shaped spacecraft. US viewers will adore the callback to Reading Rainbow and pretty much everybody will adore the cameo because Burton is smart, funny and completely gets the joke.

The three segments here loosely parody Nancy Drew, Tintin and Encyclopedia Brown. The first turns the screwball all the way up with Leela as ‘Lancey Trew’, investigating the disappearance of, well, everything. The story itself is fluffy, which isn’t a criticism but there’s some really smart, sharp jokes about the ‘intrepid child detective!’ genre. Zoidberg and Amy as the increasingly put upon sidekicks are especially great and the ending here is one of the biggest laughs I’ve had all season.

The FryFry sequence is worth watching the whole episode for. I loved Tintin as a kid and the clean artwork style is a surprisingly great fit for Futurama. There’s some great visual touches too, including reimagining the ship as an old cargo plane and Zoidberg as FryFry’s deeply upsetting dog. The central science gag is also the sort of thing Futurama excels at: massive, impossible concepts with a surprisingly elegant wrap up. Colossal fun and the best segment by far.

The Encyclopedia Brown section that closes the episode won’t hit as hard for non-US viewers because of the character being less well known outside America. However this is, for the most part, another joke heavy, very funny segment. Bender as Wikipedia Brown and Leela as his endearingly violent bodyguard Lolly is a double act the show should do way more often and the joke rate again is both very high and very successful. The ending doesn’t quite land, and the celebrity cameo’s success will depend entirely on what you think of the individual in question. If you’re a fan, it’s charming. If you’re not, the last three minutes here are going to be hard work, as is the ending.

Verdict: This is a frequently very strong and occasionally excellent episode in a season that’s seemed to see the show learning how to do what it does again. This sort of story? It mostly does very, very well. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart