HAVANA, Cuba.- On March 28, 1999, it aired futuramaan adult television series created by Matt Groening, also the author of The Simpson. The plot revolves around the character of Fry, a pizza delivery man who, on the night of December 31, 1999, stumbles by accident and falls into a cryogenic capsule, only to wake up a thousand years later in an “evolved” version of planet Earth. , after having survived several alien attacks and successive reconstructions.
The thesis of a functional future based on the most inconceivable technologies and multiculturalism, in which humans coexist with robots and creatures of all kinds, makes futurama an attractive product where comical situations and the usual conflicts predominate, which show that the human being will preserve his essence despite cataclysms.
In the new universe that Fry finds difficult to assimilate—at first—inventions like the suicide booth and the gay radar are a reality. So are loneliness, pessimism, depression, global warming, the extinction of species, bureaucratism or corruption, but worked from a scathing and satirical perspective, which keep the viewer between curiosity and laughter.
In Cuba, futurama has been part of the cultural consumption of a minority that survived the aesthetic Disney. In general, those who like The Simpson they follow the adventures of Fry along with Captain Turanga Leela and Bender, the delinquent robot; all employees of the Planet Express company.
Presumably, the Cubans who have seen the series they had access to it thanks to the traffic in flash memories from the United States, in the first audiovisual banks and also in the server of the Faculty of Mathematics-Cybernetics of the University of Havana, where the students and professors themselves left new chapters for the enjoy those interested.
Cuban television has not broadcast a single chapter of the series, but neither can it be said that futurama was seen in clandestine conditions; she was only available through informal channels. Perhaps it has not been popular in Cuba because it does not fit with the aesthetic appreciation of the majority, accustomed to the graphic representation of almost perfect creatures —well defined in their roles as heroes or villains—, who might find the plot of a future uninteresting. hypothetical plagued by “ugly bugs” with moral dilemmas.
Something that has also demotivated some Cubans with respect to futurama is to believe that it is a science fiction series. It is actually a situational comedy, set in a future world. It has more to do with human issues than with star trek and, once given the opportunity, the pleasure of the first chapters becomes a marathon of 140 episodes narrated with dynamism and wit, always appealing to the intellect of the viewer.
