So I’ve worked out whats been bugging me about the new episodes, not just for futurama but also all the new simpsons episodes for a while too. They’ve been trying to run distinct A and B plots at the same time without any interplay in them beyond happening to occur in the same space of time. The result is that instead of an interesting A plot with a small B plot running alongside we instead get what’s pretty much two completely seperate half length plots that end up feeling underexplored and rushed.

The momazon episode is a good example, we started with leela moving in to fry and benders appartment and the emotional effect that has on bender, but then bender just goes to work at momazon so abrubtly that it doesn’t even feel like a consiquence of the earlier events so much as a really forced way to segway into the momazon plot, the appartment plot is then pretty much completely ignored for the whole episode only to come back up right at the end for a last minute resolution. The result is basically a rugpull on the apartment plot while leaving too little time for the momazon plot to really get interesting, they just jump right from problem straight to solution with no real obstacles that don’t immediately resolve themselves.

Both plotlines could have been served far better if the momazon plot had been the main focus with the apartment situation being sprinkled in as interactions during the momazon plot; this would have given the A plot the full screen time to properly play out while also keeping the B plot relevant throughout the whole episode. I think a good example of this would be the episode where nibbler gets flushed down the toilet, the A plot is finding nibbler and a B plot between bender and leela/nibbler takes place within the A plot without cutting into its run time.

TLDR: B plots have become too seperate from the A plots and end up detracting from them rather than complimenting them.