The beauty of Matt Groening's sci-fi follow-up to The Simpsons is that it assumed the future would be just like now, only more: more crass, more commercial, more media-saturated and hedonistic. So his animated sitcom Futurama — the adventures of pizza-delivery guy Fry, accidentally flash-frozen and thawed a thousand years later — is set in a universe of hyperstimulation, littered with ads for products like the ubiquitous Slurm (a soft drink secretly made from the secretions of a giant alien worm queen). Rounding out the cast are alcoholic con-artist robot Bender, one-eyed space captain Leela and Professor Farnsworth, a genius turned delivery-service owner who is not coincidentally named for the inventor of television. Rich with science-nerd in-jokes, pop-culture satire and guest appearances by the preserved head of Richard Nixon, this collection is nothing short of stellar. — James Poniewozik
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