Law and Oracle

Plot

After a prank delivery, Fry becomes disillusioned with his job at Planet Express. He and his co-workers are held hostage by the criminally insane robot Roberto, who is subdued by Smitty and URL. Fry decides to join the police force, resigns from Planet Express, and graduates from the Police Academy. He is paired with URL, and they make a major arrest, earning a promotion to the Future Crimes division.

The division uses "Pickles," an oracle human-robot hybrid who predicts future crimes. Meanwhile, Leela and Bender are sent on a delivery to Pandora without Fry, and the Planet Express crew finds work boring. Fry receives a vision of a future larceny committed by Bender. He questions Bender about the crime but inadvertently reveals the target: a priceless bottle of malt liquor in Hedonismbot's wine cellar.

Fry sees that he will fatally shoot Bender to stop the theft. He decides not to shoot, creating an alternate future where Bender escapes, shares the liquor with the crew, and poisons them all.

Production

The episode was written by Josh Weinstein and directed by Stephen Sandoval. Comedy Central Insider released preview materials on May 20 and 21, including concept art of the Future Crimes division, a storyboard of Fry making a delivery to a cryogenics laboratory, and a 30-second preview clip. Originally titled "Frynority Report," the plot involved a mysterious man traveling backward in time who would be revealed as Fry and Leela's son. Weinstein and series co-creator David X. Cohen developed this concept before scrapping it because the writing staff concluded it "wasn't funny enough."

Chief O'Mannahan makes her first appearance; Cohen has called her one of his favorite characters of the sixth season. An additional backstory between her and URL was cut. The sequence with Bender and Leela on Pandora uses anaglyph 3-D graphics as a reference to the film Avatar; the 3-D effect may or may not work depending on the viewer's glasses.

Cultural references

The title parodies the Law & Order franchise. Fry's police academy training references the Police Academy films; the robot "Sound Effects 5000" parodies the character Sgt. Larvelle Jones. The police academy sign states it is not affiliated with Police Academy IV. The planet Pandora references the moon from Avatar, depicted as a "3-D planet" requiring 3-D glasses. The Future Crimes division and Cybernetic Oracle are based on Philip K. Dick's short story "The Minority Report" and its 2002 film adaptation. A light cycle chase scene references the 1982 film Tron; the crew debated whether to base it on "old Tron" or the 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy. The man chased in the light cycle scene is physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

Reception

"Law and Oracle" was viewed by an estimated 1.548 million viewers, with a 0.7 share among adults 18-49, down about 400,000 viewers from the previous week. Reviews were generally positive. Matt Fowler of IGN gave an 8/10 rating, noting the episode "came together quite nicely" despite being crowded, though he felt the Tron and Avatar references seemed "a little shoe-horned in." He enjoyed the character Chief O'Mannahan. Sean Gandert of Paste rated it 8.1/10, praising the humor and that it "didn't feel like it retread any ground," though he noted it was not as thought-provoking as other episodes. He also praised Chief O'Mannahan as "a memorable new character." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave a C+ grade, criticizing the first part for "a lot of hackneyed jokes" and finding the overall plot "lazy," though he felt the writing improved when the actual plot began.