As for the real review...
It was pretty okay. It's probably the most definitive 3/5 Futurama episode in the series, that's how okay it was.
First of all, let's talk about time travel.
Despite what people like Ryan would suggest, time travel does not automatically make for a great episode. Futurama has tended to stick to time travel episodes that fit with the general mythos of the show, like Fry being his own grandfather in the Roswell episode, Fry going back to stop himself in "The Why of Fry", or discussing the Leela/Fry relationship in "The Late Philip J Fry" (and that's completely ignoring the first movie). You would think, or at least people like Ryan would think, that this episode would go along the same route.
But nope, not really. It's more of just a huge wacky 18th century adventure that has barely anything to do with the main cast at all. You could pretty much do this exact same plot with any TV show, with the only think needing adjustment being the Farnsworth angle. And even he would be substitutable. They do attempt to add to the Futurama mythos a little with the magic opal MacGuffin they introduce as an explanation for the time-travel. But it still feels a bit shallow, arbitrary and non-sciency. In fact, one of the funnier jokes in the episode is where they basically admit that they don't know how it works. Such blatant honesty is kind of refreshing in a funny way. In the previous episodes that people like Ryan advocate, they usually try to make some scientific-like explanation.
Here, they're just doing magic. That's it. It's not science fiction, it's magic. I can't wait for next episode where they find the Forbidden Dohickey of Teleportation. Hey, they haven't talked about quartz's properties yet, right? Quartz is an interesting word. Let's use quartz!
So, since the episode has nothing to do with Futurama, it solely rests on the quality of the historical satire. And there's not that much we haven't seen before in terms of American Revolution humor. You've got your typical jokes about our pervy founding fathers and numerous anachronistic references and whatever. There were a couple funny turns on a couple characters, though, so it wasn't a complete waste. I liked how they portrayed Paul Revere as that guy who almost ruined the whole operation (before ruining it anyway). And the running joke with Bender's misidentification were amusing as well.
(But why oh why did they have to explain the Ben Franklin debauchery joke? Just have Fry say "I don't get it" to point out that there WAS a joke, and leave it alone. Stop pointing out how clever you are, writers. We already think you're clever.)
The British Future stuff was the same way as the 1770s stuff, except even more generalized and stereotypical in the jokes (if that's possible). Now we're just doing you typical "Oh, those wacky British" jokes, complete with cockney accents and double-deckers. I will admit that this section is saved a little by the novelty of it, particularly Bender's cockney accent was a delight to listen to. There's also the absurd aspect of it... That the future is like Victorian England instead of modern England of today. Still, it was all pretty typical stuff.
In fact, even the Presidential humor was very typical, paint-by-numbers kinds of jokes. It seemed like this episode went from one set of overdone jokes to another. In those episodes that people like Ryan advocate, they also fall into this kind of joke-writing (like the old-timey stuff in Roswell). But those episodes are at least supported by a connection to the main cast so we'll actually care about what happens to Fry's original grandfather. This one just amounts to "Farnsworth hates that guy".
Didn't really mind them fixing the plot off-screen because what the hell did they need to show us anyway? Just them putting the lanterns back. So unless there was a joke there that would be worthwhile (eh, you might be able to do one), it's not really necessary. In fact, it kind of summarizes how much the regular plot was on auto-pilot in this episode. So, maybe it's brilliant?
So yeah, pretty average overall. Which, considering how much this episode was hyped by people like Ryan, it's also pretty disappointing overall.
3/5.