The Simpsons Thread (Worst. Thread. Ever!)

[JaoSming]

this one was much better than the last 2 IMO. great ending to it as well

sucks that they can't progress with past seasons though, like when Marge was a cop and kicked the shit out of everyone.

[el badman]

I thought it was a step in the right direction too, good episode overall.
But yeah, since they've pretty much done it all before already, you always find something that reminds you of a previous episode nowadays, and it especially feels weird if it contradicts that previous content even a little bit.

[Al Ka Pwn]

Barney is at the Marge fight and Moe's at the same time.

[Andrew]

I thought it was kind of weak, I preferred last week's ep. It had some laughs though, so that puts it ahead of this week's Family Guy and Cleveland Show.

[Oznogrd]

wasnt that bad this week. I mean sure it felt like drederick tatum vs. homer part 2 but whatever. I didnt really laugh except when homer was at the playground fight

[Martti.]

It might be just me, but the older episodes were better. Like seasons 7-16.

[el badman]

It ain't you, they were.

[Oznogrd]

try seasons 1-14 or so..

[Andrew]

For me, 1-8 was the "classic" era with 9-14 more of a mixed bag but with a healthy amount of watchable to good episodes. You could probably include 15 and 16 in that latter group as well, but with fewer gems. As big a fan as I am, the series is showing its age these days but there are still episodes that are enjoyable enough to watch.

[Martti.]

I can't watch season 1 because of the quality of the drawings. I currently watch seasons 3-6 from wtso.net.

[Andrew]

You're not alone there as I've heard other people express similar feelings towards it, but Season 1 had some really good episodes. They were still finding their way as a half-hour series though, some of the early episodes are kind of "meet the characters" kind of stories and there are only thirteen episodes but I'd still put it over Season 21 in terms of the quality of stories and the writing in general. Even if the animation is a bit crude, there's a warmth to it that's kind of been lost with the new style of animation introduced last year.

Season 2 is where it really took off though.

[JaoSming]

TreeHouse XX, first two stories were great and classic IMO, but ended too abruptly

hated the last story, just, meh

[el badman]

Yeah that last part was pretty awkward, although some of Moe's sung lines were pretty damn funny.
Certainly not a standout in ToH history, but I thought it was okay overall.

[Al Ka Pwn]

Great episode. Last part soso, but when Homer turned gay was hilarious.

[Andrew]

I have to agree. Third story was probably the weakest but still had its moments, notably Homer's song. Intro was a bit weak, using Homer's eyes for the XX in classic cartoon form was good but there could've been a shorter lead up to that. I'd say it's my favourite of the season so far.

[Andrew]

My favourite of the season so far, easily. It's not an "instant classic", it's not a "return to classic form", it's probably too soon to call it a "modern classic" or "post-classic classic" but I thought it was a really good episode in its own right, probably the best one involving Homer and Marge's marriage in who knows how long (Season 13's Half-Decent Proposal, perhaps). Good story, some good jokes and for the most part, good characterisation. Ending was admittedly a little corny and sappy, but I reckon these days it takes more guts and is more rebellious to have thirty seconds of mush, what with all the mean-spirited humour out there.

[el badman]

I mostly agree, expect for the lame ending and the fact that once again, it was all about questioning the status of Homer and Marge's relationship, it certainly had plenty of good moments. The way France was portrayed certainly made me laugh.

[Al Ka Pwn]

Loved the episode. The difference with fg is that with simpsons, they are still a loving family no matter how bumpy the road.

[Andrew]

it was all about questioning the status of Homer and Marge's relationship

That's the thing, it didn't really go down that road. Usually when they do a marriage crisis episode, Homer will do something boorish, Marge will get angry and question why she bothered to marry him, Homer will make some grand gesture (perhaps with an over-the-top, too silly to be funny or exciting action sequence) and it will all be resolved in the last couple of minutes. Here, we were presented with a realistic situation of Homer not being around as much due to his new duties at work and Marge feeling lonely and tempted by Flanders, whom she's been shown to have a high opinion of in the past and was there while Homer was not. It really didn't feel like a run-of-the-mill marriage crisis episode to me because there wasn't the usual crisis and it all happened rather organically.

I'll still defend the ending as gutsy with the current trend of mean-spirited humour, especially compared to the assorted Seth MacFarlane shows. It's not that much sappier than the ending of And Maggie Makes Three or other episodes in the classic era, though I know not everyone is a fan of those endings now or back then either. As I said, I think with the amount of laughs the episode had (especially with the dice earlier on) and given the story, thirty seconds of mush at the end is acceptable.

[Martti.]

When Mr. Burns said he was gonna pick the new supervisor and he looked at Homer, I was laughing so hard when that fly flew in his mouth and out his nose. The look Homer had was just classic.

Here's what I'm on about :

[Andrew]

Agreed, I loved that sequence, the shared fantasy in particular.

[Andrew]

Guess last week was a fluke, the latest ep was somewhat of a letdown. Dark cynical Lisa is getting a bit tiring as well.

[JaoSming]

yep, they could have done a lot better with the whole "There was someone worse than me?" aspect

[el badman]

It certainly was inferior to last week's episode indeed. I thought Bart's part of the story was very predictable and not managed all that well, even though it had some potential.
Marge's substory was alright though, it wasn't laugh out loud funny but still depicted what's currently going on in this country pretty well. Being in the food industry too, it was just funny to hear all those technical terms in a Simpsons episode...

[JaoSming]

Just realized we now have contradicting back stories for Skinner and Willie with this latest episode as well