The Simpsons Thread (Worst. Thread. Ever!)

[Andrew]

Anything that doesn't degenerate into a marriage crisis plot has something going for it these days. I still don't get the same vibe (for lack of a less cliched term) that I used to get watching the show in the old days and that probably won't change barring a complete 180 in the current staff's philosophy.

[Oznogrd]

I am trying to give the newer shows a chance and it's just bad. Anyway: hasnt homer been a bounty hunter before?

[el badman]

Anyway: hasnt homer been a bounty hunter before?

I thought so too, but I think he's been pretty much anything that's remotely close to bounty hunter...

[Andrew]

Anyway: hasnt homer been a bounty hunter before?

Not quite, though he's headed up his own vigilante group and security force before. And unsuccessfully applied to be a prison guard.

[Oznogrd]

there's a quote from an episode where he lists all thing he's been but i cant remember the episode right now...
after some research found out its the episode of the vigilante business: but i still could've sworn he said bounty hunter in that list....

[Andrew]

That'd be Season 13's "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge". He's definitely never been a bounty hunter before the Season 20 premiere, though with the amount of jobs he's had it's surprising he hadn't been.

[el badman]

Sunday's episode was so-so once again. I don't know, lately it always feels like side story (Lisa wanting to go to Machu-Pichu in this case) is overly stretched, it just feels forced and not Simpsons-like...It had some good ideas going on (Dennis Leary was quite funny), but the execution just seems half-assed these days...

[Andrew]

I liked it a little more than the premiere. I thought the callback to Machu Picchu was good, not exactly akin to the labelmaker callback way back in Season 3's "Radio Bart" but what appeared to be a throwaway line was decently put to use. Leary's appearance was pretty good in terms of guest stars appearing as themselves as he had a reason to be there and it wasn't just "Hey look, it's (celebrity)! Won't you join us for a wacky adventure?" but at the same time, the episode could have worked without him.

"That laughter sounds like the result of misbehaviour" is a great example of a really awful Marge line. There's no need to cram a gag in there, yet they try to make Marge funny with lines like that and it fails miserably. There's no reason why it can't just be a normal scene with her coming in the room and suspiciously asking what's going on. Sometimes that kind of joke works ("Hello, that sounds like a pig fainting!") but in this instance it's very awkward dialogue.

What wasn't good was just there, nothing I disliked too much aside from that terrible Marge line but that still left a lot of "meh" in the episode. Better than last week but nothing special.

[Andrew]

Synopsis for some upcoming episodes:

Double, Double, Boy in Trouble
Bart meets Simon Woosterfield, his exact look-alike who is a member of the richest family in Springfield. Simon and Bart decide to switch places, though Bart realizes his new siblings are plotting his death in order to inherit the vast Woosterfield family fortune all for themselves.

Sounds alright, it's an old theme of course but not something they've done to death like a "Homer gets a new job" or marriage crisis episode. Hopefully it will benefit from not having a subplot.

Treehouse of Horror XIX
How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising: Homer discovers that dead celebrities can be put in commercials for free, so he starts killing celebrities.

Untitled Robot Parody: In a parody of Transformers, Bart buys a birthday present from a 99 cent store, which turns out to be a Transformer. When the Autobots and Decepticons bring their conflict to Springfield, Marge asks why the robots war with one another, inspiring them to team up and conquer the human race.

It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse: In a parody of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, the Grand Pumpkin comes to life and becomes upset with human beings carving up pumpkins, so it tries to eat everyone.

That also sounds quite promising though the first segment sounds like it might be the weakest. I'm surprised they've taken this long to do a Peanuts parody in a THOH or one of the other three story format episodes.

Dangerous Curves
The Simpson family visits a cabin in the woods where a series of flashbacks depict Homer and Marge during their early married years while Bart and Lisa also remember times from their early childhood.

After That 90s Show last season, I'm a bit wary of this one. I really feel like they should leave the history of the show alone and the plot has marriage crisis written all over it so it could turn out to be another disaster but hopefully I'll be pleastantly surprised.

[buzzy]

Episode 3 was definitely the best out of this season so far. The topic is well used though and it's weird that someone who is appearently that well known in Springfield meets the Simpsons only now.
Anyway, no big jokes and all that, I liked the whirl pool scene though, but it finally felt more like a classic Simpsons episode.

[el badman]

I agree, thought this one was more enjoyable, it had more of a classic Simpsons kind of vibe and pacing to it, even though the premise was not that original (and indeed very unlikely). A bit better than the previous two as far as I'm concerned.

[Andrew]

I probably wouldn't go so far as to compare it to the classic era but by current standards I thought it was a very strong episode, easily the best of the three so far and I'd say the best in a while as well. The plot moved along without a montage and even though the first act was kind of a segue it maintained the link to the theme of Bart misbehaving. The action sequence had the right level of wackiness compared to episodes like last season's "Mona Leaves-a" and the episode ended on a good note, not drawing things out with an unnecessary joke.

[el badman]

Most of the Treehouse of Horrors episodes are a riot, but I thought this one was very forgettable. Around the middle of it, my wife turned to me and said "it's not that funny anymore...". The one with Homer killing celebrities was the best one I think, the other two were not really up to ToH standards.

[Oznogrd]

i too was underwhelmed: transhomers was just a very quick terrible rip of transformers, the only line that made me laugh was lisa's in the great pumpkin rip "Why is it every time a woman gets empowered they call her a witch?"

[Andrew]

"Untitled Robot Parody" was over too abruptly, the preview I posted a couple of weeks back turned out to be the entire story. I think they spent a bit too long on the election opening and the build up to Marge confronting the two robots. If that approach was meant to be a swipe at the Transformers movie then it should have been more scathing in getting its point across.

"How to get ahead in dead-vertising" ended up being the weakest segment, as I thought it might be. The parody in the opening segment was great and the badly spliced footage in the John Wayne commercial was good too but other than that it was largely forgettable.

"It's the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse" was easily the best segment, I suppose it would be lost on anyone not familiar with Peanuts but since I am I liked the homages in the backgrounds and animation style, as well as the little touches like Bart's expression when he said "Good Grief!", the kids dancing in the hall, Santa's Little Helper flying the dog kennel a la Snoopy and of course the Peanuts theme. The parody of the original story itself was a bit weak though, simply making it an ultra-violent rendition of Peanuts would have been a bit more entertaining. I still enjoyed it though.

As a whole it was a fairly so-so THOH in my opinion, enhanced slightly by the final segment.

[Andrew]

The last ep was a real mixed bag for me. As far as the way it retconned certain aspects of the show's history and tampered with the continuity, my reaction is more similar to the way I feel about "The Principal & The Pauper" than last season's "That 90s Show": I'm not keen on the concept but I found myself enjoying the episode nevertheless, which I'm surprised at given it was another marriage crisis episode. I loved the "Cereal Killer" bit, it had the same kind of gratuitous violence as Itchy & Scratchy which made the pun worthwhile. Marge's line about not saying anything for 45 minutes, the kids tickle-torturing Grampa and the scene in the peddlecar were highlights for me.

They really didn't need to do the marriage crisis aspect though and with the amount of times Marge has wished she never met Homer in recent seasons, that declaration has really lost all impact especially when we know that the status quo will be restored by the end of the episode. Since they did go that way though, simply having Marge and Homer reminisce and talk out their problems by that tree instead of the wacky action sequence would have been preferable. Having said that, I enjoyed the episode a lot more than I expected given that I'm not fond of the marriage plots or the show tampering with its own history at this point.

[el badman]

I agree, that episode was full of small enjoyable moments ("woohoo!! adult situations!"), but come on...another flashback episode, where the past comes to bite them in the ass, and guess what? another marriage crisis...
It was better that other episodes based on that premise, but still it's starting to be a little tiring. Flashbacks used to be quite rare in Simpsons episodes, but they've become so frequent, I feel like they confuse you in an unrealistic way about very familiar characters, instead of adding another dimension to them.
It's like you keep discovering stuff that could be funny by itself, but just doesn't seem to fit what you've come to know about the Simpsons. I'm all for being pleasantly surprised, but some of the things you find out with these looks at the past make you more skeptical than anything else, it feels like desperate attempts to boost the show sometimes.

[Andrew]

Perhaps there's a feeling that they need to rewrite some of the show's history since the original story no longer fits with the show's floating timeline but still, I too would rather they left it alone. Also, despite the wacky action sequence they also had Marge and Homer come to some sort of understanding about the marital difficulties and the true strength of their marriage. They could leave it there, there's no need to explore it further as it's way beyond being fresh and the current tone of the show and characterisations don't allow such storylines to have the same emotional impact as they once did. It was done better than most recent attempts, but remains overdone.

[el badman]

I must say out of all the latest episodes, I actually liked last night's the best. I missed the first few minutes, so I'm not sure what led Homer to get into the "breakup" business, but thankfully it didn't lead to another marriage crisis story, so that's good...
It was not hilarious by any means, but funnier than the last episodes I think, and just cute at the end. And having Old Gil is always a good idea too.

[Andrew]

The fact they avoid a back to back marriage crisis (sadly) is cause for celebration in the current era but I didn't care much for it otherwise. I liked that they tried to do an emotional Homer/Lisa story, even if the gambling stuff was done so much better in "Lisa the Greek", but I didn't like the way it came off. Homer was far too unsympathetic, the resolution too rushed and the emotion too forced. Yeardly Smith's acting on "I'm not mad" was fantastic though and it had a few laughs so it wasn't a complete disaster but I still wasn't too fond of it.

[el badman]

Wow that one was pretty bad...
I can't believe they went for the overused "Muslims are moving into our neighborhood, let's play on the confusion with whether they're terrorists or not" plot. In their prime, they would have probably switched to something completely unexpected after the first 1/3 of the episode, but I thought that one was just way too predictable, with some embarssingly unfunny moments. As usual, there were a few nuggets in the mix, but they could not save this one...

[Andrew]

The premise felt a bit awkward with Simpsons characters (even with their current characterisations) and it doesn't help that this has been done before by shows that were established with a tone that is better suited to "controversial" plots and jokes, namely South Park and American Dad. It felt a bit out of place in The Simpsons universe and the fact that they're late to the party with the story doesn't help matters either. In old episodes like "Much Apu About Nothing" and "Homer's Phobia", the concept of prejudice/discrimination/intolerance was handled much better and in a way that portrayed Homer as much more sympathetic character. There were some nice gags such as Lenny appearing in the imagination bubbles, the Apple parodies weren't too bad and Bart's mischief in the first act but the story just felt...uncomfortable.

[buzzy]

Latest episode was quite good actually, and a funny episode for basketball friends of course.
Marv: It's bees. Am I being badly stung? Yeesss! And it hurts.

Lisa's bee-story was alright I guess, but it led nicely to an ending of Burns' story.

One of the better episodes this season.

[el badman]

I actually missed that one, is there any site to watch it online with not-too crappy quality?

[Andrew]

For me, that was one of the best episodes in a long time. It definitely helps to be a big basketball fan watching it because you can appreciate the self-parody of Mark Cuban's guest appearance and Marv Albert's brief appearance was amusing too but even beyond that it was a well-done episode. They got a bit sillier than they needed to with Lisa having to wear the bees as a beard and the appearance of Quidditch at the Billionaire's retreat but other than that it was pretty good.