Moe is always best when used sparingly, but the writers have given him pretty good material whenever he's the star of the episode. "Moe Better Blues" was a lot of fun and this one had its moments also. I loved watching the Springfield cast going to great lengths to avoid sitting next to him and Lisa's persistence in selling him band candy. And I got some good laughs out of "Los Angeles". Hehe...no football team...it's funny cuz it's true. But of course, I can't help but remember that Simon Cowell has done a guest voice on this show before (albeit not as himself) and was a lot funnier back then, so I couldn't get too excited about the AI cameos.
But just to bring the season back full circle (because yes, the last time this happened was during the season premiere), it's time to bring this up again. What was up with the BLEEP? The Simpsons has NEVER relied on that kind of humor before and it's disheartening to hear them resort to this, especially when it comes from Ralph, who never needs to rely on that crap to be funny. This is NOT Family Guy. Leave the bleeps to the MacFarlane shows. This is The Simpsons, dammit! That one nearly killed the episode for me, because at least last time they had the whole "Well, Seth Rogen wrote the episode" excuse. There is no such reason to rely on swearing this time. What a bummer.
The B-plot of Homer staying home too much started off really good with Homer popping up everywhere.
As far as the season goes, this one definitely showed The Simpsons still has some life left in it. The show really suffered from recycled plots, but the old reliable cast had a lot of great moments and some funny lines (particularly Skinner, who I think has been the show's MVP for a couple of years now). While the plots weren't memorable, some of the jokes were just brilliant like Homer, Carl, and Lenny having a simultaneous thought bubble and having Lenny shout out "I win!" after it ended.
The plots may not be awesome anymore, but The Simpsons still know funny. I'm giving this season a thumbs up and hope it only gets better from here.
For the most part, I didn't find this season funny too often. But I did get a lot of laughs out of tonight's episode.
One thing I got a particular laugh out of was Homer saying that he wanted to name Bart "Barf", but Marge wouldn't let him because kids would tease him. What really made that for me was that we know that "for real", in I Married Marge, Homer was rejecting Marge's names because kids would tease him. It didn't play so much as a continuity error to me as much as just the way Homer would misremember things to suit his own purposes.
Speaking of continuity errors, Homer learned how to play golf ages ago. Remember when the family was up membership at that country club and Homer was playing with Tom Kite?
Originally posted by Big BadSpeaking of continuity errors, Homer learned how to play golf ages ago. Remember when the family was up membership at that country club and Homer was playing with Tom Kite?
"Use an open faced club! A sand wedge!"
"Unless you did something unspeakable with a cactus, 'Shaqtus' is not a real word." - Santino Marella
Originally posted by It's FalseWhat was up with the BLEEP? The Simpsons has NEVER relied on that kind of humor before and it's disheartening to hear them resort to this, especially when it comes from Ralph, who never needs to rely on that crap to be funny. This is NOT Family Guy. Leave the bleeps to the MacFarlane shows. This is The Simpsons, dammit! That one nearly killed the episode for me, because at least last time they had the whole "Well, Seth Rogen wrote the episode" excuse. There is no such reason to rely on swearing this time. What a bummer.
But this was different ... In the previous episode, Homer was talking in "real time", so the bleep really felt like the writing itself was being censored by FOX.
In this episode, Ralph was being interviewed on camera, so the joke was that this cute little kid was swearing like a sailor because of Moe's behavior ... This was an intentional "fake bleep", while the previous one seemed to be more like Seth Rogen trying to get away with something (and failing).
"All RAW is these days is a cheap version of Saturday Night Live, so if you wanna tune in to watch the amazing star power of Al Sharpton and Nancy O'Dell, go ahead! Who's gonna host next week, Big Bird? Wow, that's must-see TV!" - John Morrison (10/16/09 Smackdown!)
Originally posted by SchippeWreckThere is no such thing as "Simpsons continuity".
Except that there is. Homer definitely went into space, the Olmec head is still in the attic or the basement, and Lisa remains a vegetarian Buddhist. The problem is that the show tries to have it both ways - some stuff gets remembered and some doesn't, which doesn't really work in the long run. You wind up training fans to remember things, and then they get upset when it turns out that the stuff they remembered wasn't supposed to last.
Originally posted by SchippeWreckThere is no such thing as "Simpsons continuity".
Except that there is. Homer definitely went into space, the Olmec head is still in the attic or the basement, and Lisa remains a vegetarian Buddhist. The problem is that the show tries to have it both ways - some stuff gets remembered and some doesn't, which doesn't really work in the long run. You wind up training fans to remember things, and then they get upset when it turns out that the stuff they remembered wasn't supposed to last.
Originally posted by January 2008 me It's easier to think of it in these terms: All of these years, we haven't been watching one single "Simpsons family", but rather several different versions which exist in parallel universes.
Marvin Monroe suddenly isn't dead anymore? Simple, we've simply switched our perspective from a Simpsons universe where he was dead, to another universe where he is alive ...
Seriously, how do the Simpsons from the original Tracy Ullman shorts fit into continuity? Answer: They don't. They're from another reality (the "Earth-Prime" Simpsons, if you prefer) ...
"All RAW is these days is a cheap version of Saturday Night Live, so if you wanna tune in to watch the amazing star power of Al Sharpton and Nancy O'Dell, go ahead! Who's gonna host next week, Big Bird? Wow, that's must-see TV!" - John Morrison (10/16/09 Smackdown!)
(Click on the "DVD" icon to see previous weeks going back to January, 2007) Hello. On 9/23, almost all of the 331 DVD and 16 Blu-Ray releases will hit "the street," as we in the business call...stores, I guess.