SIMPSONS season finale 5/23: "Judge Me Tender"

[Christopher]

I don't have much to say about the episode itself, which was pretty mediocre and too much of a FOX cross-promotion (the FOX-bashing at the end felt formulaic and a bit too self-conscious a way of saying "Hey, look, we haven't sold out!" to be convincing). Mainly I just wanted to mention one striking thing I noticed: for the first time in two decades, in the opening titles, Lisa is playing a trumpet rather than a sax!

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I missed the opening.

The episode was somewhat sucky, in what has been a fairly decent season, actually.

Homer had water coming out his ears...I dislike it when they get that cartoony. Last episode's "FACE-OFF" parody got a bit too Itchy and Scratchy ghoulish.

 

[T J]

Absolutely sucked!

 

[Squiggy]

(the FOX-bashing at the end felt formulaic and a bit too self-conscious a way of saying "Hey, look, we haven't sold out!" to be convincing).

It also doesn't make much sense anymore. 20 years ago FOX was just barely a network with only a couple of shows worth mentioning. 10 years ago they were rising up, but known for cheap programming and "World's Most Blankest Blanks" sorts of shows. So back then it was worth something to say "Blah blah FOX sucks." or "Blah blah we can't do anything on this network right and no one watches us except for this and Al Bundy." Now they're the #1 network by far. Sorta like me getting on a piano in a party, screaming "Ma ma where's my pa?" and expecting everyone to laugh and finish the line. The joke is dead and about half of the audience has had FOX as a legitimate network their entire lives. They don't even get it.

It's almost like the writers got together and threw together the last 3 minutes of the show together from random thoughts. From FOX to Leno to the oil spill? Whaaa?

 

[Christopher]

I'm surprised they worked in a reference to the oil spill, which is only a few weeks old. It takes months to produce an episode of an animated show. Maybe the oil spill line was a last-minute overdub.

 

[Squiggy]

I'm surprised they worked in a reference to the oil spill, which is only a few weeks old. It takes months to produce an episode of an animated show. Maybe the oil spill line was a last-minute overdub.

Yeah. Watch that scene again. The dubbing doesn't match the lips at all.

 

[David cgc]

And there's a noticeable change in the audio quality of the voice. Might even have been a different actor altogether.

 

[Snaploud]

Yeah, the dubbing was really terrible.

 

[Dream]

 

[Christopher]

^Hey, that's neat, there's a photo of Homer as an astronaut on the wall of Bart's classroom!

 

[shivkala]

With the exception of last week's episode and this week's, I thought some of the latter episodes of this season were showing marked improvement in terms of quality. I really liked the episode with Apu, Lovejoy, and Homer reading the letter from Moe. To me it showed that when the Simpsons focuses on a relatable story and keep the gags to a minimum, they can still tell really good stories.

 

[Broccoli]

The episode was very middling. Some funny gags, but most episodes focusing on Moe tend to be weak.

I liked how the subplot of Homer annoying Marge branched off of the main plot surrounding Moe. Many times, subplots of Simpsons episodes are never linked to the main plot.