The Simpsons are back...

[Thespeckledkiwi]

I just got done watching the half season finale and I thought it was a brilliant episode. No whacky side stories. Just a very good story and some very funny, funny parts (Nelson on Birth Control pills was hysterical). It flowed very well and it was very touching.

 

[Sephiroth]

Lisa was a bit...mean

 

[Trekker4747]

I want a four-way with the adult versions of Bart's three sisters.

 

[Pingfah]

I want another Simpsons movie, I really enjoyed that.

 

[Mr Light]

Yeah I thought that episode had a very old school retro feel of a legitimate emotional story without a lot of craziness. Of course I like the out there zaniness but a change of pace can be nice.

 

[Christopher]

Thanks for the heads-up. I just watched it through the miracle of Hulu, and it was pretty good. Like Mr Light says, a nice old-school character-driven episode. A bit too many homages, though. I didn't see the point of the South Park scene. And how does Bart know about Sex in the City, let alone the Smothers Brothers?

 

[FordSVT]

Thanks for the heads-up. I just watched it through the miracle of Hulu, and it was pretty good. Like Mr Light says, a nice old-school character-driven episode. A bit too many homages, though. I didn't see the point of the South Park scene. And how does Bart know about Sex in the City, let alone the Smothers Brothers?

He sneaks into horror movies and plays violent video games so he's no lamb. When I was a kid I used to sneak half way down the stairs at night to take a peak at what my parents were watching on TV late at night. Not hard to imagine Marge liking SITC, and it's not exactly a small cultural property, so I don't have a problem with Bart being aware of it.

When I was a kid I was aware of all sorts of by-gone entertainers. They're called re-runs.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

I've not seen this one yet, but in fairness the last season and a half have been much improved compared to seasons 13-18 or so. It'll never be the show it was, but it's certainly picked up again and has a more favourable good:bad ratio.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Just a nitpick, I suppose, but I found it really disturbing that Bart has a flat screen TV and a DVD player. I just think "The Simpsons" should always be a product of the 90s and seeing them with modern technology feels wrong. I think I saw Homer with a cell phone that looks like a blackberry once and that bothered me too. Them parodying "Saw" made me sad as well, and not just because I think that franchise is a lame farce.

This was one of the first episodes in a long time that I thought was decent enough to be watchable from start to finish. Yes, it was a little more similar to a classic episode than most of their recent output, but still very far from a return to form. I still think they've outstayed their welcome and the show should have ended in the 90s where it belongs, but this was one of the least offensive modern Simpsons episodes, so huzzah.

 

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Thanks for the heads-up. I just watched it through the miracle of Hulu, and it was pretty good. Like Mr Light says, a nice old-school character-driven episode. A bit too many homages, though. I didn't see the point of the South Park scene. And how does Bart know about Sex in the City, let alone the Smothers Brothers?

In one episode, Marge and her sisters were watching Nookie in New York which is a parody of Sex in the City.

BTW the South Park scene, though I don't know why it was in there, was still funny with Otto.

 

[Christopher]

When I was a kid I was aware of all sorts of by-gone entertainers. They're called re-runs.

Thanks ever so much for assuming I'm an idiot. My point is that I don't think the Smothers Brothers are something Bart would be interested in enough to have the kind of familiarity the dream sequence implied. And Sex in the City is something "girly" that he'd probably try to avoid -- or if he did pay attention to it, he'd try to focus only on the "dirty" bits and not the shopping-related bits. So those seemed out of character as things he'd have detailed knowledge of for his dream and fantasy sequences.


Anyway... the funniest bit in the episode was when Bart was using static electricity to watch his DVD one frame at a time. "I can't believe the Pilgrims lived like this!" That was one of their best gags in ages. I also liked how, when Lisa was crowing about the inseparable sisterly bond she and Maggie shared, Maggie was just staring off into space and trying to wander away.

 

[bigdaddy]

One episode doesn't make up for 250+ episodes of trash.

 

[23skidoo]

I've not seen this one yet, but in fairness the last season and a half have been much improved compared to seasons 13-18 or so. It'll never be the show it was, but it's certainly picked up again and has a more favourable good:bad ratio.

For a 20-year-old show that's pretty good. Lots of long-running shows have gone through dry patches, only to get a second wind later.

Alex

 

[Nerdius Maximus]

Just a nitpick, I suppose, but I found it really disturbing that Bart has a flat screen TV and a DVD player. I just think "The Simpsons" should always be a product of the 90s and seeing them with modern technology feels wrong. I think I saw Homer with a cell phone that looks like a blackberry once and that bothered me too. Them parodying "Saw" made me sad as well, and not just because I think that franchise is a lame farce.

This was one of the first episodes in a long time that I thought was decent enough to be watchable from start to finish. Yes, it was a little more similar to a classic episode than most of their recent output, but still very far from a return to form. I still think they've outstayed their welcome and the show should have ended in the 90s where it belongs, but this was one of the least offensive modern Simpsons episodes, so huzzah.

What? How's it supposed to remain relevant? Do you think Batman should only use technology that was available in the 1940's?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

But during most of the 90s animated series, Batman DOES use technology that looked like it was available in the 40s...

Mark

 

[HappyDayRiot]

All right. Very good episode that wins for Barney's entrance.

"The Plow King LIVES!!!"

 

[Gojirob]

I'm afraid they're doing a Dee Dee (Dexter's Lab) on Lisa's coolness. *No, No---Now she's both smarter AND cooler than Bart!* She can summon legal judgments that hurt him and do nothing that backfires on her. She can call him and his prankster-mentor L-hoo--sers while making the little L sign and none of her tormentor classmates from years past walk by while she does it. While Maggie seems unimpressed by their 'bond', she does get to preen on about it unchallenged. One of the ways the Simpsons works when it does is that their excesses snap back at them. Lisa of late seems immune to both Bart's and her own. Nice for a change of pace, but if it leads to another rut, not so much.

 

[Misfit Toy]

I want a four-way with the adult versions of Bart's three sisters.

Three? Are you counting Snowball?

 

[Trekker4747]

I want a four-way with the adult versions of Bart's three sisters.

Three? Are you counting Snowball?

Watch the episode. In it Bart wants Marge and Homer to have another baby so he can get a brother, it's suggested to him that they could just as likely have another girl -giving Bart three sisters- and he has a Sex in the Cityesque day-dream with adult Maggie, Lisa and Third Sister walking down the street with Bart carrying packages for them.

It was a pretty decent episode, I'll admit. Felt a bit more "old school" Simpsons than it's been in a long time, if they had dialed back Homer's dimness a bit it would've been an episode much more in tone with how the series started off -and really should've been all along.)

 

[Garm Bel Iblis]

I want a four-way with the adult versions of Bart's three sisters.

Three? Are you counting Snowball?

Watch the episode. In it Bart wants Marge and Homer to have another baby so he can get a brother, it's suggested to him that they could just as likely have another girl -giving Bart three sisters- and he has a Sex in the Cityesque day-dream with adult Maggie, Lisa and Third Sister walking down the street with Bart carrying packages for them.

It was a pretty decent episode, I'll admit. Felt a bit more "old school" Simpsons than it's been in a long time, if they had dialed back Homer's dimness a bit it would've been an episode much more in tone with how the series started off -and really should've been all along.)

and one of the sisters was actually voiced by Kim Catrall, lol. oh and the adopted brother was the same kid from the movie 'Up"