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Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.

Thankya.

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Andrew_1985
Sep 18, 2007
Hay hay hay!
For all the advertising, Smithers really didn't 'come out' to Burns.

mrfart
May 26, 2004

Dear diary, today I
became a captain.

Andrew_1985 posted:

For all the advertising, Smithers really didn't 'come out' to Burns.

Luckily I didn't see any advertisement or hype. I thought this is one of the better new episodes I've seen. The reason I think is the characters had "heart", did not go out of character for some lame joke. The fact that the Simpsons themselves weren't much in this episode was also a plus.

sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate

This is an amazing joke.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
How Lisa Got Her Marge Back

After a mother-daughter spat, Marge takes Lisa to Capital City, where, after enjoying a musical, the show's star sings Marge's praises to remind Lisa how lucky she is to have such a special mom.

Meanwhile, Bart is bummed that everyone expects him to be the ultimate prankster, so he recruits Maggie to help him trick people.

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo
There's so many good lines and gags that work in this episode. Wow.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
I had no idea that Andrew Rannells was a real person.

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

Another Marge/Lisa episode this season? Has the show finally run out of ideas???

Teriyaki Hairpiece
Dec 29, 2006

I'm nae the voice o' the darkened thistle, but th' darkened thistle cannae bear the sight o' our Bonnie Prince Bernie nae mair.
Homer hasn't owned a food truck yet, the family hasn't gone to Spain, Bart hasn't started a tree-house protection racket to extort money from other kids. See, there's an endless world of bland boring episodes.

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo

Cacator posted:

Another Marge/Lisa episode this season? Has the show finally run out of ideas???
This is probably the least explored family relationship in the show's 27 seasons, with the exception of Maggie. I'm cool with this. I'll take it over another Homer/Marge, Homer/Lisa, or Lisa/Bart plot. (And I liked the Maggie/Bart stuff too.)

The Marge/Lisa plot did lose focus once it became a string of Broadway parodies in the third act. But even with that, I liked the "every show is a movie adaptation with an American Idol star" gag.

Inkspot
Dec 3, 2013

I believe I have
an appointment.
Mr. Goongala?
Do you think there are multiple takes of "What the?! A coiled wire spring covered in a snake-patterned vinyl sheath?!" or did Harry Shearer nail it in one?

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
Fland Canyon

Homer recalls a dysfunctional Simpson-family vacation to the Grand Canyon with the practically perfect Flanders family that turned into a memorable bonding experience.

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo
Alright, I liked this episode.

Not sure if they needed the framing device. Maude didn't play a pivotal role; her conflict with Marge wasn't fully realized. And of course, if we take this episode at face value it doesn't explain why Homer often hates Flanders.

But yeah, I liked the "go on an adventure" thing.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
Helen Lovejoy miming :suicide: and the Bear doing the pee pee dance were pretty good visual jokes.

angerbot
Mar 23, 2004

plob
Not that it matters but the "it's the past but it's also present day" thing felt really strange to me.

DarklyDreaming
Apr 4, 2009

Fun scary

angerbeet posted:

Not that it matters but the "it's the past but it's also present day" thing felt really strange to me.

It doesn't help that the last time the show went back to a time just before Maggie was born was 1995

That said, good episode and "I AM NOT YOUR PUPPET BART :supaburn: got the biggest laugh from me, close second was Homer explaining directly to the audience that this was before Lisa became a vegetarian :v:

MasterSlowPoke
Oct 9, 2005

Our courage will pull us through
It's been twenty years but I just realized, what the hell happened to She's The Fastest?!

Snowglobe of Doom
Mar 30, 2012

sucks to be right

MasterSlowPoke posted:

It's been twenty years but I just realized, what the hell happened to She's The Fastest?!

Let's check WikiSimpsons!!!!

quote:

After the fling on the track, She's the Fastest fell in love with Santa's Little Helper, became pregnant and had 25 puppies. She was never seen again after the puppies grew up, so it's possible that she and Santa's Little Helper broke up.

That wasn't helpful at all!!!!

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
To Courier With Love

Homer promises Marge her dream vacation to Paris, and then to defray the cost he makes a deal with the travel agent to act as a courier and transport a briefcase with top-secret info on the trip.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
That's Richard Hammond's car.

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

This joie de vivre is killing us!

Zutaten
May 8, 2007

What the shit.

It was good (?) to see the sleazy frenchmen again from that episode where they shipped Bart off to France to toil away as an exchange student slave.

e: wow that was season one?

Zutaten fucked around with this message at 15:04 on May 9, 2016

ExplodingSims
Aug 17, 2010

RAGDOLL
FLIPPIN IN A MOVIE
HOT DAMN
THINK I MADE A POOPIE


I wonder how many people even knew those were season one characters.

And not, like weird off model characters.

Maxwell Lord
Dec 12, 2008

I am drowning.
There is no sign of land.
You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand.

And I hope you die.

I hope we both die.


:smith:

Grimey Drawer
Oddly enough FXX showed that very episode earlier in the day.

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo
The family visited Paris in Bart-Mangled Banner, but that episode was terrible and deserves to be ignored.

Nichael
Mar 30, 2011


This was a pretty good episode-the Wiseguy joke with him just typing on the disconnected computer to help him think was classic season quality. However, I'm mostly amused by how easily offended the AV Club reviewer for this one was:

Dennis Perkins posted:

Similarly, Futurama vet Odenkirk crams in a deeply ill-advised and offensive visual gag about Bart fishing for literally two-dimensionally thin runway models with a hot dog on a string. (Perhaps confessing to the Futurama absurdity of the gag—even there, it’d still be too cruel—a conspicuously 30th century suction tube comes out of nowhere and whisks the paper-thin models out of the episode entirely.)

This is coming from a site that routinely gives glowing reviews to countless very mean spirited (and extremely well done) comedies, like It's Always Sunny. Why is the line all of a sudden drawn here for a silly visual joke on The Simpsons? It's completely inexplicable. Frankly, I'd save the term "deeply ill-advised" for if I were witnessing something like this from Mad Men.

Nichael fucked around with this message at 16:56 on May 10, 2016

Space Cadet Omoly
Jan 15, 2014

~Groovy~


You know, season 27 has actually been pretty good.

Edit: or at least it's had some not terrible episodes. I went back and checked and I'd forgotten how bad a lot of the other ones are.

Space Cadet Omoly fucked around with this message at 23:36 on May 10, 2016

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo
The only extremely bad episode this season was, sadly, the premiere.

Since 20, there's usually been two, three, or four mind-boggling awful episodes per season that made me wonder how they moved passed the story pitching phase.

So, this has been quite decent of a season so far. Hopefully, Sunday's episode with the extra live bits won't ruin it.

Datasmurf
Jan 19, 2009

Carpe Noctem
I really liked this episode. Especially the throwback to César and Ugolin. I've watched "The Crepes of Wrath" many times, it's one of my favourites. Though my favourite from this season is still "Barthood".

Nichael
Mar 30, 2011


Echo Chamber posted:

The only extremely bad episode this season was, sadly, the premiere.

Since 20, there's usually been two, three, or four mind-boggling awful episodes per season that made me wonder how they moved passed the story pitching phase.

So, this has been quite decent of a season so far. Hopefully, Sunday's episode with the extra live bits won't ruin it.

I always find it crazy how there's two or three episodes a year that would fit in with the classic era pretty comfortably. The quality difference can be massive at times from episode to episode.

Zutaten
May 8, 2007

What the shit.

I actually think the best part of Sunday's episode was that it was another extremely rare example of Homer actually trying to be a good person and husband. It's so rare these days that the character shows any sort of genuine compassion for Marge.

OldSenileGuy
Mar 13, 2001

Nichael posted:

I always find it crazy how there's two or three episodes a year that would fit in with the classic era pretty comfortably. The quality difference can be massive at times from episode to episode.

Many times I've thought about cherry-picking all of the good episodes from season ~15 onward to see how many truly good seasons you could build. I'll bet you'd be able to build two good seasons at max. Maybe only 1.5 if you're being more stringent.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light

OldSenileGuy posted:

Many times I've thought about cherry-picking all of the good episodes from season ~15 onward to see how many truly good seasons you could build. I'll bet you'd be able to build two good seasons at max. Maybe only 1.5 if you're being more stringent.

That's common in long-running shows. Look at shows like MASH, Cheers, Frasier, or older shows like Gunsmoke that ran for over 10 years and see the same problem.

That's why I can appreciate British shows only having so few episodes per series. Yes, you want more, but it's best to just let them go.

J-Spot
May 7, 2002

Nichael posted:

I always find it crazy how there's two or three episodes a year that would fit in with the classic era pretty comfortably. The quality difference can be massive at times from episode to episode.
Those are usually the two or three episodes made each year where Matt Selman is listed as the lead executive producer. His episodes always seem to have that extra degree of polish that most episodes lack. Kind of sad to think that a little staff shakeup could put the show back on track but it will never happen.

Mister Kingdom
Dec 14, 2005

And the tears that fall
On the city wall
Will fade away
With the rays of morning light
Simprovised

After butchering a speech in front of all of his friends at work, Homer turns to improv comedy to gain back his confidence in his public speaking skills. Meanwhile, Marge decides to rebuild Bart's lackluster treehouse, but tensions rise when Bart questions her building skills. Also, in the episode's last three minutes, Homer appears LIVE for the first time on television (both for East and West Coast broadcasts)

Echo Chamber
Oct 16, 2008

best username/post combo
Not sure what to think of this.

I just find comedy episodes that are explicitly about comedy to be rather weak.

Kind of wished the whole half hour was live just for the "fireworks factory" payoff.

twistedmentat
Nov 21, 2003

Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to
I am surprised the Improve troupe was not made up of the Simpsons cast.

Cacator
Aug 6, 2005

You're quite good at turning me on.

I enjoyed the live bit, it was awkward enough and Castellaneta is decent enough at improv for it to kinda work.

Zutaten
May 8, 2007

What the shit.

Cacator posted:

I enjoyed the live bit, it was awkward enough and Castellaneta is decent enough at improv for it to kinda work.

I liked it too. The really bad parts were all the characters popping in from the sides to meme it up, not the improv itself. Also the mouth-matching on Homer was pretty decent for something done, I assume, on the fly by a computer.

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MasterSlowPoke
Oct 9, 2005

Our courage will pull us through
How many times did they make a "strain on the animators wrists" joke?

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