Hey all. Who saw part of my Sunday night line up? That would include Futurama and The Simpsons. Great shows.
Futurama:
Good, pretty good. Not great…but good. I liked Fry’s book at the end…and Bender panicking that he had no heartbeat. And the Nibbler creatures getting angry that they were cute.
Best line: “Sometimes I fear we ARE cute…”
Simpsons:
I LIKE Sideshow Bob, and I liked this episode, but it lacked…the feel of the old SSB eps. Though I did enjoy Moe on that TV Show…and Homer’s explanation of nuclear science.
Best moment: Sideshow Bob programming Bart to beat up the Krusty statue in front of Krusty Burger. I just enjoyed it.
The ending though, left me a bit cold. Sure The Simpsons is known for being wacky, but executing Sideshow Bob, sans trial, and on top of that, with a GUILLOTINE? Now that’s over the top, just a smidge. And Sideshow Bob forgiving Krusty? That is not in his character. He lacks the capacity to be merciful. He’s too rational. A cheesy Krusty special would not play at my man Bob’s heartstrings like that.
First of all, they didn’t actually show Sideshow Bob being executed. Therefore I maintain faith that he somehow made a miraculous escape and will turn up in future episodes.
I missed Futurama (d’oh!), but I thought the Simpsons was great. Two great moments:
The scene where Homer (or was it Marge?) says something about how it’s good that a TV show ended before it became totally derivative and repetitive, and then someone opens the door and says, “Maggie shot Mr. Burns again!” Silence falls. A cricket chirps. Hilarious.
When Sideshow Bob said, “Rakes, my longtime nemesis.” Equally hilarious. I love it when the writers throw in these nuggets to reward long-time viewers.
Hi Opal! (Have I got a high enough post count to get away with this?)
But the best line of the entire episode was from Sideshow Bob:
I thought Futurama was one of the best in a long ass time. Especially the fuckin’ hypno-toad. hee. And a couple of the alternate worlds were pretty funny too. The brain. and when Fry put out the fire with… which president was it again?
The Simpsons was ok. There were some funny moments, and it was a good episode, but not the greatest. The monkey strip tease made me giggle. As did Bart walking to the shed.
As for Bob not forgiving Krusty cause it’s not in his character, I’d disagree. He’s not terribly rational, he’s got a huge emotional streak. Note his exchanges with his brother, his elaborate plans (a rational person would do something much more functional), the way bart got him to sing all of HMS pinafore, The, bart, the. Not a rational man.
I was left a little confused after the Simpsons. Still don’t know if Bob got executed or not. Either way, it doesn’t much matter to me, but I gotta know!
Best line from Futurama: “[the planet] Don Martin III went ‘kaflooie.’”
Bit subtle, but having grown up with Mad Magazine (which really explains quite a bit), it kinda touched me in a special place.
Oldscratch, thou may havest a point. I guess if you examine-I mean REALLY EXAMINE- the nuances of Bob’s character…then, you see what a complex and truly enriching (er maybe that’s not the word…) person he is. Much more three dimensional than some live action people. I mean if you were stuck on a desert island, who would you rather have with you, Regis Philbin or Sideshow Bob?
Perhaps the reason for not showing the execution is…that it would be too much. Watching our beloved Sideshow DIE? Good god. I’d be writing a prickly letter to FOX.
And also- they want to hook us. They want us to think maybe Bob got away and that maybe, just maybe, in the future we will see another SSB episode. But they also want us to know that maybe, just maybe, Bob is dead so they won’t have to fork over the cash to pay Kelsey Grammar to guest star again.
I forgot about the toad. He was good. And the president was Chester A. Arthur.
God I’m reduced to analyzing the personalities of cartoon characters…:o
While much of the Simpsons left me high and dry last night, the monkey striptease and the spooky “ring-around-the-rosy” while Bart walked to the shed were pretty damn funny.
Simpsons, mediocre, at best. Unfortunate, it used to be a great show, now the best we get these last couple of seasons is mediocrity. I was hoping for more, especially out of a sideshow Bob episode. The characters are no longer believeable, they’ve just become, well, cartoons!
I really enjoyed “Futurama” and was, as usual, nonplussed by “The Simpsons.” It occurred to me, though, that both were plagued by major continuity errors:
If Lord Nibbler’s job was to be on Earth keeping an eye out for the brains, he was doing a crappy job. He wouldn’t even be there if Leela and the gang hadn’t rescued him from Vergon 6 before it exploded. And where’d he get the spaceship and spacesuit?
Sideshow Bob was only in jail this most recent time because Chief Wiggum refused to believe he wasn’t responsible for trying to blow up the Springfield Dam (a plot perpetrated by his brother, Cecil). He and Bart helped each other out in that episode, and there should be no fear or animosity from that incident. Supposedly it was all water under the bridge.
The “Futurama” error doesn’t bug me too much, but “The Simpsons” just isn’t even trying anymore. Marge’s quip about shows getting stale was all right, but they then had to belabor it with Smithers’ bursting in. OK, OK, we get it, move on. Oh, and thanks for the “rake scene” to let us know you all still read alt.tv.simpsons.
I think people who whine that the show isn’t as funny anymore are remembering the earlier episodes through the rose-tinted lenses of sentimentality. Years from now, these later shows will seem just as funny as the earlier ones, many of which were just as so-so, with hillarious highlights.
As it is, the Simpsons is still making me laugh my ass off. And for every episode this season that doesn’t quite manage to be perfect, I can think of an earier episode that was worse. So, what have I got to holler? They’re still making with the funny.
When people say The Simpsons is past it’s prime, I just remember that if it had been cancelled I would never have gotten to see the comic book guy in bed with Edna Skinner.
What, does nobody watch King of the Hill? It’s right there in the middle.
Edna in bed with CBG was odd. That’s all. Just…odd.
The Nibbler thing, that was strange. But funny, definitely funny.
Personally, I’d like to know where Cecil was. And, maybe since Bob is so irrational, he forgot all about the fact that he bears Bart no animosity upon realizing that Krusty had erased his tapes. And then decided to kill two birds with one stone.
Oh and is it just me, or is the upcoming episode where Bart joins a teeny bopper band, kind of a rip off on South Park? You know…with Finger Bang? (And I’ll be really depressed if the South Park one ends up being funnier than the Simpsons.)
I could watch King of the Hill, or I could watch my hard drive defrag. The defrag is not any more funny, but at least it doesn’t insult my intelligence.
Alright, I’ve watched King of the Hill a little. Near as I can tell, every week Bobby tries to do something creative and everybody keeps going on about how good he is even though I think he sucks and Hank, having learned nothing from previous episodes, goes around in a constipated daze worrying about Bobby being gay. Eventually, Peggy helps Hank come to a subtle epiphany.
Oh, then there’s the episodes where Peggy decides to do something besides deal with Hank’s bullshit, like orchestrate a bake sale or something, and ends up dealing with Hank’s bullshit anyway, because somehow her bake sale makes Hank feel like his manhood is on the chopping block. The issue is resolved when Peggy helps Hank to reach a subtle epiphany.
So, this is my advice: When King of the Hill comes on, let that serve as a reminder to defrag your hard drive.
Personally…I think Futurama does absolutely outstanding when they include Zap Brannigan but then suffer when they don’t. I swear the last one with Zap crashing on the planet of Amazon women was a classic. And gave us a new buzz word for the nasty…Snu Snu
“What happened to the last men here?”
“They died…crushed pelvis.” She points to a few very happy skeletons with crushed pelvises, one smoking a cigarette.
And Fry’s and Zap’s reactions to being sentenced to death by Snu Snu was priceless. First horror, then big grins, then horror, grins, horror, grins, horror
Sadly though, Futurama needs more. Zap, though a incredible source of hilarious dialogue (“Gravity…my old nemesis”), cannot be in every episode. It’s kinda hard.
Simpsons seems to be having trouble. I worry that they do not have enough chops to keep it going. Though maybe some fresh talent may infuse it
Or it could actually be that they don’t find the show as funny or creative. Gee, what a concept–they actually mean what they say. :rolleyes: Seasons 9 and 10 are in syndication now, and when I happen to catch them, nope, still not laughing, with rare exceptions. (Season 10 was really the beginning of the unfunny episodes; Season 9 actually has some gems.)
Last week’s tennis episode was so utterly plotless and poorly structured, it seemed like it was about 10 minutes long. As usual, the opening had nothing to do with the plot qua plot, since the writers appear to have dropped subplots altogether. So once Homer pours the tennis court, basically nothing happened, except he sucked, and they all got replaced by pros in the tournament. Whatever.
Is it really so unimaginable to you that some of us actually think the new episodes really are not entertaining?
Not at all. Nor is it unimaginable that the old episodes would look just as bad if you brought such harsh expections to bear on them.
That the Tennis episode is unstructured is a reasonable complaint, except in light of the fact that The Simpsons has been very loose with structure for a long time. When it does have structure, it seems tacked on, to give the show some semblance of sitcom plot arc. Personally, the more sitcom-like an episode is, the less I like it.
There’s nothing new about the opening having nothing to do with the rest of the episode. They kick off each story with a McGuffin that is sometimes wildly misleading.
Holy crap. You didn’t like the Movementarians? The Play Date? The NRA episode? The retirement grease? The rat milk? The Mensa episoe?
