Pretty good one, in my opinion. I was thinking that Bart and Nelson had become friends before in the episode where Bart shot a bird, but he was just being nice to Nelson in that one. This time, they really did become friends. And the whole “Angelica Button” subplot was a much better Harry Potter parody than the one they did a couple Halloweens ago. (Although there are some cases where you can’t improve on old gags- there was a much better gag about the two meanings of “faggot” a couple years back with Burns and Smithers.)
“What happened to the Merlinical Council?”
“Uh…they went to Star Wars land…to fight in star wars.”
Good episode. I loved Lisa’s “haw-haw,” and Milhouse’s line about “It’s better to walk in on both of your parents than on just one” was the funniest Simpsons line I’ve heard in a few years.
What’s this? A Simpsons plot that actually stays the same throughout the entire episode and doesn’t abruptly turn into a different story halfway through? Bart acting like he’s 10 years old instead of 20? Something resembling character development!? Who are you and what have you done to The Simpsons!? This is definitely one of the best episodes to come along in a long time, IMHO. It feels much more true to what the show was like back when it was in its prime.
Caught this one while waiting for TAR to start on CBS. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it, not pining for the half-hour of my life back. But I was very annoyed, and yes I get that it’s a cartoon, that the idea of a middle ground seemed completely beyond everyone. Like there’s no room in a friendship between “spend every moment together and be BFFs” and “you’re dead to me.”
Not only that, but “everyone” in this case was a pair of ten-year-olds. I was intrigued by the fact that they were both lousy friends.
Incidentally, I was really hoping this episode would end with Bart doing a monologue like Henry’s “I’m an average nobody… get to live the rest of my life like a schnook” speech in Goodfellas.
A really good episode. There was even a good self-referential Joke. Bart is afraid he is going to be killed by Nelson and Grandpa goes “Bully Problems?” …
In the first season there was a truly great episode where Bart, Grandpa and the one armed military surplus nut plan a massive counter attack against the Bullies. It started of course with Grandpa going “bully Problems?”.
The bully in question was in fact Nelson, so it works on two levels.
Funny how that treaty Nelson signed NEVER get refrenced. IT would have been great for bart to pull it out, and nelson states some fancy legal move he used to get around it. Although, since that eppisode ran almost 15 years ago,might not go over to well with the younger crowd.
Working with an 18 year old in the office really makes me feel old, and I’m only 27 DAMN IT!
This WAS a throw back episode. I really enjoyed it. However, there seemed to be a bit of material after the credits where Homer is crying about the Wizard to Lenny and Carl at Moe’s. I saw a piece of it at the start of my DVRing of American Dad, but I didn’t catch most of it. Any summary?
I felt that way during the episode. I think it’s because the plot was plausible and way less wacky than what we’ve gotten used to in recent years. The A plot was about Nelson and Bart being friends, and the B plot was Homer reading a book to Lisa. They used to do more of that basic, human stuff (not all the time, but still) and it made the show feel more grounded.