First up; the * The Kent State Massacre* (or at least it was untill the VT shootings) Then the 400th episode, Jack and Chloe get reassigned to Springfield’s Counter Truancy Unit.
Nope, tonight it’s the 398th episode, “Stop or My Dog Will Shoot.” “24 Minutes” and “You Kent Always Say What You Want” is next week.
They changed the name of the Brockman episode to “You Kent Always Say What You Want.” Even before the Virginia Tech shootings, it was a bad title and a bad pun.
The plot of this episode had potential, and there were some funny gags, but the whole didn’t add up to the sum of its parts. I liked Bart’s Robocop dream sequence, and the thing where the snakes are sold by the yard, and a very good couch gag. But there was a lot not to like: the scene in the maze from SLH’s point of view was horrible computer animation and a waste of Stephen Hawking. And there were some horrible things soundwise: rewriting a public domain song, and using a cartoon sound effect in what is supposed to be a serious scene which brings the plot forward. Let’s hope next week’s two episodes are better. Not only for the sake of Jack Bauer- who’s had a sucky year this season- but for the Simpsons themselves, as their movie is two months away.
My son and I giggled like mad when they had the ceremony for the new police animals, and they panned over to the dolphin in uniform, swimming in the tank. Then we nearly wet ourselves when the cop called for backup, and a car pulled up with the tank in tow, dolphin cop inside. That was hilarious.
I guess the alligator didn’t make the cut! In all this was a good episode, though I was creeped out by the idea of the snake being chopped in half :eek: 'cause it was sold by the foot (& who’s gonna buy dead snake tail). I’m looking forward to next week :smack: .
Ha ha!
[/Nelson]
I presume that the crummy CGI sequence refers to a game but I leave it to others to identify.
Waaaay too much time spent on the corn maze.
I missed the first act, and thought it was a great episode, then watched it later and it dragged down my opinion of the whole show.
Good Stephen Hawking gag. I love the fact that he is a Simpsons fan.
The best Stephen Hawking gag was in the second episode he appeared in, the one with Ray Romano as Homer’s new friend who everyone else thinks isn’t real:
“You’re looking at the owner of the new Little Caesar’s across the street. Pizza pizza! Pizza pizza! Pizza pizza! Sorry, that button sticks.”
I like that he’s OK with making fun of his own disability.
I thought they were deliberately throwing in a larger-than-normal number of references to things from Simpsons past, perhaps as leadup to the 400th episode. In particular:
-The baby with one eyebrow
-“El Barto” graffitti
-Stephen Hawking
Is it possible that they use completely different sets of writers for different episodes? I thought the “Nappien” episode from last week was very funny, but I watched this one last night and don’t think I laughed once. All the jokes, with the characters playing their now-familiar roles, seemed really forced and uninspired to me.
I know they can’t all be winners, but I’d still find it pretty amazing if the exact same group of people were turning out some pretty inspired gags one week and achieving nothing but trite, jokey crap the next.
This was probably the best episode of the season. I found myself laughing out loud at a lot of the gags, a rare occurrence these days. Hell, the neon sign outside the cop bar made the episode a winner all by itself.
The credited writer for this episode was John Frink, and the credited writer for last week’s episode was Bill Odenkirk. Some writers have better streaks than others.
Bill Odenkirk is the brother of Bob of Mr Show fame- Bill wrote for that show as well, so it makes sense his episode would be funny- Wycked Scepter!
mobo85:
Is that a real name, or are Simpsons writers using it like “Alan Smithee”?
He’s a real person- the character was named after him.
John Frink apparently is a writer and producer. Professor John Nerdelbaum Frink, Jr is named after him GOYGLAVIN!!
So…who’s going with who here?