I’ve actually enjoyed the first two episodes of this season of the Simpsons. Shall we alert the horsemen?
The first two couch gags they have done were sheer genius. First, poke fun at the general perception that the show now sucks (jump the shark), and then a spot-on homage of a TV show that they somehow managed to not reference in their long run (Get Smart).
I was concerned that maybe without the celebrity guests to power this week’s episode, it would signal a return to suckitude. But I loved the satellite tv parody in the first act. It was even a fairly logical segue to the “real” storyline (even if they already did a Bart/Lisa/Standardized testing episode fairly early on in the show’s run). I was glad that the school story line didn’t need to resort to over-the-top stupidity. They even found a clever way to break the fourth wall (Hooray for the status quo!).
Maybe my expectations have been lowered, but so far I’m inclined to think the Simpsons still has it. What do you guys think?
The monkey gag with the satellite- Beautiful.
Bart loses his mind in school and has a host of characters including Bendor lifting him up in a bar mitzvah-esque dance was hilarious.
The part in the auditorium where it’s announced Bart will be in the same class as Lisa and then moving to Homer watching it on the couch was nice.
I didn’t like the 3rd grade teacher, she just seemed like an outsider in Springfield.
Oh, in the first 10 minutes I kept noticing the voices didn’t seem to match the movements of the mouths at all. It really irked me and kept me from concentrating on the jokes. But then the dish was installed and I forgot all about it. Until just now in fact.
Bart seemed too much like he was in the Stan Lee episode. Although he’s supposed to be a fiery little hellraiser in those two episodes they took the obnvious-little-snot angle and pushed it almost too far.
But the part with the Capitol City Goofball as a state rep? HIGH-Larious. “Our flag is a source of embarassment for our state; particularly since we are a Northern state.”
Not bad, not spectacular but it didn’t make me go “Geez the Simpsons sure do suck now!” The pace seemed a little slow to me and the focus may have shifted too far to the plot which wasn’t really enough to sustain the episode.
I did like “Aparentwavingtherighttosuesayswhat?”
Easy: a slow decline started at about season six and by season nine the show was clearly greatly reduced in quality from it’s height. From there it continued downhill until they struck rock bottom in the sanity destroying awfulness of season twelve (shudders at memory of “Simpson Safari”). Season thirteen actually picked up a little but it seemed like half the episodes were done before they got the peptalk that caused the upswing.
I think Season 11 was the bottom with only about half of the episodes worth watching but we’re pretty much on the same page. They are definately back on the upswing of things though. Tonight’s was definately one of the better ones in the last few years, discounting the gimmick episodes, like the Easter and Tall Tales ones (which are usually great).
“Rawr, rawr, rawr. No one understands you, she-bear.”??? Genius.
The beginning sucked, the actual story was pretty good. I’m really getting sick of the Simpsons being TOO surreal. Ok, it’s hard NOT to be completly goofy when the children have been the same age for years, but I like to REALATE to the material in the show. Now you can sit here and argue with me that I’m wrong… but you would be wrong, because that just how ‘I FEEL’ about the show. That’s why I liked it so much. If you like the way the show is, fine. Although I happen to think some of you are in denial, I was when X-Files started to get bad.
My favorite episodes now are the ones that revolve around Lisa… they often have heart, which has been one of the things the show has been lacking IMHO. The one where she went to college was good… even though you rarely mistake an 8 yo for a college student. There was actually conflict in that episode, and I like that. Tonights had some heart too.
But Animal Survivor? And some of the jokes are SO lame, you almost feel embraced for the writers.
