Dental plan (The Simpsons)

[Reply #80 on:]

I agree. That was yet another episode that was just incredibly mediocre rather than actively terrible. Like you say, this season seems to be slightly better than the show has been lately, even if that's hugely down to "Simpsorama".

[Reply #81 on:]

Well, there goes the show's recent hot streak (or, lukewarm streak, at least). The most recent episode was fucking awful.

The only laugh for me was the bit with the family in the neon sign store. Everything else was just cringe-inducing.

[Reply #82 on:]

Eh, I thought it continued what could be considered a "hot streak" for this show at the moment, frankly.

Like, it wasn't funny at all, but it also wasn't actively, upsettingly anti-funny, which is what the show usually is these days. The last few days have just sort of been plots without jokes and when judged as such... well, it wasn't good, but it was less awful than I'm used to this show being. I think season 26 is shaping up quite nicely compared to the last few.

[Reply #83 on:]

This episode wasn't quite bad enough to sour my opinion on season 26 as a whole (so far, anyway), but I still found it rather painful to get through.

[Reply #84 on:]

Huh; it's getting generally decent reviews. What did you hate about it, Beamer?

[Reply #85 on:]

Wanting to once again experience the joy of a show he's fond of but hadn't seen a new episode of in years (and forgetting that "Simpsorama" was an episode of The Simpsons, apparently), my dad began watching the most recent episode but turned it off within minutes because he "couldn't get into it." Perhaps it will console him to know that he wasn't the only one.

[Reply #86 on:]

Huh; it's getting generally decent reviews. What did you hate about it, Beamer?

Every joke was a misfire (aside from the one I'd already mentioned), and in a way that made me cringe rather than just failed to make me laugh. The plot wasn't too awful (even if it was basically just a Christmasfied version of The Mysterious Voyage of Homer Simpson), but it definitely wasn't an episode I took any pleasure in watching. And given that the standard for the show has raised slightly this season, it felt somewhat disheartening to see it sink down to the level of previous seasons.

As for the positive reviews it's been getting - I am aware of this, though I still find it baffling. Each to their own, I guess.

[Reply #87 on:]

(even if it was basically just a Christmasfied version of The Mysterious Voyage of Homer Simpson)

That is the most depressing episode description I have ever heard.

And wasn't "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" already a quasi-Christmas-y (there was snow!) version of that episode? (A fairly solid one, but still.) Now they're ripping off their own rip-offs? Oy.

Wanting to once again experience the joy of a show he's fond of but hadn't seen a new episode of in years (and forgetting that "Simpsorama" was an episode of The Simpsons, apparently), my dad began watching the most recent episode but turned it off within minutes because he "couldn't get into it." Perhaps it will console him to know that he wasn't the only one.

I was at a restaurant on Sunday night and for some reason the new episode was playing on one of the TVs. It was muted, but even without the sound I could tell it was a total shit-fest.

It didn't help that the friend I was with noticed that The Simpsons was on, and pointed it out to me. I wanted to say, "Yeah, but nearly every episode for the past 10 years has been garbage" and commence to openly weep--but that probably would've made our dinner kinda awkward...

[Reply #88 on:]

I Won't Be Home for Christmas seemed like it would be pretty good, but it fell flat like any potentially good episode does nowadays. I don't think the plot was too much the same as other similiar ones. Last three episodes were more or less alright in general.

[Reply #89 on:]

"The Man Who Came to Be Dinner" was absolutely bizarre. I was under the impression that the rocket they got on to was just going to be some sort of "alien planet simulator", allowing them to spend time with Kang & Kodos without things getting too insane, but no; it was canon.

This is the season where they outright gave up on having any semblance of maintaining reality within the show's world, what with this (yes, I know it was produced years ago) and "Simpsorama" (an episode that doesn't even pass for canon in Futurama's world).

Anyway, all things considered, if it weren't for "Simpsorama", I'd say it was probably the best episode of the show since "Holidays of Future Past" - though that isn't saying a lot. A lot of the jokes were genuinely funny and the storyline wasn't too awful once you got beyond how utterly world-breaking it was.

I suppose, at least now, there's nothing to stop them from producing episodes with any storyline. Instead of 5 "Bart gets a girlfriend" and "Homer and Marge have marriage troubles" episodes a year, maybe they can just do stuff like "a dragon attacks the town" or "the family go back in time to spend time with Cleopatra".

Also, the "Dizz-nee" stuff was really annoying given that we've already got Itchy and Scratchy, complete with Itchy and Scratchy Land.

6/10

[Reply #90 on:]

Diz-Nee Land actually pre-dates Itchy and Scratchy Land by a few seasons. It was first featured in this episode.

[Reply #91 on:]

I actually enjoyed it.

[Reply #92 on:]

Diz-Nee Land actually pre-dates Itchy and Scratchy Land by a few seasons. It was first featured in this episode.

I should really have remembered that. Shows what I know.

[Reply #93 on:]

The Way They Was: Six Totally Different Shows The Simpsons Has Been

[Reply #94 on:]

Alright, I finally watched the damn thing. That was a fucking abomination. Every joke was just plain fucking painful, from Diz-Nee spraying acid on its tourists for some fucking reason to the show rehashing two of its own bits in the form of the potato chip sequence, only to rape them both before our very eyes. If it weren't for the fact that this is two episodes old and I know it's not an absolute indicator of the quality declining further, this would've been the point where I threw in the towel and stopped watching new episodes of the show forever. It's just a shame the Fox schedulers weren't successful in burying the episode completely... Hell, I think this one may have even been worse than the talking bar rag episode.

And, of course, no attempt was even made to ground this thing in some semblance of logic (just like Simpsorama, though at least that episode had a few laughs). It's all too clear that the fanbase of a show cares more about it than anyone actually involved in making the damn thing.

[Reply #95 on:]

See, whilst the thing was absolutely ludicrous, I thought it was actually pretty funny - at least by modern Simpsons standards. There were loads of jokes that actually worked for me and that's never true of The Simpsons, these days.

I would be more upset by how much this episode destroyed the reality of the show if the show hadn't already deteriorated to such horrendously poor quality and just kept going for about 10 years. I mean, whilst it's quite new for them to go so fully-blown "whacky" for an entire episode, they recently ended an episode with a load of zombies flying to Earth, stood on top of comets, talking to each other through the vacuum of space, implying that Earth was soon to succumb to an alien-zombie invasion despite how the zombies would blatantly burn up on impact... I mean, Christ... I don't know where to begin with that one. It was just a throw-away gag, but enough of that sort of crap chipping away at this series for the past decade has basically just stopped me caring.

[Reply #96 on:]

See, whilst the thing was absolutely ludicrous, I thought it was actually pretty funny - at least by modern Simpsons standards. There were loads of jokes that actually worked for me and that's never true of The Simpsons, these days.

That's the thing, though. Had it been funny, I could forgive the insane plot entirely (after all, it wouldn't be hard to write it off as a non-canon flight of fantasy, much like, say, Behind the Laughter). But I found most of the jokes to be even more groan-worthy than the usual benchmark for the show these days. I think the only one that even came close to making me smile was the bit about solar power.

[Reply #97 on:]

The Way They Was: Six Totally Different Shows The Simpsons Has Been

Interesting article, but I don't particularly agree with it. I think each "individual show" is pretty clear-cut at the point that new showrunners take over:
1. James L. Brooks, Matt Groening & Sam Simon (seasons 1-2)
2. Al Jean & Mike Reiss (seasons 3-4)
3. David Mirkin (seasons 5-6)
4. Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein (seasons 7-8)
5. Mike Scully (seasons 9-12)
6. Al Jean ruins the show (seasons 13-19)
7. Al Jean tries to get the show back to where it was a little bit, but utterly fails (seasons 20-26)

See, whilst the thing was absolutely ludicrous, I thought it was actually pretty funny - at least by modern Simpsons standards. There were loads of jokes that actually worked for me and that's never true of The Simpsons, these days.

That's the thing, though. Had it been funny, I could forgive the insane plot entirely (after all, it wouldn't be hard to write it off as a non-canon flight of fantasy, much like, say, Behind the Laughter). But I found most of the jokes to be even more groan-worthy than the usual benchmark for the show these days. I think the only one that even came close to making me smile was the bit about solar power.

Ordinarily, an episode of the show is lucky to contain two jokes that my brain simply says "that joke works" rather than finding embarrassing. This episode had a hit rate of maybe 1 in 3 jokes feeling like they worked and half of those being genuinely funny for me.
None of them were particularly memorable but stuff like:

Homer writing "parking lot" on his ticket to remember where they parked

The "ethnic princess" parking lot

"No means no", etc

"Homer, you have to stop dropping your pants for everyone who claims they're a doctor".

"I thought it was a ball" - "That is the one thing it can never be"

...and the Star Trek montage over the end credits were all very palatable.



It really bugged me that half of the Rigellians had hair, though. I'm sure they've been shown with hair in some other, crappy, Al Jean-era episode that I forget, but it feels utterly at ends with their character design - not to mention that they were clearly established as an entirely bald race for the first years of the show.

[Reply #98 on:]

So, I watched the episode, just because of the novelty of Kang and Kodos being in a full episode.

Sadly, instead of going completely insane as one would expect, the episode felt really restricted and uncreative. Literally every Sci-Fi and Disney stereotype was apart of some joke, right down a yet another Star Trek reference. They're in space, and Star Trek has to do with space, so Star Trek joke!

The plot was simply dumb and poorly planned. Disneyland parody with jokes about how Disney is apparently crappy? Seen it many, many times before. When the family gets to Rigel 7, they are shown some landmarks. Seems like a good idea. But, none of them have any significance. Then there's the protestor group; why are they introduced if nothing becomes of them in the episode? And the family being too unhealthy to eat was a very bad cop-out... if the transport is located in America, wouldn't every human they received have the same issue?

Beamer's right; we care much, much more about the show that those who work on it do. If they're willing to throw the characters in literally any situations, whether it's going to the future and killing monsters or going to a different planet filled with uncanon characters, they're willing to do anything.

[Reply #99 on:]

None of them were particularly memorable but stuff like:

Homer writing "parking lot" on his ticket to remember where they parked

The "ethnic princess" parking lot

"No means no", etc

"Homer, you have to stop dropping your pants for everyone who claims they're a doctor".

"I thought it was a ball" - "That is the one thing it can never be"

...and the Star Trek montage over the end credits were all very palatable.

The Star Trek montage was trying too hard, the "ethnic princess" reference was just too dated, "stop dropping your pants" is funny on paper but the humour was lost in the delivery, and the bit with the ball was just pathetic. The "parking lot" joke was pretty good though, I must admit - I forgot all about that one.

6. Al Jean ruins the show (seasons 13-19)
7. Al Jean tries to get the show back to where it was a little bit, but utterly fails (seasons 20-26)

I'd actually say Al Jean was at least attempting to revive the show when he took over in season 13, even if he did largely fail (with the exception of season 15, which I still consider the best post-classic season by a wide margin). You can see conscious attempts to place more emphasis on character and add emotional elements to episodes, which were largely missing from the Scully era. Sadly, this was at the expense of the comedy (which Scully never really had a problem with - there were some shitty episodes made under his belt, but the comedy was generally so rapid-fire that enough jokes worked more often than not). This is also around about the time that the humour got really hammy.

I still consider season 17 as "the point where the writers stopped trying." You can pretty much feel the apathy when you watch the show these days.

[Reply #100 on:]

I sort of agree with that. 17 seems to be when it just nose-dived, taking itself from awful to mind-bogglingly awful. Then, it seemed like, around season 20 or so (maybe after the movie?) they started really trying again, only to, once more, give up at about season 23 or 24.
It feels like they've entered another period of really trying hard, lately, to me, though, obviously, I don't feel like it's enough.

I've said it before, but I'd love to see what would happen if a new showrunner took over at this point. Sadly, I think if it ever happens, it'll probably be Matt Selman and, whilst his episodes are generally among the best of the recent seasons, they're still not very good. I don't think his touch would be enough to save the show.

[Reply #101 on:]

I think the switch to HD briefly made the show feel as if it had been rejuvinated to some extent (and, indeed, the first few HD episodes were quite good for modern Simpsons standards).

Agreed on Matt Selman, though. I am curious to see what the show would be like run solely under his command (since I'm sure Al Jean and the other writers still have a significant amount of input with the Selman-produced episodes), and would definitely like to see him get put in charge once Al Jean steps down. Not that I could ever see Al Jean voluntarily moving on at this point.

Not that I can blame him - it must be a dream job seeing as how he doesn't even have to try anymore.

[Reply #102 on:]

I remember feeling like a lot of episodes almost worked around season 20 - which is far more positive than I felt about most of the few years prior. "The Bob Next Door" comes to mind. It's almost not bad... almost.

But yeah, I can't see Al Jean stepping down until the show ends, sadly, like you say. It's a shame. I think that the constant two-year terms for previous showrunners are one of the main reasons that the show maintained such an amazing quality for 10 years.

[Reply #103 on:]

Season 20 is arguably one of the better post-classic seasons. Double, Double, Boy in Trouble had some laughs, and if we're looking specifically at the HD episodes, the first four broadcast (Take My Life, Please, How the Test Was Won, No Loan Again, Naturally and Gone Maggie Gone) were all pretty damn strong. Then it descended back into aggressive mediocrity, with Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D'oh being the only other above average episode for the remainder of the run (again, though - this is "above average" for modern Simpsons standards).

[Reply #104 on:]

The Man That Came To Be Dinner was very disappointing. I was expecting something half-decent or mediocre at the very least. But there were so many failed jokes and the plot just failed. Not alot worked for me, but there was a few jokes and references I enjoyed (particularly the one referencing the Deep Space Homer episode, and the drawing of Homer eating a hoagie Maggie made was way too funny) 5/10 would be the rating at first glance for me.

But the most recent episode, Bart's New Friend, was alot better. This episode, I felt, was half-decent. For once, there were a few jokes that made me laugh out loud nicely, and for once, I felt a connection with the characters. It felt like a Season 13 era episode. So when the jokes didn't hit, they usually weren't so bad that I cringed and despised it. I do realize this was the episode that some dude scripted 25 years ago, and you can easily tell what parts were changed and which was left in. (For example, you can easily tell every one of those crappy skinner scenes was added from the new writers) Something that also stuck out to me was the callback to earlier episodes (like lisa's sax and bart's comet). Wasn't especially fond of the beginning or ending. They could have done better. Modern Simpsons writers literally ruined those parts of the ep. I think I'd give this ep a 6.5/10 or maybe even a 7/10. Either way, I liked it better than usual modern episodes.

[Reply #105 on:]

When this website was created, the newest episode was Kill the Alligator and Run.

[Reply #106 on:]

I do realize this was the episode that some dude scripted 25 years ago, and you can easily tell what parts were changed and which was left in. (For example, you can easily tell every one of those crappy skinner scenes was added from the new writers)

They'd have to have been, Superintendent Chalmers wasn't a character back when this was first written. But I assume Apatow had some involvement in the rewriting process here, too.

Either way, I've gotta agree with you here, this was a perfectly decent episode. Not one of the greats, but good by current standards. It was nice to see a bit of heart back in the show, although I wish they'd have just gotten to the damn point sooner so they could've explored the concept a little more thoroughly.

[Reply #107 on:]

I'm pretty sure Apatow only wrote a spec-script that they worked on, rather than them re-writing a fully completed script - I may be wrong, though.

I haven't seen the episode yet, but I'm looking forward to it. The Simpsons are normally pretty good at coming up with gimmick-y episodes that manage to excite me despite me knowing that they won't be any good. But after "Simpsorama", "The Man Who Came to Be Dinner" and this one, there's nothing left to keep me interested. I'm sure they'll announce a load of other stupid gimmicks when Comic Con rolls around.

[Reply #108 on:]

According to this article, Apatow gave some notes on the rewrites and pitched a few new jokes, even going as far as to attend voice recording sessions for the episode. I still imagine the usual level of group writing was involved, but it definitely doesn't seem like them simply buying a 25-year-old script and punching it up independently.

[Reply #109 on:]

I just watched "Bart's New Friend" and it sucked.

The plot's bare bones felt like they would have been at home in the first couple of seasons of the show, which makes sense, but none of the rest of it felt particularly different to the other crappy, modern episodes.

But most of the jokes sucked and the story was too inconsistent with regards to the rules of the hypnosis. I wish they'd outright hire someone like Judd Apatow to actually write an episode, without giving it re-writes that bring it in line with the rest of the shit they produce these days.

[Reply #110 on:]

The Alien-Abduction Plot Line That Could Have Been The Simpsons Movie 2

[Reply #111 on:]

The Man Who Came to Be Dinner wasn't good at all. The joke "This is not Halloween!" didn't make crapping on show's logic ok, either.

"Homer, you have to stop dropping your pants for everyone who claims they're a doctor".

"I thought it was a ball" - "That is the one thing it can never be"

Those were good jokes, though.

The Alien-Abduction Plot Line That Could Have Been The Simpsons Movie 2

At least it didn't make it to be a movie, that possibly happening sounds little bit scary.
...on the big screen.

[Reply #112 on:]

"The Musk Who Fell to Earth" was absolutely fucking dreadful. I mean, they've put some crap out in their time, but that has to be amongst the worst.

None of the jokes were funny, the plot boiled down to "a celebrity shows up in the Simpsons' back yard and lives with them for a while" which is something they've done hundreds of times and usually in not nearly as lazy a fashion.

The thing was poorly written to the point that better structured versions of the same story readily presented themselves, Elon Musk is not an actor and his performance sucked and the direction was terrible. That bit where the electric car drives to Moe's, then they transition to it driving home just looked like the car went to Moe's, then home - there was no obvious passage of time.

Not to mention that the idea of the town going into depression due to massive layoffs actually being quite good, only for them to completely waste it as a 30-second subplot that wasn't even resolved. Are we supposed to just take it that Homer "breaking up" with Elon means that the plant automatically reverts back into being how it was and the town just goes back to normal with no repercussions?

And the characterisation was just awful to the point that they weren't even behaving like human beings. Homer and Elon are shot at by sniper rifles and 10 seconds later, they just stand up and have a long conversation right next to where the shots came from without running for cover or investigating what just happened. It's like they forgot that somebody just shot at them.

Fuck modern The Simpsons.

[Reply #113 on:]

Yeah, that one was pretty bad. A celebrity for the sake of it, resulting in cringeworthy dialog, and just general ridiculousness. Mr. Burns's lines were funny, though. Somehow Burns and Smithers still manage to be entertaining. Other than that, awful.

Oh yeah, Bart's New Friend was that episode Apatow wrote, no wonder it was actually good (when compared to modern Simpsons etc. etc. not that good actually).

[Reply #114 on:]

This week's episode was actually pretty decent. I enjoyed the emphasis ons character-based storytelling and humour over throwaway gags, and while the plot hit a lot of familiar notes, it was enjoyable. Moreover, I didn't cringe or groan once, as I almost always do with Modern Simpsons! AND some of the jokes were genuinely funny and clever, too (my favourite being the fake-out transition with Carl) - which is always welcome.

However, the fact that there were so many things the show had done before in much better episodes (both general plot points and specific jokes) kept me from fully enjoying it as much as I'd have liked to. Having said that, it was still one of the better episodes from this current era of the show, if only for how low the bar has gotten.

[Reply #115 on:]

I thought it was pretty awful, as usual. Far from their worst but not even in the better episodes of this season. More than anything, I think I was put off by how the plot was entirely recycled from various other episodes, like you say.

Moe gets a girlfriend has been at least twice already off the top of my head ("Dumbbell Indemnity" and "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe") - probably more, Lisa goes with Homer on "Bring your child to work day" has been at least once already ("Bart on the Road") and Smithers giving Homer an important job for Mr. Burns because he knows he'll screw it up has also been done ("Homer the Smithers").

It's weird how they keep referencing the events of the Elon Musk episode, too. It's almost as if they watched season 18 of South Park and thought "Yeah, South Park's good, let's do that" but without any real understanding of anything.

[Reply #116 on:]

"Sky Police" was much better than average for the show, these days. It felt surprisingly not awful. Was it a Matt Selman episode because that's what it felt like?

Like, it wasn't remotely funny, at all, but the storyline was coherent, not something too over-done and none of it felt ridiculously wacky and stupid (other than the giant monkey at the end), which is how most modern episodes manage to put me off.

[Reply #117 on:]

I recall seeing Matt Selman tweeting a lot about it as it was on so he probably wrote it.

[Reply #118 on:]

I thought the episode was ehh. I liked the beginning with Wiggum, and for once the story wasn't crammed with a bunch of guest stars. There really wasn't anything to hate about it. But, it wasn't anything special because of poor execution and nothing about the story really stood out except for a few jokes. (Homer's whaaaat burp, and the beginning with Wiggum)

I'd probably give it 6.5/10

[Reply #119 on:]

I actually felt the execution was pretty decent. The story structure was fine and there wasn't really anything that felt out-of-place for the show (save from Wiggum murdering a couple of people in his montage). Though they could've at least mentioned Marge's gambling problem, given the subject matter of the storyline.

Either way, this one wasn't bad. Not bad at all.