It's back... in "Pog" form: The Simpsons, Season 15 (part 2)

[Reply #560 on:]

And even after the show ends, Al Jean probably wouldn't directly point the finger at Scully, simply because it would look bad.

Anyway, here's my review for "The Ziff that Came to Dinner":

Let me start out by saying that I haven't seen this episode since Sunday, so if I get a few minor details wrong, I apologize in advance.

All in all, this was a so-so episode. It was okay, but definitely not the best of season 15 and probably not the best use of Artie Ziff.

The first 5 minutes of the first act upset me a bit. First of all, an obvious parody of childrens' pop culture was referenced on the movie poster and, as I've stated before, I hate when The Simpsons refernces kids' culture (although, on a positive note, I liked "The Fashion of The Christ" ). My other problem was with the fairly long cut to the unrelated scene of Flanders with (I believe) Jasper and Abe. I enjoyed these type of cuts in the earlier years, but now they remind me of Family Guy [Shudders]. The rest of the first act was pretty good, mostly because of the movie parodies (the one I really enjoyed was actually the bit with Lisa up in the attic, reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project).

The second act was definitely better than the first. Not much to say on that front, but I liked the nod to Enron (which is probably a basis for the story) and Jon Lovitz's previous characters that he portrayed on both The Simpsons and The Critic.

Act three was funny, particularly Maggie's pop-up book. My one peeve is the whole Selma and Artie relationship, even though it was hinted that "Uncle Artie" was probably going to get killed.

Anyway, an okay episode, B.

Also, I think that Dan Castelleneta and Deb Lacusta make a great writing duo, although I must admit that I prefer "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses" to this episode. 

[Reply #561 on:]

 

Originally posted by Gorky:
 Jon Lovitz's previous characters that he portrayed on both The Simpsons and The Critic. 

Acctualy ,Jay Sherman did appear in the film fesivl episode of the Simpsons.

I did like this one,but the one thing thsat made it great was:

Show spoiler

THE COUCH GAG!
BEST COUCH GAG EVER!

[Reply #562 on:]

Here's something tangentially related (I couldn't find anywhere else to put it):

Fox has officially put Oliver Beene on hiatus (surprise surprise), even though its new season only started last month.  You might remember that it had the distinction of inheriting the 7 pm Sunday death slot once held by Futurama (though later they did actually move it to 7:30).  Also, The Bernie Mac Show has been moved to another night.  So what is Fox going to show instead?  Why, reruns of The Simpsons and King of the Hill, of course!  Yes, for the foreseeable future we'll have a full hour of each, from 7:00 to 9:00.  Why does Fox even bother trying to have other shows on Sundays?

[Reply #563 on:]

[holds head] Why do I even bother...

[Reply #564 on:]

Goddammit.

[Reply #565 on:]

I say, look for those spots to be filled by American Dad and Family Guy this time next year.

[Reply #566 on:]

I know. "The Fat and the Furriest" airs after the new episode this Sunday.
But why are they showing the horrible episodes from this season and not the good ones? "Marge vs. etc." and now this? FOX really is a massive bonehead!

[Reply #567 on:]

Well, those episodes could very well be popular outside of message boards, plus they have to rerun them at some point.  In any case I don't really care, given that I just tape all the new episodes anyway.

I think Malcolm and Arrested Development are staying on Sunday though, right?  Personally I'd like to see Malcolm get moved so it can finally wither and die.

[Reply #568 on:]

 

Originally posted by Woodbot 2.0:
Acctualy ,Jay Sherman did appear in the film fesivl episode of the Simpsons.

That episode would be "A Star is Burns".

Anyway, I can't say that I'm surprised about Oliver Beene being put on hiatus. Personally I that it's an okay show.

And, DoTheBartman, I agree about Malcolm in the Middle. It's a decent show, but some of the past few episodes have been terrible.

[Reply #569 on:]

 

Originally posted by newhook_1:
I say, look for those spots to be filled by American Dad and Family Guy this time next year.

Maybe.  Fox still seems determined to have an all-cartoon night, even though they tend to sabotage their own schedule.

[Reply #570 on:]

Heh, well Gorky I think I actually have a much harsher opinion of "Malcolm" then you do.  I watched it a bit during its first and second seasons and it was a decent distraction (something to watch out of boredom basically) for a while but got very bad very quickly.  Haven't seen it in years but considering how bad it was when I saw it I doubt its worth keeping on the air.

[Reply #571 on:]

The first two seasons are the best we'll ever get is how I see it....

I only saw the end of the Ziff episode so I can't say much.

[Reply #572 on:]

 

Originally posted by Action Jacktion:
Fox has officially put Oliver Beene on hiatus (surprise surprise), even though its new season only started last month. 

Wow. For once, they came to their senses.

 

Also, The Bernie Mac Show has been moved to another night.

Ah. I knew they couldn't make a good move without making a colossally bad one.

[Reply #573 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
Goddammit.

[Bender] Too true my friend...[/Bender]

[Reply #574 on:]

   

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
Heh, well Gorky I think I actually have a much harsher opinion of "Malcolm" then you do.  I watched it a bit during its first and second seasons and it was a decent distraction (something to watch out of boredom basically) for a while but got very bad very quickly.  Haven't seen it in years but considering how bad it was when I saw it I doubt its worth keeping on the air.

That's basically how I feel, too. The show got old. Fast! Say, Fox, instead of airing this shit, why didn't you give their slot to Futurama??? Dammit.


Moving on, Looking back on the R/R thread for "My Mother the Carjacker", I really do realize why I seem to think it should rank above "Moe Baby Blues". MBB was pretty much certain to be great, whereas Carjacker was destined to suck, being a sequel and all.

But it didn't!

Defying expectations, we got a fun plot with Homer characterization stupid enough to be funny, but real enough to make the plot move. An emotional episode, although not as good as "Mother Simpson", it most certainly does it justice! Tying up the Mother Simpson episode in such a way certainly pushes it ahead of Moe, in my opinion. It also gets "spillover" favoritism from me, since I consider "Mother Simpson" to be the best episode ever. 

[Reply #575 on:]

hmm I missed Moe Baby Blues first time and saw Carjacker first, and didn't have any expectatons other than your ranting on about how great they were. Since I thought you overated carjacker I was prepared for Moe Baby Blues to be a bit of a letdown.
I think my problem with Carjacker was the beginning, it took to long to get off the ground with the plot of Marge sending in the newspaper headline blunder. I also just didn't think it seemed all that great, It Improved on 2nd viewing
but didn't seem quite classic era quality, MBB just about did.

[Reply #576 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
Heh, well Gorky I think I actually have a much harsher opinion of "Malcolm" then you do.  I watched it a bit during its first and second seasons and it was a decent distraction (something to watch out of boredom basically) for a while but got very bad very quickly.  Haven't seen it in years but considering how bad it was when I saw it I doubt its worth keeping on the air.

I'm sure that you do have a harsher opinion, but my theory as to why it is so repetitive is the fact that it's just another show about a disfunctional family. No matter how many storylines you have, the core theme will always be about a family, so it gets old fast.

Personally, I've watched it on and off for the past few years. I was able to take it for that long, but now I can't stand it.

[Reply #577 on:]

dahm i hate mike scully, TO HELL WITH YOU MIKE SCULLY!

new simpsons eh?, maude eh?   

[Reply #578 on:]

Speaking of Mike Scully (and how we all hate him), according to Time Magazine, it seems that he and Mel Gibson are working on developing a series for ABC. This surprises me, especially because of the failure of his short-lived Fox show, The Pitts . For those who are interested, the plot appears to be focused around a family and will be based on Scully's personal experiences with a large family.

[Reply #579 on:]

So I was in the airport today, and ran across this monstrosity in the bookstore.



Have Simpsons fans offically hit rock-bottom now? Leelaholic, I'm looking at you to explain this to me. Where's your god now?

[Reply #580 on:]

Marge has changed her name to Maxim?...

 

[Reply #581 on:]

 

Originally posted by Gorky:
Speaking of Mike Scully (and how we all hate him), according to Time Magazine, it seems that he and Mel Gibson are working on developing a series for ABC. This surprises me, especially because of the failure of his short-lived Fox show, The Pitts . For those who are interested, the plot appears to be focused around a family and will be based on Scully's personal experiences with a large family.

Scullys Personal experices? I guess that would involve the wacky adventures he had with his dad as a child.

[Reply #582 on:]

Co-dependents Day aires tonight at 8:00 pm.
Hope to see it.

[Reply #583 on:]

Yes. Let's all watch "Co-Dependants Day"
 

Originally posted by evan:
So I was in the airport today, and ran across this monstrosity in the bookstore.



Have Simpsons fans offically hit rock-bottom now? Leelaholic, I'm looking at you to explain this to me. Where's your god now?

Wow.


Marge is hot!

[Reply #584 on:]

 

Originally posted by leelaholic:
Yes. Let's all watch "Co-Dependants Day"
 

Originally posted by evan:
So I was in the airport today, and ran across this monstrosity in the bookstore.



Have Simpsons fans offically hit rock-bottom now? Leelaholic, I'm looking at you to explain this to me. Where's your god now?

  Wow.


Marge is hot!

What he said. 

[Reply #585 on:]

She's the working man's choice. 

[Reply #586 on:]

It helps that the "competition" is Paris Hilton...

[Reply #587 on:]

Can't explain the Maxim cover I'm afraid.  But I still remind everyone that something like that is merely a promotion, a merchandise product, and Fox and its liscensers have been putting out pretty shoddy stuff with The Simpsons' name since the beginning.  That cover is particularly embarrassing, but its a seperate entity from the show.

And hey, its still better then Paris Hilton.

[Reply #588 on:]

The Sun ran an article about that cover a couple of days ago.

[Reply #589 on:]

Review...

"Co-Dependants Day"

Well, I enjoyed it. The plot got off to a strong start satirizing how crappy Star Wars has gotten and then seemed to go up from there. Some well-placed emotion put into a fairly solid plot. On top of all that, it was hilarious!

B+

I'll make a fuller review after my second and third viewings. 

[Reply #590 on:]

Gee, Homer at his jerkassiest, Marge really out of character, maybe three funny jokes in the whole episode, and ooh, they're making fun of "The Phantom Menace"! How totally cutting-edge! What's not to love? This episode, that's what. D-.

[Reply #591 on:]

  Wow...

[Reply #592 on:]

Eh, I'll side with Kryten on this one. The whole episode seemed rushed, and some of the lines even seemed sped up, which is really unnesessary considering Homer's lengthy "on hold" gag. 

[Reply #593 on:]

Hmmm...not a strong showing.

The first was decent enough to be enjoyable. The "Star Wars" parodies were a little too blatant (and pretty dated now) but nonetheless amusing and something I could relate to in a certain way, and there were some great gags related to that. But to be honest that's where the positives really end. There were already some pretty big misfire jokes (like the height of the Lucas spoof) and those scenes themselves seemed to partially compensate for a pretty weak main story in the rest of the episode. This had another issue of the first act seeming too disjointed from the main plot for one thing, and what Marge and Homer behavior there was in act one seemed mostly without any real buildup or reason for it. Characterization issues weren't as bad as the Scully era certainly, but I still didn't see any logical reason why Marge would start drinking out of nowhere.

The other two acts kind of sealed the deal for this being a failure unfortunately. Really, they were pretty laughless. There just weren't many really good gags, and there were some pretty humisfires and things that went on WAY too long, like Homer's "hold" thing. Even worse was the story which just didn't seem to pick up at all and lacked anything interesting about it. The "conflict" isn't truly introduced until act three really and thus there is no time to properly develop anything. Most plot points seemed to come out of nowhere almost and the "resolution", as touching as it may have been intended to be, felt incredibly forced and rushed. Overall this actually felt sort of like "Praiseland", "Pokeymom", etc from the Scully era; not offensive like the worst of those, but very very bland and without any charisma at all really.

Probably the biggest disapointment this season. I never expected "Fat and the Furriest" or "Margical History Tour" to be very good to begin with, but I did expect far better out of this one.

Grade : D+

Didja notice moment: The "Teen Sex Wager" movie from last week was playing at the theater again?

Kryten: I wouldn't call it "Homer as his jerkassiest" actually.  He wasn't especcially likeable in this one (although I think it was more an issue of the story itself not being interesting), but it was still far from the Homer the threatened to blow up town hall over an area code.

[Reply #594 on:]

^^ what he said.  aaaaaandddd... some of my own thoughts:  It started out with big laughs, which petered out and were replaced by yawns by the beginning of the second act. Too many failed jokes and a weak, boring plot. Not as bad as some of the others this season (Furriest, Regina Monologues), just meh. 

DTB: I did notice Teen Sex Wager, I thought it was a nice touch, although it did kind of make it super-obvious that two episodes in a row have started the same way. I was trying to look beyond that... but no, the well-placed bit of unimportant semi-continuity brought it up front and center.

MY didja notice: Luanne (I can't remember if she is still technically a van Houten or not), who had moved to the big city a few episodes ago, was sitting in the church in springfield... alone. Mistake, or subtle hinting at a future storyline? Only time will tell!

[Reply #595 on:]

CO-DEPENDENTS DAY
Not Good,not bad.

Meh.
Grade:B+

[Reply #596 on:]

Bad, bad episode for all the reasons listed by others above.  I should have kept watching the pizza marathon on Food Network.

[Reply #597 on:]

Kryten: Get's straight to the point.

[Reply #598 on:]

 

Originally posted by DotheBartman:
Kryten: I wouldn't call it "Homer as his jerkassiest" actually.  He wasn't especcially likeable in this one (although I think it was more an issue of the story itself not being interesting), but it was still far from the Homer the threatened to blow up town hall over an area code.

He framed his wife for drunk driving. If that's not Homer' biggest jerkass moment, it's in the top three.

[Reply #599 on:]

To be fair though, he was drunk.  And drunk people do very stupid things.

It was a very low moment.  But I still don't think its as bad as even some of the average episodes of the Scully era.  Basically in this episode there was some character distortion that hurt it a lot.  In the Scully era, the character distortion made most episodes unbearable.