Dental plan (The Simpsons)

[Reply #240 on:]

By far the best part of the episode.

It wasn't actually too terrible for modern Simpsons. It was stupid and meandering and fairly unfunny and contained a lot of complete WTF moments, but it was far less cringey than usual.

[Reply #241 on:]

I thought it was pretty damn good for modern Simpsons. Decent enough premise (one that gave Homer and the kids an equal amount of things to do, too), a few laughs and minimal cringe-worthy moments. Though I always enjoy it when Bart and Lisa team up to solve a mystery. Biggest laugh for me was "Also, I'm dead now" (though the cloud spirit of the smoker guy definitely had diminishing returns).

No surprises at all that it was a Matt Selman episode. Just put the fucking guy in charge of the show full-time already!!

[Reply #242 on:]

"Puffless" was the best Simpsons episode in quite a while, if you ask me. (Still very poor, don't get me wrong).

There were actually a lot of funny jokes in amongst the crap. The Maggie subplot was pretty awful, but at least that had the advantage of being relatively untrodden territory for the show. Maggie has had, what? 5 subplots in the entire run of the show?

[Reply #243 on:]

Damn, this week's episode was good! And NOT just by current Simpsons standards.

That was probably the best Homer/Lisa storyline in years - the home invasion was genuinely upsetting, and executed perfectly (thanks in large part to some truly effective directing on the more creepy, atmospheric moments) - not to mention the best original song the show's done since the classic era. I was dubious about the prospect of a non-ToH Halloween episode, but that was a very, very pleasant surprise.

[Reply #244 on:]

I agree... almost. I feel like I've been saying this every week, but that was the best episode in a long, long while.

The episode was directed brilliantly and the Lisa/Homer plot was a genuinely decent storyline and, like you say, executed to the point of being genuinely upsetting.

The Marge / Bart plot was boring and I can't remember a single funny joke, but it basically proved what I've been saying for years which is that if they can't make the show funny any more, they should just try to tell good stories instead.

The final moment with Maggie was dreadful though. It was a shame they just had to go out on a sour note like that.

[Reply #245 on:]

I didn't mind the final moment with Maggie. It was unnecessary, but as far as throw-away credits gags go, I had no issue with it. It worked for me, given that it was a Halloween-themed episode.

I did also like the meta jokes about Treehouse of Horror. I kinda want them to make Simpsons Muppets Wizard of Oz now.

[Reply #246 on:]

I'm with cyber_turnip on this. Although it's pretty good for Modern Simpsons, something stops me from calling it genuienely good. It's pretty insane people are saying it's just as good as the episodes from the '90s. I mean, come on guys! That's pushing things a little, don't you think?

[Reply #247 on:]

I'd say the main plot with Homer and Lisa was pretty damn spectacular for a modern Simpsons episode, however, the Marge and Bart plot completely let the rest of the episode down.

I also think the Adult Halloween is being heavily overrated, I didn't think it was a particularly memorable or special musical number.

[Reply #248 on:]

I haven't watched an episode all season but decided to give this one a go, since it's so highly praised on here.

And my gosh, I think this was the best Simpsons episode in a long, long time. Yes, even better than Simpsorama and up there with Holidays of Future Passed.I really enjoyed how they opened this episode, and lots of the gags used in the first act. It was actually really well done.

Both the A and the B plots, were good, with the A-plot with Homer and Lisa being the definite highlight of the episode. I mean, the B-plot with Marge and Bart was exactly what it needed to be, honestly. I can already imagine the awful dialogue that could have been used if it focused on Bart at that halloween block party. So, I appreciate it for what it is.

It's good to see a show that's gone so low do something different, and actually pull it off really well. This doesn't necessarily mean I have hope for the future, but it is good to see an episode not completely blow every now and then.

[Reply #249 on:]

I also think the Adult Halloween is being heavily overrated, I didn't think it was a particularly memorable or special musical number.

That was another particularly week part of the episode for me. It was a really week parody of the "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show, in case you didn't know, and it just made me long for the days when talented musicians were working on the show. I know that "See My Vest" was only a parody, but it was one that genuinely improved upon the melody of the original instead of just trying to sound a little bit like it for the sake of a joke.

They haven't had a passable musical number since "Testify" way back in "Faith Off" in season 11. They haven't had a passable song since "They'll Never Stop the Simpsons" in "Gump Roast" in season 13. It's just cringey when they try it these days.

[Reply #250 on:]

That was another particularly week part of the episode for me. It was a really week parody of the "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show, in case you didn't know, and it just made me long for the days when talented musicians were working on the show. I know that "See My Vest" was only a parody, but it was one that genuinely improved upon the melody of the original instead of just trying to sound a little bit like it for the sake of a joke.

It's not just See My Vest - a significant portion of beloved songs from the classic era are parodies. And I dare say this song deviated further from its source inspiration than most of those did.

They haven't had a passable musical number since "Testify" way back in "Faith Off" in season 11. They haven't had a passable song since "They'll Never Stop the Simpsons" in "Gump Roast" in season 13. It's just cringey when they try it these days.

Now this, I completely agree with. Except I quite enjoyed NC-17 Halloween. It was hardly classic-era worthy, but it was catchy and relatively amusing, which is far beyond my expectations for the show these days.

[Reply #251 on:]

They haven't had a passable musical number since "Testify" way back in "Faith Off" in season 11. They haven't had a passable song since "They'll Never Stop the Simpsons" in "Gump Roast" in season 13. It's just cringey when they try it these days.

Now this, I completely agree with.

What about the parody songs from "The President Wore Pearls" in season 15? I just saw that episode today for the first time in years, and was quite impressed.

[Reply #252 on:]

Shit, forgot about that episode... I'd put most of the songs in the same category as NC-17 Halloween; ultimately decent, but I wouldn't rank any of them alongside the musical numbers of the classic era.

[Reply #253 on:]

That was another particularly week part of the episode for me. It was a really week parody of the "Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Show, in case you didn't know, and it just made me long for the days when talented musicians were working on the show. I know that "See My Vest" was only a parody, but it was one that genuinely improved upon the melody of the original instead of just trying to sound a little bit like it for the sake of a joke.

It's not just See My Vest - a significant portion of beloved songs from the classic era are parodies. And I dare say this song deviated further from its source inspiration than most of those did.

I was using "See My Vest" as a catch-all example to explain why I think very highly of the parody numbers from the classic years. I know that lots - nay - most of the "classic" songs were parodies in some capacity.

Also, I don't particularly like the songs in "The President Wore Pearls". The most impressed I've been by a musical number on the show since "Testify" is probably that vaguely Les Mis-esque thing they did recently (last season?). That was... sort of... OK, I guess? Maybe I just love "One Day More" too much to be able to judge it objectively.

[Reply #254 on:]

I felt like "Treehouse of Horror XXVI" was a pretty solid effort for modern Simpsons' standards - the show seems to be on something of a roll at the moment (if not sucking as much as usual can be considered a roll).

"Wanted: Dead, Then Alive" was, dare I say it, genuinely good. It felt like some of it was somewhat misjudged and, overtly cartoony in places, but it was a genuinely interesting use of being non-canon within the show's universe and the jokes were mostly all fairly decent.

"Homerzilla" started fairly well, though it soon devolved into being total bollocks - though I respect what they were trying to do with it, by being crazy with multiple levels of meta.
I don't really know what the donut sacrifices thing was all about - because that's certainly nothing to do with the original Godzilla. It also annoyed me that they were mocking the original Godzilla for being "so bad it's funny" when the original Godzilla is a dark, broody masterpiece. It's only the sequels (and remakes) that are nonsense.

"Telepaths of Glory" felt extremely dated on arrival and it was annoying that telepathy turned into general omnipotence about halfway through the segment, but it was fairly interesting and funny up until the bullshit, cop-out ending.


All in all, a mixed bag, which is way, way more than I expect from this show these days. If it weren't for the relatively good "Halloween of Horrors" last week, I'd be calling this the best episode since "Simpsorama".

[Reply #255 on:]

I actually thought it was a pretty lousy outing, save from the excellent cold opening. "Wanted Dead, Then Alive" had a promising idea on paper, but pretty much devolved into several minutes of unfunny cartoon violence. I liked the first few minutes of Homerzilla, up until about the halfway point (it sounds like you and me are on the same page with this one, CT). And I have no idea what "Telepaths of Glory" was parodying, but again - decent idea, sloppy execution. Plus, it was so short, it felt more like a way to fill the remaining few minutes left in the episode rather than a fully-fledged ToH segment (and yet still suffered from the same problem as the other two segments - continuing long after the idea had reached its natural conclusion).

Overall, I was quite disappointed. Especially given that the last two or three Treehouse of Horrors were actually pretty good (by current standards, I mean).

[Reply #256 on:]

I didn't like the cold-opening at all. It just felt loud and obnoxious. I wasn't a huge fan of that guy's first couch gag, either, to be honest.

"Telepaths of Glory" was a parody of the film Chronicle: a found-footage movie from 2012 where some kids find an asteroid (if I remember correctly) that gives them super powers.

I think the main reason that this "Treehouse of Horror" largely worked so well for me is that so many of the jokes actually worked. The Simpsons has a really nasty habit, these days, of overwhelming all the decent gags with stuff that's so unfunny that it undoes the good. This one had some really stupid and lazy plotting, but most of the gags were at least halfway decent and that was true of all three segments.

I actually thought that the last couple of "Treehouse of Horror" episodes have been pretty awful. "XXIV" had that phenomenal Del Toro opening, but every segment after that was just awful - especially "Oh, the Places You'll D'oh" which came with the added aggrevation of having nothing to do with horror in general. Last year's episode was just a mess. "School Is Hell" was typically lazy, "A Clockwork Yellow" was a waste of a decent idea and just devolved into nonsense (kind of like "Homerzilla", come to think of it) and "The Others" wasted a really, really cool premise. None of the characters behaved in a remotely believable or in-character way, all of the potential for meta humour was missed and it went with another really lame, cop-out ending.

[Reply #257 on:]

"24 years of trying to kill a 10-year-old child have finally paid off."

I can't understand why they wanted to do a Chronicle parody over 3 years after the film was released.

[Reply #258 on:]

I could understand if the film was a classic of cinema that would never be forgotten, but it was always just a little gem that came and went.

What's even worse is that they already did Bart and Lisa becoming superheroes in "Treehouse of Horror X". They could have at least mixed things up by having Homer and his friends from the bar getting powers or something.

[Reply #259 on:]

I can't believe this week's episode is actually getting positive feedback. Sure, there were some sweet Homer and Lisa interactions, but the episode was immensely flawed and sorely lacking in the laugh department. Things like the go-nowhere plot with Homer's chair, Harper's dad being one of the most insufferable one-time characters to date, and abysmal jokes like chumming the water (seriously, who the fuck thought it would be amusing to have the protagonists actively try to get people eaten by sharks???).

I laughed precisely once the entire episode (“Lisa’s not gonna fall behind and Bart’s not gonna catch up" - which, I have to admit, was a fantastic line) and groaned/cringed/rolled my eyes more times than I could count.

[Reply #260 on:]

It felt better than average for the show, these days, but it was a big step down from the last few weeks and I agree that the shark stuff was cringey.

[Reply #261 on:]

"Lisa with an 'S'" was awful.

[Reply #262 on:]

I watched it about 12 hours ago and I can barely even remember anything beyond the basic premise.

[Reply #263 on:]

Boring. Laney was pretty much exactly like Joan Rivers character from Ten-Percent Solution, cept even more uninteresting, is ANOTHER Tress character, and takes the focus of the majority of the ep. Had some promise at the start with the "TUNE-KNIGHT" intro, but...bleh, just forgettable.

[Reply #264 on:]

Well, this is actually Laney's second appearance - I vaguely remembered the first episode, and it only aired earlier this year. Though, for the record, she's a parody of Elaine Stritch, not Joan Rivers.

[Reply #265 on:]

Damn, this week's episode was disappointing. The Bart storyline actually had the potential to be really great - they should've just made that the entire episode and explored the subject matter more thoroughly. But then again, that would imply the writers actually knew what they hell they were doing with this show.

Speaking of which, I absolutely hated the scene(s) the first act when Bart and Lisa were doing their detective thing and the writers felt it necessary for Lisa to READ EVERY LABEL ALOUD. They pull this shit all the time these days, and it's always infuriating. We're not five years old, just show the damn thing on screen for half a second or so and be done with it! The writers must have such a low opinion of the average viewers' intelligence.

[Reply #266 on:]

Yeah, it felt like the writers had a really inconsistent idea of what being a sociopath was throughout the episode.

And loads of Bart's "sociopath" behaviour was fairly tame by his standards.

And the family have witnessed Bart showing remorse and guilt countless times throughout their adventures.

And loads of the characterisation was just weird.

But I agree, the premise had a bit of potential. It's a shame the didn't produce anything more than their usual slop with it.

[Reply #267 on:]

"The Girl Code" was atrocious.

I know they've done "the family travel inside Homer's dreams using a dream machine" and "the family go into outer space and meet aliens" and "the family meet the cast of Futurama and travel to the year 3,000" but it still feels ridiculous whenever they cross the line into full-blown science-fiction storylines (obviously, excluding episodes of questionable canon and the like). It was just absurd.

And then the B-plot was Homer becomes a dishwasher. It's like they're mocking us at this point.

[Reply #268 on:]

I actually quite liked it - it got a few genuine laughs out me (namely the jokes about how thoughtlessly people behave on social media), and I thought Kaitlin Olson and Stephen Merchant's guest roles were some of the most inspired casting the show's done in ages.

The science fiction elements didn't bother me all that much (yes, "Lisa creates a sentient app" is a silly premise, but for some reason, it seemed far less ridiculous to me than, say, "Lisa discovers that bullies are triggered by chemicals in the sweat of nerds" or "Lisa creates a drug that makes old people's eyeballs fall out"), but Homer's sub-plot definitely brought the episode down. Overall, though, I felt it was not the best of the season, but still far from the worst - and definitely above the average standard of modern Simpsons.

[Reply #269 on:]

This week's episode was rather sub-par, albeit in a forgettable way (which I guess sums up most episodes these days). The bits with Ralph and Nelson's dad were fucking awful, but other than that, it was mostly passable. And there were actually a few decent jokes - the bit about having built "negative three hospitals" was the perfect mix of dark comedy and scathing satire that used to personify the show.

... But yeah, I've already forgotten a large portion of the episode.

[Reply #270 on:]

I actually thought it was pretty good for modern Simpsons.

Still terrible, but far less than this show usually is nowadays.

[Reply #271 on:]

I'm beginning to notice a distinct pattern in this thread...

[Reply #272 on:]

I'm beginning to notice a distinct pattern in this thread...

All the new episodes Beamer likes cyber_turnip hates etc?

[Reply #273 on:]

And vice versa! And anytime either of them likes it, it's qualified by "Good by modern Simpsons standards."

When the discussion now only comes down to whether an episode is horrendously bad or mildly tolerable, the whole thing seems pretty moot. It's almost as if...it's almost as if the show is legit terrible now and not worth watching at all!

[Reply #274 on:]

Yeah, I usually stumble on two or three episodes per year, and I pretty much forget them all

[Reply #275 on:]

I'm a contrarian.

I watched "Simpsorama" again the other day. It's not bad. Not really up to par for Futurama, but still better than a lot of season 7.

[Reply #276 on:]

but still better than a lot of season 7.

I can't agree with this at all. "Simpsorama" was a sloppy, underwhelming, waste of a mess.

[Reply #277 on:]

It is a sloppy, underwhelming waste of a mess.

It's still better than a lot of season 7.

[Reply #278 on:]

It's still better than a lot of season 7.

For a second there, I thought you meant season 7 of The Simpsons. Not that I agree with either statement, but that was pretty damn shocking until I realised what you meant.

Annnyway, this week's episode was actually pretty decent - it had a few genuinely funny jokes (such as Moe mentioning that his cover issue of "Giving Up" magazine was the last one they ever made) and seemed to possess far more self awareness than the show usually does these days. It actually reminded me a little of the most recent season of South Park - or, at least, touched on a lot of the same topics; Millennials, gentrification, and a self-examination at how poorly the show's "racial stereotype" characters have aged. Not bad at all - this season's actually shaping up to be pretty damn passable for the most part.

[Reply #279 on:]

I found this week's very annoying because I thought the first few minutes were really strong (by modern standards). The whole parade sequence worked. There was nothing hugely wrong with it (which is massive praise for the show, these days). I thought "This might be one of those episodes I end up citing as a rare example of the show producing good quality stuff after season 13".

Then it continued and it got progressively more stupid and less funny and it ended up being crap as usual.