The Simpsons

How did I miss this?

Honestly? Dan Castellaneta's singing voice isn't great anymore. That is a big problem for a musical short. I'm starting to understand why they recast Marge's singing voice for the recent Broadway episode.

It's nice to see The Simpsons taking on Trump, but I thought this was kind of weak because the singing was off-key. 2 1/2 stars.

The second half is better than the first, but as far as this showstopping high-concept tribute to Broadway goes, I'm ambivalent. I had two major nits to pick and even though I liked some of the songs in the second half, the episode never won me over because of them.

I don't like that Marge's singing voice is Kristen Bell. It's disrespectful to Julie Kavner. At least I THINK it is. There are many reasons Bell could have been cast, but they all sadden me. If it was simply because they didn't think Kavner could handle that, it's an insult to the woman who was one of the main cast members of the always musical The Tracey Ullmann Show. No, she doesn't sing as well in Marge's voice as she does her own, but she can still sing. Was making the number a diva showstopper THAT important? I'd argue it wasn't. Maybe I'm wrong that it's disrespectful, which concerns me as well. Maybe Kavner CANNOT do it. Maybe years of her smoker's voice have greatly weakened it. If that's so, Kavner is probably ill. And if that is so, her advanced age means nothing good. It means the show is on a clock because I am certain they won't recast her. I think the series lasts until the death of one of the Big Six. And If Kavner really can't sing anymore, it's happening sooner than we'd like.

All of that presupposes it wasn't disrespectful to Kavner and a direct snub. Truthfully, it might have been.

The other thing I objected to was the Y2K stuff. Al Jean may think the idea of "negative continuity" explains everything, but I think it does nothing but lower the stakes. If nothing in any previous episode counts, neither does this one. Which makes it, and the entire series pointless. I don't think Jean truly understands how damaging what he's arguing is. Negative continuity isn't a clever cop-out. It's harmful for the long-term viability of literally everything that happens. It pisses me off.

My favorite moment is Homer loudly whispering that this is why people don't invite Marge places. I felt his song describing how tactful he needed to be to tell her she was totally wrong was a bit too cloying and on-the-nose, but that joke said everything anyways.

I also liked the song of the characters reminiscing about the first play and Marge realizing in horror how crappy that had turned out for her without knowing it. That was some very clever comedy. And Marge doesn't sing so Kavner is actually allowed to land the comedy herself.

I like when the show totally messes with the formula like in 24 Minutes and Springfield Up. I felt like the episode had two HUGE problems (Kristen Bell and negative continuity) which effected my enjoyment of everything else. That is in fact a risk of every TV episode and movie. Just a couple of things can bug me enough to not be able to fully dig it. 3 stars.

It's a great premise for a Simpsons episode. And I don't think it quite worked. The culprit turning out to be a room full of phone scammers working for someone else who got away with it was a very interesting and ambiguous twist. But since they did it, there is no moral readily apparent in the episode. The episode isn't even kind enough to give Marge the win of encountering an honest person with the reveal that Grandpa set the encounter up. Also how did he do that? And when?

A lot of my problems with the episode were due to plot oversights and inconsistencies like that. I frankly don't understand WHY Homer is so fussed over ten grand. This is why negative continuity is so bad. The writers expect us to ignore the fact that the character once won a million dollars in the lottery and his life didn't really change at all. I loved that episode for the unusual take on that premise. But because they did that episode, Homer's reaction here is bogus and out of character. He's lost bigger fortunes than this, and that wasn't the only example. Anybody else remember, "This woman cost me a million dollars"? Or the multiple heart attacks when Lisa tore up that million dollar check from Mr. Burns? Homer losing out on big money is something he's dealt with a LOT. It's dumb to pretend a relatively paltry sum like ten grand would make him flip his wig.

I should be liking that episode more than I did, and giving it a higher grade than I will. The problem is I've seen every other episode of the show. I know when something on it doesn't quite pass the smell test. 3 stars.

Opening:

Meh. When Family Guy did their Disney thing, they actually put up the money to match the flailing classic animation style. Team Groening, whether it's on this show or Futurama, never puts in that level of effort for authenticity. It's kind of a shame. **1/2.

Bong Joon-Ho's This Side Of Parasite:

I didn't recognize or understand the parody so I didn't really enjoy it. That happens sometimes. 2 1/2 stars.

Nightmare On Elm Tree:

Weak ending but that's always been a problem for this show.

Marge's expectations are so low she gets turned on when Homer empties the dishwasher all the way.

They should have had Bart relating the tail end of the first story at the beginning of this one.

Good Tree Rollins cameo.

Fly Vs Fly would dispute Homer that all middle Treehouse stories are mediocre.

Dan Castellaneta's Ian McKellen is dead-on. It was so good, I almost thought they got McKellen. It was so good I'm still not ENTIRELY sure it was Castellaneta. It's could have been Shearer. It was amazing.

For the record, John Rhys-Davies voiced Treebeard. But I Got What They Were Going For.

Pretty good even if it petered out at the end. 3 1/2 stars.

The Telltale Bart:

Ooh, short Halloween bonus!

I liked the callback to Edna and Woodrow. Bart was catfishing his teacher before anyone knew what catfishing was. 4 stars.

Dead Ringer:

I never saw The Ring, but if that isn't how it ended, it's how it SHOULD have ended. 4 1/2 stars.

Episode Overall: 3 1/2 stars.

I LOVE giving The Simpson positives reviews. I especially adore it whenever I can give it a rave. I wish I were able to do it more often. But this is going to be a fun week.

The episode was all over the map and it somehow still worked. The Lego stop-motion opening turning out to be a couch gag was weird and weirdly compelling (and no, I still haven't gotten over how badly Game of Thrones blew Dany's character either).

The caveman stuff was even more confusing, especially when it switched to the present day traffic jam.

I love that they got back Pamela Reed for Ruth Powers. And I don't want to knock the show after it gave me an episode I love, but there is no reason Ruth could not have been brought back more often than she has been. Pamela Reed is not a huge movie star. She's a very affordable get. If the show can hire Joe Mantegna on a semi-regular basis, Pamela Reed is a great character actor to bring back. She also has nostalgia cache. I think the show is engaging in a bit of negative continuity by claiming The Simpsons haven't visited her in 22 years. I seem to recall she was in the episode in one of the teen seasons where Marge became a bodybuilder.

But negative continuity actually sucks. Which is why I'm glad Maya's episode with Moe, not necessarily a fan favorite, was brought up so solidly, with clips to boot. Let me be blunt. If the episode had ended with her leaving Moe, I wouldn't have liked it. And the interesting thing is I didn't expect it to end that way. I suspected the series would pleasantly surprise the viewer. Which ironically did not turn out to be a huge surprise for me personally. But I appreciated the ending for the sole reason that I have been very frustrated over many of the stands the show has taken in recent years. The Simpsons is a show that believes the Status Quo must always been restored. And that mindset is why Apu was such a huge part of the show for so long, even after people probably got the sense of how offensive the character actually was. See, I DON'T believe the Apu controversy came out of nowhere. The documentary just shined a spotlight on it. I'm sure the producers must have been getting more and more complaints about it over the years, and they ignored them because the Status Quo on the show was God. I DO however think they whiffed the Michael Jackson controversy, and should not have banned Stark Raving Dad. (I think Al Jean was actually overcompensating for botching the Apu thing.) But I was pleasantly surprised that the show hired Alex Desert and Kevin Michael Richardson to recast the black characters played by white actors, often in an offensive manner. As far as the Status Quo goes in 2021, it's no longer damn good enough. Bring back Maya. Give Moe something to live for. Moe is an utterly loathsome character in most episodes. I'm not ever gonna rag on the show for permanently finding a way to make him LESS loathsome. It would be weird if I did. I'm very glad the show is taking chances this season.

For the record, there was really no good reason for Moe and Maya to break up in her first episode either. Again, another reason the Status Quo God was damaging the show for so long.

The thing with Ralph and the butterflies reminds me the producers have NEVER lost their ability to come up with perfectly Ralph Wiggum lines. The way Nancy Cartwright says, "Climate Change is real," makes something said by Al Gore and Neil DeGrasse Tyson sound like the most Ralph Wiggum thing ever. Truly great.

I really like and am dismayed by the joke that Bart and Milhouse get MORE into pretending they are killing Moe as an alien while he's suffering. That math however checks out. Nobody loves violent and bloody videogames more than little kids. The idea of making a fictional being suffer is like an ice cream sundae to them. I tell myself that Bart and Milhouse don't actually understand Moe is TRULY suffering, so I'll be able to watch the show again next week.

I was gonna give that a solid four and a half stars when I started my review, but talking through it, there's no reason NOT to give it a perfect grade. 5 stars.

Keeping track of writer Juliet Kaufman. This episode was a keeper.

I thought Marge was like the worst Mom ever all throughout the episode. What's really funny and different is that Homer instantly sees and understands what she did wrong, and is simply not a good enough parent to fix it. But he tries, and I'm touched Lisa thanks him for trying. This episode could only have been written by a woman. All of the male writers believe (wrongly, I think) that only Homer is really able to damage Lisa. I think that's backwards. It's because Lisa takes Marge seriously which is why Marge saying the wrong thing can be such a disaster.

Lisa's tantrum at the mall was amazing. What is this, Season 33? I will probably remember that for one of my favorite Lisa moments ever. It's just SO relatable to me.

Homer's excitement at the water park was great too. And he actually pleased the kids (even if they wound up sick). It's amazing he's the better (or at least more liked) parent for one episode.

For the record, I don't care what the advice is, listening to Patty and Selma is a bad idea. Not caring what other people think is not actually a positive quality in my mind. I think it is a very large problem in society. We'd all be better off if every single person was taught to think twice about how their behavior comes across to others. Being okay with your own appearance is not the same thing as the self-deluded rampage Patty and Selma gleefully went through in the song. Not even close.

But really, the show needed more female writers and it gives the show a fresh perspective about stuff like this. I expect great things from Juliet Kaufman in the future. Her joining the writing staff has clearly made the show better. 4 1/2 stars.

I was all set to do a very thoroughly and complimentary deconstruction, but the ending ruined it. The idea that it's a two-parter IS intriguing, but the truth is the show messed up.

I don't like the idea that this is potentially non-canon. For the reason that it's a damn good story. The second Disco Stu was shot I was like, "They are just going to retcon everything." And then they killed Mr. Burns and then Fat Tony, and it's no longer a sinking feeling but a certainty.

I LOVED the idea of the Rich Texan being killed. He is a particularly ugly character that serves no real purpose. His entire evil rich guy shtick is done perfectly well by Mr. Burns except in a far less obnoxious fashion. I thought killing him off at the beginning was gutsy and unpredictable, especially because I figured the show understood it wouldn't be worse off with him gone. But we can't even have that. As rare as the To Be Continued thing is, the show STILL refuses to take real chances.

For the record, his name being Richard Texan is a no-brainer.

And I mean, the writing is GOOD. After Comic Book Guy is roughed up, I love that he calls Fat Tony and asks him what he pays him protection money for. I love the idea that Marge feels guilty that the last thing she said to Homer was angry. And I laughed at the idea that Ned was hooking up with Sideshow Mel's wife in an open marriage. Holy crap, so much nonsense at once.

What's great about Barb is that her connection with Ned seems genuine. You almost picture she's the new Rachel Jordan and female character the writers are testing out for Ned's new girl. And it turns out she's despicable and insane.

I have found as the seasons have gone on, I have disagreed more with Marge's perspective and sympathized with Homer's more. I want to add the caveat that I DO understand why Marge was disgusted with Homer's selfishness about the money, but I think I understand why Homer is mad, even if he doesn't have the language skills to properly explain it (which is frankly where most of his conflict with Lisa comes from). Homer isn't mad he didn't get the money. He never really expected that. That's not how his life work. What he's mad about is that not only did he NOT get the money, but Flanders gets all the credit. I know he wouldn't have donated it to charity, but he sees Ned donating the money "anonymously" in his grandfather's name (Ned #1, how convenient) and just being pissed that Ned gets all the breaks. Not only does he not get the money, but he has to listen to accolades from a guy who did little more than he did to find it. And Ned's aw-shucks act wears especially thin while it's an open secret that he donated the money and wants recognition for it. Ned claims he doesn't do good things to get recognized for them, but I can't recall him doing too many good things over the course of the past 20 seasons, and he certainly wanted credit for this one.

When Bart calls him a baller and daps him I was like, "Don't be that show, Simpsons." Unfortunately, after that happened, it now is and always will be.

I forget the exact title of the Apu Netflix series, but I think "Blindness" was in the title, which is SO freaking appropriate. Is our Al Jean's learning?

I like that Flanders is given the William H Macy role, simply because it's been joked for a long-time that's who they'd want to play the character in a potential live-action movie. Now a live-action movie would never happen, and anybody who believed it would is an idiot who doesn't actually understand the satiric comedy of the producers talking that idea up in interviews as a joke. But I like that the joke has now been fulfilled on-screen anyways. In an episode that will probably wind up as about as official to the animated canon as a live-action movie would be.

We'll see how this shakes out next week, but the last 60 seconds crushed almost all of my hopes. What kills me is that the story is STILL so damn good. I can hate the last scene as much as I do. Snake's reaction to the fall-out from it is still one of the funniest moments the show has done in years. I would almost prefer it if the episode sucked. The bad ending and it would be easier to dismiss if it did. 4 stars.

That was a pretty great story and parody of Fargo: The TV Show. It's almost a shame it's not canon, but it definitely would have fudged things up on the series (The Simpsons) for good.

I have been defending Homer from Marge pretty regularly in recent years. This time? She's right to be pissed. It makes my defense of him in the last episode sound entirely stupid. In my defense, I didn't realize the entire thing was designed to be non-canon at the time. I still maintain that this is not something Canon, Weekly Homer would have done.

I did like the notion that he had been helping Ned without getting credit for it, because that was the entire problem of Ned and the episode. It's fitting Marge forgives him for doing a selfless thing he wasn't allowed to tell her about. And it's selfless because he didn't tell her. If he had, I'd consider it a manipulation on his end.

Also Fargo is known for the fact that some of the characters are actually allowed happy endings. It's unusual for a prestige show for that.

So, nothing in this episode really happened, but it was still pretty great. 4 1/2 stars.

Oh, man, I was enjoying that. But I wonder specifically if the producers have ANY idea of the horrible pop-culture subtext that ending feeds into. What kills me is it was probably unintentional. If Al Jean is anything, it's clueless about popular culture, even famous popular culture, and its tropes. After all, Al Jean was the guy ragging on Family Guy for being a rip-off of The Simpsons for years, and then had Homer take Death's place in a Halloween episode without realizing that idea had been the most famous thing Family Guy had done at that point. I don't think there was any ill-intention in giving Smithers a puppy at the end. But in an episode exploring a major character's sexuality, Jean is feeding into the clueless ABC network executives who tormented Ellen DeGeneres when she was in the closet.

In the 1990's Ellen DeGeneres starred in a sitcom called "These Friends Of Mine" in the first season, and retitled "Ellen" for the rest of its run. For whatever reason, it was not working. Mostly because the character Ellen played was straight, and for obvious reasons she wasn't gelling with the male leads, or the male guest stars. And the suits had lots of meetings with the writers and Ellen and suggested that maybe Ellen should get a puppy to make the character more accessible to the audience.

Instead, Ellen DeGeneres contacts Time Magazine and they put her on their cover saying, "Yup, I'm Gay." This brave announcement, back in a time when coming out was a big deal, and a celebrity as famous as Ellen DeGeneres doing so was unheard of, gave her the clout to have her character on the sitcom come out by falling in love with a guest star played by Laura Dern. The episode was infamously titled "The Puppy Episode", and I think it was one of those rare moments in pop culture that actually lived up to the hype. It was truly great. When Ellen confesses her feelings over the airport loudspeakers, she's delighted. She famously said, "That felt great! And loud!" And the show went on for a few more seasons, perhaps getting a little more political than it needed to, or than Ellen herself was ever really comfortable with. But the idea of fixing Smithers' loneliness and inaccessibility with the viewers by getting him a puppy has a notorious background in television. And it's SO notorious that I am dumbfounded Jean has never heard of it. But sadly, it's also consistent with the fact that The Simpsons has some of the shoddiest and most ill-informed pop-culture slams ever. It is a joy on the rare occasion they get a Simpsons writer who has great and true insights to give Comic Book Guy, but they are a rarity. It is wholly in character for Al Jean to have the show's biggest gay character negatively fall into the closeted trap DeGeneres found herself in before she damned the torpedoes and came out.

There was a happy ending for DeGeneres (even if her talk show ended in a bad way). I suspect if Ellen had NOT come out, and NOT written it into the show, "Ellen" would have been quietly canceled a couple of seasons down the line, and we'd be saying "Remember Ellen DeGeneres?" in the same way we ask that about Brett Butler and Park Overall. I think coming out was not just brave, it happily saved her entire career. And that's due to realizing a puppy isn't damn good enough.

And I had hoped as the episode was going on that the show would realize it's okay to make Smithers happy with another guy. But they turned him into an eco-villain instead, which has been this show's recent go-to when asking the characters to turn against a seemingly nice person (as if all eco-villains act openly nice on the surface). I have liked this season because it's taken chances. This episode refusing to makes me like it much less.

It's super unfortunate. Al Jean would benefit from a personal assistant to help with his knowledge of pop-culture and what plot turns about sensitive topics are and are not out of bounds. As it is, I'm not cringing at a 1993 Apu episode in hindsight. I'm cringing at the one that aired in 2021 that Jean was too clueless to understand the ugly subtext he just tapped into. 2 stars.

On the one hand, this sort of egregiously breaks the continuity of "Mother Simpson". On the other hand, they went back to 70's and 80's motifs for the flashbacks, so I liked it better than most.

Wait, Bran Stark winning the Game Of Thrones was infuriating? I don't agree with that at all. That show's ending had a lot of problems, not the least of which how Dany went out, but Bran being made king was not one of them. Did he earn it or was it well set-up? No. But the Starks were the only real decent family in Westeros and both him and Sansa winning their own thrones were pretty much the only way the show could possibly have a real happy ending. I would have much preferred Jon Snow, but once they ruined Dany that could clearly never be a real option. This show has complimented Dany going nuts more than once so I don't think the writers have a real clear idea of what actually DID suck about the ending to that show. And a lot did.

Return of Flowers By Irene (deep cut there) and the Space Coyote (also deep, if not quite as).

Abe's instantaneous relationship with the waitress was pretty funny because despite the fact that it's an actual rejection and brush-off, it weirdly means something to the both of them. That's funny and endearing.

I think Mother Simpson in an unimpeachable Simpsons episode. They really shouldn't be messing with it. 3 stars.

They should have had Disney voices doing Donald Duck and Goofy. Donald in particular doesn't work without a professional voicing him.

Ultimately, I felt the short was an example of The Simpsons selling out. Now The Simpsons has been KNOWN for selling out since the early 90's, but this was a special level of cringe.

Didn't care for that. 2 stars.