The first three S14 episodes

I�ve seen the first three episodes of Season 14 now. Here comes my opinion. It�s not very friendly (the episodes didn�t impress me much) but I try to be constructive and to explain my opinion. The short comments are of course just superficial and without grades.

DABF19 Treehouse of Horror XIII

Frankly, I didn�t like it very much, last years THOH was IMO better. I guess the segments of the recent episode were not really bad, but simply rather flat and pointless and without Halloween atmosphere. The first segment with the Homer clones had some nice jokes and good references (e.g. the Ullman Homer) but the story itself seemed rather uninteresting and too stretched to me. The second segment with the Cowboy zombies tried to have some satirical point, but it fell IMO rather flat.

The "Island of Dr. Hibbert" segment showed the problems maybe best - there was no real storyline but an almost static situation "All Springfielders as funny animals". Some of the jokes (especially in that segment) were also rather crude. I�d say Dr. Hibbert seemed too inappropriate for the role.

The episode was nevertheless watchable, thanks to the THOH bonus and the (as usual in Treehouse episodes) little bit more imaginative writing. However, I�m not even sure whether it was a semi-good or a bad THOH, it somehow seemed more like an empty THOH to me. A few good ideas and references and some mild chuckles but not more. The standard end credits with the normal names seem to reflect the lost enthusiasm of the writers.

DABF22 How I Spent my Strummer Vacation

Now that�s a fresh and innovative concept: "Homer makes nonsense => Homer meets many guest stars => Homer has trouble with many guest stars => Many guest stars chase Homer." Meh. Sounds pretty bad, eh? But the episode is surprisingly better than it seems to be at first sight.

The jokes are partly pretty good, the guest stars make fun about their own image in a partly really refreshing and even more radical way than usually in recent (too tame) seasons. The celebrity mocking almost had a little bit of the old spirit (not with the class of "Homerpalooza" but clearly better than "New Kids".) It�s even interesting that Homer shows some emotion, but it seems rather forced. A clear problem of the episode is the somewhat dragging plotline and the fact, that a long part of the story really contains nothing but one gueststar scene after the other. Nevertheless an episode that is a little above mediocrity, alas not very much.

DABF20 Bart vs Lisa vs The Third Grade

An uneven story, that shows many scenes but that seems never to come to a real point. The entire subplot (?) with the satellite dish is once again an almost independent first act and has little to do with the later rest plot. If Bart would have failed in the test without the TV hallucination, there would have been more airtime for the actual (?) Bart/Lisa story. We also have a bad tendency towards crude humor, especially the vomiting was very negative.

The charakterization of Bart and Lisa seemed a little flat and the great potential of the idea to have both in the same class is mostly used to send them together on a field trip. Meh. There are a couple of jokes, Bart and Lisa get lost, and some "funny" Hillbillies rescue them. The End. So what? We have some nice jokes (e.g. the "Fieldtrip Memorial Wall") and a dose of reality and almost no Homer and no celebrities are also a positive thing nowadays. No bad episode but compared with the great potential of the plot idea IMO a rather weak episode.

A general observation about S14 until now (I know, we still have DABF episodes): there�s IMO a too strong tendency towards the lowest common denominator. It seems that new episodes can�t be without jokes about diarrhea, farts, vomit or genitals nowadays. That�s indeed pretty negative and disturbing. I also have a somewhat bad feeling concerning "Large Marge" next Sunday.

I�d say the three new episodes from Season 14 aren�t really bad but they seem to leave a somewhat empty mainstream feeling after watching. No comparison with the masterpieces of Seasons 2 - 7 possible.

I have also seen the two new F3K episodes, both are clearly better than OFF.

Any comments?

Chris

diarrhea,

i agree 100%. dear god, please, dear god ... let SOME bigwig at fox please read this post. to anyone connected to the show who is reading this: please stop the decent. you're killing it. you're absolutely killing it.

am i wrong? does anyone NOT feel this way?

yeah and Y tha fuck is takin' so long 2 make tha complete season dvds X-files is on it's 6 and the simpsons came before X-files and the simpsons they only made 2 and no website has any info on whut tha dvd will look or will "brother can you spare me two dimes" be on it and if it is (which it better be cause I can't wait another fuckin' year 2 see it) then will there be special features since only 6 episodes can fit on tha dvd or they might put it on another dvd

To be honest, I'd actually say this has been the worst season yet. Season 13 seemed to have some clear improvements, but they're basically almost out the window this year. Again we have a "guest stars and people chasing Homer" story, a rather lame THOH (as Chris said it lacked atmosphere, as the last four all have for the most part), and a Bart and Lisa story that was hardly about Bart and Lisa at all....they were just used so they could get from joke to joke. No character developement, just pointless and usually painfully unfunny gags. IMO there has been NO improvement this year.

And yes, Futurama has clearly been better. "Jurassic Bark" is even, I would say, better then that about 75-85% of The Simpsons as a whole (though seasons 9+ don't help Simpsons in that equation). IMO, Simpsons is the best show of all time only for its first 8 seasons now. If you look at the series as a whole, by this point Futurama is actually the best show of all time right now.

UnderdunkT wrote:

Too bad nobody watches it!

That's Fox's fault. If they actually promoted it once in a while, it could probably be huge, maybe even more profitable then Simpsons, if only because Simpsons is so expensive to produce these days. Of course, if there's anyone out there who's aware it still exsists and actually doesn't have football games pre-empting it every week, they have less of an excuse.

UnderdunkT wrote:

Anyone read my "Summer of 4 Ft 2" review? There was again little feedback. I said in the review that it would be interesting to compare 3F22 with "Bart vs Lisa vs The Third Grade".

Now that I�ve seen the new episode I think it�s not really interesting but a rather bad idea. It makes not much sense to compare a classic episode with the S14 mainstream stuff - new episodes can only lose.

Another observation - I think there were a couple of recycled Season 2 pieces in that S14 episode - e.g. the many TV channels, the Capital City Goofball, Governor Bailey. But what�s the point? They can�t bring back the class and style of Season 2 just by throwing in some old pieces into an empty and pointless gag plot with vomit humor.

The Futurama writers and producers aren�t afraid of seriousness and serious topics and I like that. The Simpson writers (in recent seasons) try to compensate every slightly serious scene or topic with just more "freaking hilarious" fun jokes, thus destroying balance and story flow (and more).

Just a few words about the new F3K episodes.

"Crimes in The Hot" was a brilliant satire with lots of laughs and content. There is some crude humor in Futurama as well but here it�s part of a real plot with satirical point and with brilliant jokes (there was so much excellent and smart stuff in that episode - Nixon, the headless body of Agnew, hedonism bot etc.)

"Jurassic Bark" was more drama than comedy but I really liked it, because it was different. The F3K writers still try to have a balance of styles in a season and not just simple fun, fun, fun without point and content.

Agree.

Chris

"UnderdunkT" wrote in message news:[email]...

13

the

four

about

unfunny

would

seasons

of

now.

Jurassic Bark was strange. I thought many of the jokes were overdone, such as Seymour swimming in the pizza sauce. The episode had a wacky flavor, then they hit you with that ending that was the saddest scene I've ever seen, anywhere, in all my 38 years. The ending was beautiful, but it didn't fit the rest of the episode at all. On the other hand, maybe the wackiness set us up for the fall. I'd have to say Jurassic Bark stands out in a class of its own among all Simpsons and Futurama episodes.

After Jurassic Bark, I got to wondering: when that ep was produced, did the writers know it was probably going to be cancelled? I kind of wonder if they didn't sort of say, "Cancel us, will you? We'll show you, we'll make some of the greatest animated episodes of all time, and the public will make you reconsider!"

mister stoops wrote:

I think such jokes and episodes just help to destroy the reputation of the entire show. It�s not very funny to write some serious reviews about classic episodes and their social commentary and then some guy says "Are you talking about that cool freaking hilarious fart&vomit show with the chick with the big tits?" Meh.

Such jokes are no sign of a mature show but of a juvenile show and it�s pretty sad, especially concerning The Simpsons.

Chris

classic

Exactly - this is what the people who just shout "if you don't like it, don't watch it" don't get. Because there are bad new episodes they are as you say spoiling the reputation of the Simpsons, so that when we praise it from the good old days, other people who have only seen the later episodes just can't see what the fuss is about.

I have to say one positive thing about season 14 so far though - they haven't resorted to any sexual humour - no "boners" or such stuff that got into season 13. What there has been in s14 has been subtle enough for it to pass over a kid's head without them realising it - I don't want to have to explain to a 8-year-old kid what a boner is when they don't get that joke on the show.

Chris Jones wrote:

Till next episode - breast implants?

Heh, oh dear.

so what - most 8-year-old kids already know what breast implants are through their idol Britney Spears

No, it was a knee operation.

:-)

those are the biggest knees i've ever seen

"Chris Pfeiler" wrote in message news:[email]...

please

classic

talking

big

pretty

You know, I wouldn't mind the juvenile humor if it was actually FUNNY, but the last few years they don't even seem to be trying.

The show isn't as good as it was but it's still watchable.

Of course it isn't watchable. I watch it all the time. All your base are belong to us.

"Justin Pate" wrote in message news:ynhE9.61830$[email]...

it�s

but

"mister stoops" wrote in message news:arjchp$b03$[email]...

please

i lik dhe fart. fart iz funee. fart fart fart. see homr fart. den he puk. puk and fart iz funee.