The latest three S14 episodes

I�ve seen the latest three S14 episodes now. I�m rather disappointed, so the following stuff isn�t very friendly. It�s my opinion and I hope it�s at least a little constructive. I apologize as usual for my bad English.

DABF18 "Large Marge"

The topic had little potential (except for juvenile jokes) and there wasn�t really much to do with such a story - some simple fun about plastic surgery, some obvious "satire" about the advantages of good looks, everything of course as superficial and funny as possible, just fast from joke to joke. It should be positive that we had a main- and a subplot and that both storylines merged at the end, but in the episode it seemed rather forced and with almost no trace of the "fluid" plotline unification style of the old days.

There�s one scene where we notice the lack of imagination best (as someone here already said) - the scene when Homer discovers Marge�s boobs in the dark. In the classic years, it would have been a great opportunity to show Homer�s innocence, he could have talked about something completely different and more "harmless" than what the viewer expects. In S14, it�s all simple and obvious.

I had expected a little more from the Bart subplot, but even there too many of the jokes fell flat. The problem is maybe, that it�s difficult to parody the 60s "Batman" series, it�s already pretty strange. It was a parody when they applied the Batman style to a non-existing "Radioactive Man" series in 2F17, but in DABF18 it�s just imitation. The jackass reference is pretty thin as satire, it�s handled way too fast and pointless. The episode could have been worse, but aside from a few amusing moments it�s just an empty episode, somehow neither good nor bad.

DABF21 "Helter Shelter"

The episode shows (like all 3 episodes) a clear problem of modern episodes - the stories are written in too large "group sessions" with too many writers and everyone just throws ideas on a pile. Result: no coherent style, no personal fingerprint of a certain writer, but just a very loose connection of sketches and visual gags on a thin storyline. DABF21 thus had some pretty nice jokes in single moments, but as a whole the episode crumbles like a wooden house full of Russian termites.

The satire about reality shows is noticeable and clearly has some of the best moments of the episode, but the loose joke-in-a-row structure and too many crude and cartoonish fun jokes disturb the serious point. There�s also a too Scully-esque touch, especially in the second half. The episode has positive things at the begining but turns more and more into a sketch row at the end, the satire loses its base because of too much exaggeration and "funny" chaos. The lowest border of mediocrity.

EABF01 "The Great Louse Detective"

To say it in advance - IMO Worst Sideshow Bob episode Ever (good old trite phrase ;-)), even "Day of the Jackanapes" in S12 was better than that. First EABF, new Bob episode, new digital colorisation - and then something like that. Meh. The bright colors can�t distract from the emptyness.

The simple story reduces Bob to just another funny sidekick for Homer, Bob�s satirical potential as cultural pessimist is completely wasted. If they have no other ideas than using the main character of the best political satire ever ("Sideshow Bob Roberts") for slapstick and crude humor then I�d say we have sunken pretty low. I had at least expected a somehow interesting mystery plot like "Blunder Years" but it�s not even that. The story fell flat, loose gag rows, some selective continuity (4F14 has never happened) and an uninspired song at the end. Bob has become a flat clown.

There was something I wanted to say? But what? Err, yes, the murder mystery. The Grimey solution is more or less unexpected but at the end I didn�t care much after the pointless story before. Some nice jokes and slightly amusing moments save the the episode a little, but there�s nothing more to say.

Like I said - I�m rather disappointed, "Strummer Vacation" is still my S14 favorite. We had an improvement of quality in S13 but now I have the impression that we are going down again. We are already pretty far below the class of "Half-Decent Proposal" and "Big Ten".

The problem of S14 is maybe not that there are truly bad episodes, the problem of S14 is the uniform mediocrity and emptyness. Where have all the satirical, complex, innovative, and multi-layered stories gone?

Chris

P.S. Call me old-fashioned but I need some brilliant Season 2 episodes now :-)

Somebody claiming to be [email] (Chris Pfeiler) wrote in news:[email]:

It's not Season 2, but the local Fox affiliate here showed 8F01 last night. Who ever knew reading and writing would pay off? :-)

Season two? They not only jumped the shark, they jumped the electric eel, and the lion.

"Ted S." wrote:

What did you think of Bart vs. Lisa and the 3rd grade? I thought they was a decent episode actually myself. A lot of gags that I really liked. The naming of the cars color and brand and then a punch on the bus for one. My little sister and brother were playing that and I had no clue what they were doing. They looked retarded actually. But seeing others knowm what it is was pretty funny to me.

I also liked Homer's facial expressions when talking to Ned about cable, being angry for no reason. The writers were laughing out loud when they saw how angry they made Homer in the mini-gold episode in season 2

Yeah,,Bart vs Lisa and the 3rd grade was a good ep,,it almost looked like something they would have done in season 2 or 3.

<< Yeah,,Bart vs Lisa and the 3rd grade was a good ep,,it almost looked like something they would have done in season 2 or 3.

The plot itself (or at least the outline of it) sounds like something seasons 2 and 3 might have, but the uniform "emptyness" Chris often describes is more prelevant in this episode then I've seen in a long time. Its not neccasarily a "bad" episode (though I didn't really like it), its just really a row of jokes with not point to them. It seemed like they simply wrote a bunch of jokes, and then figured out a story to string them on, rather then writing the story and having the jokes flow from it. Some of the gags are good, but the episode as a whole falls flat because there's no (real) good story or character developement. Just jokes.

UnderdunktT wrote:

[Bart vs Lisa vs 3rd grade]

Well said. It�s the same problem - they write jokes in large group sessions and then they try to construct a story where they can use all the different jokes from different people. You just can�t write a working story if you try to be funny every second with as many jokes from the big fun pile as possible.

In the classic years, episodes were written by smaller teams with a different kind of humor, there were strong stories and the jokes were part of the story and flowed from the story.

"3rd grade" is no bad episode but it clearly shows the problem - there are more jokes than actual story and the result is emptiness and mainstream feeling. I think the potential of having Bart and Lisa in the same class is wasted, they use the idea mostly to send them together on a field trip to add just some more jokes. First happens this, then happens that, than happens some other thing - it leads to almost nothing but strings the jokes together.

Two other things I noticed in "3rd grade":

Overexplanation - the reference to "Blair Witch Project" would have been quite clear, there was no need that Bart "explains" it.

Logical problems - Bart and Lisa are in the middle of Capital City, fight, roll down a hill (we can still see the bus) and then they are immediately somewhere in the wilderness? Wizard did it. Seriously, it just doesn�t make sense and seems constructed, just to create another situtation for another bunch of jokes.

Chris

[email] (Chris Pfeiler) wrote in news:[email]:

You have no understanding of the process.

The Simpsons has *always* been committee-written, regardless of which staff member gets assigned credit for each week's ep. And for my money, the classic years are the Scully years.

The "emptiness" comes from not having *enough* gags, and the ones they did have not being up to par.

Nitpick.

Go watch "Friends" if you want linearity. Of course, "Friends" ain't funny, but that should suit you fine.

Pie Eyed Piper wrote in message news:<W5iM9.201

I used to know one of the people in the animation department and someone in an interview asked him about the chanages in the then Scully years and he said the show WAS written by a writing staff half the size of the current staff back in the early 90's. He also,in his opinon like Chris, somewhat put it: 'took the charm out of the stories and made the stories seem more generic'.

BTW, are you Mike Scully?

Jake Lennington wrote:

He sure is. Nobody else would call the Scully years of decline classic years of the show ;-).

How can the Scully years be classic years? It was the time when they turned a classic satire *and* fun/content balanced show show into a more and more generic sitcom by hiring more and more sitcom writers for larger and larger group sessions (that problem was mentioned by producers as well, George Meyer said it in the maybe too over-critical "Simpsons Has Lost Its Cool" article.) It was confirmed that they changed the style of the show to make it more easy and more interesting for kids.

What was the final result of the "great" Scully years - hackneyed sitcom episodes, often just empty and without innovation and class. Well, I don�t want to start the old discussion again, tastes are different. I had some hope that Al Jean would "repair" some of the old Scully problems but S14 seems to go in a wrong direction of fun overestimation again.

Chris

well I'm 15 for the next 2 months and I never like the mike scully years of the simpsons and all my friends also I hate it. I just wish I can just walk in and tell them how stupid they are for the change and just turn it back to normal. If there was any good about the scully years is that made me like the early seasons Much much more then before. So since the 10th season they made it more interesting for kids well I was 11 at that time (which is still a kid right) when I saw the episodes I stop watchin it and just watch the reruns.So Scully can't Entertain kids. Please change the show back

I had some hope that

in a

there's only been one EABF episode so far, to be fair.

Pie Eyed Piper wrote:

So more jokes would bring content and solid plotlines with depth (which is the opposite of emptiness)? Interesting theory but...nah.

On the contrary, it was the general style of the show not to explain too many things and (other example) not to show freeze frame gags for too many seconds. It has nothing to do with nitpicking, it was the general style for many years. Matt Groening said once that the show rewards you for paying attention. It was in the "great" Scully years that they started to explain everything.

I never watched "Friends". It�s strange that you praise the sitcom style of Scully so high and then "recommend" another bad sitcom.

The problem is not linearity, the problem is that the Simpsons were so much better when episodes made sense and had solid plotlines.

Example - why didn�t Bart and Lisa start their fight during a bus stop on their way back to Springfield, it would have made more sense than the "one second in Capital City, the next second in the wilderness" scene, it�s just too obviously constructed to create just another pointless situation in a plot without direction.

Chris

many

seconds.

years.

was

true. if Marge In Chains had been made today (not a classic ep, but good nonetheless), in the courtroom scene before Frink showed the grassy knoll clip, someone would have asked "Are you attempting to implicate Marge Simpson in the Kennedy assassination?" or similar. it ruins the joke, it makes it seem forced, takes all the comic timing out of it, and gives it a horrible Family Guy-esque self-satisfied "hey hey, it's satire!" quality. another example recently in I Am Furious Yellow was Lenny's "It's the Incredible Hulk!!" which seemed rather strange. Surely Stan Lee's comments would have sufficed anyway if the writers were worried some people wouldn't get it. On the other hand, sometimes if things are not explained, people who don't get the reference put it down to "Scully wackiness" (Computer Wore Menace Shoes anyone?). Bah. Humbug.

Who says they were in the middle of the city?

It's possible for buildings to be right next to woods.

Plus they landed in a river. Maybe it had a strong undertow.

[email] (UnderdunkT) wrote in news:[email]:

Yeah, "just" jokes. You try writing a few, character-driven or otherwise. Then try filling a 45-page script with jokes as good as The Simpsons', then do it 50 weeks a year.

1. Just because I don't have the resources or skill to create something (resources alone are something few people would have to create a tv series), I can't criticize it? I think "Friends" is horseshit. Because I don't have the millions of dollars to create a show, I suddenly don't have the qualifications to say it isn't entertaining? I admit that some people are rather pointless with their criticisms (people, its not funny or interesting reading page after page of "worst episode ever" and nothing more), but shows thrive on constructive criticism. Without it, they have much less of an idea what does and doesn't work with the audience.

2. This isn't to say none of the people criticizing it couldn't do better, either. I read Jake Lennington's "Before Marge" fanscript a year or so ago, and it was more interesting, funny, and generally better written then most of seasons 9-14. And I've gotten some decent feedback about some fanscripts and ideas I've come up with myself, including from a sister who hates most every new episode these days.

My thoughts exactly.