Here comes something very radical for me: I try to say something nice about a new episode, namely about CABF04 "Homer vs Dignity".
There are again lots of typical modern problems: slapstick humour, humiliation for Homer, sex jokes and filthy humour (with crossbreeding, sex in school and the panda rape possibly the most obvious and least subtle sexual references ever) and a Monty Burns who is absolutely crazy and senile and who acts as a clownish caricature of himself. I�d say it�s a new low for Burns who started his descent from evil capitalist to senile clown a couple of years ago in 3F14 "Homer The Smithers".
Moreover, the plot of the "poor" Simpsons who have no money to pay for food seems forced and strange. The Simpsons were always a middle-class family (that was part of the social satire) but here the writers seem to consider them as a bunch of hobos who have no money for living. Why? Just for the sake of jokes? Has Homer lost his job? No, we see him at work in the episode (a rare thing) so why do they have no money? Cartoons don�t have to be realistic all the time but changing the social status just for the sake of fun and to construct a forced storyline is IMO not the right way.
But I wanted to say something positive: I watched the episode now a couple of times and it seems to be one of those episodes that really become better with time. There is once again a crazy and useless part of the story but there is also part of the story that seems to be at least a little thought-provoking as it raises questions about how people give their dignity away for money.
There�s a lot of bad stuff but there�s a couple of good scenes in the second half, especially the more silent bench scene with Homer and Lisa in the zoo and of course the ending when Homer decides that personal dignity is more important than all the money. Giving away 1 million dollar just because "Santa can�t be evil" is more like the old Homer and not like the mean and selfish jerkass of today. It�s something very unusual in these days that Homer learns a lesson at the end and that the lesson about dignity contains at least a thin message (alas, the final scene is a little season 12-ish spoiled when the family gets splattered with old fish.)
I also like the characterization of Lisa, it�s well done in most of the scenes and better handled than usual and the bench scene is a good Homer/Lisa moment plus there�s a continuity reference back to the time when Homer got his Santa costume (a reference to the very first episode 7G08.) The story is rather forced but the style of writing is better than usual and the bad joke-in-a-row effect is not as strong as in some other new episodes. There are jokes but there is a plot behind the jokes and there are no outlandish cartoon effects and visual gags. There�s of course strange and unusual stuff but there�s nothing that seems to be straight from bizarro world, every event has at least a certain logic and follows a plotline.
The style has something of classic style if you look behind the slapstick: there�s a down part in the middle (the Homer humiliation) and there�s a scene when the down part is considered in a dialogue (the bench scene) and there�s finally an uplifting element when Homer makes the right decision (though the final moment is spoiled by a crazy old man who was once Monty Burns.) That was in principle the style of many season 2 episodes. In principle.
I�d say CABF04 is once again a good episode idea that was ruined by too many bad jokes. The sex jokes, the Smithers filler material, the overdone slapstick humiliation etc etc are opposed to a better writing style than usual, to a certain contact to reality, to good Lisa characterization, to the fact that Homer learns a thing etc etc. I gave the episode a grade D+ in my short reviews and I stay to that grade though I start to see a better tendency the more often I watch the episode. The episode was partly ruined by Scully stuff but there�s hidden potential behind all the nonsense.
Chris