today's episode, although very satirical, was, in my opinion, a bit contrived. the opening act seemed to be a hodgepodge of things, and how they strung them together was weak. the idea of springfield legalizing gay marriage is another example, in a long tradition, of the town doing crazy things. however, one thing that i thought was lacking was the reaction to gay marriage by the right wingers, all we really saw was Rev. Lovejoy, no reaction from Flanders or no protesters, except for Homer. Also, Homer was unnecessarily exploitive and rude. Fortunately he wasn't depicted as a homophobe. However, I must give props to Marge, who learns to accept her sister's sexuality. She actually had to come to terms with her feelings, and fortunately love for her sister won out. Also, I think that Patty dumping "Veronica" was a good move. The writers show her as a strong, proud, lesbian, and not somebody who could be "converted." Overall, I give this one a high B.
my review
worst episode....EVER!
I agree. It was a very weak episode because it was so contrived. Everything about the episode said "We're doing an episode about gay marriage." as opposed to gay marriage just happening to be part of the story. The premise of the town legalizing it for the additional income it would generate is very much character, but Lovejoy not knowing something really basic about the Bible?! In the past we've seen evidence that he actually has the whole thing memorized. There was no story here, although some really good gags. I felt the same way about the Superbowl episode, although last week's episode was pretty good.
But to be honest, I could hardly pay attention to the story because of the horrible artwork!! I can't believe no one has mentioned it. Have they changed animation studios or what? The art looked like those Czechoslovakian Tom and Jerry cartoons they did in the 60's. Everyone was way off model... Patty and Selma didn't even look like themselves. Homer was the least affected, but it was painfully bad.
To me, this is a bigger change in quality than comparing prior season 16 episodes to season 1.
I hate to say it, but I think The Simpsons just jumped the shark in a big way. :-(
I thought The Simpsons jumped the shark a long time ago, the Shary Bobbins episode (episode 813) comes to mind.