Sunday's episode was very good

Really, I liked the whole thing, from beginning to end. I loved the Tetris bit. And it had some real heart to it too. A lot of people have been shitting on it in this newsgroup, and I can't really understand why. Overall, with the exception of a couple of duds, this season has been very entertaining, and I'm glad that Al Jean is going to stay on as executive producer. The show has been consistently showing improvement from the later Scully episodes (I say 'later' because Scully's first season or two producing the show was actually pretty good for the most part; it wasn't until the 1998-99 season that things really started to decline).

Mike

I agree that things didn't get REALLY ugly until 1998-99. Also, now that I think about it, I've been a bit harsh on this season. Even though the recent episodes don't impress me as much as they've impressed a lot of the others on this board, there has been improvement since the Scully era and I think I should be happy about that. It needs to continue improving though.

I agree that the quality has been improving, and the slapstick style is at least on its way out. I enjoyed most of Sunday's episode, but there were still a few things that I didn't like:

The sword pie thing-- this kind of bizarre visual gag just isn't funny to me, and it makes the show seem very unbelievable and cartoonish (yes, I know it's a cartoon).

Ralph's line-- They really could have come up with something less low brow. Actually, Ralph wasn't a really good choice of character there. Ralph is funny when he's happy. Milhouse and Hans Moleman are funny when they get hurt :} .

Overdone music-- Especially the Popeye theme playing when Marge takes steroids. This adds nothing and gives the show a very cartoony, slapstick feel that detracts from what should be an intelligent series.

Overly hilighted jokes-- I know this has been going on for a while ("Did she say she used to be a dude?"). But did they really have to pause for the "what's in the ceiling" joke?

Just MHO.

i hate when cartoons get all cartoony.

when cartoons get cartoony, the terrorists have won.

Good observations, Obvious. I agree with you. Good thread, too.