After two very friendly reviews this time a rather unfriendly one about the possibly worst season 9 episode. An episode with lots of potential which is almost completely wasted, 5F09 "Trash of the Titans". The review is a little bit shorter than usual.
There are IMO various different but typical problems of modern episodes which all lead to the same result, namely to the loss of balance (as I always say). Whatever, there�s one typical problem we can especially see in episodes like 5F09. I�m talking about the too frequent use of over-abstraction or the use of over-abstraction in inappropriate situations. I�m also talking about the forced "transformation" of serious issues (which would have been treated in a semi-serious way in older episodes) into a mere farce. And for what reason? To make it as hilarious and funny as possible.
What do I mean.
Well, the episode tries to deal with the garbage problem in a satirical and overly funny way and that�s its main problem and the reason why the episode failed. The garbage issue itself is a serious problem, it�s a down-to-earth problem that should be shown in a somehow reality-based way to be a good satire. A little exaggeration of reality would be no problem but 5F09 goes way too far. It shows the garbage issue more like a funny bizarro cartoon with a crazy musical number and lots of (often too forced) visual gags. There�s again a lot of character distortion and we even have the "Ultimate Jerkass" Homer - rude, angry for no apparent reason, intentionally mean and thus an empty tool of nonsense - shouting, pushing, kicking people. It�s one of the first episodes where you can really hate Homer for what he does and that�s very bad as he�s supposed to be a likeable character.
There would have been a lot of potential but what did the writers? They constructed just another one of the "Homer has wacky new job and fails because of his idiocy" episodes and added U2 as special celebrities (we have no good plot but - hey - we have U2). So Homer stumbles through the episode, a cheap tool of slapstick, first humiliated by garbage men, then rapidly turning into a character full of mindless rage and later an extremly overdone idiot who ruins the entire town. Is that really funny?
I�m aware of the fact that the episode tries to be a parable about how people pollute the environment and then simply turn away and leave the place so that they�re no longer responsible. They go away or close their eyes and don�t want to see the problem they caused. In principle a good concept with real potential but I think the episode ruined most of that good potential with a too strong abstraction of the real problem, an over-abstraction that transformed the garbage issue into a "hilarious" fun show with extremly thin implications of real satire. It would have been "crazy" enough if the people would have voted for Homer as sanitary commisioner (another satirical element about the manipulation of masses with a stupid slogan) but the episode didn�t stop here, didn�t stop at the right time. I think there�s always a suitable amount of comedy and slapstick and that amount depends on the topic. There�s a line that shouldn�t be crossed if the topic is serious but 5F09 went extremly over the line.
Homer snips with his fingers and becomes the garbage man, he sings in a weird musical where even Elmo is among the crowd, he acts so crazy and stupid that it�s simply annoying and finally they move the entire town to avoid the trouble. All that goes IMO way too far and the down-to-earth garbage problem is transformed into a wacky farce without much meaning. A symptomatic scene is maybe the one where Homer throws garbage on Flanders through a middle window over the Simpsons front door. That special window appears from time to time in modern episodes if the writers need it for a joke but it�s usually not there and in 5F09 its gone in one of the very next scenes. I�d say that�s the mentality of many of the modern writers. There�s no window? Who cares. We need one for the joke. Homer acts out-of-character? Who cares. We need him that way for the joke etc etc.
At the end they try to go back to a little seriousness and darker humour when they show the crying Indian but that dark/symbolic scene seems too tagged on after all the nonsense and is also ruined by the "hilarious" freak-out of the Indian. The final Monty Burns scene with U2 is another addition that spoils even the ending, I guess I don�t have to explain the meaning of the British term "wankers". Bad stuff for a show like The Simpsons.
Some 43 seconds are cut in syndication, including Homer shaking Ray Peterson�s parrot. I�d say missing scenes aren�t of much importance in an empty episode like that, it�s just missing slapstick.
There are of course some better and slightly funny scenes like the one where Lisa speaks with her brain and decides to hear classic music instead of Homer�s rambling but on the whole most of the humour concentrates on Homer slapstick and Homer idiocy and that�s a bad recipe for an episode. The garbage parable and the subtle moral is IMO mostly ruined by a too strong over-abstraction of reality and of the serious problem and also by an awful Homer characterization (that�s almost similar to "Two Springfields" where we have nearly the same problems, over-abstraction of the wall parable and terrible character distortion). Crazyness, visual gags and a loss of contact with reality and a too far-fetched ending and conclusion are the main problems of 5F09. IMO Grade D.
Chris