16 Dec episode

This whole episode felt clumsy and flat. It had its moments but just felt jerky and emotionless.

Average, at best. Maybe it'll improve with the syndication cuts.

I would have to disagree. I think the show ran smoothly, and it's definitely better than what the past few seasons have had to offer. The transition between the lead-in mini story, which has come to characterize the Simpsons of late, and the main story of Lisa's conversion was very strong. It was a nice change of pace for the show which has been going down hill of late.

"Lord Jubjub" wrote in message news:[email]...

Toves,

Yeah, in the risks of being a new poster, and a 'mee too!!' at the same time: Me too!!!

Seriously, I thought this episode really restored quite a bit of the simpsons I used to know and love back in high school and grade school. (I haven't been a fan of the new show since about 98 or 99, when most of the good ideas seemed to start turning up in futurama..)

The episode, IMHO, felt quite smooth (recent episides have felt rushed in the past.. anyone else notice this? perhaps it was a thread that I missed), was brimming with esoteric references, and everyone seemed very in-character.

As you mention, graham, I thought the intro plot transition was quite good as well, and original this time, and I like the threat of smacking god in the face leading to the rocket into the church. There's also a bit a forshadowing in the mention of obnoxiously loud commercials, to be painfully academic (I like both ;)

Also, the esoteric references were not done in a condesending way.. For example, there was a reference (that I didn't catch, admittedly) made by the judge that replaced Judge Synder in a recent episode that seemed slapped on and delivered just to be snobbishly obscure.. on the contrary, these references to buddhism were very obscure, but mixed in with an intent to demonstrate and provide insight into a different faith than the Big Three. I liked that.

And of course the anti-corporate/anti-ad idea of making a church into a buisiness was a genuine look at a movement that is based on the idea of the ad and corporations providing us what we want but at the price of our soul (sometimes in just so many words, depending on who you talk to ;) I like that too. (The introduction to the movement, not losing my soul)

Then again, this could just be because I'm a bleeding heart liberal with a casual affinity for buddhism :) The cynic in me says they are quite hypocritcal, having their butter-finger ads and simpsons action figures flooding KayBee stores, but then I assume this is because the blank check Fox supposedly gave Matt Groening probably expired and the current writes have no choise. At least I hope it just didn't become another paycheck..

Anyways, the show had a similar 'educating' feeling to Lisa Becomes a Vegiterian, Lisa winning the Essay Contest, or one of the few recent exeptions, the Folk Tales espisode, which seemed to be an attempt to bring back some of the folk lore that is passing out of our culture, relegated to crazy (and strangely homoerotic?) hobos. I also like it when the simpsons shows me a little bit of fringe society. The prisoner parody, aka the Mr. X episode, introduced me to a very good old british TV series, a few years before it experienced its slight resurgance (due to them, I wonder?)

Also, IMHO, everyone seemed very in-character, right down to Moe's suicide attempts, and lenny and karl's odd approach to meditation. Marge's naive/neurotic concern with god was also back to the old norm for her (she'd been getting a little wierd lately, just like a different person from the old episodes..) Homer's antics seemed more his usual as well. I was getting the feeling that he was getting a little too obnoxiously stupid.

So that was my 2 cents, one of which was borrowed from Graham and Kwijibo... The authors have a newly returned fan in me.

And in addition to the 'Mee too!!' here's the lame disclaimer, for your pleasure!

This post is not spellchecked, proofread, or checked against websites, and episide numbers for shows have not been given, and I didn't even bother to look up official show titles! *gasp* And I'm currently stoned. So if that sort of thing bothers you or you feel the need to point such omissions out to satisfy your ego, you shouldn't have read the preceding text, and now have lost your legal right to flame me. Those who stopped reading my post right away to correct my oversights retain their rights to flame away....

That is all.