Notes for HABF10 (Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore)

This episode featured two decent plot ideas; the outsourcing story is timely, I guess, and given Patty and Selma's long-standing adoration of MacGyver/Richard Dean Anderson, that was bound to become a natural guest appearance. Overall, the execution was pretty good, with just a couple of silly things that stood out near the end in particular. I was inclined to give some leniency in my consideration when I saw who wrote the episode ("A" for effort type of thing), but I didn't need to, as this didn't feel as awkward as the writing team's last outing (FABF08, The Ziff Who Came to Dinner) did at times. I can't think of much to criticize in the B story, but the main plot fell apart a little bit in the third act - the "Apocalypse Now" stuff wasn't too bad (barring the Dixieland band), but the dance number reminded me of any number of non-endings in both this series and Family Guy. (Now that I think about it, didn't the last season of Duckman also feature a handful of silly dance numbers?) The sequence was fun to watch, though even the simple act of making it a credits "outtake" would have improved the ending a good deal. So, was it a well-plotted piece of non-claptrap that never made me want to retch? Not entirely, but like any concoction of rubber bands and Slim Jims, I suppose it's good enough.

DYN: ...someone who looks like Karl (from 7F02) exits the plane just ahead of Homer? ...Ling is back? (I know someone who will be happy... is this her first appearance since GABF06?) ...the BNPP establishing shot uses a different sound effect, in a sense a c_ow call?

Previous episode references 8F09: New national affiliation for SNPP (hey, bnpp.com is up for grabs...) 8F20 et al: MacGyver a major part of the Bouvier twins' lives 7G12, 8F08, others?: Patty and Selma's exciting slide shows BABF14, DABF12, FABF08, HABF10: The ongoing biennial writing contributions of Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta DABF13: Anderson's never leaving reminds me of Stan Lee in this episode, with a twist of Stockholm Syndrome 2F09: Homer goes mad with power, to paraphrase Moe 2F09, BABF08: Fighting monkeys under Homer's command

Goofs Bart should know who MacGyver is, considering a pivotal scene in "Black Widower." But that *was* almost 14 years ago...

Mostly unrelated note: To anyone who saw both "Malcolm in the Middle" and "King of the Hill" tonight, wasn't it sort of neat how both episodes revolved (in part) around someone taking someone else's usual seat at a public venue?

"Matt Garvey" wrote in message news:[email]...

I missed the first part of "Malcom" - what was the seat-stealing angle? I saw Malcom trying to get to visit Stevie, and the dad with the RC boat. That's all I remember.

-- R Flowers

R Flowers wrote:

It was part of the boat plot. If you were wondering why Hal was bent on revenge, it's because earlier in the episode, he took Jamie to the lake to try out the boat and set up on a bench, and was accosted by the kid, who claimed it was *his* bench. The kid then capsized and sank Hal's boat with his own.

Also, there are two "l"s in Malcolm, FYI.

"Matt Garvey" wrote in message news:[email]...

Thanks for the recap, and the correction on "Malcolm." I had never noticed that before. It's funny when "the way something is" gets lodged in your brain, you can ignore the evidence before your eyes.

-- R Flowers

Somebody claiming to be Matt Garvey wrote in news:[email]:

He also knew about MacGyver in "A Star is Burns". However, perhaps Bart, like Matt Groening, wants to forget that episode. :-)