"I�m Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire tyrant. And this is my sky-box." Rupert Murdoch, AABF08
Here�s once again a review, this time a little bit more negative as I write about season 10. I guess I had better reviews than that, it�s mostly complaining but I think there isn�t really much to say (or to praise) about episodes like AABF08 because there�s no deeper meaning in them.
I think AABF08 "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" is clearly one of the "Meh" episodes from the current seasons. We can clearly see that the show was on its way into a too typical and more or less funny standard sitcom which has nothing in common with the original concept of previous seasons.
So what we can say about AABF08?
It�s not good enough to be noticed but it�s also not bad enough to be noticed. There�s again no real plot (in comparison to earlier seasons) or a content that remains in mind for longer. Most parts of the episode become a too typical standard sitcom in which you could replace the Simpsons with almost every other sitcom family. That would be a somehow acceptable result for another show but for the Simpsons it�s rather weak, especially when you consider the fact that four writers - Tom Martin, George Meyer, Brian Scully and Mike Scully - put their names on the script. Weak result.
The sitcom-typical "modern Simpsons" effect can be seen in various examples, e.g. in the kind of humour that is typical for many episodes from the Scully era (Wally to bus driver "I�m sorry, the guys made kind of a mess in your bathroom." "What bathroom?") or in a too large amount of strange and cartoonish visual gags instead of witty lines and dialogue humour though some of the scenes like the one with Rupert Murdoch and his thugs are at least a little funny (I like his "Silence...")
The problem is simply that the Simpsons wasn�t meant to be a show about a bunch of too sitcomish comedy clowns who try to be as funny as possible but who end up doing nothing but running and stumbling through some crazy constructed adventure. That�s certainly amusing on the right place but I don�t think the Simpsons is the right place.
Many of the jokes seem to follow the usual and often too forced joke-in-a-row concept and I�d say the episode really starts to lose almost every real content and the right to be called Simpsons episode when they arrive at the Super Bowl. The "sitcom heroes" around Homer just run from one side of the screen to the other, they stumble without any specific plotline through some more or less funny comedy scenes and finally arrive at something called "ending". Little plot with even lesser content. The so-called subplot with Marge and Lisa who colour eggs and make a phone call to the late Vincent Price to ask him about missing feet is short, without direction and rather senseless.
At the end there�s the usual dose of self-irony and fan mocking, not as bad as in some later episodes but it�s a start for all the fan mocking in seasons 11 and 12. John Madden and Pat Summerall give a short comment to the episode "What a way to treat the loyal fans who put up with so much nonsense from this franchise" when Vincent Price arrives with a bus and they say "That doesn't make a lick of sense" (but what does in season 10 and above?). Vincent drives away with his bus, end of episode. Bizarrity isn�t always good - especially not when the story is way too thin to have a bizarre ending.
To the more positive things: the episode may not work as entire episode and concept but there are some better moments and better jokes. Especially the beginning with the field trip into the post office which leads to Homers coupon book which leads to Homer meeting Wally Kogen which leads to the Super Bowl plot is well done as logical chain of events and better than the usual "The Simpsons are going to a completely unrelated convention of this and that kind" in season 12. In fact you don�t even notice at the beginning that the episode will drop in quality so much in the second half.
The scene when Homer, Wally and Moe talk behind the mug about the Super Bowl is good satire as well as the scene when Bill Clinton makes a phone call and we see that Al Gore is already measuring the curtains in the President�s office. Of course now outdated but good satire back then. Many of the jokes in the long row just fall flat and don�t work but there are also a few better ones.
I�d say AABF08 is especially in the second half way too much of a typical sitcom and too little of a Simpsons episode. It�s the kind of episode that can give you slight amusement but the real Simpson spirit is IMO almost completely missing. The straight adventure plot with its many visual gags, the fan mocking, the weird surreal ending and the few good satirical moments just don�t mix very well. A few better jokes and a certain contact to reality (especially noticably in the somehow logical chain of events in the first act) lift the episode a little bit but it�s still way too empty to count as memorable episode. As I said - it�s not good, it�s not bad - it�s plain mediocre at best.
Chris