Last night's Simpsons episode

[Guest Loss]

I watched the first new Simpsons episode in quite some time last night and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Granted, it is not as good as it was at its peak, and the way Marge is used now is frustrating, but I thought it was well-written and gave a nice sense of depth to Lisa and Nelson.

 

I know a lot of people don't care for Lisa's character. I was having this discussion with a friend recently. Perhaps it's because Lisa is the least over-the-top of everyone on the show, and is likely to be the most realistic of anyone on the show. The ending to the episode was great with Lisa not pretending to have achieved any sort of resolution on the issue of her body image, which means it can play out over further shows.

 

I've always liked episodes where Nelson is given a human side.

 

I wouldn't call this a return to the glory years by any means, but it was the best new episode I have seen in some time. Anyone else catch it?

[TheBigSwigg 0]

Though I wouldn't put it up there with my all time favorites, it did a good job of telling a coherent story and developing the characters. All while making me laugh. Of course, this isn't what I usually expect from the Simpsons, but it was good.

[Guest Loss]

Might I also add that one area where I was disappointed was that I didn't think Marge was a particularly good mother in this episode. Lisa is having problems with her body image, and instead of trying to console her, Marge gets her feelings hurt and thinks her kids aren't as close to her as they used to be. I didn't see how she drew that conclusion, and the whole "Marge is an unappreciated mom" thing has been done many, many times.

 

I did laugh my ass off at Bart getting a party thrown where his guests are Patty, Selma, Marge's mother, Grandpa Simpson, Ralph Wiggum and Martin.

[AndrewTS 0]

the whole "Marge is an unappreciated mom" thing has been done many, many times.

Dude, The Simpsons have already done everything!

 

Yeah, it was a much, much better show then we've seen in quite a while, I thought.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

I did laugh my ass off at Bart getting a party thrown where his guests are Patty, Selma, Marge's mother, Grandpa Simpson, Ralph Wiggum and Martin.

This had my dying..........great scene. I did think that the episode did a good job in devleopment, also there were some scenes with Lisa that actually made me laugh(she doesn't make me laugh too often), mainly the one where she saw the "fat" couple of her and Millhouse in the mirror.

[Slayer 0]

I know a lot of people don't care for Lisa's character. I was having this discussion with a friend recently. Perhaps it's because Lisa is the least over-the-top of everyone on the show, and is likely to be the most realistic of anyone on the show.

That may have been true at the beginning of the series, but just as most of the cast has descended into self-parody (e.g. Homer going from regular everyman to exagerated asshole) so has Lisa (going from voice of reason to overly preachy girl)

[nl5xsk1 0]

Wow ... I consider myself among the bigger Simpsons fans on TSM but considered last night's episode to be pretty bad, and am surprised by how much you all dug it. It just had way too much Marge and way too much Lisa for me.

 

Like Kido said, Lisa was actually kind of funny (I normally hate her) but Marge was horrible. I actually gave thought to turning it off and watching something else, and that's literally never happened in a new, first-airing episode.

 

All in all, I found it to be a bad Simpsons episode ... but a bad Simpsons is still better than most other shows on TV.

[Guest LooneyTune]

To quote The Comic Book Guy, "Worst Episode Ever." It just seemed to have no direction...except for Bart yelling at Ralph during Duck Duck Goose, which was pretty funny. This was worse than Marge, the Bodybuilder on Steroids episode. Besides, I generally hate Marge & Lisa episodes, unless they have a GOOD meaning, like the ones with the Football betting, the Stealing Cable episode, etc. etc.

[treble 0]

Really didn't like this episode, last week's was much better. I generally don't like Nelson unless it's in small doses and this one had way too much of him.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Realistic Simpsons episodes, i.e. ones we can relate too=good.

 

Simpsons episodes where crazy, totally unrealistic stuff happens like Bart being in a boy band, the Simpsons meeting Mel Gibson=bad.

[Vern Gagne 0]

It was nice Nelson's mom still worked at Hooters. Remember in the Pee Wee Football episode, Nelson didn't want to disrupt Mom at work which was Hooters.

[Dandy 0]

Have they shown the episode where someone comes out of the closet yet? Last night was the first episode I've been able to see in a while.

[Placebo Effect 0]

I dug the Nelson/Marge relationship, but wasn't feeling the majority of the Lisa jokes.

[JasonX 0]

Wow ... I consider myself among the bigger Simpsons fans on TSM but considered last night's episode to be pretty bad, and am surprised by how much you all dug it. It just had way too much Marge and way too much Lisa for me.

 

Like Kido said, Lisa was actually kind of funny (I normally hate her) but Marge was horrible. I actually gave thought to turning it off and watching something else, and that's literally never happened in a new, first-airing episode.

 

All in all, I found it to be a bad Simpsons episode ... but a bad Simpsons is still better than most other shows on TV.

1. The Bart plot (IE him wanting his party) was poorly done. It had some potential (IE a take on uber-spoiled kids and the way that kids use good grades basically as bribes for special things). But it gets the shaft in order to basically set up a lame sight gag of Marge being so square that she invites her side of the family, Grampa, and the two nerds to the party. Given how anal retentive Bart has been in the past, why wouldn't he have supervised the party planning?

 

2. The Lisa thing was decent in that they did the topic of body image without going over the top with the preachiness. That being said, it was nice to see Lisa being played as human though the ending, with everyone yammering about how they wanted Lisa to have closure on the issue for the sake of wrapping up all loose ends, was uber lame.

 

3. The Marge/Nelson plot was ok but frankly, this was a thing that should have had the over-the-top emotion stuff with Nelson's friendship with Marge being highlighted rather than a series of "Nelson is hella-poor" jokes. And the ending, where Nelson's family is magically reunited was a lame cop-out. That being said, it does show the biggest flaw of the series, in that the current crop of writers are basically incapable of writing an episode that actually tugs on the heartstrings like the earlier episodes did.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

As already mentioned, I enjoyed that there was actualy continuity with the Nelson character. He's obviously poor (from the episode where Bart shot the bird), his mom works/worked at Hooters (pee-wee football episode), and his dad was goen and Nelson missed him greatly (Pre-Teen Braves episode).

 

There isn't often that much character continuity or memory for things like that unless it's in the context of a gag ("What's that? Homer bowled a perfect game?" "Grampa that was 2 1/2 years ago")

[Cheex Incarnate 0]

I didn't particularly care for last night's episode, but it's no where near as bad as Frank Grime's son coming for revenge epiosode. Truly that was the worst. episode. ever.

 

 

-Cheex

[TheBigSwigg 0]

duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck....

 

That was my favorite part.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Hey, are they still revealing one of the characters is gay? Is that this season?

 

I ask because that would probably be the most interesting Simpsons thing to happen in many years.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Only problem with it though is that I think it's been leaked that the gay in question will be uh...don't want to spoil it, but it's someone everyone is expecting I bet.

 

No, it's not Milhouse. They can't have kids marry (well, not marry and be gay too)