Wow, I had the totally opposite opinion of last night's episode, it grated on me the entire time. There was no story to speak of, just "funny things happening in Paris" that were well out of character. Also, the registration process on a car that old would be vastly different and Homer would be in the right, it was abandoned property, which is a minor minutiae but builds into a horribly lapsed premise of why Homer needs to do the same thing Bart did as a courier. This reminded me of Simpsons Safari minus the message, and like a shotgun blast of jokes without a story a la bad eps of Family Guy. I really dislike director Timothy Bailey's episodes, each one rubs me the wrong way.
So, this week was the "live" episode, where Homer (via Dan Castellaneta in motion capture tech connected to a fancy animation program) answered live call in questions. Here is the east coast version of the live segment for you west coasters. Maybe one of you can supply me with a link to the west coast version of the live segment since I can't seem to find it online.
Edit: Still having no luck on finding the west coast version to watch (outside of either paying for Hulu Plus or having a cable subscription to use FoxNow streaming), but apparently there are also two other "sort of" endings for the "live" episode. Their is a pre-recorded "live" segment that was used for most international airings, as well as for certain streaming sites (like YouTube if you pay for the episode) and would have been used for the east/west coast had technical difficulties arose. The UK, who did have technical difficulties, also got this brief apology message.
2nd Edit: Finally, the west coast version.
I liked the story on this one, too (JT; feel free to dislike it immensely if you want ). Maybe because I've taken a few improve classes and "got" some of their jokes. The "live" part was like a bad conference call. But at least I can tell my whomevers where I was when The Simpsons was live.
It's ok, you're allowed to have bad taste. I didn't hate it, IGN came as close as they ever will to hating a Simpsons, which I felt was a bit harsh; Den of Geek also came down on it pretty hard. It wasn't the worst of the season, but the actual story felt pretty thin, simple, and not particularly in character. Homer's story didn't seem particularly accurate as he's both been adept at public speaking and too stupid to concern himself with bombing before, then changed gears fast to the improv classes which then changed again to "Homer is great at improv", despite the fact that it showed nothing of the sort, which is the danger of trying to write improv; Lisa was somehow his hanger-on and had nothing to offer. Bart and Marge's story went off the rails into "a thing is wanted, it eventually happens to a degree, they learn a lesson" territory.
As for the actual live improv, I loved both of Castelleneta's takes, and I suspect he could do that all day. His improv take on Homer Simpson was vastly funnier, bawdier, smarter, and more compelling than the written character he's been voicing most of the time, including the pre-written one linked to a moment ago. If they could do a better job tracking the eyes, I would love to see them attempt more of this in a longer format, do a whole Homer and Ned Flanders bit like a bottle episode where they just sit and talk and are given a rough outline of where it should go.
Well, I wonder what others will reply about this 600th episode; that in itself is a wonder. I liked this THoH one: interesting couch gag; Hunger Games/Mad Max, an imaginary "friend," and spy group vignettes. The "scary" names for the cast and creators were good, too.
It was an alright episode. Not overly horrible, but not great. Just kind of middle of the road and (like many of the newer Treehouse of Horror episodes) barely "Halloween" related. Nothing else really to say about it besides the obligatory "its the 600th episode" nod.
Not many Kent Brockman-centric episodes out there. It was okay. Homer's ambition was also so-so. I wonder if they tried to get more famous anchors to voice, aside from Rather.
Not many Kent Brockman-centric episodes out there.
Sad thing is I think the last Brockman-centric episode they did (a season finale if I'm not mistaken) was practically the same premise, Kent being fired for doing something stupid on the air and then getting his job back.
IIRC, no couch gag; right into the story. I can't recall if there's been a Kirk Van Hauten [sp?] centered episode before (without his wife, at least). It was alright.
OC47151
Finally got around to watch this year's Treehouse of Horror, and thought it was one of the better ones. Several laugh out loud moments for me.
"The Simpsons are going to..." Cuba! And another backstory for Abe. Liked the Greek gods couch gag.
The lazy app story went about as decent as it could be expected, Abe as a "father" went exactly as I thought (well, maybe not the Jasper part). Couch gag was funny at first, then went a little sad by the end.
Story-wise, this week's with bus monitor Lisa/Homer suing Burns/Marge & Smithers arcs was so-so, but the one-liners and images were quite funny. The Tiki Room was probably the best part (even the clicks and knocks).
They are on a real cold streak lately. Repetitive storylines and unfunny humor. The art in the last one was shockingly off too.
I finally watched "The Great Fatsby" one-hour episode (and not two 30-min. ones back-to-back), which was pretty good. I spoke along with Homer's "I've never seen such beautiful cobblers" line (guess I have taught the novel enough times to guess at that). Not sure just how well it would be to use after teaching Fitzgerald's novel, but it could be decent (there is a good parallel between the films by Baz Luhrmann and the Robert Redford version by Jack Clayton).
I wonder if this week's premise would be a regular occurrence: set the episode in the time of an older season. Kamp Krusty a little later.
Been a downhill slope lately, but there were a couple lines in this Sunday's episode that got genuine laughs out of me. The first was Smithers' talk of being sexually spurned with him standing in front of a portrait of Mr. Burns, that was really well directed, someone got terribly clever with the presentation of that joke that normally would have been a softball. I don't remember the second but it was towards the end. It's rare for them to even surprise me at this point.
This newest, "22 for 30," was very good; lots of subtle (and blatantly obvious) humor. Really liked the couch gag, too.
I've liked the past two weeks. The trophy episode had a few funny times and banners/plaques.
"The Serfsons" was pretty good (lots of pun signs) tonight. I didn't expect the "Unidos" PR image at the end (but it was nice), plus the sketches of the credits. I noticed Alf Clausen was still the music creator.