“My first day of college. I wish my father was alive to see this.” – Homer Simpson
“Hey!” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson
“How long have you been back there?” – Homer Simpson
“Three days.” – Abe “Grampa” Simpson
(Sorry for not getting this up yesterday. The day got away from me.)
Season 26 picked up right where season 25 left off: a time eating guest couch gag, many needlessly self voiced celebrities, characters explaining how they feel and what they’re doing, and plenty of other boring nonsense. The A-plot was about Krusty being sad and involved the much hyped character death, which turned out to be the nothingburger we all expected. (The fact that the media is so easily and repeatedly trolled by Zombie Simpsons may be the funniest thing about the show these days.)
The B-plot was about Lisa being worried about Homer’s health all of a sudden. We know this because she basically narrates the whole thing for us, including how she’s feeling and the ending that was already nonsensical before the school bus crashes into the Simpson back yard.
- Count me among those who generally like the guest couch gags. It’s nice to get something new and interesting, and since the writing staff doesn’t have to do any plot or dialogue, they’re often very decent. But this one was pretty bad. It was a decent concept and had a neat look to it, but it took way too long given how little actually happened and how repetitive the images were.
- This popcorn thing is really dumb. It was also done much, much better in “Realty Bites”.
- “Cheap to Produce” was at least quick.
- Ugh, this Wiggum crime photo thing. I thought the Family Guy stuff was going to be during their episode.
- Hey, look: crappy jokes, self voiced celebrities, and canned laughter.
- “Nobody warned me this roast would treat me the same way as every roast I’ve seen and laughed at.” – Unnecessary exposition rolled up with a cheap excuse for the idiot nonsense they just made us sit through. Stuff like this really demonstrates how much the show has deteriorated. Krusty knows what a roast is. It’d be fine to have the roast get to him, bum him out, etc. Instead, he acts depressed and surprised from the get go because Heaven forefend characters and the story might move along in reaction to what happens rather than just because.
- That swapper joke could’ve been funny if it had made sense.
- Hey, look, Bart just showed up out of nowhere to tell Krusty what to do. Seamless.
- This is certainly a pointless death scene.
- And now it’s time for a funeral that improbably includes the Simpson family.
- Hey, the B-plot showed up. I’ll let Lisa explain, “Dad, I’m worried about your health. I don’t want to lose you.”
- Remember when they only included Sideshow Bob when they had something really great and fun to do? Long time ago, that.
- “No mimes!” is a decent sign gag.
- And “The elephant and I had our differences” is pretty good. It’s also short, understated, and unexplained. Not a coincidence.
- Is it technically an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon if Itchy’s not in it?
- Oh, for fuck’s sake, “Kids, I’m experiencing a crisis of conscious.”
- This is a cruel waste of Maurice LaMarche as the TV critic.
- Lisa’s back to explain what’s happening in the B-plot again.
- Did David Hyde Pierce just wander past the recording room one day? That might have been even more pointless than the Sideshow Bob cameo.
- Past Krusty shows were a lot better when they were about collective bargaining agreements.
- Similarly, Krusty’s binges used to be more fun. They even had the Stanley Cup.
- “Krusty, have you fulfilled the promise you made to your father in the dream you never told anyone about?” Even by their cheat standards that’s lazy. They weren’t even painted into a corner or anything, they just can’t move things forward without explicitly telling us what’s going on. Then Bart appeared out of nowhere.
- And now Homer is wrapped in bubble wrap, then there was a car crash and then Lisa explained, out loud, how she was feeling for the fifth time or so. Mercifully, this B-plot is now over.
- Bart apparently knew who Krusty’s dad’s favorite rabbi was. No, it doesn’t make any sense. But at least it was short.
- Oof, the “Jewish Heaven” song is really weak. There are like three lyrics, most of which are just “Jewish Heaven”, and the rest is just visual references of famous Jews.
Anyway, the ratings are in and they are much improved. Last night, 8.50 million people lost hope after the FXX marathon reminded them how good the show once was. That’s way up from last year’s premier, though at least some of that is attributable to the Eagles-49ers game. It’ll be curious to see whether or not that holds up next week when FOX doesn’t have a late NFL game. Was it mostly football, or did all that hype actually make a few million people want to start watching the show again?
