“There is just one dance that will beat them, the Tango de la Muerte.” – Eduardo
“Only one man was crazy enough to dance that dance, and he is dead!” – Lisabella
“My twin brother, Freduardo! But where he died, I shall live . . . in his apartment.” – Eduardo
Woof, this episode is awful. The A-plot consists of little more than a series of montages with “Eduardo”, Homer’s flat, characterless Spanish guardian angel. The B-plot involves Lisa creating an honor code which everyone except Bart follows for some reason, then she tears out some of her hair for some other reason. It ends when Homer, in a magic wingsuit, lands on Bart. Homer is injured, Bart appears to be okay. It’s weird.
- The couch gag is kinda clever and timely (for once), but it shows how one dimensional their thinking is that they have to have Homer crash through the ceiling for no real reason.
- Is Milhouse supposed to be hitting puberty? Hayden has a really hard time doing the voice now.
- Ditto Kavner and Marge.
- They opened the exposition sluice gate early this week: "I’m so glad you’re happy with your life just the way it is. You’ve had the same job, same car, same house for twenty years, and that’s all you’ll ever have. A cycle you’ll never ever ever ever ever change, and you’re okay with it. Like I say, night after night after night, nighty-night." Everybody got that?
- Nice touch on playing the Mr. Sparkle song for Skinner’s Japanese website.
- What’s with the hidden camera in Skinner’s bedroom?
- Montage!
- Oh good, we’re getting manic depressive Jerkass Homer this week.
- Aww, Marcia Wallace.
- I get that having Chalmers scold Lisa for not solving their cheating problem quicker is a nod to how utterly disconnected from reality this show has become, but it doesn’t change the fact that school assemblies used to be both less insane and funnier.
- Did they intend to give this guy the same name as the one from the Tango de la Muerte in Season 11, or was it just coincidence? And where’s Freduardo when you need him?
- If you’re going to bring back a Llewellyn Sinclair type with Lovitz as the voice, you could at least give us a scene of him directing a play.
- Chalmers, speaking for the audience, "Can’t you say anything in a normal way?"
- Uh, why is Flanders hanging around outside the Simpson house?
- They’re even bigger on weird asides this week than usual. I struggle to even comprehend the thinking behind Willie doing the shifty eyes thing.
- You know, there’s nothing terrible about "Lisa designs an honor code" in theory. But the execution here is nonsensical to the point that even if the jokes were anything more than sitcom-y punchlines they still wouldn’t land. They have Lisa discover Bart cheating by mistaking his backpack for hers (whatever x1), only noticing after she’s at school (whatever x2) and then conveniently finding all of his tests in a row (whatever x3) before expositing the obvious fact that honor codes would be easy for someone like Bart to exploit (whatever x4).
- I should’ve known there’d be a wingsuit montage.
- And we conclude the pointless cheating plot by having the A-plot literally crash land into it. Jebus these episodes are sloppily put together.
- So, Eduardo was staying with them?
Anyway, the ratings are in and they are holy shit bad. Last night just 4.27 million people wasted a half hour from the only life they get. That’s good for sixth lowest all time, and the demographic numbers are going heavily south as well:
On FOX, The Simpsons notched a 1.9 adults 18-49 rating, down 21 percent from last week’s 2.4.
And last week wasn’t exactly something to crow about.
