We’re big fans of the Arrowverse in my house. My favorite show in that universe is Legends of Tomorrow. It started out kind of slow, but eventually realized that it could lean into the inherent ridiculousness that a series about b-level superheroes flying through time is about and in doing so it became kind of awesome. Anyway, I reviewed the final season of the series for Cinema Sentries and you can read it here.
The local paper’s review of the Simpsons Movie stated that it was just like the show, only longer. After reading it I said to my wife, “I hope it is like the show during the early seasons, and not so much like the last few years.”
It is pretty obvious I am a fan of the show. I talk about it all the time, I quote it regularly, I’ve pretty much based my life philosophy around Homer Simpson, and I practically reviewed the entire 18th season (sorry that review is no longer available, Mat).
When the Simpsons are good, there is nothing better on television, and even when they are bad they are good for a few laughs. Unfortunately, since about season 8 they have been steadily moving towards the latter end of that statement. The show has moved from a cutting-edge satire with an underlying heart that made it not only incredibly hilarious but a rock-solid piece of storytelling. These days it hangs on by throwing a million gags out at once.
Sometimes those gags are brilliant, but all too often they make me laugh and then immediately forget them. And the show really lacks the heart it used to have. There is still a lot of cheap sentiment thrown in, but the storylines are so off the wall and jagged, that the sentiment falls flat.
Unfortunately, the movie is more like the last few seasons than the first few. Oh, I laughed and laughed heartily many a time, but nothing has really stayed with me. I didn’t walk out of the theatre repeating my favorite jokes, and now two days later, there is hardly anything memorable about it at all.
That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it. I laughed a lot and it was fun to see my favorite four-fingered cartoon characters on the big screen, it’s just that it could have been so much more. On television, every season I hope that the Simpsons will turn it around and become brilliant again. Every season I am ultimately disappointed. But I keep coming back. I keep watching.
Even though I knew the movie wouldn’t be as brilliant as it could be I kept hoping that they would bring in old writers and they would come up with something remarkable. Like the longer deadlines and the bigger budgets would somehow improve the quality.
I will say it looked beautiful. They say they used traditional animation for most of it but used some CGI for the backgrounds. Whatever they did the Simpsons looked better than they ever have before, without looking too improved or big-budgeted (like in the Halloween special, “Homer³.”)
I was slightly surprised that they didn’t go overboard with the freedom that being away from television censors allows. There were a couple of bigger curse words and a funny if inappropriate moment where Bart shows more than his famous naked tooshie. But they could have done much more yet somehow showed some surprising restraint in that front.
Lots of main characters were left out, and while I can’t blame them for not trying to throw every single character in for a one-liner, I still wish Moe and Principal Skinner had more of a presence. Using Arnold Schwarzenegger as President may be a better gag, but I think it would have been more fitting to have used Rainier Wolfcastle for the part (as he’s the Simpsons parody of Arnold anyway.)
I could go on. There are lots of things to quibble with, but mostly they are beside the point. The Simpsons are finally on the big screen. For fans this is a big deal, and they do deliver lots of laughs. For those who find themselves loving more recent seasons, this will be a real treat. For those wishing they’d stop signing contracts, you can expect some laughs, but mostly disappointment.
Yeah, that’s right. The song stuck in my head is the Seinfeld spoof where George’s answering machine is him singing the theme song to the Greatest American Hero with lyrics changed to match an I’m-not-home message.
I loved Greatest American Hero growing up. I don’t really remember much about it except for the red suit and how the guy never could really fly. I picked up season 1 from the library but didn’t get past the first episode.
Some things are better left to nostalgia.
The Seinfeld episode is the one where George’s girlfriend takes him to a ball in a beautiful dress and George thinks this is his one chance to make a great entrance. Of course, George now thinks the girl is trying to break up with him, so he is avoiding her. We hear the answering machine’s outgoing message (one too many times) as he is screening his calls.
Not a bad episode, but not a great one either.
I saw that episode not too many days ago and I guess it got recycled in my sleep.
So, I am piddling around at my parent’s house, where they actually subscribe to a daily paper, and keep the weekly TV Guide thing (not TV Guide, mind you, but the big local guide that comes every Sunday.) I start checking out the Thursday show listings, for what else is there to do in Oklahoma, but watch TV. Lo and behold I see Studio 60 listed, and it is noted as new.
What the crap! When did this happen? I knew it was on hiatus for a while, but it seems like they might have told someone that it was coming back on. I wound up missing it on the TV but decided to check it out online. As I am watching I realize that there is, in fact, another episode up that must have aired last week.
Seriously, how did this happen? Dude, I’m a fan of the show. One of the last few remaining, and I didn’t even know it was back. I love how they do this – here’s a show with plummeting ratings so they put it on hiatus, hoping to air it again after all the big shows have had their seasonal runs. This way it will be rerun time and maybe more folks will watch the show. Except they don’t actually tell anyone it is on and no one watches it.
Maybe they did run ads and I missed them. I have to admit I haven’t been watching a lot of TV lately as it has become rerun season, and I have been busy. But still…
I have no desire to give either episode a run down but will say the first one was actually sweet and funny, and enjoyable. A good return to form. While the most recent showed a whole lot more than we’ve ever seen of the show within a show, I now have to agree with all the naysayers – it isn’t funny.
Spoilers Ahead.
I know it has been a long time since I wrote about TV and I am a week late in talking about the Lost season finale, but it was so good and there is a funny story involving the lateness, so here we go.
My wife and I have been diligently watching this season of Lost since it started. Every Wednesday we make sure we are home so we can catch it first thing. Well, this past Wednesday we were invited over to some friend’s house for dinner after church.
The debate began shortly after. In my head, I believed that there was in fact another episode after that week, so it wasn’t finale time, but close to it. We thought about declining the offer and going home to watch Lost. Then we thought about going home to record it and then coming to dinner. Lastly, we knew ABC would be showing the episode on their website and we could watch it there.
Of course, it is rude to decline a dinner invitation for a television show, but we did consider it. But seeing as we had just dropped the China bomb, it felt especially rude. I knew that if I ran home to tape it, I would just wind up staying there as I was tired. Quite tired, actually. I’ve watched episodes online before, and they always worked out well, so we decided on that option.
The dinner was good and the conversation was nice.
It was actually a few days later before we got to watch the episode online. Apparently, there was a pre-episode clip show before the actual finale and this is what we watched online. And I use the term watch loosely, as I wound up fast-forwarding through a lot of it since it all seemed kind of pointless. I don’t need them to recap, as I’ve watched every episode adamantly.
Kind of bummed that this episode was a recap episode, I readied myself with anticipation for the finale on what would be the very evening that I am now typing this.
As I wrote before, I am now at the parent’s house in Oklahoma. Grandchildren roamed freely in the afternoon and I pulled out the TV Guide to check the times for the finale. Folks are in a different time zone you see, and I wanted to make sure I got the timing right for my viewing.
But it wasn’t listed. There was some dumb celebrity reality thing on instead. What the…? Where is my Lost? I checked Thursday and Friday in case it was switched to a new night. Then I went to the website. There was nothing anywhere about the time for the season finale.
I couldn’t figure it out. I went to tvguide.com and looked up Lost. They too didn’t have time for tonight but had an episode guide. The last listing was for last week and it noted that it was the finale.
Crap, how did this happen? I went back to ABC and clicked on their watching format. Ah, there were two episodes listed for Lost that night and the second seemed to be the finale. A quick e-mail to the wife to let her know and then I watched.
As per usual on my TV comments, I shall spoil.
Holy crap! That was awesome.
I gotta say this season has kind of disappointed me. The first section before the break had some great moments, but learning all that stuff about the Others kind of zapped their potency. They were great characters when we knew nothing. Learning about them, and even almost caring for them kind of ruined their venom.
After the break there were moments of brilliance, but also a few downers. I loved the way the new guys were buried alive, but the whole they knew more than we realized seemed kind of pointless as, well, they died.
But this was Lost at its finest. I won’t go into the details of the episode (which you can find on Wikipedia) but will give some impressions.
From the previous episode I was pretty sure Charlie was going to die. Still, it was a very emotional scene and I still felt that jolt of shock. This was especially true since moments before we had the fake murder of Sayid, Jin, and Bernard. While I’m glad they aren’t dead as I love Sayid and Jin, I felt cheated about the fake. There wasn’t enough reason for the Others to not follow the order.
Hurley had such a wonderful moment though, rescuing them with the bus. He has been so unused lately, and it was an obvious setup since nobody wanted him for help, but still a great ovation moment.
Beautiful, momentous scenes in the underwater vessel. Desmond is still my hero.
Locke is my new Gandalf rising from the grave. I still say he is the key to it all.
Lots of death, man. I say “finally.” Some Others needed dying. It never made sense to me that so many were left to live when it seems in reality our Losties would be pissed and murderous a few more times than reality.
Who is on the boat, dudes?
Can’t wait until next season.
This week’s episode was another jumble of time frames. Unlike the Nevada Day episode, it didn’t start with a large culmination of events and then backtracked to give us an understanding of what happened. Rather it was more like Pulp Fiction in that it moved backwards and forwards within one week.
Honestly, I spent the first 2/3rds of the episode cursing that it was yet again using an odd time sequence, and yet in the last third the payoff was so good that I am now praising the technique.
The episode begins with the opening monologue of the show within the show. Howie Mandell is the guest host and he declares that he’s looking forward to leaving behind Deal or No Deal for the night and getting back to his improvisational comedy roots. Danny Tripp then comes on the stage, critiquing his monologue and bringing with him two ladies carrying numbered briefcases. The gag is Howie has to choose one case like on his game show. Tripp even pretends to get a call from the banker.
It reminded me a lot of most Saturday Night Live opening monologues in that it was really silly and not very funny at all.
During this bit, the camera moves backstage and we see that most of the cast has contracted a nasty little virus. They are all being injected with a B-12 booster shot to allow them to make it through the night.
Once Tripp is off stage he is handed a note from Matt stating “5 dead in Grosse Point.”
The reporter, Martha O’Dell is back, and Tripp tries to have it out with her over the story she wrote. It seems she wrote that Tom’s latest movie was a failure and cites the anonymous Aint It News commenter, Dilbert27 as her source. This infuriates Tripp as it doesn’t seem professional to him. Despite Tripp’s protest, Martha has complete access to the show and remains unphased by his harassment.
Matt gives Lucy and Darius the chance to write a single sketch for the show involving a bumbled robbery/hostage attempt. The two are completely unprepared and nervous so Matt brings in an old show writer, one described by Tripp as “very serious.” He is, in fact, very serious and stoic, but he turns into a great mentor for the two freshman writers.
He abuses them and scolds them and ultimately talks Matt into letting them see if performed during the Friday rehearsal. It bombs, as he knew it would but figures this in the only way to instill the fear of god into them and make them write a good sketch. It does and it is slated to run on Saturday.
Through various flashbacks we see everyone engrossed in an ongoing news story about a man holding his family hostage.
Harriett has been inducted into the Falstaff society and at her ceremony she is required to tell a joke. Turns out she can’t tell a joke worth crap. In several hilarious scenes, we see Matt giving her a joke only to have her butcher it completely with her faulty memory and terrible timing.
Jack and Jordan have it out over her personal life getting in the way and she finally agrees to do a Time interview to try to smooth things out. It goes extremely poorly as she first tries to make jokes for answers and ultimately rails against him for making assumptions about how the industry is working against her.
Matt tries to rile Tripp up over a bad joke concerning the B-12 and how it cannot be taken by someone pregnant.
Dylan collapses just after the completely unfunny Bachelor in Rome skit in which he is dressed as a woman.
Unfortunately, the freshman skit about the bumbling criminal cannot be performed due to the sad news about the 5 dead in Grosse Pointe.
Jordan breaks down in Tripp’s office but refuses to take the B-12 and the night’s bombshell comes out that she is pregnant. This was a little sleight of hand by the marketing department as all the previews made this look like she was indeed fired.
Both instances completed the off-kilter time use and created a very moving couple of moments.
Review: ****
The queer timelines ultimately paid off. In retrospect, I like this episode more and more as it really demonstrated Sorkin’s ability to write a good story and interweave all the various lines. The show moved back into serious drama territory but managed to score some very nice comedy with Harriett bumbling her joke.
The Couch Gag: The entire Simpsons family turns into a bunch of giant cockroaches and scurry away.
Number of out loud laughs: 2
The Plot: Bart is seen opening cereal boxes in order to get the toy prize and then feeding the rest of the cereal to the dog. When questioned on why he is so wasteful Bart’s only response is that he doesn’t know, but that he also only eats the eyes of the lobsters. Marge chastises the boy by saying “Your father works very hard to put lobsters on the table.” We then cut to Homer playing a game of chair hockey with the rest of the gang at the nuclear plant.
Mr. Burns after walking in on the game chastises Homer for goofing off, but Homer is unable to pay attention as an ice cream truck is driving by. When Mr. Burns yells some more, Homer looks back at him only to find Mr. Burns looks just like a giant ice cream cone and is commanding that Homer lick him. He does and this gets him fired.
Running after the ice cream truck, the owner gladly stops, knowing Homer by name. Homer buys a popsicle but only has a hundred dollar bill to pay for it. The man dies of exhaustion making change out of actual coin change.
Out of a job Homer takes up driving the truck and finds his new dream job. Meanwhile Marge has watched an episode of Opal (an obvious spoof of Oprah) where her guest demeans women who stay at home making Marge feel terrible.
Trying to better herself Marge begins making sculptures out of the leftover popsicle sticks and becomes quite good at it. Kent Brockman takes notice after reporting on Snake being chased by the cops. Marge sets up a big presentation of her sculptures and makes Homer promise he will be there for it.
Homer makes the promise, but says he must make his route first or his kids will think he neglected them. Finding a divorced dad picnic he takes advantage of the fathers by saying that ice cream will make up for their neglect. He makes big money, but forgets about the time. With only moments to spare he races back home through the back woods. Unfortunately he hits an owl, a boy scout and a bear which causes him to skid out of control and wipe out all of the sculptures.
Marge is furious, but Homer wins back her heart by pleading with her and taking multiple Polaroid’s of himself with a sad face. To show her forgiveness she creates a giant Homer sculpture which, in a jump to the future 200 years is shown as the last piece of art that survived after the iPods banded together and took over the world.
Review: **
Worst episode this season. The writers are still following their season trend of trying to maintain an actual plot versus throwing a bunch of nonsensical gags around, but this one just fell flat.
The thing about previous seasons was not only were they basically throwing plot out the window, but it always felt like they were overproducing themselves and acting like they were the hippest kids in school while failing to produce a show similar to what made them great in the first place. It’s like Seinfeld in the last couple of seasons where they kept coming up with all these crazy scenarios and forgot it was the conversations that made it great.
I’m ecstatic that they’ve finally gone back to the basics, but an actual plot isn’t always actually funny. The jokes were mostly lame and the story never really took off.
Here’s looking at next week.
Trivia
Cultural References
And yes, I stole the references and trivia from Wikipedia.
Originally written on November 27, 2006.
This just in from the worst promotion in the history of the television department, the USA network has announced they will be running back-to-back episodes of the newest Monk on December 22. The same show mind you, but it will first run in black and white and then be followed by itself in color. They not only expect us to watch the same freaking episode twice but to then vote on which version they prefer.
I’m not going to get into the stupidity of expecting us to watch the same exact episode back to back, but do they really expect us to vote? And do they really think we don’t already know the outcome of that vote?
Seriously, black and white doesn’t stand a chance. Why would anyone want to see Monk in black and white every week? I can dig doing one episode in black and white for a goofy effect, say Monk works a case in a haunted house or solves the murder of some old TV star. But it is ridiculous to expect an audience to vote for Monk to be in black and white.
Not that they are actually marketing this as something they’ll do in the future, but the whole vote is just dumb.
Now before I go any further, let me state for the record that I am a fan of black and white. I love old movies, I love new movies in black and white. I love the way it casts shadows and how the absence of color creates a certain mood and a distinct set of images. But let’s face it, Monk ain’t Casablanca. It’s a silly TV show not a grand opus by Orson Welles.
I actually like Monk. It feels like a throwback to the classic detective shows of the 80s like Moonlighting and Remington Steele. It is a lot of fun, but it is certainly not great art. The camera work on the show is very basic with easy frames and movements. Showing it in black and white will be novel, but nothing truly amazing, I suspect.
And let’s face it, American popular culture doesn’t want its television to be in black and white. It took me many years to watch anything that wasn’t in color, and I’m sure many folks raised on color everything have no desire to go backwards.
It is simply a marketing ploy to get people to watch the show twice and then go to the website so they can be inundated with more commercials.
Give me a break, USA Network, we deserve better than that.
The Plot: The episode begins with the closing of last week’s Studio 60 show. Well, actually, since last week I was down and out, let’s talk about that episode too. My recap of that will be short since I didn’t take notes and my memory is faulty.
Though he suffers a few more small-town shenanigans, Tom is released from jail when the judge finds out that Tom’s brother is serving multiple tours in Iraq. The Chinese girl discovers a tabloid that gossips about what Jordan’s ex-husband has been blathering about. She shows her dad and then misinterprets him as saying that Jordan has brought shame unto herself and NBS. Jack then goes into a furious rant about how Jordan and the entire crew have a great deal of character for going through the mess they just went through and that the Chinese man can basically shove it. It was a great feel-good, stand-up, and cheer moment.
There is then a realization that the interpretation was wrong and that what was actually said was that the ex-husband was disgraceful and brought shame upon himself.
This week is another continuation of the plot, beginning as last week’s Studio 60 show ends.
The show actually ended 36 seconds short causing guest host Jessica Simpson to ask for prayers for the “mid-west” as opposed to the Middle East where the war is happening. Many jokes about the poor people from Indiana were made.
The show ended early due to Ron and Ricky printing the script on the wrong paper, or font. That’s some pretty deep insider stuff there but apparently longer shows are printed differently than shorter half-hour shows. The number of pages a script comes in indicates precisely how long the show will run. Ron and Ricky are writing a half-hour show, entitled “Peripheral View Man” for another network in an attempt to leave Studio 60.
The only problem is that NBS holds the rights to “Peripheral View Man” until the day ends. As Matt discovers all of this he threatens to option the show again just to screw with Ron and Ricky. Some pretty bitter stuff comes out of this as Ron lays all of his frustrations of being essentially made a lame duck out to Matt and then leaves. Matt eventually agrees to let them have it and to let the two men go. As they leave they indicate they’ll be taking all of the writing staff save the new guy and the Australian chick (I know I should know their names, but darned if I can find them.)
Harriett is thinking of doing a magazine spread in nothing but her skivvies. She’s doing this because she was turned down for a starring movie role due to people not thinking she is sexy enough. Simon and Tom try to talk her out of it because they feel it will hurt her image as a good Christian woman. Matt also tries to talk her out of it, but he claims that she would only be doing it out of revenge, and that’s not the type of person she is. In doing so he seems to talk himself out of optioning “Peripheral View Man,” too.
Jordan tells Danny that he either has to fire 15 people or start using product placement. This all stems from the fact that the Chinese man is doing his deal with NBS. Here it again gets pretty insider, but the basics of the financial mumbo jumbo is that the investment takes a great deal of money which makes them have to cut back elsewhere.
Much wrangling ensues, but Cal finally finds a solution in changing the main set to look like Sunset Strip. Since Sunset is full of its own giant billboards, it can mimic them and sell its own advertising.
Review: ****
This was the funniest episode I have seen to date. Generally, there are a few good jokes scattered throughout, but the concentration remains on the drama. Tonight, while still staying within character and the drama, they were throwing down some beautiful jokes.
I especially enjoyed Simon and Tom trying to talk Harriet out of the photo shoot, while still insisting they are pro-naked girls.
The drama played itself out nicely. It was a little less melodramatic than previous episodes sticking mostly to the lingerie shoot and having product placements. To me, this is where the show should stay. Good drama doesn’t have to be so serious. More humor balances it out and makes a better show.
It doesn’t look like they will be following my advice though, since the episode ended with Danny telling Jordan that she will probably be fired. The preview for next week indicates that’s exactly what will happen.
Coming off of the lackluster Treehouse of Horror, the Simpsons created what may be the best episode of the season thus far. It was filled with good gags, good guest appearances, and a good story. I’m also feeling a bit better from a week of the flu and nothing but lousy. This means the blog should get some more regular updating, and hopefully reviews of all the stuff I missed last week.
Best Line: “That’s it Franzen, I think your nose needs some ‘Corrections.’”
Guest Stars: Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Franzen, and JK Simmons.
Plot: Homer wakes up to find the words “Don’t Forget” inscribed all over the house (including his belly, the dog and cat, and from alphabet cereal coughed up by Maggie,) yet he cannot remember what he is not supposed to forget. Marge reminds him that they are supposed to go to the senior Olympics to watch Grandpa participate. As they leave, Moe calls dressed in a fishing outfit and leaves a message for Homer to pick him up for their birthday outing.
Grandpa wants desperately to win the gold as he fears this will be his last Olympics (his first being at Berlin in 1936 where he nearly javelined Hitler to death but missed, killing an actual assassin instead.) But Grandpa can’t catch a break, losing every event, until he drops his dentures. Groundskeeper Willie picks them up, but a wardrobe malfunction makes him look like the Grim Reaper and a scared Grandpa picks up steam to win the race.
Later as the Simpsons return home, Homer sees Moe on their doorstep and remembers what he forgot. Ducking down in the car to hide they drive to the back of the house where they then eat their dinner hiding under the table. Though Marge says “We can’t scuttle around like craps for the rest of our lives,” Homer continues to crawl around the floor reaching upwards for food, and eventually gets into a crab-like fight with Bart.
Moe throws a brick through the window and Lisa is intrigued by his desperate, sadly poetic words. Looking for a hero to write an essay about she follows Moe home and finds that he scribbles his poetry onto sticky notes. With Moe’s permission, she combines the notes into a larger poem and submits it to a poetry magazine where it is turned into a book. Moe quickly becomes a poetry sensation.
At the WordLoaf conference, he is met by such luminaries as Gore Vidal and Tom Wolfe. Fearing he’ll be kicked out for getting help from Lisa, Moe acts as if he came up with the title for his book (when in fact Lisa did) and needed no help whatsoever with his writing.
When asked to write a new poem for his acceptance as “Best New Poet” Moe asks Lisa to help him, but she refuses. So, Moe steals an elevator warning sign and the motel television guide and reads those. He is booed and jeered until Lisa walks in at which point Moe makes up a heartfelt poem asking for forgiveness.
Rating: ****
Had this been season five this episode would have probably received a lesser rating, but this was one of the best episodes I’ve seen in many a year. The gags were very clever and the story flowed quite well. The wife and I both laughed heartily throughout. So much so that I didn’t even think to actually count the number of times. A very good sign indeed.
Best Moments:
themidnightcafe.org 