The Fight Before Christmas

Another look at a lump of coal this holiday season

Episode 9: Holidays of Future Passed

Well I guess you all know how I feel about this episode so there's no point in me doing some "clever" introduction about how I have little hopes and I think it's going to suck. Now just onto the details of how I feel about this trip to the future.

The episode begins with the family finished eating their Thanksgiving dinner as Marge tells everyone it's time for the Christmas photo (Admittedly this is a scene I'm not too particularly fond of, there are some rather bad jokes in this scene in my opinion). After Marge dresses everyone up and sits them in front of the couch, we get a montage of family photos over the next 30 years which I'll admit is worth another look, if only to see each family member age (But like most long jokes, it loses humor towards the end). We then cut to the elementary school as it's turned into an apartment complex and we see Bart living there (I really wish they could've done more with this idea, they did very little with "Bart never leaves that school") After Skinner tells Bart he's late on the rent, Bart's kids arrive at his place because his wife wants him to spend some quality time with them. Okay before we continue I just want to address a small problem; the voice acting, Bart has aged 30 years yet he sounds like a ten year old still. There are other problems in this episode like Homer and Marge sound the same (Seriously, tell me a 35 and a 65 year old person sound the same, I dare you). Now this might be a nitpick but it's not like they haven't aged the voices in future episodes or future dreams, and really it comes across as lazy. If it doesn't bother you, there's no problem, it just bothered me, that's all.

Poor Bart, even at 40, he still can't get away from school

After adult Bart gets the idea to drop his kids off at his parent's place (Oh and to make them sound different enough, the kids sound like Bart from Lisa's Sax) we cut to Milhouse and Lisa as Milhouse's allergies are making him miserable (I still don't like this pairing, fortunately, it's briefly seen, so I'll let it slide). After we find out that Lisa's daughter is a typical teenager wanting nothing to do with her parents (I suddenly just got some bad images stuck in my head) Milhouse suggests that Lisa takes their daughter to Marge's place while he goes to Michigan since they don't celebrate Christmas. In England (Okay to their credit, they don't linger too long on the background jokes, so I found them amusing) we see Maggie is pregnant and to prevent her from talking, they make up some medical excuse about how pregnant women shouldn't talk (I know this is going to sound like a back-handed compliment, but they did do one thing right in not having Maggie talk. Fuck you season 20, you suck).

You appear to have twins...how would you like to star in a George Lucas remake?

After implying that Maggie is a slut (Charming) we cut back to Marge and Homer as they're in bed with holographic books as Marge gets some "Brain messages" telling her that Maggie, Lisa, Zia and Bart's family (Sans his ex-wife) are coming home for the holidays. After a bad joke involving Homer (There's always that one) Lisa finds out that Homer has stopped drinking and taken up boat modeling as a hobby (That was rather pointless, it doesn't really lead to anything and it wasn't all that funny in my opinion). After Bart is told that his ex-wife re-married (So Bart turned into Kirk Van Houten?) as Bart asks Homer to take care of his kids for a bit and they resent him some more (Okay, do they have names? I may have missed it, but I'm not quite sure). After a pointless scene involving Flanders revealing Edna died (Why are they so insistent about us accepting that relationship?) we cut to the airport where Maggie is unable to teleport on the basis of being pregnant as we find out that air travel is the equivalent of a motorcycle convoy. Later we see more "Futuristic" set props (This is becoming Futurama more and more) we see Lisa and Zia as Zia acts more like a one-note character in disrespecting Lisa while Marge is ignorant on the situation.

You see, this is what happens when you spend your days watching online videos every day.

After another scene inside the shit airplane, we cut back home as Homer decides to take Bart's kids downtown (Okay for the sake of the rest of this review, I'll call them Tom and Bob). After a montage of Homer taking Tom and Bob to the Kwik-E-Mart and by Mr. Burns' manor (That's not taking them downtown, they lied!) we see Kearney driving Maggie in a cab as Maggie goes into labor and Kearney has the cab drive them to the hospital (While I thought that joke was rather weak, I'll admit, the "Church of Lard Lad" was rather funny). Later, we see Lisa meet up with Bart in the treehouse as they drink some wine and discuss their lives. Bart tells Lisa that she's doing alright and she turned out just great (Eh this is more emotional than a lot of the 'emotional scenes' from other modern episodes, but it just doesn't work for me). After Bart sees Homer loving his sons, Bart and Lisa get down from the treehouse by revealing that trees are sentient and it lets them down (Honestly, I didn't like that joke).

Bart, let me tell you a secret... I'm not really Lisa,
Lisa died in a horrible drug overdose in France after  her days as a Blues Musician

Drunk Lisa then goes to apologize to Marge  and Bart tries to connect with his kids by showing them some unfunny Krusty the Clown (Wouldn't he be dead? Then again, Mr. Burns was alive... I think it would've worked better if Mr. Burns's brain was put in a robot and Krusty's tombstone was talking as to say "I'm bound to Hollywood forever"). We cut to the Hospital as we get some rather lame jokes alluding to the birth of Jesus (Let's see, Maggie is pregnant, with no father, around Christmas... I give up). Later, we see Zia connected to the internet (HEY! there's nothing wrong with spending some quality time on the internet every d- *Looks at self* you know I need to work out a bit) and Bart decides to confront Homer about watching his kids. After a pointless, unfunny bit with Patty and Selma (Seriously, they serve NO purpose, they show up for a joke and then disappear, presumably leaving, but I don't think the writers thought that out) we cut back to the hospital as Maggie's in labor and to help her, Doctor Hibbert gives her a pacifier (Considering that she's pregnant, the youth and innocence of Maggie sucking on a pacifier is GONE).

Yeah.... no

After a pointless scene so we can see how Apu is doing in the future (Okay, scenes like these just make me think the writers were off their Ritalin) we see that Lisa has finally decided to go into the "Ultranet" to get Zia out of there. After some more set pieces meant as jokes, Lisa goes to Google (Nevermind the joke about it being Dr. Seuss' birthday despite his birthday is in March. Seriously, they had nothing else?) and she searches for her daughter and finds her door and ponders whether or not to invade her privacy. Later, Bart goes looking for Homer, Tom and Bob as he gets pulled over by Ralph Wiggum (Again, a perfect opportunity at a joke is wasted by them going for a drawn out bad joke. I think it would've been funnier if Ralph ended up as a respected head of police for the state just as a twist. But that's just me) At Moes, Bart finds out that Homer isn't there, but instead is at Grampa's (Two things of note; The crime scene is worth another look and the joke involving Lenny and Carl was one of the worst jokes in this episode and entirely pointless).

I guess the rake finally got the better of Sideshow Bob

After a Hospital scene (It lasts about 5 seconds, just thought I'd mention it) we see Lisa decide to go in and she learns that Zia is more like her than originally thought including that Zia idolizes her. We then see Homer take Bob and Tom to a cryogenic lab as he tells the boys that just because Bart isn't a good father that doesn't mean he doesn't love them and they should give him more credit and love him back (While I do like Homer in this scene, it's ruined a bit later by Homer freezing and unfreezing Abe a bit more). Bart approaches Tom and Bob and tells them that he'll be a better father to them and he gives them a big hug. We cut back home as Maggie had a girl and as Abe asks who the father is, he interrupts her saying he doesn't need to know (Okay I know this is still going with the whole "Maggies doesn't talk" motif, but we never get the baby's name or father, those are things she can answer, there's no excuse for her to be cut off for answering those). The episode ends with the family gathered around for a Christmas photo to be taken by their evolved pets (Not going to question it, let's end this).

Final Verdict: This episode was decent, yes there are flaws, but for what we've had to deal with, this was great in comparison. The writing was pretty good with some areas being sloppy, the jokes varied, but there were some good ones and while the three plots didn't really mesh, at least the pacing of the three plots caused minimal padding. In short, for those of you who know how cynical I am about this show nowadays, this is high praise from me.

Final Grade: 8.2/10 I thought about high 7's, but I'm in a giving mood this season. Merry Christmas and I'll see you all next year

Quick Thoughts on Holidays of Future Passed

I will be getting around to writing the actual review soon enough, but for now I thought I'd share my initial thoughts after watching it. Truth be told, I had low expectations for this one. Between the disaster of last year's attempt at a Christmas special coupled with their history of bad Christmas-related episodes (See last year's December posts) I thought this would be another stinker to add to the pile (Oh and I said at the season preview that I hated the idea of Lisa and Milhouse as a couple, so add that to the list). So of course it would be hard for me to go in objectively and give it a fair shot, but I tried my best.

And truth be told, I liked this episode. No you did not read that wrong, I actually liked this to a degree. Granted there are flaws and problems, but in my opinion, this is far and away the best episode of the season and I haven't liked an episode like this since Season 21 (Oh Brother Where Bart Thou). I'll get into more detail in the actual review, but I'll just list what I liked and some of the problems with it.

The Good:

• Jerkass Homer is limited
• Homer actually resembled Classic Homer more than he does Modern Homer. He had his bad moments, but they were limited and his role in the episode wasn't that big to begin with
• Maggie doesn't talk
• Unlike Season 20 (Fuck you writers) despite being old enough (And apparently a singer) Maggie never talks in this episode. It resembles Lisa's Wedding a bit, but I wish they made more jokes out of this. Oh well, at least they didn't fuck this up.
• Certain jokes
• Truth be told, I actually laughed at some of these jokes. I'll go into more detail in the review on which ones I liked, but let's just say that they actually let the majority of the good jokes be background jokes and not "HEY EVERYONE! LOOK AT THIS JOKE! LOOK AT THIS JOKE AND LAUGH!"

The Bad:

• Other jokes
• Of course when I say "Certain" that means that the others just didn't work. Two particular examples that enter my mind are the Ralph Wiggum clones (That went on WAY too long) and the Lenny-Carl brain-swap (Just didn't have anything going for it). Again, I'll go into more detail later.
• The narrative
• I understand that they were trying to go for three plots at once, but it did not flow at all. At points it worked, but for the majority it came off as another "Event A happens, then event B, then..." with the flow being rather bad. Also, it really came across more as a "Look at all these neat things in the future" as its main concern. Lisa's Wedding did the same thing, but the future stuff wasn't the main thing being pushed.
• The voices
• Okay, I will rarely say something like "Oh her voice was off, this episode sucks" but this was just lazy. At times, I swore that Bart's voice changed from "10-year old" to "I'm possibly 30?" and that's the thing; everyone's aged. Instead of going for more aged voices (Seriously a 70 year old Homer should not sound like he's 35) they stick to their normal voices. Not to say "It's not the classic therefore it sucks" but Lisa's Wedding did this right; they aged them physically, mentally and voice-wise.

Again, these are just initial thoughts, but in all honesty it is a decent episode in my opinion. Maybe it's skewed by the horrendous season it's in and I'll find more flaws when I write up the review, but for what it's worth, it's not bad.

Wedding for Disaster

A true disaster of an episode

The Ten-Per-Cent Solution in 5 Seconds

I'm sorry I don't have anything better

Episode 8: The Ten-Per-Cent Solution

We're hitting the home stretch here people, we're coming up on the time when the episodes start to get really bad and I don't see a change in that trend anytime soon. Remember how this time last year started us off with "Fit Tony" followed by the least interesting lesbian make-out scene ever followed by "Comic Book Gay" followed by... you get the point.  Yeah the showrunner can be whoever you want it to be, but as long as the writing staff remains relatively intact, these episode will suck. so without further ado, let's take a look at today's episode. Oh before I begin, the opening sequence has returned... I don't get it myself, we get three weeks of no sequence and voila! It's back, at least be consistent, staff.

The episode begins with an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Is it meant to be padding? Is purple a color?) oh and by the way, they think that having an impressionable Maggie give the "Heil Hitler" salute is funny... ugh. After we cut to Krusty, we cut back to... *Sigh* another Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Yeah if they think that they can pull off the success of Marge vs. Itchy and Scratchy, they're gravely mistaken). After an unfunny ending (Probably a Social Network reference, I haven't seen the movie, so sue me) Krusty complains that his show is about him and not some cartoon.

Heil Hitler! The master race shall prevail over these puny-

He then goes on to ask why the cartoon "parodies" movies that came out over a year ago and tries to defend them by saying that the parodies were written when the movies came out but it took a long time to animate so by the time they came out they were dated... excuse me a moment *Screams into bag* Okay this is such bullshit and I want to talk about this for a moment

• Are the writers really trying to say "Oh don't pick on us, it's not our fault that we suck at writing and our writing seems dated because of the animators"? Two words: FUCK! YOU! Your parodies suck not only because they're dated when they air but your "satirizing" fails on so many levels and you don't know how to make fun of something without kissing its ass. Other shows could do these parodies perfectly well today and you were able to have your parodies not seem dated a couple of years ago. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this, but the inclusion of this just pissed me off. I don't want to hear it, you get no sympathy from me and you bet your ass I'm not going to give this episode any benefits of the doubt. Okay rant over, let's continue

After another Itchy and Scratchy cartoon (Yeah because this is really stating your case that you are trying to put effort in. By doing ANOTHER "parody" of a movie that's a year old (Black Swan)) Marge decides to come in and interrupt all that padding (Aw, but I wanted to see this unfocused padding reach the 3 minute mark). Marge then turns off the TV and suggests that they all go to the Museum of TV. After Bart and Lisa are hesitant, Marge informs them that the Museum will close in a week which causes Homer to bolt into the room and question where people will find old clips of TV shows, which then leads to a shot of "Not-Hulu" where we see that clip was apparently playing (Simpsons, you cannot do 4th wall jokes, you suck at them).

Where's the star rating? I want to give this a 1 out of 5

At the Museum, we see random exhibits, either real shows or shows this show has made up (Really hit and miss here, with the worst being Homer's pants splitting) I do want to comment on The Honeymooners bit, The Day the Violence Died poked fun at this WAY better (They respected their audience, and assumed that their audience would get the joke. Here, it's basically the "Nedna" scene from the season premiere in terms of subtlety). After some more padding from the Not-Honeymooners show (I rest my case about respecting their audience) we finally get a hint of a plot when a talent agent named Annie Dubinsky approaches the family because... because she was in the background (There is a small reason, but in all honesty, my answer makes about as much sense). Later, we see Krusty talk to some network executives as it turns out that the executives are putting in more I&S cartoons because they feel that Krusty's references are too obscure or just need to be searched for the kids to get (So Krusty's going to be a stand in for this show? Oh God, this won't end well). The executives then tell Krusty that they want to make some changes  to the show (Never heard that one before) and they change the show by firing him (See first link for complete originality).

All in favor of doing this to the current staff?

After Krusty loses his agent, we see the family at Krusty Burger as they notice Krusty in the ball pit wallowing in his misery (Yeah I get the feeling the new writers act like this when they realize that their lifelong dream of writing for this show turns out to be a nightmare). Bart and Lisa try to cheer Krusty up and encourage a comeback (Again, totally original) after Krusty tells them he needs a new agent, Lisa tells him that they met one that he should talk to (Not really a Deus Ex Machina since it was established, but still lazy in the way it was introduced). After an unfunny bit with the ball pit as a lake (Rule of three of course) we see Krusty and the family go to the agent as it's revealed that she hates him for some reason. She tells the family that he was her first client (Oh and in the process, they retcon Like Father Like Clown, why must they insist that their garbage is worthy of removing the classics from continuity?). After Annie changes Krusty's bit from stand-up to clown comedy (Why? Just why?) we find out that they got intimate and Krusty decides to tell her after sex that he's dropping her for a new agent. After Krusty tries to explain to Annie that he's doing this to get back at his father (Yeah that's why he was seeking his father's approval in Like Father Like Clown... Ugh, the stupidity is hurting me) Annie says that she'll never be Krusty's agent again.

Little known fact: Krusty never intended on being a clown...

Krusty then begs Annie for forgiveness and Annie decides to be his agent as long as he behaves himself (Well I can see where this is going). Annie then books Krusty for a show where his audience is adults and Krusty is a bit hesitant, however Annie reassures him that they'll love him (I don't know, he wasn't that well received in Last Temptation of Krusty, how will this be any better?). At the theater, we see Krusty perform in front of a bunch of adults as his set is reminiscent of Pee-Wee Herman's set (Okay I'll give props, it was a bit amusing. However, if they wanted to have a "Nostalgic show" there were so many characters that WERE actually on his show that aren't anymore they could have used. I think that may have worked better). After his show wows over the audience, Krusty thanks Annie for reviving him and they end up making out for a bit (Can an ending be considered disappointing if the foreshadowing for it is about as subtle as a baseball bat to the face?) After Krusty sees that he's getting the best praises of his career, he's informed by Annie that a network called HBOTIME (Come on, there had to be a better name somewhere). At the meeting, Krusty informs the executives that his one demand is that Annie is his producer. After a mini-montage of other shows on HBOTIME (Okay I did chuckle at the tagline for the network) we see that Krusty is now a big shot on the set (This is Krusty the Clown, right? Did we get someone else by mistake?)
We then see Annie being a bit bossy on the set as she insists that she's doing it all for his best.

Listen up, if you don't churn out better scripts, I'm deporting you to Africa

After another scene of Annie trying to "Protect Krusty", the executives tell Krusty that Annie is a problem for them as she's insane. Krusty tries to defend her, but after he sees her run down an intern for sharpening her pencil wrong, he thinks she might be nuts (Random homicide is funny, what's that? No it isn't? Didn't think so). Later we see Krusty's show being taped as Annie yet again gets defensive when she finds out that a guest on the show is funnier than Krusty. As the executives tell Krusty to fire her while they're still on set (Do the writers know this, or are they pretending that the studio audience doesn't exist in the same way of "We can't see you so you're not there" type of mindset?). After we get a scene of Moe watching this dispute live, Krusty decides to give Annie his answer in the form of sex followed by revealing that he got a new show (Okay props for not going down the obvious route, but points off for having Krusty as a hot commodity as an entertainer. His main characteristic is that he's not an entertaining clown). The episode ends with Krusty and Annie having sex for their new show... yeah I've got nothing, but it's over so I'm happy.

Final Verdict: This episode was bad, but not terrible, the plot was unoriginal and rather uninspired, the writing was weak and boring at times, and the jokes varied as there were a few good ones, but all together it was rather meh. Plus between the open-ended ending and the retconning of Like Father Like Clown I cannot find myself enjoying this one.

Final Grade: 2.6/10 Rather boring and played-out, but what do you expect at this point?

Episode 7: Husbands and Knives

First of all I'd like to apologize for this not being last week's post. With that out of the way, the more I watch these episodes, the more I understand why I have little to no memory of watching them. They are incredibly dull and forgettable, case in point; today's subject matter.

The episode begins with kids at the Comic Book Store (I honestly think this was the last time Comic Book Guy was actually at his store, because nowadays he just lives wherever the plot needs him) as CBG is acting like a giant asswipe towards the kids. After Bart tells him to stop being such a dick, CBG tries to mock Bart until he realizes that a new Comic Book Store is opening up across the street from him (So much potential wasted away here). After CBG gets owned by Bart, all the kids flock over to the new store where we meet the owner; Milo (Eh, he's too generic to have a name like that, let's call him 'Lame Steve') Lame Steve then invites everyone in as he plays some Korean Tom Jones... am I missing something here? After some padding in the form of Lisa reading (Say, isn't this episode supposed to be about Marge opening a gym? We're over 4 and a half minutes in and we have NO indication of the actual plot) Bart basically becomes the audience surrogate as he says that he gets it about Lame Steve, how he's not mainstream and wears a porkpie hat, which then leads to a cutaway of Homer at work saying "Mmm... Porkpie" (Dear God this really is Family Guy, random cutaways, ludicrous plots, jokes that aren't funny).

You have failed to impress me

Bart then asks a question to Lame Steve and LS decides he wants Bart's opinion (Oh by the way, great alternate names with "The Mulk" and "The Thung" I've said it before and I'll say it again, changing ONE letter in something does not make the parody funny, it's utterly lazy. And before you mention "Sorny" or "Panaphonics" keep in mind those were meant to be knock-offs and not parodies). After Marge drops off Bart and Lisa at the store, she notices a cardboard cutout of Wonder Woman and can't help but feel self-conscious when standing next to her (And we finally get plot at the 5:30 mark, great writing there). After a pointless bit involving the bullies (No I don't know why they were walking by and neither do the writers) we go inside the store where we see Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman and Dan Clowes (I love how Lisa decides to list them off as she's in line for the book signing like she's explaining who they are to the audience. Another example of the writers being as lazy as possible). While I hate the fact that Alan Moore reduced himself to this tripe, I do enjoy his bits the best (Hollywood being leeches, getting frustrated at Bart not getting his work, etc). Then, CBG barges in to try to win back his customers by announcing his shop now sells ninja weapons. After Lame Steve expresses appointment in CBG's tactics, CBG tries to destroy Lame Steve's shop, but is stopped by the 3 Comic Book writers who proceed to beat the shit out of him (Rather disappointing fight, much like everything else in today's episodes).

Alan Moore does not approve of this episode

We then FINALLY start the plot at the 8:25 mark when Marge decides to go to a gym (I know that the Comic Book Store plot was to help set this up later, but it took up WAY too much time). After a then-topical bit with celebrities doing the "Ok Go on Treadmills" (While it was okay back then, it just didn't age well at all) Marge exits the gym wishing that there was a female-only gym and because nobody on the staff cares about continuity, the LA gym is now magically across the street from CBG's old store (Effort; it takes so little time to make it seem like you actually care). Faster than you can say "Bullshit!" the store is instantly changed into a gym called "Shapes" *Fake laughter* and Marge reads off the rules she puts up on the wall (Why am I getting Alone in the Dark flashbacks?). After Jerkass Homer mocks Marge for her gym, he notices a huge line for the gym and praises her, but not without it being more Jerkass Homer (*Goes through recap* This is his first real scene, we're in for some serious shit here people). Later, we see that Shapes is an instant success and that leads to them creating a second gym (Instant expert? Check). After a montage of Marge's gym being a huge success (Can we elevate this to Mary Sue levels yet?) we see her on the "Opal Show" (*Grabs forehead* these parodies suck) where nothing happens (Feel free to close this window down at any time, I doubt anything exciting will happen).

Well I don't see anything next to that lamp

Call Penn and Teller, Homer has a magic remote

Later we see Marge and Homer at a hotel that apparently is holding some meeting for businessladies or something, I don't know and I'm pretty sure this is the point the writers gave up on this having a coherent plot. After Homer steals the TV remote (I wonder if this will turn into a running gag) we see Homer at the poolside as he meets up with some other husbands as he's informed that he'll probably be replaced with a trophy husband. After they tell Homer the signs, Homer refuses to believe that Marge will leave him (Why would she? She's been with him through some rather terrible situations. Normal Homer would know that he just needs to give her some more attentions, but let's see what Jerkass Homer does). Homer then gets to Marge and notices she's undergone a makeover (Step 1) Homer then asks Marge about her day, but instead of listening to her, he watches TV instead *Headdesk* After Homer suspects that Marge fulfilled all three requirements, he starts crying and takes as much as he can from the room into his luggage (Ugh... please someone kill him) Later we see Marge at a social event where some lady tells Marge that because she's rich now, she should get a new bag (We all know how the writers will play this scene out) Homer then overhears them as he thinks that they're talking about him and he gets in the middle like the jackass he is.

I'm not going to allow myself to get replaced by Roy as the main character!

Marge walks away because he's acting out of character (I'm not even joking there, that's the way it's done) and Homer begs the trophy husbands to help him (Sorry I meant to say "Begs as annoyingly as possible" I hate how they write Homer as a sitcom character rather than as a human). One of the trophy husbands reveals himself to be a first husband and gives Homer plenty of helpful advice. But that wouldn't nearly be funny to see Homer do that so instead he writes down "Get stomach stapled" (There's only so many times I can shake my head in disbelief). Homer then goes to a plastic surgery center where he's falsely explained the procedure (Medical science has no place here!) Homer decides to knock himself out by reading the bill (But they screw that up too. The only thing I find funny is just how inept these guys are and how they manage to make something so easy, unfunny). Later, we see Homer not eating at the table as he explains to Bart and Lisa that he had his stomach stapled, this is followed up by a bad blender scene (He presses the same button 3 times, but it makes different noises, i refer to the "Effort" bit I mentioned earlier).

My eyes! The goggles do nothing!

Later that night, we see slim Homer seducing Marge, but is unable to finish it because of all the excess skin created from the procedure (I'm bored out of my mind right now). Homer then confronts the doctor and tells him to give him more procedures (You know what? I'm bored senseless from this, so I'll just summarize the rest of this episode). Marge is given a key to the city for her gyms, Homer gets on stage looking like a Frankenstein's monster, he grabs Marge and runs away when the audience forms an angry mob, Homer flees to "Notre Dame of Springfield" (TOO SUBTLE!) and is told by Marge that she's leaving him. After she pushes him off, Homer wakes up and was told that his family prevented the surgeries after the doctor called them (Doctor-Patient confidentiality? Fuck that!) The episode ends with Marge and Homer walking through the town together as we get one last appearance from the Comic-Book writers as they fly off to a cash bar... Yeah I don't get it either, oh well episode's over who cares?

Final Verdict: This episode was terrible, the pacing was atrocious as the first act was a complete waste of time, the plot was stupid and very lazy (Mary Sue type writing) the characters were poorly written here and the jokes were bad. Really, there were few (If any) bright spots and this does not deserve to be remembered.

Final Grade: 1.8/10 Boring and stupid, then again, how is that different from any other episode?

December Schedule

12/2: Husbands and Knives
12/5: The Ten-Per-Cent Solution
12/7: The Ten-Per-Cent Solution in 5 Seconds
12/12: Holidays of Future Passed**
12/14: Holidays of Future Passed in 5 Seconds**
12/16: Funeral for a Fiend
12/19: TBD
12/26: TBD
12/30: Eternal Moonshine for the Simpson Mind

*Schedule subject to change
**Will definitively be delayed until further notice