Episode 6: Pranks and Greens

So your episode airs the Sunday before Thanksgiving, what will your opening be? A parody of the 12 days of Christmas. I felt it was out of order to begin with, but considering that next week's couch gag involves Thanksgiving I really had to wonder if the production staff was on LSD or something. (Not much of an introduction I'm sorry). So let's begin our review.

The episode begins with Bart having a montage of his newest pranks at school as it ends with Bart destroying Skinner's car. Skinner then informs Bart that there was a better prankster than him but just leaves it at that for Bart to actually look him up himself. After that is our sub-plot about Marge having playdates with other mothers and babies, leading to Marge becoming such a conscious mother about what she provides as food. To be truthful I really, really hate this craze about how babies must eat certain foods, not drink out of certain cups and must be home educated a certain way.

How dare you bring milk and cookies as a snack?! You'll ruin our master plan!

As far as I'm concerned, having your 1 year old eat baby food with some milk from a plastic sippie cup will not prevent him from going to Harvard (I'd like to point out that I'm a National Merit Scholar who went to public school, drank out of BPA sippy cups, and gnawed on plastic toys. Just saying). We resume our main story with Bart finding out that the paper didn't publish for a week and spies Willie in the back of a picture showing an 'evil' Skinner. Bart then talks to Willie as he reveals he was a swim teacher and he taught the school the "Aberdeen Crawl" (I really don't care where he's from but here's a point towards Aberdeen).

Skinner felt that the kids should take a more serious interest in their summer reading projects

As Skinner takes his morning dip in the outdoor pool (Seriously that pool was better than my pool from high school and I really have to wonder how a school with budget troubles can afford an outdoor pool) he finds out the pool is filled with worms and then the prankster closes off the pool so Skinner can swim with the worms for the weekend *And Monday* (I guess Skinner never read "How to Eat Fried Worms"). After Willie frees him, Skinner tells him to "Shut this pool down Groundskeeper Willie". Willie then tells him it was Andy Hamilton and our search for him can now begin. We begin act two with Marge burning all the junk food because of the "Chemicals" and "Trans fats" (You know milk has chemicals in it to add Vitamin D. Food for thought) Homer being upset goes in and grabs Cool Whip which backfires because it's really propane in a spray can *nah it's Cool Whip but it'd have to have a high concentration of petroleum to be that flammable*.

Bart secretly replaced Homer's Cool Whip with propane let's watch

Bart and Milhouse go to Mr. Hamilton's house, and we get a gallery of his pranks outside and inside as Andy also shows off his pranks from school. When Bart tells Lisa about Andy, she calls him a loser in a rather annoying running gag (Although I did think that Lisa showing up both Bart and Homer was relatively funny). We then see the family *save Bart and Maggie* go to a health food store where the purpose is just to serve up lousy health food jokes (BTW at the beginning is Lisa having a petite mal seizure? Her head just keeps bobbing back and forth in a rhythmic pattern). We then get to see Bart tell Andy that he needs to straighten up and he can get him a job with Krusty (This leads into the running gag of Krusty never being able to remember Bart or Lisa which is established continuity so let's move on).

Her Facebook was down so she had to find a new way to update her status

Andy is then hired as a second assistant, which consists of him just driving erratically away from Krusty's enemies. The act ends with Bart and Lisa playing "Tiddly-Wank" as Bart berates Andy and Lisa calls him a loser. We begin act 3 with another playdate as Marge brings the guests Shit-cupcakes and sterile juice. But that's not good enough as Non-stick pans will be the deaths of us and the sippie cups with BPA will instantly stupify kids... excuse me a moment *Goes off to bang head against a cinder block* WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!?!?!?! *returns* I'm sorry I just lost my sanity for a brief moment, let's continue. Bart gets Andy his job back as Andy promises to stay. We then see Marge find Homer's stash of junk food as they accept that society is stupid and it's better to live a short fulfilling life than a long miserable life (As much as I dislike the subplot, I like the moral. Of course, it's only implied...).

As the Mommy-and-me Nazi, I have to say: No fun for you!

We end the act with a delivery of worms being delivered to Andy which leads Bart to believe the worst. As Bart goes to find Andy we get a stage hand tell Bart that Andy's "20 years too late" of ruining the show (I think that was snuck in to admit what they are doing is crap.) Bart tries to save Krusty from jumping into the worms but fails and finds out that the worms were intentional as part of a bit. Andy goes to be with his new slutty girlfriend while Lisa calls him a loser for being a writer *as well as the producers*.

Final judgment: The main plot is actually written quite well but the sub-plot is where this episode falls flat of being considered a great. It has its ups and downs, but in the end it's a fairly good episode. This also teaches us that subplot needs to work as well as the main plot.

Final Grade: 5.2/10 Probably would have been higher if not for the subplot

Episode 5: The Devil Wears Nada

To me, Marge Simpson is a typical 50's mother: a woman who has good moral values when it comes to families and probably would berate a kid for wearing their pants too low. Then Marge appeared on on the Playboy cover and a part of my childhood died. Now I can't really bash this because I know that not everyone feels this way, but this has to rank in my top 5 things that I never wanted to see associated with the Simpsons. Now onto the review.

We begin the episode with Homer's supervisor retiring which then leads Mr. Burns to hire Carl as the new supervisor after he is able to screw a lightbulb in *insert lightbulb gag here*. Marge then partakes in a rather pointless plot *will explain later* about her group trying to raise money. I did like the bake sale gag as it made me laugh at just the sight of Bart and his friends eating cakes. However, the rest of this plot is just to further remind us that Marge was in Playboy as well as the chalkboard gag. We cut to Marge and the "Charity Chicks" doing their photo shoot with perhaps the second most annoying character in the history of this show (Seriously who keeps lobbying to bring back this Latino guy for more episodes, he's just flat out annoying in every one.)

Golf hasn't been this interesting since the Tiger Woods controversy

*Hey look a reference to Tiger Woods before the scandal* After cutting to a pointless conversation of Homer and Carl we see Marge's calendars with photos I'm pretty sure she didn't authorize (which in real life would get the photographer and publisher arrested but what do I know?)(Yeah, that's grounds for a good lawsuit).

Who knew alcohol could do that to you?

Act 2 begins with Homer being promoted to Carl's assistant since apparently extortion is not a crime in Springfield. We then end the whole calendar plot with Marge being accepting of everyone just leering her after she hears praise from the church. Now this is where the calendar sub-plot proves to be pointless, I know somebody's going to say: "But it made Marge horny and fueled the fire for the main plot of Marge and Homer not being able to be together" and to that I say - Bullshit! If you take a look at Grampa Vs. Sexual Inadequacy, Marge and Homer couldn't be intimate before even though Marge wanted to, and it didn't require buildup. Here, it's just delayed so much by the padding that it just makes me angry at the episode.

Enough said

We then get to see our main plot as Homer is too involved in his work to be intimate with Marge (Yeah Homer actually cares about work...BULLSHIT!!!) Oh wait, I lied, apparently the writer were about a minute short for this episode and decided to throw the calendar back in just to enrage Bart *and the viewers who are asking for plot*. While Homer goes with Marge to a romantic weekend, Carl ruins it by calling Homer back for an expo in Paris. When Homer heads off in his cab, Marge hits Flanders with a mallet by mistake and so our plot for the rest of the episode kicks in (because as we all know, Marge does actually have the hots for Flanders). After Homer and Carl land in Paris, Carl decides he wants to stay longer and that causes Homer to miss Marge by hallucinating her as everything in Paris *save the gargoyle*

OMG the false tension is just leaping off the screen

When Ned goes over for dinner, Bart and Lisa decide to leave and Rod and Todd were grounded so it's just Marge and Ned *OMG TENSION!!!!*. Ned and Marge have a near moment but it's interrupted by a plot device - um, bell. Yeah, just a bell that wasn't conveniently timed at all. Homer then decides to go home after he is able to blackmail Carl, and Homer goes home to Marge and they finally get intimate.

Final Judgment: This episode was pretty stupid as it was just an excuse to say to America "Hey we're in Playboy, suck on it". With all we know about Marge and Homer, there is no true tension of either leaving the other and it just seemed like an old plot reused.

Final Grade: 3.2/10 It's not really worth watching the first time so why watch it again?

Episode 4: Treehouse of Horror XX

Is there such a thing as a bad Treehouse of Horror? The answer, no. Even though terrible writing has plagued this series as of late, it always seems like the Halloween special is immune to this disease that has afflicted countless episodes. Before we move on I'd like to make the statement that I am a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan and if you haven't seen his work, see it. His work is some of the most magnificent things ever to hit the big screen. Let's begin our review.

Even though the opening is sorta like a couch gag, I count this as part of my review because it really isn't that bad; plus, it has more to do with the episodes than many couch gags do. Our opening segment is "Dial "M" for Murder or Press '#' to Return to Main Menu" *stupidly long name but whatever* and it is essentially the plot from "Strangers on a Train" mixed in with other Hitchcock movies (I will note them out) *Note this segment is in black and white*. Our first Hitchcock references come in the title *Dial "M" for Murder" and the theme from "Psycho" *Hitchcock references: 2* Moving back to the story, Lisa is enraged when Ms. Hoover doesn't choose her for some school competition and gets detention for lashing out. Lisa then meets Bart in detention, and Bart gives her the idea to swap pranks to get revenge (Plot to Strangers on a Train). When she accepts, she ding-dong ditches Mrs. Krabappel as Bart sets up his alibi at the tennis match (Strangers on a Train and Psycho music again) *Hitchcock references: 5*. Lisa comes back happy about her part - until Bart reveals that he meant 'kill Mrs. K.', shocking Lisa (Bart's explanation for kill is very weak and not funny)(I thought she was more shocked by the sight of Ms. Hoover's head....).

No, no, no, I wanted you to get me a head of LETTUCE. How did you mix that up?

Bart says she has to hold up her end or else (Strangers on a Train much?). As Lisa goes to find Mrs. K, Krabappel drops her old lighter (Strangers on a Train again plus the music as well) *Hitchcock references: 8* and Lisa cannot bring herself to kill her. Bart then blackmails Lisa in the bathroom to kill Mrs. K but then Lisa decides that he must dies and we cut to our montage of Hitchcock's work (Vertigo: the vertigo scenes, North by Northwest: music and Mount Rushmore scene, Psycho: Bate's house, Spellbound: entire dream sequence, Strangers on a Train: Ferris Wheel, Alfred Hitchcock himself).

Get back here Bart. I want to help you with your vertigo and fear of knives

The segment ends with Lisa accidentally killing Bart (Seriously she chases him around with a knife just to end the chase with the statement: "I'm not a murderer and I never will be." It just seems like someone in editing didn't have their coffee) and she walks off with Mrs. K with a silhouette of Mr. Hitchcock ending it *Alfred Hitchcock references: 16*.

Our second segment is called "Don't Have a Cow Mankind" which is essentially an homage to "28 Days Later" (Which I have never seen so I'm sorry if I miss something) and "Children of Men" (Yet again no clue so I'll miss these references). The segment begins with Krusty unveiling a burger which turns out to infect people and turn them into zombies (They call them "Munchers" but I'm calling them zombies). 28 days later *weak laugh* we see basically all of Springfield has become zombies except the Simpsons (Really nobody bothered to attack them in the span of 28 days? It's not like their house is a fortress or anything.) Bart eats one of the burgers and doesn't become a zombie, making the family believe that he has something in his body that makes him immune (Yet again they call him "The Chosen One" but the payoff for that pisses me off so I just will say he has the "B-Antivirus"). After the terminator fails to save the family, Apu saves them and is later abandoned by the family. The car runs out of gas and they have to get to the safe zone by walking (What Lisa does to Bart brings back the nostalgic feeling when she poked the area of his tattoo in the first episode).

Sure why not have the savior of mankind within biting distance of a zombie. What could possibly happen?

As the Simpsons approach the safe zone, Homer becomes a zombie and is kept alive because they can cure him when they get there (Sure, why not keep someone who could be a potential threat to you if he were to bite you?). The Simpsons get to the safe zone where they are told that Bart needs to be killed in order to make a vaccine but Marge asks: "What kind of civilized people eat the body and blood of their savior?"... One minute *SCREAMS* Moving on, Bart decides that he can bathe in their food and that'll pass on the B-antivirus and the segment ends with Bart giving Lisa and a group of others Bart Soup.

Our final segment is called "There's no Business Like Moe Business" which is just a satire of "Sweeny Todd". I could sum up this entire segment in a sentence but I shouldn't so let's move onto the *Shudders* Halloween Musical (I can't believe I typed that). The segment begins with Moe singing about how ugly he is and nobody likes him. The tap isn't working which makes Moe go down to fix it which leads to Homer falling onto some pipes that lead to the beer tap. Moe uses the rest of the segment to seduce Marge by convincing her that Homer left her to be gay (Stupid musical).

Run for your lives! It's the attack of the pipe monsters!!!

As Homer's friends drink his blood beer Marge becomes sad and her tears raise him from the dead. Homer beats up "Moe" (well, a ragdoll version), and our Treehouse of Horror ends on the entire cast thanking the audience to which Kang (or Kodos) falls asleep.

Final Judgment: The opening segment is probably the strongest Treehouse of Horror segment in years while the final was one of the weakest. The 2nd segment was all right but the Jesus joke was really in poor taste and soured my mood a little. Altogether though the first segment strengthens my opinion of this and I like it altogether.

Final Grade: 7.8/10 Watch some of Hitchcock's works to see what I'm talking about, it makes watching that part even better.

Episode 3: The Great Wife Hope

What happens when you take the plot from Marge vs. Itchy and Scratchy but with a far less memorable plot and a much different matter? This episode! *smacks self* Sorry for the unoriginality of that but really when I watch this all I see is just that episode if it were less memorable. Let's continue on with the review.

We begin with Marge going "Crazy Bowling" as she admits that when she typed "girls having fun" on Google she encountered about a million porn sites. Marge then notices that there are no men at the bowling alley (save for the cashier in the background but we'll ignore that) where we then find out that all the men in Springfield are watching Ultimate Punch, Kick & Choke Championship (I'll just refer to it as MMA). During the scene there isn't really much to note with a few jokes that weren't worth mentioning here.

At Wrestlemainia Hulk-Hogan!! You and I will FOKE in the ring!!

The next day, Bart participates in a school version of MMA as he beats up Nelson under the dome jungle gym (I don't know what it's called, so sue me). While Bart is fighting we get to see Lisa in the most uninteresting moment for her as she just seems so monotone and forgettable while Marge goes to find Bart. Marge finds out about MMA and decides that a sport that is well-liked and well-funded should not be allowed in Springfield. (At least her campaign against Itchy and Scratchy was that it was targeting impressionable kids; this time it just seems petty). I would also like to note here that while I could care less for WWE and things like it *submit your hate-mail here* I was a wrestler in high school and having one-on-one fights is a perfectly legit sport that actually requires a lot more conditioning than people give credit for so I just did not like how Marge didn't like this sport because it's too gory (not like people don't lose teeth in NHL or break limbs in NFL). I did like how Marge bought Homer off with pie and that scene did make me laugh. Marge then protests outside the MMA building but fails so she decides to protest inside where the TV audience just realizes how stupid her campaign really is.

Incoming message from the big giant head

After getting in the main cage Chet Englebrit challenges her to a fight to determine the fate of the sport where she accepts. In order to get ready Marge prepares in the best way possible, by doing a routine that even dancers would laugh at. This scene also contains a great thing in what not to do "Show don't tell" as Lisa reminds us that's she a feminist needlessly. After Marge goes cutsie with the ribbon Homer decides that trainer her properly with training by Dredrick Tatum, Akira, Mr. Burns and the bullies. The Burns part proves to be unnecessary as it's just there for a pointless scene involving the fact that Burns is weak. Hey, newsflash: WE ALREADY KNEW THAT! The scene is nothing more than padding and the story would probably flow better without it. Chet decides to remind Marge about the fight and proves to have the most incompetent henchman as he doesn't know when to shoot off the fireworks (which is a little funny).

How do I explain to my friends I've got two moms now?

We then see Lisa try to convince Marge to get out as Homer tries to put himself in her place for the fight, that leads to the joke of Moe taking Homer as Marge to his class reunion which is rather funny. Marge then prepares for the fight as then the fight begins... with a cheap shot by Chet. Dick. Huge continuity gap, right before Marge gets punched, we see Barney in the crowd, while Marge is getting up, we then see Barney in Moe's Tavern (Betcha you didn't know Barney could teleport did you?). Bart then goes in to fight Chet even though Marge agreed to the fight and this should be some violation of a rule, oh well. After seeing Chet attack Bart, it makes Marge angry enough to start winning as Chet "taps out" but then tries to cheap shot her but fails. Marge then talks about how she won't fight anymore even though nobody's around anymore.

MORTAL KOMBAT!!!

Marge and Homer leave as Bart and Lisa decide to settle their sibling rivalry in the septagon, in which Lisa wins a la Mortal Kombat. (Or Batman-style: "ONE PUNCH!")

FATALITY

FLAWLESS VICTORY

Final Judgment: This isn't a bad episode, but the plot is near the same as Marge vs Itchy and Scratchy, showing a little bit of laziness by the writers. This episode is far better than last week's - but that's not a high standard.

Final grade: 6.2/10 It's not bad and it's actually something that might be worth re-watching when you get the chance.

Episode 2: Bart Gets a Z

I gotta admit, episodes like this one is why I do this. Even though I haven't seen this episode in 5 months before rewatching this episode for the review, I honestly felt sick just thinking about this. This is probably one of the best examples of lazy writing, cultural relevancy up the wazoo, and everything that is contributing to the decline of this series. With that out of the way onto the review. (I also want to point out this is one of Matt Selman's few bad episodes, as he is a good writer)

So we begin with Mrs. Krabappel's morning where then we see her at a red light with some high-schoolers make fun of her for singing an "old" song. (Two minutes in and already I look for drugs to calm me down. That's a bad sign people) In case anyone could tell that the Simpsons now takes place in 2009, the writers decide to remind us by having all the students have their cell phones out texting in class (I'm sorry, but considering that in my high school I would get detention just for having it out, I'm not buying this BS at all).

As we all know, schools allow kids to use their cell phones in class whenever they want

Mrs. Krabappel then decides to do the most logical thing: confiscate their phones, which pisses off Bart and the others (How dare she take away devices that hinder the class from learning and are usually banned during the day in most schools. Let's go burn her house down!). Bart then convinces the whole 4th grade to collect liquor to get Mrs. K drunk and their plan actually works; Mrs. K becomes really drunk the next day and is fired. Bart feels guilty for getting her fired but before his conscience can do anything we meet a candidate for most annoying character ever in a Simpson episode in Zachary Vaughn, who is apparently is from Tufts University (ooh, I really don't care and it doesn't sound the least bit impressive Mr. Jackass)(Tufts? Isn't that a brand of tissues?).

Wow, not even 5 seconds in and already I hate him

He then decides that, because the Simpsons didn't need to rely on gimmick cultural relevancy in order to be successful, he will place as many things culturally relevant in the span of 15 seconds (Seriously go back to when the Simpsons were good and see how many times they tried to shove into your face that they were with the times. For God's sake their car had an 8-track tape player for the longest time). Bart tells Marge and Lisa how cool he is and how he heard Mrs. K is doing all right in the 4-square court while Lisa points out that nobody plays 4-square anymore (Lisa is given 3 lines by the way, a recurring theme in this season). Mr. Vaughn then asks a question to which Martin answers it correctly but is scolded for actually remembering it rather than googling it (Because you're allowed to have a computer with you on your history test to look up answers. I should just hand him the award right now and be done with him). While Bart heads over to Mrs. K's apartment we see an obvious Rodney Dangerfield parody movie, which isn't too bad to be truthful.

14 days of not having a teacher's salary. I don't see a difference

After Bart drops off the stickers we see Homer talking to Mr Vaughn about Bart in a rather pointless scene... Moving on, we see Bart and Milhouse talking about how to help Mrs. K when they are approached by an employee who gives them a book called "The Answer" which then they give to Mrs. K to help her open a muffin store. After her business becomes successful Bart reveals that he got her fired and then she starts berating him about how the store isn't doing well and she wants to teach.

Hey good idea, I could go for a nice drink now

Bart assumes that if he gets Mr. Vaughn drunk, he'll get fired and that'll bring back Mrs. K. Bart tells Principal Skinner that he got Mrs. K Drunk, Mr Vaughn gets drunk by himself and gets fired, and Mrs. K comes back and ends this episode by giving her class bad muffins.

Final judgment: This episode is boring, annoying and above all stupid. While it's all right to have the occasional cultural relevant item in your plot, it's not a great idea to center a plot around an annoying teacher who would be laughed off from special ed students. And really Mr. Vaughn ranks in my top 5 WORST characters ever in Simpsons with just so many moments that make you want to hit something.

Final Grade: 2.3/10 a better title would have been The Simpsons get a 'Z'

Episode 1: Homer the Whopper

After a disappointing ending for season 20 I gotta admit, I had low expectations for this season really expecting this to be its last season. My hopes were not raised after finding out that Seth Rogen would be guest starring and partially writing this episode. After watching this, it really exceeded my expectations, but it is still just an above average episode that isn't too special. Let's begin our review into this new season.

We begin this episode with Bart and Milhouse mocking Comic Book Guy, causing him to go to his backroom to get away from them. Bart and Milhouse then find a comic book created by CBG called "Everyman" who's main power is to grab a comic book and take the powers of whatever the superhero of that comic has (The identity of "Avery Mann" is about as subtle as Peter Parker changing his name to "Arachnid web-slinger"). The comic itself isn't really worth mentioning, but after CBG gets praise for it, he decides to start selling "Everyman" comics and they become a hit (I wonder how Linkara would feel bout that?).

Before "Kick-Ass" infested our minds we had "Everyman"

The comic becomes so popular that movie rights are almost immediately bought by Ginormous Pictures (And yet comics like Blue Beetle, Aquaman, and Booster Gold are still not movies. Here's to Deadpool and Green Lantern becoming good movies next summer). CBG sells the rights to the movie only if he can pick who plays Everyman (small request, I would have wanted to direct it or had something to do with the script). After several failures for auditions, Homer comes in and CBG picks him as Everyman, leading into the main plot: Homer is now a movie star *cough*.

I don't know, I wouldn't want this guy doing my plumbing much less save me from evil

Homer tells his family about getting the role, and the Hollywood executives tell Homer that he needs to lose weight so that their movie can sell better (But I'm pretty sure the "Stared at the sun" comment was the fan reaction to season 20'd DVD). We are then introduced to Lyle McCarthy *Seth Rogen* who will be Homer's trainer while uttering some of the most unfunny dialogue known to man (It's not bad; it's just not funny). CBG goes Hollywood, since the writer felt they needed to show us in a pointless scene just to help pad out the length of this episode. Because Lyle doesn't know how to call Mr. Montage, we just skip a month that shows Homer in much better shape.

Yeah, you guys have room to talk, where's THE apology for "G.I. D'oh" and "Lisa the Drama Queen"?

During the shooting of the movie, we see the writers of last season working on the movie (These jokes just lend themselves to me so easily). One pointless bedroom scene later we see Mr. Lyle leave Homer to take on another client as Homer begins eating like a gluttonous fat man. We then start to see months of weight loss go down the drain as Homer begins to put on weight and ruins his scenes. We then see Homer in the bedroom and we realize that somehow he's even bigger than his normal 239 weight (I can assume considering how big he looks here and in future scenes).

Say I'm starting to see the inspiration for season 20

After Homer has some expired milk to lose weight *completely pointless* we see Homer's getting bigger as CBG gets disgruntled about this and is thrown away with other old studio heads. At the test screening we see how lazy the staff was: the editing in this movie makes "Alone in the Dark" *shooting scenes in particular* look like Avatar (Visually of course). I find this joke ironic because this season has a lot of editing mistakes which I will address in my final review. As everyone is pissed off with the movie, Homer blames Lyle, Lyle comforts him, the studio executives try to bribe CBG into giving it a good review which he basically says no and our episode ends with Homer on top of a mountain being cold.

Final Judgment: This episode wasn't strong but it laid the foundation for an adequate season. If only the rest of the season could have been this way. I'm not a Seth Rogen fan, but honestly his lines were not funny at all; they ranged from stupid to dull with no traces of funny to be found. Any hopes were dashed away with next week's episode, prompting a full-fit rage.

Final Grade: 5.3/10 nothing special but it's not bad either.

New Format

I've decided to redo my reviews of Season 21 as individual posts with the exceptions of the last few that I already did on an individual basis. I plan to do them so that I can introduce a new style in my reviews that includes pictures and some other features. I also plan to start actually tagging my post rather than ignoring that feature so that it'd be easier to find a specific review. I will do this with Season 20 after I release it and other new posts from now on. I hope you like it and continue to support this blog.

Season 21 Review

An English proverb states "All good things must come to an end" while we all know this series is seeing its expiration date soon, thankfully the series did not end with this season. It would be a shame for a series this great to end on such a low note. To say this is a horrible season is a bit harsh, it had its high notes and it did deliver three top-notch episodes (They made the nomination list for my top 50 episodes). But like the past 8 seasons, the season was plagued by more crappy episodes than good ones. Since I've been watching this for the past 6 years, every year the show seems to get worse and worse with the exception of this season (But really Season 20 was so bad, mentioning it gets a 1-way ticket to purgatory).

This season did start off positive with "Homer the Whopper". I really came in to the season with low expectations after season 20 ended with a crappy version of "Much Apu About Nothing" but after "Homer the Whopper" I saw hope in this season. Then along came "Bart Gets a 'Z'" and disappointment soon set in again.

After that we go through an up-and-down series of four episodes that don't really define the season too much.

There is light though as we got our 3 episode highlights staring with "Rednecks and Broomsticks" which proves that the writers are capable of writing a good plot. "O Brother Where Bart Thou?" which is yet another good plot with jokes that is the closest thing to season 8 writing in a long time. And ending on "Thursdays with Abie" which yet again proves that subplots can be written just as well as the main plot.

There were two average episodes afterwards but then the bad writers reared their ugly heads in. With Horrible episodes like "Boy Meets Curl" and "Stealing First Base" the season seemed could not be salvaged. The rest of the season had its ups with "The Squirt and the Whale" and "The Bob Next Door" but was outweighed by crap like "To Surveil with Love", "Moe Letter Blues" and "Judge me Tender".

This season is one of the worst seasons I've seen so far from this show. While there are some memorable episodes, it's all together a bad season with bad writers. "Things get better with age" does not apply to this show, I really hope next season is its last and it goes out on a high note.

There were a few things I noted particularly with this season. I noted a few times in the season that there were too many montages, and after counting them, it turns out there were 19 montages in a 23 episode season. That's close to 4 montages every 5 episodes and it defeats the purpose of the montage. Also, doing something not many people would have noticed, I counted the lines for Lisa per episode. In season 20 I had an equation basically determining the quality of an episode is based on the number of lines for Lisa (More on that in my season 20 review). After doing a full count, Lisa averaged about 23 lines an episode (But closer to 20 if you remove the Eliza lines from "The Color Yellow") and the sad part is, in 5 episodes, Lisa got just 10 lines (5 lines in 4 of those episodes). I don't know what the writers had against Lisa this season but she was the first cast member to be completely shut out of an episode.

Final Grade: 5.4/10 It's just not that good it can be considered better than other shows on TV, but I really think that it's name is keeping this series afloat.

Response

Robert Cranning has recently done his annual season review of The Simpsons and boy do I think it's stupid. Now I know I've disagreed with him before but oh boy is he far off from fact and I just want to say a few things about his review.

"Season 21 continued to move the series in an upward trajectory, perhaps with its anniversary celebration reigniting some passion and creativity"
I guess that bad plots and out-of character moments is creative

"Instead of bringing their raunchy comedy style to the series, these life-long fans of The Simpsons gave us a solid, funny episode that took its cues from Season 8 era Simpsons. They delivered a familiar feeling episode, but not one that felt like a retread. Leave it to a couple of talented fans to remind viewers what the series is capable of."
Yes because a boring episode that has some of the unfunniest dialogue is just like season 8. You know what made season 8 and before good; THE PLOTS in conjuncture with the jokes, not just the jokes.

"The only other highlight from early in the season was a great "Treehouse of Horror" which hit the mark with three solid stories that were both funny and dark."
Yes because a musical is funny and dark... YOU'RE A DUMBASS!! Plus to not include "O Brother where Bart Thou?" is a slap in the face (P.S. "Rednecks and Broomsticks" was a good episode because the plot was involving and it wasn't stupid).

"Bart's girl troubles were good for a lot of laughs in "Stealing First Base," with Sarah Silverman providing the voice of the troublesome girl."
Having a bipolar bitch for a girlfriend provides tons of laughs, as well as parents who overreact at just the smallest thing, oh wait NO THEY DIDN'T THEY WERE STUPID!

""The Squirt and The Whale" told the tale of a beached whale in Springfield. Like the best Simpsons episodes, it delivered loads of laughs, while still effectively tugging at the heartstrings."
By effectively tugging at the heartstrings he means having Lisa hold the "Idiot Ball" the whole episode and allow the whale to die so heartwarming.

8.3(out of 10) Impressive
Yes because it's impressive that people think this series is still good.

Leftist Rant

Heya, this is your friendly neighborhood editor/snarker speaking (the crossed-out commenter). As you can see, my name is RBYDark (though you can call me Ruby!). I was editing a review for the main contributor when I came across a line that I thought he honestly made up. I asked him about it, and he showed me, yes, it was real, said on the show, out of (of all people!) Marge's mouth.

"I'm left handed. I've been using my right hand all these years cause I didn't want to seem unusual in any way"

Sweet baby Jesus on a stick, where do I START? First off, I myself am a lefty (and proud of it!). My right hand is only really used with scissors and a computer mouse - but, yeah, I'm not a rarity or even that unusual. I'm not exactly exactly common, but unusual? No one even notices I'm left-handed unless I point it out - contrary to what Marge says, I don't think ANYONE would find her unusual for being left-handed. In addition, approximately 10-15% of the world population (or U.S. population) is left-handed. I dunno about you, but I like them odds - there are probably more lefties in your life than you realize, Marge. Heck, your own SON and your next-door neighbor is left-handed.

Lastly, if you started left-handed but use your right hand for everything, you'll probably lose a decent portion of dexterity and strength in your left hand. In short, Marge, you'd become right-handed. People, tell me how being left-handed is unusual, really. This isn't the Dark Ages, the left hand is not the Devil's Hand. Heck, we don't even attract notice until someone REALLY looks. And, Marge, really - you married the town idiot and raised the shooter of Mr. Burns, the hellraiser, and the temporary-MENSA member. You were labeled 'unusual' LONG ago.

Sources: Unique Left Handed Facts
What causes some people to be left-handed, and why are fewer people left-handed than right-handed?