vovat | I've been so blue, sleeping 'til noon, watching cartoons (Reply)

My hopes for last night’s Simpsons episode weren’t all that high. The Simpsons Archive and the commercials gave the idea that the main point of the episode was going to be Homer choreographing the Superbowl halftime show, and that it would end up like the Janet Jackson thing in reverse. While that did happen, it wasn’t until the end, and quite a lot of funny stuff happened before that. This was largely a gag-driven episode, where the plot was often an excuse to make up utterly ridiculous victory dances. The dances WERE funny, though, so that was good. I did like that the guest stars didn’t take over the episode. There were quite a few guest celebrities, and several of the requisite references to their careers. These didn’t do much for me, since I’m not into sports, and I didn’t know some of those athletes from Adam, but at least they didn’t base the episode entirely on these references. And speaking of Adam, the show’s writers have apparently realized that it’s hard to go wrong with jokes about religion. A lot of the best jokes in the episode came out of Ned Flanders’ Bible-based movies, and the reaction to them. I would probably buy The Bible for Wise-Asses, if it actually existed. It's also hard to go wrong with video game jokes, although I think the Donkey Kong segment might have been drawn out a little too much. We got it without seeing it in a video game view. Still funny, though. Some of the non-sequiturs were also good, like Homer’s plan to send a crocodile into space. And I’m sure nerds everywhere are excited that they finally revealed the Comic Book Guy’s name. I was disappointed in the lack of resolution, but, on the other hand, I’m glad they didn’t focus overly much on parodying the reaction to last year’s breast-related incident. So, yeah, a funny episode overall. Not without its flaws, certainly, but head and shoulders above “Sunday Cruddy Sunday,” the last Superbowl tie-in on the show.

I have to admit that I wasn’t that thrilled by the premiere of American Dad. There were a few decent jokes in the show. The bit about IKEA getting a contract to furnish Iraq was funny, and Bush receiving a phone call from God was kind of amusing (although they could have done more with it). There was an amusing thought-balloon gag, also. All of these were isolated gags, though, not humor that followed directly from the plot or the characters. Really, I didn’t find the characters to be particularly interesting or amusing. The dad’s paranoid conservative antics are amusing for a short while, but can’t really carry an episode. I’m sure they’ll get even more tiresome if they turn out to be the main thrust of the series, which is the impression I get. Seth MacFarlane continues the trend of surrealistic characters that he started with Stewie and Brian from Family Guy by giving the family an alien and a goldfish with the brain of a horny German. Unfortunately, the alien just wasn’t funny, and the goldfish was just annoying. The other characters on the show seemed fairly one-dimensional. I’ll probably watch at least a few more episodes of the show when it officially starts, but I can’t say I really find the central concept to be all that great.