Don't use leprechaun labor

[vovat]

Yesterday was Mother's Day, so happy belated Mother's Day to everyone. I don't think any moms read this, but I still hope you had a good day yesterday. I got my mom a card and a hanging fuchsia basket.


Yesterday was also when Fox aired their Sunday night lineup of animated shows (not surprisingly, since it WAS Sunday night). I thought this week's two Simpsons episodes were a definite improvement over last week's. The first one was largely an extended American Idol parody. Perhaps it helped that I actually like AI, although the novelty has started to wear off after so many seasons of basically the same thing. I liked Krusty's disinterested comments, and his line about trying out "especially if you're a funny-looking kid who can't sing." Lenny and Carl's heckling was also amusing. Incidentally, I was looking at reviews of old Simpsons episodes the other day, and one of them had someone point out that, although Homer is generally portrayed as stupid and lazy, he actually tends to be really good at things when he applies himself. I think this episode was another one along those lines. We already know from "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" and "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" that Homer can write songs, and the ridiculous songs that he comes up with in this episode are really quite clever. While not a super-great episode, it didn't contain much that I could find fault with. The rake scene of Homer trying to figure out whether or not his food was staying down went on WAY too long, though. Also, the ending was too abrupt. Did Lisa win the competition? If so, we really should have seen what came of it. Maybe they should have shown the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon that she was supposed to have been in.

I'd been looking forward to the second episode since first learning about it, and it didn't disappoint. I generally like the shows with lots of religious humor, and I've always been interested in the whole doomsday prophecy thing. Homer's seemingly arbitrary calculations weren't at all far from reality. It was no "Homer the Heretic," but there were still a lot of really funny parts. I liked the "Left Behind" parody; I don't really know much about those books, but, from what I understand, they're pretty similar to what the Simpsons see in the movie. The "signs" that Homer sees were also well-done, as was Homer's vision of Heaven. The depressed Jesus on the swingset was great. The angel's line about leprechaun labor was also funny, but I have to suspect that someone on the writing staff is obsessed with leprechauns. How many times have they been mentioned on the show as of late? Sure, nowhere near as many times as monkeys, but still a lot.

I noticed that the second episode made God look the same as He always has on the show, complete with five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. Satan, on the other hand, didn't look anything like he did in "Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment," "Bart Gets Hit by a Car," or the "Deep, Deep Trouble" music video. I'm not sure if that's how he looked in the "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad" Halloween segment; I know they made him bigger and less Flanders-sounding for that one, but I don't remember much else about his design there. I guess you could argue that Homer imagines Satan differently than his kids do, since those other Satanic appearances (not counting the Treehouse of Horror ones) were in Bart and Lisa's dreams.


Last night's Family Guy was also pretty good, although I liked last week's better. The HBO prison Oz/Wizard of Oz sequence, although kind of obvious, was funny. It's at least the second prison shower joke they've done on the show, though.

Comments

[revme.livejournal.com]

I thought the American Idol Simpsons was pretty decent -- I was glad that they got the AI Chick to only do one song, because I can not stand that type of singing, so I ended up muting it when she was singing. But yeah -- I assume she won, which is good, considering it was down to just her and Cameron/Johnny Rainbow, so in a way, it was good that they didn't do the Standard Simpsons Twist of "Oh, you think she's going to win, but NO!!", which, in a way, has become predictable in its own right. But hey. Although, it seems that even though the Second Al Jean Era is much better than Scully's Reign Of Crap, the "OVER!!" endings seem to be more frequent. I think it's because Fox has trimmed the length of how long an episode can be to get more commercials in (they complain about this a lot on the DVD commentaries). I do like that Homer actually _IS_ a good songwriter, that they've kept that going throughout the series. I like that he's actually, say, had a few hit singles and whatnot.

And yeah -- the second one was much better. I like that Homer actually WAS raptured. (Though, theologically, it seems weird that only the folks who went to the Mesa would be Saved, but, well... is that any more weird than any of the other religious stuff like that? Like, say, the Rapture in General?) As for the Left Behind books, Slacktivist has a really awesome series of posts where he goes through the Left Behind novels and does commentaries. They really are awful. (The novels, not the commentaries.) And, yeah, I loved Sad Jesus.

Although, did Satan himself actually show up in that episode? I only remember the Fake Satan from the Donut Place. So, that'd explain why he didn't look like Satan/Flanders. IIRC, though, the Satan in G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad was different than the Bart Gets Hit By A Car/Deep Deep Trouble Satan, but it's been a while since I've seen it.

Family Guy was OK; I missed last week's, unfortunately, but I don't know -- the new season seems a little bit off, but that's probably due to, you know, not making it for a couple years and then coming back. Thanks, Fox. I loved the You Can't Do That On TV joke, though. And the whole thing with the Bear. Bears are awesome.

I'm kind of iffy on American Dad, though. It was OK, but not really great. I think the concept of it is way too weak to carry a weekly series, though. I could see it as a mini-series or a series of specials/one-offs, but, I dunno. I think if/when it goes off concept, it'll get better. And I'm still not sold on the non-Seth voice acting on it. (I really don't like the acting of the Wife. They should have got Alex Borstein again, just because she's actually really good at voice acting.) I dunno, though. I think American Dad might be a little too sitcommy. It's definitely watchable, and I might warm up a bit more to it later. Especially if the show evolves away from what it is now. But it isn't that Instant Clicking that I had with Family Guy.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

And yeah -- the second one was much better.

I was kind of annoyed that Fox seemed to be promoting the crap out of the first episode and pretty much ignoring the second, when it was the second one I was really looking foward to. It makes sense that Fox would make a big deal out of an episode that links to another show on the network, though.

Although, did Satan himself actually show up in that episode?

When Homer was in Heaven and watching his family on TV, someone who was apparently Satan showed up to talk to Marge. It was never specifically stated to be Satan, though, so I guess it could have been a lesser demon. I think they were intending for it to be Satan, though. The "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad" Satan is definitely different from the "Bart Gets Hit by a Car" one, but I can't remember how similar he was to the most recent design for Satan. The earlier Devil sounded a lot like Ned Flanders, but it was only in "The Devil and Homer Simpson" that he actually WAS Flanders.

I only sort of half-watched American Dad this week. I'm not even sure I'll bother with it in the future, unless I really have nothing better to do at the time. If I hear people saying that it's really improved, I might be more willing to give it another chance.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I actually forgot to check SNPP for what was playing this week, so I only knew about the American Idol one, which ended up being much better than I was expecting (mainly by getting her guest spot out of the way with a quickness).

And, yeah, I forgot about Satan taunting Marge during the Rapture. I just thought of the "Show me a sign!" Satan.

But yeah -- with American Dad; I dunno. It's easier to not get up from my TV when Family Guy is over, but I don't see myself tuning in specifically for it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that first episode was better than I had expected, too. Both of this week's were good showings, I thought.

[(Anonymous)]

yep, Mom's happen upon you, Thanks for the Mom's Day wish

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.