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Howling at a Concrete Moon
Nov. 20th, 2006 07:09 amIt's time for my weekly review of Fox's Sunday night block of animation. (Okay, it's not exactly weekly, since there aren't new episodes every week. But it's weekly during sweeps months, I suppose.)
The Simpsons: I thought the episode was pretty good, mostly because of Moe, who's one of the few characters I think has actually gotten somewhat funnier as the series has progressed. (Milhouse would probably also be on the short list of such characters.) There were some good jokes at the writers' conference as well, although I probably would have appreciated them more if I'd read anything by the authors involved. I do think, however, that they wasted potential by turning it into another tired plot where one character takes credit for another's work, especially when we just saw this same basic theme used in the carpentry episode. I'm sure there were plenty of more interesting places they could have taken the idea of Moe as a poet. So, yeah. Good concept, characterizations, and incidental jokes; but not so great as far as the central conflict went.
American Dad: Probably the best of last night's batch. (Wow, I never thought I'd be saying THAT back when the show was in its infancy.) I like that they reused Debbie, although there have been episodes since her introduction where Steve was trying to hit on other girls, so I'm not sure whether we're supposed to see the episodes as taking place in a different order than the one in which they were shown or what. The funniest bit was probably the Japanese cartoon characters in the vasectomy clinic, but I also enjoyed the subplot of Roger posing as a college professor by imitating clichéd "teacher inspires passion for learning" movies.
Family Guy: Not one of the better ones this week. I did think the preacher and the kids' reaction to his obvious pandering were funny, but I kind of think they could have gone even farther over the top than they did. I don't know. Maybe that's kind of a dumb complaint ("It's not wacky enough!"), but they probably could have done a little more with the idea. Also, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje pointed out, didn't Meg already lose her virginity to Jimmy Fallon a few seasons ago?
The Simpsons: I thought the episode was pretty good, mostly because of Moe, who's one of the few characters I think has actually gotten somewhat funnier as the series has progressed. (Milhouse would probably also be on the short list of such characters.) There were some good jokes at the writers' conference as well, although I probably would have appreciated them more if I'd read anything by the authors involved. I do think, however, that they wasted potential by turning it into another tired plot where one character takes credit for another's work, especially when we just saw this same basic theme used in the carpentry episode. I'm sure there were plenty of more interesting places they could have taken the idea of Moe as a poet. So, yeah. Good concept, characterizations, and incidental jokes; but not so great as far as the central conflict went.
American Dad: Probably the best of last night's batch. (Wow, I never thought I'd be saying THAT back when the show was in its infancy.) I like that they reused Debbie, although there have been episodes since her introduction where Steve was trying to hit on other girls, so I'm not sure whether we're supposed to see the episodes as taking place in a different order than the one in which they were shown or what. The funniest bit was probably the Japanese cartoon characters in the vasectomy clinic, but I also enjoyed the subplot of Roger posing as a college professor by imitating clichéd "teacher inspires passion for learning" movies.
Family Guy: Not one of the better ones this week. I did think the preacher and the kids' reaction to his obvious pandering were funny, but I kind of think they could have gone even farther over the top than they did. I don't know. Maybe that's kind of a dumb complaint ("It's not wacky enough!"), but they probably could have done a little more with the idea. Also, as
bethje pointed out, didn't Meg already lose her virginity to Jimmy Fallon a few seasons ago?
