Written by: J Stewart BurnsDirected by: Jeffery Lynch and Kevin O’Brian We’re still in an era of firsts, and I would call this the first middling-in-a-good-way episode. Unlike The Simpsons, I do feel comfortable ranking episodes of the show based … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Seven, “My Three Suns”
Written By: Ron HughartDirected By: Gregg Vanzo I remember this as a mediocre episode, not because it wasn’t that funny, but because it was the most major example of the show not quite finding its feet yet. Fry’s defining trait, … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Six, “A Fishful Of Dollars”
Written By: Heather Lombard and Evan GoreDirected By: Peter Avanzino and Carlos Baeza From a certain point of view, this is the first ‘real’ episode of Futurama – the crew make a delivery to the Planet O’ The Week with … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Five, “Fear Of A Bot Planet”
Written By: Brian KelleyDirected By: Brian Scheesley I enjoy that we’re four episodes in and still having many fundamental aspects of the show established; people often describe this show (and others) as ‘planned, but I prefer the word ‘prepared’ because … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Four, “Love’s Labours Lost In Space”
Written by: Eric HorstedDirected by: Bret Haaland I always liked this episode, but now I can see it as proto-Futurama – an episode that has all the elements of the show, including a heartfelt emotional arc and many great one-liners, … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Three, “I, Roommate”
Written by: Ken KeelerDirected By: Phil Avanzino Should I say that I already see so many elements of what makes Futurama great, or should I say that the show was always great and it would, with time, lock into its … Continue reading Futurama, Season One, Episode Two, “The Series Has Landed”
The funny thing about the Golden Era of The Simpsons is that it pulled off being two things. It’s a thoughtful and sophisticated exploration of our higher spiritual and emotional needs and an entertaining and accessible work of commercial entertainment. … Continue reading The Golden Era Of The Simpsons / Futurama, Season One, Episode One, “Space Pilot 3000”
It’s a good thing I’m planning on doing one big goodbye essay to The Simpsons next week, because otherwise we’d have the weirdness of ending on an incredibly horny episode about Homer and Marge’s sex life. Some people have argued … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty-Five, “Natural Born Kissers”
This season has squashed the characters into caricatures of themselves, and nobody has suffered that worse than Lisa; the writers know she’s supposed to be principled and idealistic, but they often fail to forget what those principles actually are, and … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty-Four, “Lost Our Lisa”
This is actually one of my favourite episodes, because it’s one of the purest expressions of what I find so sympathetic about Homer Simpson. In “Trash Of The Titans”, I talked about how Homer is loveable because he’s a creature … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty-Three, “King Of The Hill”
If any episode acts as a convenient and easy shorthand for the problems of season nine as a whole, it’s this one. This, more than any other, is the episode people point to as an expression of the Jerkass Homer … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty-Two, “Trash Of The Titans”
The better season nine episodes create a consistent reaction in me where my short term reaction is that they’re wildly entertaining and yet much dumber than they used to be. “Girly Edition” sits just above “The Trouble With Trillions” in … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty-One, “Girly Edition”
I’m finishing these reviews with the end of season nine (after which I will follow up with an essay that both finishes off The Simpsons as a whole and analyses the pilot of Futurama), but when I announced that, people … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twenty, “The Trouble With Trillions”
We’ve been riding a pretty good high for a while, but sadly this episode falls back into the season’s bad habits. The first act of this episode especially feels really slack in a way I don’t think the show ever … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Nineteen, “Simpson Tide”
A consistent theme in these essays over season nine is how well it continues to capture the mindset of children, which is something that The Simpsons has always done. The weakest element of the season is how it seems to … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Eighteen, “This Little Wiggy”
One thing that amuses me is watching older works and seeing proto-examples of ideas that have taken over the public consciousness. I watched Seinfeld for the first time this year, and was deeply amused by how much George Constanza’s actions … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Seventeen, “Dumbbell Indemnity”
I talk all the time about how The Simpsons has travelled so far and lasted so long in the public consciousness because it shoots for universal emotions and themes, and this is a rare counterexample – though not an unprecedented … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Sixteen, “The Last Temptation Of Krust”
One of the most consistent undercurrents to The Simpsons is how well it captures the strange, limited worldview of children and how well it exaggerates that attitude into absurdity. Living on a deserted island is a common children’s fantasy, because … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Fifteen, “Das Bus”
I feel like that, as the show is starting to run out of steam, so are my essays – they keep getting shorter, for one thing – so it’s a massive relief to watch a genuinely great episode that goes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Fourteen, “The Joy Of Sect”
I don’t normally talk about the writers in the main body of the text, because I don’t normally have much to say about them beyond a few sentences. Professional television writers are often the first to observe that individual personalities … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Thirteen, “Bart Carny”
Look, I was dreading this one too, but let’s just get through it. I remember that era dubbed the “Golden Age of Television” – a period that began and ended with Breaking Bad for some reason – and perhaps its … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twelve, “All Singing, All Dancing”
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