Classic Coverage looks back on the episodes of past shows from a modern perspective.
Chief Inspector Japp is in a pickle: over the last three weeks there have been three jewel theft at high-society events, and the pressure is on to prevent another – so much so that our dear Japp of the Yard … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E07 “The Double Clue”
I would argue that this is the episode that has aged the most dramatically out of all classic Simpsons. Sure, the collective response to some aspects – like Apu – has shifted, but I think you’d have to work very … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Ten, “The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular”
Alas, I feel the shame, non? Real life intrudes most agresivement and your faithful chronicler has but a few wee minutes to jot down some items around this week’s episode, with further thoughts in the comments below post-publication. The Good: … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E06 “The Tragedy At Marsdon Manor”
This is a very rare Golden Age Simpsons episode that I’m not a big fan of. Bob’s episodes suffer a little bit of diminishing returns after a point; “Cape Fear” is a rollicking comedy adventure and “Sideshow Bob Roberts” is … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Nine, “Sideshow Bob’s Last Gleaming”
As we’ve been enjoying the series together, one of Mrs. Marlowespade’s constant refrains is that for all his intellect, thus far in the show M. Poirot is far better at not preventing murders than he is in preventing them, and … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E05 “Wasps’ Nest”
You know, I never actually thought about how the Sixties hang over The Simpsons before now. In fact, a lot of the imagery and ideas it riffs on are hangovers from the Fifties – the house in the suburbs with … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode XX, “Mother Simpson”
SPOILER WARNING: I’m assuming in these reviews that readers have seen the show. What makes Tricks And Treats such a great installment of Freaks And Geeks is not just the setting, which works because Halloween is such an iconic American … Continue reading Freaks And Geeks: S1E03 “Tricks And Treats”
Mon Dieu! I’m super sorry about this, but Ye Olde Work Crunch (not a fun breakfast cereal) has gotten the better of your faithful chronicler this week (serves me right for taking a vacation), and I’m going to have to … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E04 “The Plymouth Express”
What makes Homer generally likable and sympathetic even through his childishness and destructiveness is the genuine joy he gets out of what he does, and I think this episode is a great example of that. No matter your feelings on … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Seven, “King-Size Homer”
Sacre bleu! Your Man Marlowespade is taking a vacation this week, but didn’t want to go without posting a few thoughts on this episode, the third in what is rapidly becoming the Season of Strychnine. Short version: a bank sends … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E03 “The Million Dollar Bond Robbery”
I always enjoy how the “Treehouse” stories can do three different things with its three different shorts. “Attack Of The Fifty-Foot Eyesores” is one of the more deliciously satirical “Treehouse” shorts; there have been other satirical shorts, but I really … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Six, “Treehouse Of Horror VI”
At the Russian Embassy in London, a woman named Katrina (Catherine Russell) meets with a diplomat and passes an envelope to him. Inside: a ticket to a flower show (hilariously stamped with “WTF” in big letters across it). Also at … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E02 “How Does Your Garden Grow?”
Lisa episodes are often dismissed as boring and preachy. This is in part because post-Golden Age, the character was reduced to the writer’s liberal mouthpiece, but I can see it based on how so many of her Golden Age episodes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Five, “Lisa The Vegetarian”
I wrote and rewrote the beginning part of this article about four times, because as soon as I started getting into plot details, I ran into a wall I just couldn’t get around. See, here’s what we’ve got in this … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S03E01 “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”
I’m always willing to admit when I’m wrong and handsome. I kicked off this season suggesting that the show was done being as philosophical and would become more traditionally sitcommy, but if anything that traditional sitcom plotting is only letting … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Four, “Bart Sells His Soul”
SPOILER WARNING: I’m assuming in these reviews that readers have seen the show. If the pilot of Freaks And Geeks introduced us to a cast of characters who were realistic and ripe for potentially funny and dramatic situations, Beers And … Continue reading Freaks And Geeks: S1E02 “Beers And Weirs”
This is such a weird premise for an episode. I know we’ve had stories of, like, Homer going to space, but even that feels like a more likely sitcom premise than racing against time to prevent a baptism. The flipside … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Three, “Home Sweet Home-Diddly-Dum-Doodly”
Erghhhh…. look, gang, it’s not a great episode this week. I mean, to borrow the title of a much more interesting episode we’ll see in the future, cards on the table here: the plot is at once too complicated and … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S02E10 “The Adventure of the Western Star”
“Radioactive Man” has what might be the fastest pace this show has had up to this point. Pace in storytelling is actually something really easy to quantify: the shorter the distance between action and its consequence, the faster the story … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode Two, “Radioactive Man”
Chief Inspector Japp, Sir Bernard (Ronald Hines) and a detachment of police wait anxiously at a train station for the arrival of none other than the Prime Minister, who’s due to leave for a conference in Paris where he’ll convince … Continue reading Poirot (Classic): S02E09 “The Kidnapped Prime Minister”
So, yeah, the baby did it. If “Part One” was all buildup, this is all winding down – the consequences for all those actions. I’ve always been struck by the elegance of the plotting of this episode. Each act has … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Seven, Episode One, “Who Shot Mr Burns? (Part Two)”
