REVIEW: The Dad Who Knew Too Little

Topic: Sometimes the voices tell me to change the topic.

Users: @SuzyQ

irc.simpworks.com

[Molloy the Catburglar]

Spoilers ahead.  Read at your own risk.

SUMMARY:  After an embarrasing incident on her birthday, Lisa angrily denounces Homer as being uncaring because he doesn't know anything about her.  Genuinely ashamed, Homer hires a private eye to find out information on her so that he can seem like a good dad.  However, when he refuses to pay the detective's exorbitant bill the man frames Lisa for a crime and the two go out on the lam.

Y'know....this was actually a pretty good episode.  There was almost no slapstick or stupidity in it, though there were one or two weak moments.  Homer was genuinely sorry and ashamed for how he's handled things, and he really does want to make things better.  Lisa comes off as a bit too strong in some areas, but she's well-handled too.  The alias name she chose for herself was funny.  There are two Skinner jokes....one is lame, but the other is pretty funny.  Both poke fun at his dorkiness.  There's a few short but cute scenes with Maggie, and the scenes with Ralph are funny.  There was a standard celebrity guest appearance (Eliot Gould), but I found it amusing and it was only for a short time.  Lots of supporting characters used, and even the animals they had were kinda interesting (I liked the smoking monkeys).  I found the ending scene and the scene that played during the credits to be extremely funny.

Some good character development with Homer and Lisa in this episode, and a storyline that actually made sense.  I liked this episode, I give it a B+

LISA:  [coloring her hair]  I look just like a Powerpuff Girl!

RALPH:  Lisa is a girl that goes to my school!
DETECTIVE:  You've said that already!  Tell me about her!
RALPH:  Once I picked my nose so hard it bleeded!
DETECTIVE:  No, tell me about Lisa!
RALPH:  Lisa is a girl that goes to my school!

[Missing Person]

I liked this episode. There were very few low points in it. I liked Ralph, the second Skinner joke, the glimpse into Nelson's personality, and everything with Chief Wiggum. Lisa seemed very angry at times, but she does put up with a lot.


Lisa: Mom, Dad, my birthday is coming up, and the new GirlTech Diary is in stores now!
Homer: Now sweetie, nobody likes a shill.
Lisa: Just get me the friggin' book. [walks away]
Homer: [fondly] Aww, look at that little shill. Let's get her the book!

Banner on the Springfield Mall:
Now Disney Store free!

[Homer and Bart enter the mall, and the scrren pans out to reveal "free sample" signs everywhere]
Homer: Ohmygodohmygodohmygod...
Bart: Dad, you can't eat all these free samples. We have to get Lisa that diary.
Homer: Watch me!
[after a quick montage of Homer eating free samples]
Homer: Mmm... free samples...
Bart: Dad, you ate all the free samples. Now you're eating men's slacks.
[pan out to reveal Homer eating a pair of pants]

[At Moe's after the birthday incident, Homer wonders how he can get to know Lisa better]
Moe: Whenever I need to know about a broad, I call this guy. [gives Homer a business card for a PI]
Carl: He's great. I hired him to find out who's been cobbling shoes for me at night. It turns out I'm a severe schizophrenic.

(Aw, nuts. I can't remember the PI's name)
[in Skinner's office]
Detective: I need to see Lisa Simpson's permanent record.
Skinner: I'm sorry, that's private information.
Detective: These are some neat papers on your desk. It'd be a shame if somebody... shuffled them!
Skinner: You wouldn't.
Detective: Really. [shuffles the papers]
Skinner: I can easily put them back into their proper order.
[the Detective staples the papers together]
Skinner: NOOOOOO!!!

Detective: You're late, Muntz.
Nelson: I gotcha what ya wanted. [tosses him a bag] Now gimme back what's mine.
[the Detective hands him a framed photo]
Nelson: [lovingly] Ahh, my picture with Snow White.
Detective: She's just an actress, you know.
Nelson: Shut up! Some of us prefer fantasy to despair!

[Homer reads the Detective's bill]
Homer: [shocked] A thousand dollars?!
Detective: I told you, there'd be expenses.
Homer: A forty-dollar steak?!
Detective: If I'd eaten it all, it would've been free.
Homer: Silver bullets?!
Detective: Early on, I was operating on the assumption that your daughter was a werewolf. It didn't pan out.

[At the Simpsons' home after Lisa is framed]
Ralph: Hi! Can Lisa come out with her hands up?

Marge: Chief, my daughter is innocent until proven guilty!
[Homer crashes the car through the garage door and speeds off with Lisa]
Wiggum: Would an innocent person flee? [pause] Seriously, tell me. I don't know.
Lou: Chief, no!
Ralph: Even I knew that, Daddy!
Wiggum: Yeah, I'm not good.

[dinner at the Simpsons' home]
Marge: It feels so empty without Homer and Lisa.
Bart: This'll take your mind off them, Mom.
[Bart throws his bowl of spaghetti up into the cieling fan, and it splatters all over the walls]
Marge: Aww, thanks, Bart.
[Marge happily gets up and starts cleaning the walls. Maggie drops her bowl on the floor]

[the Detective chases Homer through the circus and into the Fun House]
Detective: Simpson, the moment I met you I knew I'd kill you in a Hall of Mirrors.
[hundreds of Homer's appear in the mirrors]
Homer: Ha ha! You can't shoot all of us!
[the Detective shoots Homer in the arm]
Homer: DAMMIT!
[Lisa wanders in]
Lisa: Dad? Are you in here?
Detective: How'd she find us?
Homer: Oh, she's always had a great sense of hearing. Once when she was three, she heard me crying in the closet.

[Homer and Lisa stand over the Detective after Lisa disables him]
Homer: How ironic that he's now blind after a lifetime of enjoying being able to see.

[Jon]

B+/C-

All characters weren't in character, barring Moe, Carl, and Lou.

[Stretch Dude]

Slowly but surely, The Simpsons is returning to its former glory. My only complaint was the first Skinner joke. Otherwise, good stuff. A

(I think I've seen "personalized videos" like the ones Ned and Homer got, and yes, they ARE that crappy.)

[A Spy in Mancunia]

I also think this is quite the return to form. The plot seemed coherent, and... well, I've got a soft spot for noir-esque drama like that. Though the escape felt like it had been done before.

I liked Dexter Coult and the place where he worked (I almost imagined seeing a young Sam Vimes lying in a puddle of [hopefully] ale under the blinking neon sign), the chase (even if it has happened thousands of times now), the disguises, Homer mourning his secret identity, and the personalised videos.

Lisa is a PETA affiliate, now? Oh well, it takes all sorts... though I'm used to years of PETA-bashing in Sluggy Freelance. She also seemed very uncritical as to Homer's new knowledge of her, but hey, it's a comedy. As for the lab animals... well. The smoking monkeys were pretty predictable, and I'm not touching the make-up pigs.

(Oh wait, I am. This is the third bestiality joke in the history of the show, to my recollection. OK, so this time it was only a joke, which makes it somewhat more tasteful than "Homer vs. Dignity" or "The Island of Dr Hibbert". But they could have cut it with no loss.)

And nobody here has remarked on the irony of Lisa blinding a human with a laser, after she has been demonstrating against similar outrages visited upon animals. So I won't either.

[Molloy the Catburglar]

I know it was a bestiality joke, but the way Cletus said "Duly noted" just cracked me up.

[Stretch Dude]

I wish to add one more thing: Bart's prank at the end was classic.