REVIEW: Barting Over

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

Users: @SuzyQ

irc.simpworks.com

[Stretch Dude]

I'm going to be straightforward here: Despite my inherent foolish optimism regarding upcoming Simpsons episodes, I thought this episode would suck, expecting it to be built entirely around the guest-stars.

My God, was I wrong.

The episode wasn't flat-out brilliant, but it was good. There was a lot of actual emotion here: Bart's murderous rage towards Homer, his later stark fear at being on his own (which I felt was a nice touch, rather than having him instantaneously adapt to such a huge change in his life), Homer's genuine shame at what he had done...this was good stuff. Of course, there were some down points. Blink 182, so raved about in the ads, had only one scene, and a rather pointless one at that. The AI skateboard Homer used was a tad over-the-top, but I'll admit it was better than Homer suddenly developing incredible skateboarding skill. (And, having watched the premiere of Power Rangers Ninja Storm yesterday, I feel you just can't have too many "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" references in one weekend. At least, I think it was a "Crouching Tiger, Something Whatever" reference. I've never actually seen that movie...) I also noticed that the lip-sync was way off at several points.

High points:
Lisa nearly summoning a demon (which also ties into my recent activities, as I've begun reading Sluggy Freelance, but that's another story)
Bart trying to strange Homer and destroying a dinner-made effigy of his father
The return of Cousin Dia-Betty (who is fun to laugh at because of her freakishness)
"Hmm. I could've sworn it was 302." (I was hoping they'd reference that!)

Low points:
Blink 182
The skateboard thing

Grade: B+

Closing remark: I've never heard Marge scream like that before...

[Tibor]

A solid show, with gags that worked. I was genuinely worried about it, but it was nice, despite the guest star fluff. Jerkass Homer? I didn't think so. Because Jerkass Homer is one dimensional.  We saw a man who loved his child tonight.

Loved the self-references, and the baby dangling was funny. It just felt Simpsony, despite flaws.

Did I say flaws? Yes, shoehorned guest appearances, Blink 182 moreso than Tony Hawk (so why is he in Springfield?), and the silly skateboarding thing were downers on the last couple of acts, but I still walk away with a good feeling.

[gkscotty]

I came away very pleasantly suprised. I had many many genuine laughs during this episode, and was only disappointed by one or two jokes in the whole thing. And I'm not a fan of Tony Tawk, but I thought his part was funny and well done. Best of all, nearly everyone seemed in character - the only exceptions being that Homer was a little too angry (but he needed to be for the plot) and Marge was a little too willing to let her son go. But it can all be forgiven - the spisode felt like a better S8 or S9 ep overall.

B

[Molloy the Catburglar]

Just watched....surprisingly good episode.  The 302 gag, Tony Hawk (surprisingly), and many other things were very entertaining, and I actually liked the skateboard thing at the end.  Homer's first trip over the ramp had me in stitches, and I loved the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon spoof.  There was some good emotional bits too, and Marge's scream was interesting.  The scene with the baby and the sugar was funny.

I give it a B+.