Scullyfied Simpsons: “Hungry Hungry Homer” (Season 12, Episode 15)

“Dancing away my hunger pains
Moving my feet, so my stomach won’t hurt
I’m kinda like Jesus
But not in a sacrilegious way”
– Homer’s “Don’t Move the Team” chant/song

Airdate: March 4th, 2001

Written By: John Swartzwelder

Plot: After an experience with customer service at Blockoland, Homer decides to take up being a good samaritan, in particular, an advocate for downtrodden consumers. The ultimate challenge comes when he accidentally discovers that the Springfield Isotopes are preparing to move to Albuquerque. With the team trying to cover up their relocation, Homer declares himself on a hunger strike.

Review:

It’s 1984 – the year that brought us the debut of the Apple Macintosh, the breakup of Ma Bell, the UK Miners Strike, and the launch of the TED Conference.

The Baltimore Colts NFL Team had been looking to replace their longtime stadium with a more modern venue. However, team owner Robert Irsay was gearing for public financing of the hypothetical new stadium, something which the local and State governments in Baltimore and Maryland were very reluctant to grant. Concurrently, the city of Indianapolis had been gearing up for reinvention, up to and including the construction of a new domed stadium. By the start of March, Irsay had his eyes on Indiana.

In an attempt to block the move, on the 27th, the Maryland Senate granted permission for the City of Baltimore to declare eminent domain on the franchise. Two days later, the Maryland House of Delegates also passed the bill clearing the way for the team to be seized. Unfortunately, the bill was redundant – the night prior, Irsay arranged for moving vans to load up everything the team owned and haul ass to Indianapolis, complete with Hoosier police escort once they crossed the state line.

Baltimore was understandably livid – they lost their NFL team, they lost the name that had been connected to the city, they lost the franchise records, and all in an act of midnight treachery. Colts legend Johnny Unitas disowned the franchise, to say nothing of the legion of Marylanders who were livid at such a move. So infamous was this maneuver that when Art Modell decided to move the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore in 1996, he was eventually forced to dump the Browns history in Ohio and effectively start a “new” franchise in Baltimore, the modern-day Ravens.

They weren’t the first nor the last sports teams to leg it from their city, and certainly not the last under questionable circumstances. Relocation or contraction of a sports team is the ultimate act of betrayal if you are a sports fan, especially if said team is a major social point – which it often is. Even in larger cities, it can be a bit of a blow to the psyche. Small towns? That can be devastating – as was the case when Bury FC were thrown out of England’s Football League (different case, but still a similar level of upset.)

Hence the foundations of the central conflict in today’s Simpsons episode, “Hungry Hungry Homer” – a man standing up against corporate sports.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Worst Episode Ever” (Season 12, Episode 11)

“Well, if this is valuable, then back to the leaky basement it goes!” – Mrs. Prince, rejecting an offer for $5 for priceless merchandise. A few years in a leaky basement, $5 will be an absolute gold mine.

Airdate: February 4th, 2001

Written By: Larry Doyle

Plot: Comic Book Guy’s ornery behavior has reached a fever pitch, particularly after he boots Bart and Milhouse from the store for interfering with an attempted acquisition of priceless memorabilia. It culminates in him exploding at a Tom Savini meet-and-greet at the Android’s Dungeon, whereupon he has a heart attack. By sheer luck, Bart and Milhouse save his life. As a token of his reluctant gratitude, he allows the duo to oversee the store during his recovery.

Review:

Back in Season 11, The Simpsons debut the episode “Pygmoelian”. It was a look at one of Springfield’s local smarmy business proprietors, Moe Syzlak, and was an attempt to humanize what had long been a comically callous character.

It’s an episode I like, albeit more on its own merits rather than how it works as part of the Simpsons canon. On a broad scale, it did a number on Moe’s character, accelerating his transformation into a less amusing personality. But the execution as a one-off was coherent, rather well-executed, and still somewhat amusing. It was one of a select few episodes from Season 11 I would be willing to go back to, and from what I’ve read, most fans – even those that (like me) consider the show after Season 8 to be an insurance write-off – tend to agree. In retrospect, it feels more like a second run at this sort of plot, given that the first one, dealing with Mr. Burns, sank into the Loch Ness.

This actually seems to be a trend with the Scully seasons. Each of them has one episode that tries to humanize a repugnant character. Besides the aforementioned outings, even Season 9 had “Dumbbell Indemnity”, also with Moe Syzlak. It’s kind of peculiar to see this attempt all while the main characters became more and more cartoonish and less sympathetic. Besides, even the “humanized” characters became less interesting as time went on.

Season 12 breaks with the trend in one way. It does have an episode focused on a character that was rather odious from his first intro. But instead of trying to make him sympathetic, they embrace the obnoxiousness, pair him with an equally acerbic character, and move him into the background in favor of an A-plot.

The end result is… an episode title that’s actually inaccurate.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Lisa the Tree Hugger” (Season 12, Episode 4)

“You can’t silence the truth with beanbags!” – Jesse Grass, before being proven wrong with beanbags. Try playing hacky sack with that!

Airdate: November 19th, 2000.

Written By: Matt Selman.

Plot: A trip to Krusty Burger ends in a rather interesting matter, as Lisa sees environmental radicals in action, protesting the chain’s less than friendly environmental stance. She also becomes smitten with the group’s leader, Jesse Grass. Enchanted with Dirt First, she joins the group and takes up a rather interesting task. Springfield’s oldest tree is set to be cut down, and Lisa decides to camp out in an attempt to save it.

Review:

Over my coverage of the decline and fall of The Simpsons, I’ve covered the show’s degradation and humiliation of many of its characters. And let’s be real here – in time, no character is left unscathed from being reduced to rubble.

Homer’s descent from jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold everyman into an emotionally abusive super maniac is probably the most infamous, but that’s more because he got an obscene amount of screen time in the Scully era. This meant that we got to see more of him while he was acting at his absolute worst. Always a good combination. But other characters have been mutated during this era, often by taking a small aspect of their character and enveloping it while removing other aspects (or as TV Tropes calls it, “Flanderization”). Burns’s seniority has made him a weakling incompetent, Moe has become pathetically lonely instead of just pathetic (although the episode around that wasn’t actually that bad), and so many more will go down the same path.

One of the more infamous cases was with Lisa. Those who have seen later seasons might be more aware of her as pretty much a complete cliche of every hyper-liberal and pretentious university student out there. That said, from the first episode, she always had an intellectual streak, and episodes not much later have had her possess a slight liberal and activistic streak. This was balanced by her encountering circumstances many eight-year-olds have faced – a substitute teacher she admired, competing in an essay contest, a disconnect with her father, a general feeling of being an outsider – and the writers being able to sell her as a unique character. At her best, she’s my second favorite character in the Simpsons canon. (Come on, nothing beats classic Homer.)

The good news is that this episode fits a very similar mold to that of “Pygmoelian”. While it is a harbinger for her descent into a more cliche and uninteresting character, “Lisa the Tree Hugger” still manages to get the essence of Lisa Simpson mostly correct… and even more surprisingly, manages to put forward a pretty decent script!

The Prisoner Review: “A Change of Mind” (Episode 11)

“We deplore your spirit of disharmony.” “That’s a common complaint around here, isn’t it?” – The Committee Voice and Number Six. You know, maybe he would’ve done well on the Satellite of Love.

Airdate: December 15th, 1967

Written By: Roger Parkes

Plot: Six’s refusal to use the Village Gym in favor of his own makeshift gym in the woods results in him being labeled an “unnatural”. As a result, he is ostracized by the Village, and when his behavior apparently refuses to change, he is dragged into surgery. The intent is to perform a lobotomy to make him docile. But the operation is not what it appears to be…

Review:

Alright, we are ten episodes down, seven to go on this interesting journey in The Prisoner. And based on some preliminary research, it appears that we are in the midst of a relative… weird zone in the show’s canon.

I mean, only seven episodes have been signified as relevant to the plot according to McGoohan. Combined with the fact that the show’s writing team broke down as The Prisoner progressed, and well, the back half of the whole series appears to have gone off the rails. Become more experimental at a quick glance… which, given that this was the sixties, is saying something!

Anyway, much of what we’ve seen thus far concerning The Village has revolved around the leadership therein. Sure, we’ve gotten looks at the daily life within for the captives, but most of the focus has been on the power dynamic between Six and the various Twos. This time, we get to take a look at the social psyche of The Village and how it operates.

It’s one of the most damning episodes for the show’s background characters… yet, thankfully, they can slide into the fact that this comes off as one of the show’s more innocuous episodes.

Movie Review – “Star Trek” (2009)

“The Future Begins…”

“Your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother’s… and yours. I dare you to do better.” – Captain Christopher Pike.

Premiered: May 8th, 2009

Directed By: JJ Abrams

Written By: Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.

Plot: In the 23rd Century, an errant Romulan ship attacks the USS Kelvin, leading to the deaths of Captain Robau and First Officer George Kirk. The latter’s death comes as a supreme sacrifice, as he manages to get his laboring wife and 800 others off the ship before crashing the ship into the Narada to ward off the attacks. Just before the ship crashes, the cries of a baby echo through the moribund bridge.

Twenty years later, a young James Tiberius Kirk has crafted a reputation as a troublemaker, albeit one whose behavior bellies a certain intelligence. Starfleet Captain Christopher Pike talks to him after he gets involved in a bar brawl, recommends that he enlists, urging Kirk to do better than his venerated late father. Concurrently, on the planet Vulcan, mega-genius Spock rejects an entry into the Vulcan Science Academy after they make a backhanded comment regarding his mother; instead, he winds up rising through Starfleet, even taking on some administrative duties.

Spock winds up meeting Kirk after the latter cheats at the Kobayashi Maru test, meant to be unwinnable. Before a verdict can be rendered after Kirk discusses the ethics of the exam, Starfleet is called to a situation on Vulcan – with a “lightning storm” slowly attacking the planet. Kirk and Spock wind up on the same ship, the USS Enterprise… and wind up facing an intellectual struggle between the two of them.

Review:

Star Trek.

Few words, combined, bring to mind such a vast science fiction franchise. The two big competitors in that regard are Doctor Who and Star Wars. From 1966-1969, The Original Series countered the fears of the Cold War by saying that, yes, there would be a brighter tomorrow where humanity comes together to search for the greater good. The series gained international popularity in syndication, thus leading to the creation of ten movies released between 1979 and 2002, as well as four other television series between 1987 and 2005. To this day, Star Trek: The Next Generation remains one of the most feted TV series of all time, and Deep Space Nine is often cited as a forerunner for the more serialized TV dramas airing today on networks such as AMC and Netflix.

That said, there was once a time when it seemed like Star Trek was going to fade into the ether. Voyager split opinion during its seven-year reign, suffering from a drift as to what the characters and mission statement should have been. Enterprise proved controversial from the word “go”, for providing an answer to much fan lore, and the early episodes were also considered weak. The second half of 2002 would provide major body blows to the franchise – Enterprise sent out some of it’s most critically derided episodes (with one in particular, “A Night In Sickbay”, said to have started a permanent rating decline), and Nemesis bombed at the box office, losing in its opening weekend to Maid in Manhattan. The UPN renewed Enterprise by the skin of their teeth in 2004, but punted the show to Friday Nights – not only the dregs of the schedule for any network, but also when the two largest markets would air Yankee and Dodgers games.

In May 2005, Enterprise faded away with an episode that made remaining Trekkies embarrassed. (A year later, the UPN was moribund.) Brannon Braga and Rick Berman left the franchise, all but disgraced in the eyes of quite a few fans.

In short, as the 40th anniversary of the debut of The Original Series approached, Star Trek appeared to be in dire straits. Concurrently, Viacom (which owned Paramount) split from CBS (which owned the Star Trek franchise). However, Paramount was able to get a deal together to develop a new film. To secure this, the company decided to draw on one of the big franchises of the 2000s – Mission: Impossible III writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and JJ Abrams (who also served as director). With Kurtzman and Orci behind the computer, and Abrams in the chair, the decision was made to do a partial reboot of the franchise – bring back the characters from The Original Series, all while setting up a separate timeline.

On May 8th, 2009, the United States got to see the end result. The end product was simply called Star Trek.

A generation began anew.

And… I actually like it.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Pygmoelian” (Season 11, Episode 16)

“Homer, did you hear that? She called me handsome. Me! It’s like I’ve gone to heaven… uh, wait a minute. I died on the operating table, didn’t I?” “Yeah, but just for a minute. It’s a funny story; I’ll tell you sometime.” – Moe and Homer, proposing a much better storyline than, well, much of Season 11 so far.

Airdate: February 27th, 2000

Written By: Larry Doyle

Plot: A trip to the Duff Days festival has Moe win a bar-tending contest by a tongue. Literally, the “toss the drunk” contest has Barney stretch his tongue to give Moe the victory. He is therefore entitled to have his picture on the Duff calendar. Unfortunately, his relative unattractive facial structure results in his face being obscured by many stickers. Shocked by this censorship, Moe tries to get a facelift in order to at least be more physically attractive.

Review:

The past four episodes of The Simpsons that I’ve covered have actually astonished me, in a rather morbid and warped way. I mean, it has to say something, anything, when the best episode out of the prior four had barely any plot and no real ending whatsoever outside of mocking one show that wound up rising from the dead with a vengeance to become a quasi-rival to Our Favorite Family.

Otherwise, what we’ve been subjected to include the confirmation of Mr. Burns’ gutting as an effective antagonist, pirates invading a party yacht, the complete blowout of the show’s ties to reality thanks to underground jockeys and the attack of the Sesame Street characters, a death that is a million times worse than Kirk dying under a poorly-constructed bridge, some of the most disgusting behavior I’ve seen from a protagonist in many years, and an inability to write a coherent plot.

I’m not sure if this marks the show’s lowpoint – Al Jean’s era would see to challenge hat on several occasions – but I do think that these four episodes marked the point of no return. That even if the show did recover, that it was permanently tainted. At the very least, I would argue that these four episodes marked Mike Scully’s card in fandom forever – even with episodes that are worse produced later, Scully’s name is often tied with “Spock’s Brain” as a byword for terminal decline.

“Jockeys and jockeys. What are jockeys?”

Interestingly, “Pygmoelian” does demonstrate quite the improvement over the prior four episodes. Paradoxically, it does so while also altering the path of one of the show’s most famous secondary characters, Moe Szyslak.

Scullyfied Simpsons: “Grift of the Magi” (Season 11, Episode 9)

Give it time – something’s gonna happen involving a charter school, and somebody’s going to proclaim The Simpsons as having become Nostradamus yet again.

“Lisa in trouble – the ironing is delicious!”  – Bart Simpson. You see, this particular charter school doesn’t do much book learning.

Airdate: December 19th, 1999

Written By: Tom Martin

Plot: Springfield Elementary School is coerced into a construction project to bring the school up to code with the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, the Mafia in charge constructs an opulent ramp system… that breaks with a single touch… all while taking the money and running. Out of cash, and with nobody willing or able to fund the school, Springfield Elementary is turned into a charter – brought out by Kid First Industries. However, the new operator is not only poor at their educational philosophy themselves, but are using the school to do market research into a hot new toy.

Review:

Well, it’s the holiday season! Here’s hoping you’re all enjoying nice cocoa, hoping for a white Christmas, not getting tired of the 24/7 Christmas Music on the radio quite yet, and…

…wait, what the hell? It’s July? Everybody’s having burgers, celebrating the World Cup, and going to baseball games? They’re hanging out at the beach, eating ice cream, and going across their nation or down to Spain?

OK, did my fellow Americans at least have the common knowledge to learn from the defensive end from the greatest sports team to ever walk the Earth, and make sure the fireworks they set off on the fourth didn’t blow up in their hand?

Ah, what the hell, let’s watch some more Simpsons – “Grift of the Magi”.

“Grift of the Magi” is the fourth Simpsons Christmas special ever. The first, “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire”, was the show’s opening salvo, demonstrating the working class dysfunction with a heart of gold that powered the show in its glory years. The second, “Marge Be Not Proud”, has been generally well-received, but a small contingent of fans led by one Dead Homer Society considers the episode the worst episode of the first seven years of The Simpsons, as well as the opening salvo of the show’s decline into more traditional sitcom-ish plots and cloying emotion. The third, “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”, is more divisive – and I personally dislike it for its failure to achieve a decent tonal balance.

So here we are. Season 11. The Scully Era is in its third year, and the critical reception towards the show has soured, at least from the more devoted fans. How would they pull off this Christmas episode? Would it have been an improvement, proving they learned their lesson? Or would it have been disastrous as the writing crew stops giving a damn? Let’s take a look.

Red Dwarf Review: Series XII Wrap-Up

Well, here we are. The end of another series of Red Dwarf. Now, there are three questions to ask…

1. Was it good?
2. Will there be another series?
3. Should there be another series?

Series XII of Red Dwarf was the fourth series commissioned by Dave, bringing the number of episodes to 21. Combine that with Series VII and VIII, this means that there are 37 episodes written without Rob Grant – one more than the number of episodes written in part by Rob Grant. Yes, you read that correctly – the post-Grant era is officially longer than the Grant/Naylor era.

Yay?

Red Dwarf Review: “Mechocracy” (Series XII, Episode 4)

“They’ve sunk as low as us!” “That disgusts me!” – Rimmer and the Cat, talking about the ironies of politics.

Airdate: 2 November, 2017
Written By: Doug Naylor
Plot: A false alarm leads to a near-evacuation of the ship… one that does not involve the snack dispensers. After the fault is resolved, the machines through the entire ship declare a massive strike, feeling that they are permanently underrepresented. To resolve this (read: get their power back), they agree to run for a general election. Rimmer and Kryten, recently at odds, run against each other… and everything descends into a smear campaign.

Review:

Back in July of 2017, I raised a question in my review of the Steven Universe episode “Political Power”. It was a rather simple question, but one that bore asking and bears repeating as we settle into 2018. Why did this man, pictured here…

…get elected President of the United States? The answer, I concluded, was that besides the turmoil present in 2010s America and an impressively subpar alternative, Donald Trump was able to market himself effectively to a segment of the electorate that was livid, whether they lost their jobs, had their wages stagnate since the 80s/90s, or in a few cases, were merely bigots. Much as I personally think he’s a charlatan, rather incompetent, a complete and utter nutjob, and an all-around jerkass, Trump’s victory speaks to the art of political statecraft when it comes to campaigning.

Still, such a comically unprecedented election result (we elected the guy from The Apprentice, people) was ripe for analysis, whether it be slavish praise from FOX News, unceasing horror from MSNBC, or even this particular Red Dwarf episode, “Mechocracy” – where Rimmer and Kryten host a presidential election. For vending machines.

Red Dwarf Review: “Cured” (Series XII, Episode 1)

 

…this is less weird in context, guys.

“Selfie!” – Adolf Hitler. Um…

Airdate: 12 October 2017
Written By: Doug Naylor
Plot: While looking for new thrusters for Starbug, the Red Dwarf crew come across a base operated by America dedicated to curing evil. Stored there is Professor Telford, who seems to have dedicated his life to rescuing the world’s most infamous and insidious figures – Hitler, Stalin, Messilina, and Vlad the Impaler.

Review:

Well, feels like nothing changed, right?

As I mentioned in my preview, Series XI and XII were written and filmed in one go. This could’ve proven a dual-edged sword – the chances of burnout and a decline in quality go hand-in-hand with a general drive for a more consistent series, visually and in terms of script. In this regard, Series XII’s first episode – “Cured” – doesn’t feel too much different from Series XI’s first episode, “Twentica”.

Indeed, the two debuts are vaguely similar – using a science fiction trope, mixing the presence of America inside of it, and combining that with a bit of social commentary. Last time it was prohibition and the underground market. This time, it raises the question of whether evil is innate or a learned behavior.

So does it answer that question well? Or, at least, does it make me laugh?