[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Perfectly decent way to close out the season. Some of the humor was a little too tepid or cutesy, particularly in the early going of the episode, but it righted the ship eventually. The episode progessed nicely through the plot, with Homer’s trial after hitting Gil taking up the first act, the Dog Paradise created by the town the second act, and the dogs turning “alpha” and taking over in the third act. The episode wrung some laughs from Springfield going so dog-friendly, and even had a few low-key gags that really tickled my funny bone (like Homer straining to make the “look what the cat dragged in” bit work).
I was initially impressed with the episode for remembering that it started with Gil and bringing him back to stop the dog takeover, but instead it’s just Marge defending her kids and thus becoming the alpha. It’s a fine way to close out the episode, but it makes the Gil stuff in the third act feel like a waste of time. It’s an exaggerated premise and episode -- one that frankly feels better suited to something like Futurama in “That Darn Katz,” but it gets enough laughs out of the canine humor and tells a solid enough story, and gets enough mileage from satirizing people’s abiding love of dogs to get by.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-07-12T20:01:37Z
[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Perfectly decent way to close out the season. Some of the humor was a little too tepid or cutesy, particularly in the early going of the episode, but it righted the ship eventually. The episode progessed nicely through the plot, with Homer’s trial after hitting Gil taking up the first act, the Dog Paradise created by the town the second act, and the dogs turning “alpha” and taking over in the third act. The episode wrung some laughs from Springfield going so dog-friendly, and even had a few low-key gags that really tickled my funny bone (like Homer straining to make the “look what the cat dragged in” bit work).
I was initially impressed with the episode for remembering that it started with Gil and bringing him back to stop the dog takeover, but instead it’s just Marge defending her kids and thus becoming the alpha. It’s a fine way to close out the episode, but it makes the Gil stuff in the third act feel like a waste of time. It’s an exaggerated premise and episode -- one that frankly feels better suited to something like Futurama in “That Darn Katz,” but it gets enough laughs out of the canine humor and tells a solid enough story, and gets enough mileage from satirizing people’s abiding love of dogs to get by.