4.5/10. I don't know how many folks were clamoring for a Professor Frink episode, but like it or not, here you go. Suffice it to say, I didn't like it. The idea of the good professor trying to change himself in order to find love has some potential, but the humor was cliche and stereotypical, and even for a show with loose continuity, there wasn't much of a believable progression with Frink from lover-of-logarhythms to lothario. His final bow while stargazing had a certain sweetness to it that at least put a nice taste in your mouth despite the sourness of most of the storyline, but then the show ruined it with a lame "angry mother robot" joke. A disjointed and undercooked story without many chuckles to say the least.
The storyline featuring Grampa and his fellow seniors taking pills that make them hallucinate the good ol' days was just as disjointed, but at least there were a few more laughs with this one. The man hallucinating and dancing with his old hardware store was a delightful twist followed by a pleasant absurd escalation. The sepia-toned daydreams let the animators show off their creativity a bit, and brought along some good sign gags. And there was a vague emotional undercurrent with Grampa's yearning for days gone by and Marge leading the charge to bring him back to the present. But for the most part, the whole thing was fairly insubstantial, without enough of a narrative to really keep things moving.
It was also a particularly cartoony episode, with Cletus shooting a cherub and other wacky science weirdness with Frink that makes me yearn for the days when The Simpsons was a show that took place in something of a heightened reality, but was much more down to earth. At the same time, the humor was a bit mean spirited as well. Obviously, not the best outing the show's had in a pretty decent season.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-02-17T21:31:09Z
4.5/10. I don't know how many folks were clamoring for a Professor Frink episode, but like it or not, here you go. Suffice it to say, I didn't like it. The idea of the good professor trying to change himself in order to find love has some potential, but the humor was cliche and stereotypical, and even for a show with loose continuity, there wasn't much of a believable progression with Frink from lover-of-logarhythms to lothario. His final bow while stargazing had a certain sweetness to it that at least put a nice taste in your mouth despite the sourness of most of the storyline, but then the show ruined it with a lame "angry mother robot" joke. A disjointed and undercooked story without many chuckles to say the least.
The storyline featuring Grampa and his fellow seniors taking pills that make them hallucinate the good ol' days was just as disjointed, but at least there were a few more laughs with this one. The man hallucinating and dancing with his old hardware store was a delightful twist followed by a pleasant absurd escalation. The sepia-toned daydreams let the animators show off their creativity a bit, and brought along some good sign gags. And there was a vague emotional undercurrent with Grampa's yearning for days gone by and Marge leading the charge to bring him back to the present. But for the most part, the whole thing was fairly insubstantial, without enough of a narrative to really keep things moving.
It was also a particularly cartoony episode, with Cletus shooting a cherub and other wacky science weirdness with Frink that makes me yearn for the days when The Simpsons was a show that took place in something of a heightened reality, but was much more down to earth. At the same time, the humor was a bit mean spirited as well. Obviously, not the best outing the show's had in a pretty decent season.