9.0/10. on a post-classic Simpsons scale. The first half of the show's first two-parter in two decades is decidedly the better half. I have to admit, I was pretty leery going into this episode. The modern day incarnation of The Simpsons rarely knows what to do with half an hour's worth of television real estate, let alone a full hour of it, and hip hop is not exactly the specialty of this writer's room. But I didn't realize this episode was being showrun by Matt Selman, whose episodes are always a cut above Jean's.
The results in the first half are pretty great. Filtering everything through the prism of The Great Gatsby gives the episode some structure and purpose right out of the gate, allowing the show to both poke fun at voiceover narration and employ it to move the story along. Framing Burns as the Gatsby figure, remembering his swinging parties of old and trying to recapture the magic at his summer estate, works far better than I might have thought, particularly with the gag that despite his extravagant days of yore, the hundred-year-old man has become a penny-pincher in the here and now.
That framework, of course, leads him to follow a green light, but it takes him to a neighboring party led by rap mogul Jay G. The melding of Gatsby and hip hop culture works surprisingly well, and it's one of those canny observations -- the imagery of wealth and excess on display in rap videos as the modern day incarnation of the lavish affairs chronicled in Fitzgerald's novels -- that I don't really expect from The Simpsons anymore. Discovering a rapper/entrepreneur who, by some coincidence, idolizes Burns based on his old "how to succeed in business" book creates a narrative economy that humorously advances the story of Burns rekindling his lust for life.
That lust, of course, takes the form of conspicuous consumption in the form an "obsidian" credit card, which allows Burns to employ pointless spending in Jay G.'s mold and emulate that lifestyle, to his continued but fleeting joy. The reveal that Jay G was playing Burns the whole time, and that this was all an effort to bankrupt and dethrone him is a nice one that adds an appropriately Fitzgeraldian turn to the proceedings. And the rap song used to announce it is pretty good too!
The B-plot, where after spending time around "Middle-Hampton," Lisa ends up dating and changing a local rich "douche" is, as usual, too slight and underdone to really do too much. It has a few laughs (the whale in an aquarium) and the ethical choice Lisa makes (principles vs. ponies) is compelling. But it just sort of ends out of nowhere, and everything's too rushed. By contrast, the scenes of Smithers's ice adventure are just quick gags and work well as quick-hit comedy.
Overall, this is the far superior half of this hour-long episode, and I wish the show had been able to keep up this momentum and comedy going into the second half.
haha I like the continued parodies, and this one is of course of The Great Gatsby with a dash of Empire, and a bit of The Revenant (also with DiCaprio) mixed in.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-01-25T20:19:34Z
9.0/10. on a post-classic Simpsons scale. The first half of the show's first two-parter in two decades is decidedly the better half. I have to admit, I was pretty leery going into this episode. The modern day incarnation of The Simpsons rarely knows what to do with half an hour's worth of television real estate, let alone a full hour of it, and hip hop is not exactly the specialty of this writer's room. But I didn't realize this episode was being showrun by Matt Selman, whose episodes are always a cut above Jean's.
The results in the first half are pretty great. Filtering everything through the prism of The Great Gatsby gives the episode some structure and purpose right out of the gate, allowing the show to both poke fun at voiceover narration and employ it to move the story along. Framing Burns as the Gatsby figure, remembering his swinging parties of old and trying to recapture the magic at his summer estate, works far better than I might have thought, particularly with the gag that despite his extravagant days of yore, the hundred-year-old man has become a penny-pincher in the here and now.
That framework, of course, leads him to follow a green light, but it takes him to a neighboring party led by rap mogul Jay G. The melding of Gatsby and hip hop culture works surprisingly well, and it's one of those canny observations -- the imagery of wealth and excess on display in rap videos as the modern day incarnation of the lavish affairs chronicled in Fitzgerald's novels -- that I don't really expect from The Simpsons anymore. Discovering a rapper/entrepreneur who, by some coincidence, idolizes Burns based on his old "how to succeed in business" book creates a narrative economy that humorously advances the story of Burns rekindling his lust for life.
That lust, of course, takes the form of conspicuous consumption in the form an "obsidian" credit card, which allows Burns to employ pointless spending in Jay G.'s mold and emulate that lifestyle, to his continued but fleeting joy. The reveal that Jay G was playing Burns the whole time, and that this was all an effort to bankrupt and dethrone him is a nice one that adds an appropriately Fitzgeraldian turn to the proceedings. And the rap song used to announce it is pretty good too!
The B-plot, where after spending time around "Middle-Hampton," Lisa ends up dating and changing a local rich "douche" is, as usual, too slight and underdone to really do too much. It has a few laughs (the whale in an aquarium) and the ethical choice Lisa makes (principles vs. ponies) is compelling. But it just sort of ends out of nowhere, and everything's too rushed. By contrast, the scenes of Smithers's ice adventure are just quick gags and work well as quick-hit comedy.
Overall, this is the far superior half of this hour-long episode, and I wish the show had been able to keep up this momentum and comedy going into the second half.