[5.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] What the hell is this? Was it a Sideshow Bob episode? An Xmas episode? A story about Burns childhood? A plot about porch-napping? The answer is that it’s all of these things and none of them: a random grab bag of assorted, vaguely Simpsons-y ephemera. Some of them are better than others, but this is less an episode than an aimless series of loose sketches.
Sideshow Bob is pretty much wasted. It’s always fun to have Kelsey Grammer’s baritone back in play, but his lighthouse keeper gags are tepid, and his excuse for not killing Bart this time is beyond lame. The show really contorts itself to try to figure out why he would be so invested in clearing his name as the porch-napper and why he’d run into the Simpsons at all.
I actually like the flashback to Burns childhood and unhappy Xmas, but it comes out of nowhere. “Smithers and Burns” is a pretty unsatisfying answer to the same “S.B.” mystery that the show pulled in “Wedding for Disaster.” And while there’s something kind of weirdly sweet about Bob-as-Santa reassuring Burns that his parents gave him the gift of strength even if they never gave him affection, it’s a too-little-too-late tack on to what’s otherwise a bunch of fluff.
Bart’s antics at Santa’s village, Homer messing around with the inflatable Santa, and bafflingly long interlude with Steve Balmer, and tons of other barely-comic detritus are all over the episode, and would drag it down even if it weren’t a hodge-podge of Xmas miscellany
Overall, this is a real dud. The show’s put out some middling Xmas episodes before, but this one just seems lazy and chock full of filler. There’s a few good moments here and there, but it seems like an episode meant to be chopped up into youtube clips to mildly chuckle at than as a unified (or dare I say, funny) thing in and of itself.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-12-17T20:46:46Z
[5.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] What the hell is this? Was it a Sideshow Bob episode? An Xmas episode? A story about Burns childhood? A plot about porch-napping? The answer is that it’s all of these things and none of them: a random grab bag of assorted, vaguely Simpsons-y ephemera. Some of them are better than others, but this is less an episode than an aimless series of loose sketches.
Sideshow Bob is pretty much wasted. It’s always fun to have Kelsey Grammer’s baritone back in play, but his lighthouse keeper gags are tepid, and his excuse for not killing Bart this time is beyond lame. The show really contorts itself to try to figure out why he would be so invested in clearing his name as the porch-napper and why he’d run into the Simpsons at all.
I actually like the flashback to Burns childhood and unhappy Xmas, but it comes out of nowhere. “Smithers and Burns” is a pretty unsatisfying answer to the same “S.B.” mystery that the show pulled in “Wedding for Disaster.” And while there’s something kind of weirdly sweet about Bob-as-Santa reassuring Burns that his parents gave him the gift of strength even if they never gave him affection, it’s a too-little-too-late tack on to what’s otherwise a bunch of fluff.
Bart’s antics at Santa’s village, Homer messing around with the inflatable Santa, and bafflingly long interlude with Steve Balmer, and tons of other barely-comic detritus are all over the episode, and would drag it down even if it weren’t a hodge-podge of Xmas miscellany
Overall, this is a real dud. The show’s put out some middling Xmas episodes before, but this one just seems lazy and chock full of filler. There’s a few good moments here and there, but it seems like an episode meant to be chopped up into youtube clips to mildly chuckle at than as a unified (or dare I say, funny) thing in and of itself.