Shout by Reiko LJ
VIP6Damn, Andy's character has gone a complete 180 this season. They've turned him into a right knob. What's the point of that?
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Agreed.
Nellie wasn't great, but he's been going way too far.
It's gone way past Michael hating Toby levels.
Hoping it turns around soon.
Thank god this didn't become a show. This was the pilot for a spin off around Dwight's farm.
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Agreed.
Dwight is one of those characters that works best in the background, not in a leading role.
Tuco was scared. Legitimately scared. I don't blame him. But he does strike me as the type that's completely crazy and insane but deep down, really a coward.
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same, the types that have to beat people & shit to retain control always are.
[8.5/10 on a classic Simpsons scale] If you’d asked me what “Selma’s Choice” was about without my rewatching the episode, I’d probably have simply referred to it as “The Duff Gardens episode.” The Simpsons’s parodies of the vicissitudes of theme parks are still relevant and amusing today. (I was, incidentally, spurred to revisit this one after seeing clips from it at Universal Orlando’s “Springfield USA” land, among many other amusing theme park-related scenes from the show.) Everything from the mishap at the rollercoaster to the longest line in the park being for the complaint desk to the enjoyably prickly Surly of the “Seven Duffs” takes the stuffing out of amusement park in the way that only The Simpsons can.
And yet, Duff Gardens is really incidental to the larger story being told in “Selma’s Choice,” one about Selma confronting her own biological clock and struggling to find love and family at a time when she feels like her options are dwindling. Not very long ago, I watched an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore show which, like The Simpsons, was produced by James L. Brooks, and it deals with much the same theme for that series’s protagonist. The notion of a single woman starting to feel her age and wonder how much longer she has to find a partner and start a family is a venerable one, and both shows plumb the depths of it here.
There’s a great deal of pathos in Selma’s struggle here. She’s mostly presented as an object of scorn for Homer, but “Selma’s Choice” explores her loneliness and hopes in a way that add’s another dimension to the character. The grandfather clock received from a deceased Aunt who implored her to start a family is pretty heavy in its symbolism, but it drives home the point well. It adds shading to Selma’s initial attempts to find a man (culminating in her giving up after imagining a future with Hans Moleman, a gag that’s a bit mean-spirited but you know, understandable) and her follow up notion of artificial insemination. Her line about “all she has now” and her conversation with Marge underscore the sadness and desperation of all this.
That, of course, leads to the memorable third act where she chaperones Bart and Lisa around Duff Gardens and sees that kids, especially those with Simpson DNA, can be a handful. Bart’s usual menace, and Lisa’s log flume-water-fueled mania are more than she can handle. Her asking Homer, of all people, how he manages to do it, is the strangest but surest sign of defeat, that she admits this guy who she thinks might be “missing a chromosome” can handle something she just can’t. The resolution of her adopting Jub Jub (and we’re years away from her adopting Ling) is a nice one, that gives Selma a half-victory and a bit of happiness, without undercutting the amusing but affecting melancholy that permeates the rest of her story.
And of course, there’s plenty of great laughs throughout. Only The Simpsons could turn a funeral for a heretofore unseen character into something so funny, whether it comes in the form of the kids passively accepting the trip to Duff Gardens having to be postponed while Homer throws a fit (“I’m not pouting, I’m mourning”), or Bart scaring Lisa by pretending to be the dearly departed Aunt Gladys, or everyone voting in favor of fast-forwarding through the poem. The aforementioned riffs on theme parks are perfectly pitched, and the saga of Homer and his rotting sandwich is an absolute classic, with great physical humor to boot. Even the little things in the episode, like Selma seeing Homer’s arm around Marge in the car as a reminder of what she envies, or the superb psychedelic animation after Lisa goes nuts, add to the emotion and stakes of the episode.
On the whole, “Selma’s Choice” is the best kind of episode to revisit – the kind that draws you in with memories of hilarious gags and bits of well-deployed humor, but that reveals a depth of feeling and character that may have escaped your recollection. Selma’s trials are sad and even dark in their own way, with a Charlie Kaufman-esque bleakness to them, but they’re balanced by the episode’s stellar jokes and the small victory she gets in the end. This one, like nearly all of the show’s classic episodes, is a keeper.
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Agreed, this episode is great.
Shout by Winchester
The first one is the best and the raven was as a kid my favorite :)
The Raven fun fact first time i saw this in my native language i did not fully understand it was to little now in english as an adult i don't fully understand it lolloading replies
I think the point of the poem is that the narrator is so deep in his grief over Lenore that he sees the raven not as a mere bird, but as an omen of evil (what with the demonic imagery and such).
Probably wrong though, I'm not an English teacher.
To be fair, “gimme some sugar” has very different connotations in my head, so no - I would not take Don up on that offer.
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same lmao. Has me questioning every scene lol.
roy didn't want pam to take the internship because he doesn't want her to be on a higher level than him. he wants to keep her small, in the same space. jim wants her to have everything SHE wants, which is why he is hard on her about not taking it. that's called actual love folks
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For real. Roy's always been really dickish the entire time - easiest to see here and in the Christmas episode when he offhandedly says that he'd get a "sweater or something" instead of an iPod.
Brent Spiner gets another opportunity to display his great acting skills. And despite the fact that this isn't among my favorites it's far removed from being amongst the worst.
There is a lot of technical mumbo-jumbo going on that seems rather far fetched even for a sci-fi show. But I like the mythology of those characters. It's another one of those episodes where I would like to have known more about the species. A culture more than 80 million years old that was highly technologically advanced yet still preserved an ancient heritage. Sounds intriguing.loading replies
Same, so many unanswered questions.
How'd this persist long enough for them to be warp-capable? What was the sacrifice that scared guy mentioned? How tf did the array float around for that long? What powered it?
And so on.
The episode that turns our lovely Enterprise crew into little more than murderers, and seems to want us to be on their side. A ridiculous concept for an episode that shows the Prime Directive for the nonsense it is, and feels like it's completely against the spirit of what these characters have always stood for.
Redeemed a little by having Paul Sorvino as Worf's brother Nikolai and for a creative use of the holodeck (later recycled in Star Trek: Insurrection), but even that is contrived as it conveniently stops working for plot purposes. Plus, if they needed a way to fix it then why not just sedate all of the Boraalans while they're sleeping and carry out the reboot?
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Yeah, I even asked myself that while watching. "Why not wait til they go to sleep or sedate them to reboot it?"
Especially if it only takes "a few hours" to reboot the entire system.
That's what all religions are about
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Yup, glad they satirized it with Lovejoy's scene.
"Homer's Triple Bypass" is a great episode that sees Homer suffer a massive heart attack and receive a life-saving operation for $129.95. There are great gags in this one to boot and a solid blend of humour and heart. However, the ending felt like a cop-out to me. Surely Homer would face some form of divine punishment for taking the cheap route, but no, he's all fixed in the end. This show pertains to the status quo, understandably, but the writers could have come up with a much better ending. However, the quality of gags in this one mostly make up for it.
Overall, a high-quality episode, minus the ending.
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Well, it's all but stated that Lisa hell Riviera since he's incompetent.
"Krusty Gets Cancelled" is a terrible episode for The Simpsons, in my opinion. While the premise for this one was interesting, with the overplayed media hype surrounding Gabbo being well satirised, it's ultimately an excuse to cram as many celebrity guest stars as possible, who all end up being shallow and forgettable. Seriously, not one of them is remarkable in this one. I also found it odd how they brought back Barry White for a cameo, who had made an appearance just two episodes ago. This episode doesn't even have solid humour to keep it afloat. It's all simple, watered-down pandering at its worst. I also noticed Marge didn't have a single line of dialogue in this one. According to IMDb, this is because her voice actress (Julie Kavner) sat out in protest over the overuse of celebrity guest stars. I highly respect that.
Overall, this is a surprisingly terrible and shallow finale for a good season.
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Agreed. The only good thing from this is the "what the hell was that?" meme.
Shout by FLY
VIP2So we're not gonna see Vincent any more ? Well, I loved the idea but that part was a little long.
Todd finding "Herb" in the car, nice one.
One of the best recurring small jokes is Mr Peanutbutter asking for stuff written on banners, cakes, merchandise.loading replies
Yeah, I love the "he can't get things written properly" gag too.
Shout by Nico di Angelo
Is anybody going to mention these episodes aren't 42 minutes, but 25 minutes... :sweat_smile:
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Distant Lands was a limited series of specials. They were probably given more time to work with due to that.
Shout by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[7.2/10] I gotta admit, I didn’t really get this one. It had some cool, out there bits, and I liked the unlikely trio of Finn, Jermaine, and Betty, but I wasn’t really sure what the episode was getting at. There’s obviously the sense that Betty (and by extension, Magic/Normal/King Man) are too obsessed with one individual that keeps them from progressing with their lives, but that’s a kind of weird message considering that Finn and Jermaine are facing fears and traversing obstacles in order to save someone whom they both care about.
It’s certainly poignant when Betty uses her magic to keep her past self from meeting Simon, but again, I don’t know what it amounts to. Still, I like Jermaine teaming up with Finn rather than Jake as a novelty, and Jermaine’s nervousness and fear makes for an interesting counterpoint to Finn’s bravery. Plus, it’s cool to see more of Mars post-Magic Man and it’s a novel way to bring Jake back.
Overall, a bit of a headscratcher of an episode, but one with a lot of cool individual moments and some neat, out there Adventure Time imagery.
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Finn isn't obsessed with Jake like magic man and Betty are (he waited over a month to try and save him lol), and imo that's the key difference between the two.
I do think this is layered in metaphors though (as many other episodes have been).
I thought Jake got his powers from rolling in a puddle of dirt?
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Nah, the episode about Joshua & Margaret shows us the scene from the start of the episode.
They just lied to him since this actual origin is weird af.
Shout by Andrew Bloom
VIP9[7.3/10] This one got a little plotty for my tastes, but has some cool moments. I like the idea that being from Lumpy Space, LSP is made up of the constituent parts of the elements and so is thus immune to them. Sure, it’s a bit of a handwave, but it works well enough for what the show’s going for.
And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t affected by Finn eating the bit of bubblegum and seizing on his happy memories. It’s interesting that they’re his best moments with PB and, to a lesser extent, Flame Princess, and that it’s enough to snap him out of being Flame Finn and back to being good-natured Human Finn.
Elemental PB’s “I love you” song, turning everyone into candy zombies, is nicely creepy, and Betty’s doublecross is predictable but still cool.. Again, I’ve kind of enjoyed the development of this one more than the climax, but there’s cool stuff going on, so I’m tempted to give the raw action/convenient immunity stuff a pass.
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I figured it's because she's basically extra-dimensional (seems like lumpy space is akin to a parallel dimension from what I remember of it in season 1).
But yeah, still kinda handwavy.
8.0/10. Woohoo! Adventure Time is back! This one did a nice job of following up on the last episode, going into the aftermath of the fight with Hulk Susan but doing so in an interesting way. I find the notion of Grass-Finn intriguing. The notion of a person who is a combination of the timeline Finn who was in the Finnsword and the curse/emissary/octopus spider that was in the Grass-sword combining to make some kind of alternate Finn is the sort of sci-fi weirdnesss I appreciate from this show.
But what I really appreciate is the Regular Finn here. He's initially upset at this guy who he thinks is hurting Susan and copying his life, while eventually, he realizes that GrassFinn is as much a person, and as much him, as he is. (Doppelgangers lead to some awkward pronoun use). The details of Finn's maturity and psyche, from his being more zen about losing his arm this time, to his empathy and understanding for GrassFinn shows a boy who's grown up a lot and slowly but surely become the kind of person you hope the kids who watch this show see as a role model.
There's lot of other great details in here too. Jake's defensiveness against GrassFinn and attempts to make GrassFinn look him in the eye were very funny. BMO's frightenedness was adorable as usual. And my god, the banana guard on the phone was straight up hilarious. There were also tons of little plot-relevant details, like Susan being quietly wheeled away, or the ticking time bomb that is the grass-octopus thing (in some neat mirrored animation). This is Adventure Time firing on all cylinders, combining plot, humor, and character to make something that makes you laugh, makes you intrigued to find out what's next, and makes you care about the people at the center of the adventure.
loading replies@kuhncumber Yeah, they renumbered the episodes since I initially reviewed them and so now everything is off. And the site lost several of my reviews to boot, which is a bummer.
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I've seen a few of your reviews on the wrong episode too.
Was wondering what happened lol.
Shout by Alejandro F. Cisternas Ainol
i think princess is the bad woman, cuz she want to rule all the galaxy.
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I agree that she's morally dubious, but "rule the galaxy"? What are you basing that on?
My mom hates Bubblegum for reasons I couldn't understand until this episode.
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I wonder what the reason is, cuz she was pretty good in this episode.
Shout by Deleted
an episode dedicated to Peppermint's backstory would be interesting, he sure is a pretty intriguing character
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For real, man.
How's he friends with death to the point that he just goes "aight bro, I'll help you out" after Finn mentions Peppermint Butler?!
Shout by peachy peachy
This would've been better earlier in the series before we know that Bubblegum is kinda unsympathetic/married to her work and may or may not have a thing with Marcy. Jealous Finn was funny and adorable too.
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Yeah, it's placed a bit weirdly imo.
So fin's hat is made from bear skin
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And he only has one, for some reason.
Shout by Deleted
i don't know what intrigued me more here, the history of Ice King or how the earth became Ooo
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Same here!
And how old is ice king anyway? Ooo is definitely a post-apocalypse hundreds of years in the future - maybe even thousands - so does the crown make him immortal or some shit?
And was Dr. Princess his fiance? She kinda looks like Betty.
Lemongrab has not aged well on so many levels
loading replies@jc230 Why not? What is it?
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i think Justin Roland voices him.
The character itself is fine though. I'd say he's meant to be annoying on purpose.
one of the most remarkable episodes of this series in fact. Finally meeting Lich
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He first appeared in the episode where we see Billy (in the montage of stuff he's done), but yeah it's nice to actually see him in this episode.
Shout by JC
VIP4Not having Marceline Bubblegum and BMO- Finn’s closest friends- here and instead having a bunch of nobodies for his birthday was an odd choice
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Yeah, it feels like it was made as a parody of Murder on the Orient Express before being an episode.
For real, took long enough lmao
This looks like a pilot that’s pretty good.
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Yup, it's a revised version of the pilot episode.
Hot dogs eating each other is erotic to someone, I’m sure of it.
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Why must you put this thought in my head?
