[7.2/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] It’s funny watching two Swartzwelder-penned episodes in a row, because his gag-heavy style becomes clearer with repetition, and yet you can also see the show’s late season issues creeping in. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still lots of laughs here, but the jokes are more and more disconnected from reality or character and more and more a “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” kind of hodgepodge.
There’s at least some good structure to this one. The first act establishes the (pretty absurd) problem of the Simpsons being subjected to the noise and rattles of airplanes flying low overhead. The second act centers on Krusty running for Congress to try to fix the problem. And the third is about his and the Simpsons’ efforts to combat the gridlock in Washington.
That middle portion is probably the best. While some of the George W. Bush-era political comedy feel dated, there’s some free-form riffing on political campaigns that’s well-suited to Swarzwelder’s style. Some of the gags are easy, but so are the targets, so it generally works.
The first act is a little weaker with all the airplane gags that feel closer to Family Guy style lunacy than The Simpsons’ ever so slightly more grounded humor (no pun intended). And the third act isn’t bad, but comes off pretty rushed and implausible even within the elastic reality of the series. I can appreciate the comic exaggeration of their sped-up bill, but in some ways it feels tacked on.
Overall, this one isn’t bad by an stretch. There’s some good, albeit somewhat disjointed laughs, but the whole enterprise is a little too shaggy.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-04-05T01:12:53Z
[7.2/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] It’s funny watching two Swartzwelder-penned episodes in a row, because his gag-heavy style becomes clearer with repetition, and yet you can also see the show’s late season issues creeping in. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still lots of laughs here, but the jokes are more and more disconnected from reality or character and more and more a “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” kind of hodgepodge.
There’s at least some good structure to this one. The first act establishes the (pretty absurd) problem of the Simpsons being subjected to the noise and rattles of airplanes flying low overhead. The second act centers on Krusty running for Congress to try to fix the problem. And the third is about his and the Simpsons’ efforts to combat the gridlock in Washington.
That middle portion is probably the best. While some of the George W. Bush-era political comedy feel dated, there’s some free-form riffing on political campaigns that’s well-suited to Swarzwelder’s style. Some of the gags are easy, but so are the targets, so it generally works.
The first act is a little weaker with all the airplane gags that feel closer to Family Guy style lunacy than The Simpsons’ ever so slightly more grounded humor (no pun intended). And the third act isn’t bad, but comes off pretty rushed and implausible even within the elastic reality of the series. I can appreciate the comic exaggeration of their sped-up bill, but in some ways it feels tacked on.
Overall, this one isn’t bad by an stretch. There’s some good, albeit somewhat disjointed laughs, but the whole enterprise is a little too shaggy.