[9.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] If “Trilogy of Error” were just a regular episode, one that strung all these stories together seriatum rather than gave us bits and pieces of them in an interconnected web, I don’t think I’d rate it nearly as high. That is to say, the jokes and characterization and other areas where The Simpsons waxed and waned in its twelfth season are not dramatically better here than usual.
But man, the degree of difficulty! Getting this tripartite set of stories to sync up and link up must have been a massive undertaking. It requires a little bending of the rules here and there, but for the most off, the setups and payoffs all happen beautifully, with neat connections between different stories and jokes set up in one act that don’t pay off until a later one.
Homer and Marge needing to reattach a thumb, Lisa trying to get her grammar robot to the science fair, and Bart and Milhouse playing with smuggled fireworks are all good engines to keep Our Favorite Family moving through this clockwork tale. And throwing in well-set appearances by Chief Wiggum, Cletus, Dr. Nick, and Fat Tony’s crew works well as glue characters to help hold the story together.
Plus, the non-clockwork jokes aren’t bad! Linguo and his grammar-related exasperation (and eventual explosion) are the highlight of the episode. Bart and Milhouse’s firework-related adventures have the fun preteen mischief angle down. And even Mr. Teeny driving a car and speaking in subtitles, one of the cartoonier bits in the episode, got a good laugh out of me. (“Tell the people!”)
Overall, this is one of the show’s boldest and most creative strokes from a storytelling perspective, and the fact that it came down in season 12, when it seemed like the show’s creativity had been all but juiced out, makes it doubly impressive.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-06-19T20:07:07Z
[9.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] If “Trilogy of Error” were just a regular episode, one that strung all these stories together seriatum rather than gave us bits and pieces of them in an interconnected web, I don’t think I’d rate it nearly as high. That is to say, the jokes and characterization and other areas where The Simpsons waxed and waned in its twelfth season are not dramatically better here than usual.
But man, the degree of difficulty! Getting this tripartite set of stories to sync up and link up must have been a massive undertaking. It requires a little bending of the rules here and there, but for the most off, the setups and payoffs all happen beautifully, with neat connections between different stories and jokes set up in one act that don’t pay off until a later one.
Homer and Marge needing to reattach a thumb, Lisa trying to get her grammar robot to the science fair, and Bart and Milhouse playing with smuggled fireworks are all good engines to keep Our Favorite Family moving through this clockwork tale. And throwing in well-set appearances by Chief Wiggum, Cletus, Dr. Nick, and Fat Tony’s crew works well as glue characters to help hold the story together.
Plus, the non-clockwork jokes aren’t bad! Linguo and his grammar-related exasperation (and eventual explosion) are the highlight of the episode. Bart and Milhouse’s firework-related adventures have the fun preteen mischief angle down. And even Mr. Teeny driving a car and speaking in subtitles, one of the cartoonier bits in the episode, got a good laugh out of me. (“Tell the people!”)
Overall, this is one of the show’s boldest and most creative strokes from a storytelling perspective, and the fact that it came down in season 12, when it seemed like the show’s creativity had been all but juiced out, makes it doubly impressive.