I don't know what is going on these days. While I personally find NCIS world has got kinda dull. For me, NCIS started going down hill slowly, right back when Abbey left. NCIS L.A. was the next best for me.
However, it is still one of the best things on TV these days. I think it is unfair to compare Hawaii with NCIS viewing ratings. It was the highest rating in it's time slot. Why cancel that, because of yet another addition to the NCIS universe, before they know what ratings NCIS Origins will get? It may be a complete miss.
It would of made more sense to give Hawaii another season, to give them time to see what ratings Origins get.
They just keep making new ones, to watch established ones burn to the ground.
Is it not obvious that there isn't enough demand for the supply of another new one?
Sydney pops up, L.A drops out. Origins pops up, Hawaii drops out to make room. I really don't think that is a very good way to treat your actors and everyone else that is now without work.
I noticed the status changed to cancelled. Now it has been changed back to returning? Do you know something we don't?
I have been reminiscing and digging up TV shows from the 70s and 80s. Straight away, I noticed that the series, used to have a lot more episodes per series. I think that is one reason why so many series are being cancelled. you don't have time to get in to them, before they finish again for another year.
back then, there was 9 months on TV and 3 months off. So you would have more time to get in to the show, less time to forget everything, so less time needed to get back in to them.
The other totally unfair and stupid thing they keep doing is stopping it for 2 weeks here and a week there. People lose track and lose the show.
You want the audience to invest in the show, 1st, you have to invest in the show. Show some loyalty and respect to the people who work for you, some consistency in the days it's on.
People have kept saying that the characters haven't got much in the cohesion. I am not surprised really. They are never sure if they will be the next to face the axe.
how can the characters and actors bond, under these disloyal, disrespectful and ungrateful human calculators? I know they aren't a charity and I am certainly not saying they should keep paying good money for rubbish. But this was top in it's time slot. what more do the calculators want from a show?
So, just like the Netflix "don't f**k with cats" """""documentary""""", it shows a bunch of internet... sleuths, it's the term they use in the film– and I would say crazy instead, but I wouldn't like to offend all the crazy people out there– destroying the life and almost killing a innocent man, Pablo Vergara, just so they could satisfy their inflated disturbed Ego. Congratulations to everyone involved in this, y'all freaking disgusting!
Elisa's death was treated like a hobby for a bunch of obsessed "sleuths" (I'm saying this word in my head as an insult), who fancied themselves investigators but that in truth are just a bunch of conspiracy theorists, and of the lowest caliber, because 10yo kids could invent a better story than what they tried to push. I mean, that thing about a random piece a shoe appearing at some point in the elevator video (spoiler: there's no other shoes other than Elisa)? Really? That's all you could come up with? About the timestamp: do you really think that police would disclose such an vital information to the public? Really? REALLY?
In short, they didn't contribute with anything to the investigation, just wasted people's (police) time.
The police did what they needed to do, didn't listened to those wackos, investigated with competence and respect, an example of good investigative police work.
The history of Skid Row neighborhood is actually the most interesting part of the film! I would gladly have sat though a documentary about this place, and the future of it... it could easily include the history of Cecil Hotel too, and I would watch it intently. The former resident was really interesting to listen to, sounded like he had a lot of stories to tell about both Skid Row and Cecil Hotel.
Just want to say I'm sorry for what you went through Pablo, and I hope you get better soon and that inspiration finds you swiftly.
Overall, when not talkning about police work, the actual reason behind her death, or historcal informations, it's a waste of time. And I have to say this is one of the worst docuserie I ever watched. "Don't f**k with cats" it's a masterpiece compared to this piece of filmage.
[9.8/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This is the most wild and creative format bender The Simpsons has done since “Trilogy of Error” (the Linguo episode) and maybe since “22 Short Films About Springfield.” “Lisa the Boy Scout” feels like a modern-day successor to that installment, which uses the airtime give mini-stories to almost everyone in Springfield, albeit with a more meta-twist that left his feeling like something out of Community or even Rick & Morty.
(Though hey, shout out to “The Seemingly Neverending Story” which also used some creative storytelling moves in the post-classic era, even if it’s been ages since that one too.)
I love the basic setup here, with a group of hackers unleashing a spate of rejected story ideas and clips from the series in an effort to ransom their way into big money and maybe even bring down the Disney corporation. In truth, my only mildly significant gripe with the episode is that the hackers from the frame story falling in love elicits more chuckles than guffaws. But the duo spoofing Anonymous and using forbidden or aschanned Simpsons bits to get what they want provides the show an excuse to break loose from canon and go wild without disrupting the show.
Boy do they! I’ll confess, part of what made me enjoy this episode so much is the way it’s definitely targeted at terminally online Simpsons fans like yours truly. They poke fun at all the dumb fan theories -- like Ralph secrelty being Eddie the cop’s son. They take aim at the popular meme of the show predicting the future, with “Bart to the Future” era Bart beaming back to the original “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” premiere to feed his family some info from later days. They reference the fact that Wise Guy pops up all over the place with an amusingly out there explanation. (Though what of Squeaky Voiced Teen?) Heck, even the idea of whole run to this point being a coma dream from Homer after he fell into Springfield Gorge has some extra spark in its fan fiction-y pastiche.
Alongside those bits, there’s tons of fun meta-gags to tickle the funny bones of longtime viewers. My god, I died laughing when the hackers declared they were unleashing the worst of the worst to truly drive The Simpsons into the ground, and amid the original comic material crafted for this episode, they also included infamous real life clips from the show, like the dreaded Jockey Elves and Homer fighting a bear. Plus, the way the show perfectly captured the rhythms of a typical Simpsons episode with its bookends, replete with a self-jab about Homer doing something terrible to Marge and making it better with an apology, had me in stitches. This is, impressively, the most self-referential the series has been since “Behind the Laughter”, and the show’s ability to make comic hay from its own conceits is outstanding.
That said, it returns to one of showrunner Matt Selman’s hobby horses: poking fun at prestige television. I could be overreaching here, but I took the amusing scene of Sea Captain and Groundskeeper Willie communicating only in “Yar”s and “Aye”s to be an homage to a famous scene from The Wire where two detectives communicate using only the word “fuck.” I loved the scene where it turns out Martin is a 36-year-old undercover blue collar cop with a wife and kids, for its delightful absurdity and perfect rendition of those tropes. And the sequence of “enough of the lies” followed by glass throwing and major revelations worked brilliantly as a spoof of the need for big dramas these days to unveil familial twist after twist, no matter how contorted or strained, to keep fans talking and guessing.
But as with “22 Short Films about Springfield” I also just enjoyed the rapid-fire looniness of the whole deal. Santa’s Little Helper learning to talk, followed by Homer only being shocked that it’s morning is a classic Simpsons swerve. The array of punny names with single-episode images was a good laugh. And even the line about the show being propped up by NFL fans who fell asleep brings the meta humor back in a good way.
All-in-all, this is a real gem of a late-season episode, which takes some big chances and gives us something like Simpsons fans have never truly seen before. I don’t want them to go back to this well again, but seeing the Community-style, free associative, self-deprecating metahumor at play was a real treat for longtime fans like me. Bravo!
[8.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] As a devotee of so-called prestige television, this was right up my alley. I loved the homages here, from Fargo, to Breaking Bad, all the way to Dexter’s famous grapefruit (I agree, it’s not subtle). And while I admire both the tributes and the guest stars (Brian Cox!Timothy Olyphant! Cristin Miloti!), I actually love the way The Simpsons apes these shows in this one.
It’s not just a Simpsons episodes with a few call-outs to prestige T.V. The episode actually goes pretty big in terms of its formal audaciousness, using flashy HBO/AMC/FX trademarks like split screens, match cuts, and unique framings for various scenes. It’s more of a prestige drama starring Simpsons characters than an episode of The Simpsons that happens to be about those sorts of dramas. I appreciate Matt Selman and company being willing to really go for it in terms of the look and feel of the episode.
And it’s a good melding of the two sensibilities as well. I like the raw story here. Ned Flanders finding a bag of money that accidentally gets him wrapped up in the world of crime is right out of Fargo (which makes me chuckle a little since for years, fans joked about how Fargo film star William H. Macy would make a good live action Flanders). There’s some real meat to his story, from wanting to honor his grandfather, ginning up some jealousy from Homer, and wondering if he’s being karmically punished for taking some pride in his good deed when he donates the purloined cash to a local orphanage.
It pushes Ned out of his comfort zone, not only having to deal with gangsters, but also feeling like he has to lie to Marge (albeit to protect Homer and reckon with his motivations for putting his name on the donation (even if it’s technically his grandfather’s name). It’s a character study for Ned, in a way not unlike legitimate award-winning dramas, and I dig that.
At the same time, Brian Cox’s debt collector character is the perfect spoof of a premium crime drama heavy. (My prediction: He’s actually the young hippie to whom Flanders’ grandfather loaned money for bread, hence his start with “debts”.) Cox’s delivery is fantastic, and his goons roughing up folks in unique ways, especially Comic Book Guy, is a lot of fun,
Of course, it’s pretty clear that this is a What If? or Treehouse of Horror-style non-canon story once Disco Stu and Mr. Burns bit the dust. But even there, the show does well at mimicking Sopranos-style violence, with a humorous twist. (I loved how aghast Snake was when he finds the scene at the donut shop.)
The romance angle with Barbara, the manager of the orphanage, is a little odd in the finish, but still amusing. She seems perfect for Ned, and the pair having a lovely, quaint time, only for Ned to find out she’s Sideshow Mel’s wife who has an “arrangement” with her husband. Their scenes together are amusing in the squareness, and I guess the reveal works in a “this would freak Ned out and make him wonder if he’s being punished” sort of way, but it’s a little out there.
Still, I appreciate the continuity of it, since Mel has mentioned his wife Barbara before! In the same vein, I love that the mix-up with the goons kidnapping Homer instead of Ned comes from Homer’s well-established trait of “borrowing” all of the Flanderses’ stuff. These are some nice touches, pulled from past episodes and used for good purposes in the new one.
On the whole, this is a big swing for The Simpsons, which I always admire, but this one connects much better and much cleaner than the average post-classic episode. You love to see it.
[6.1/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] The frustrating thing about this episode is that the bones of it are good. There’s a good foundation to build on with Homer having a childhood connection to a particular property, grousing about it being rebooted when he’s an adult, but confronting his real issues in the process -- namely his rough childhood being raised by Grampa, rather than blaming it on the stories and characters he used to escape from that. There’s something well-observed at the core of the episode, about how people’s feelings on the TV shows and movies of their youth being remade tends to reflect more our experience of them than the works themselves.
But the show’s execution of these ideas is so-so at best. I don’t have a big problem with the show making Homer a teenager in the nineties As Homer himself once put it, the polite thing to do would be not to draw attention to it, but the fact of the matter is that if the Simpsons is always set in “the present day”, then the floating timeline is going to create some janky situations like this. I’m not opposed to the show utilizing the floating timeline if it can use it to tell good stories.
The catch is that references to Vanilla Ice and crystal pepsi are bottom of the barrel nostalgia gags. (Though I do appreciate that, along with his song parodies sent to Weird Al, Homer continues to have a history of pizza-based spoofs). The show at least does a good job of representing why the titular PizzaBots represent Homer’s dream denied, but the flashback first act just isn’t very entertaining.
The best stretch of the episode for e was the middle, when Marge and Moe recognize that Homer’s bothered by his memories of the PizzaBot incident and strive to find the original animatronics to make him feel better. It’s a sweet, character-focused quest, and there’s some solid laughs at what the various denizens of the town are using the bots for. (Moe as Columbo is a weird choice, though).
But from there, the episode pivots into a showbiz parody and commentary on modern internet trolling, brigading, and bandwagoning. I like the attempt -- these are timely things to try to poke fun at, and The Simpsons was on the forefront of web-based nerd rage. But the episode only hits the most surface-level gags and observations about online fandom culture, and mostly defaults to the usual Comic Book Guy shtick with a few minor updates. You can feel the show rushing through some of the material, which doesn’t help things either.
I’m also surprised at how much J.J. Abrams is a part of the episode (I guess they’re all under the Disney umbrella now). When I heard he was guest starring, I figured it would be a one scene cameo and the episode would move on. But he’s a full on character here, interacting with Homer in a contrived but consistent way. The show pokes a little legit fun at him, mostly in the form of lens flairs, reboot gags, and a particularly pointed joke about SFX studios. For the most part though, it’s a pretty fawning and toothless treatment of the celebrity guest star, which rarely bodes well for The Simpsons.
I do like what the show is trying to do in the end, bringing Grampa out to take the blame for Homer’s lousy childhood rather than letting his son have his identity consumed by hating a remake. The execution is just a bit lacking and rushed for how much story the show wants to pack into twenty minutes and change.
Overall, this is a well-intentioned failure that gains based on its central premise, but loses thanks to a rushed and glancing approach coupled with an old-fashioned, deleterious celebrity glow-fest.
[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This one took a while to kick into gear, but I definitely enjoyed it once it did. The central mystery of what’s ailing Santa’s Little Helper not only made for a good spine to build the episode’s plot around, but created a good emotional throughline for the family to fret over their beloved family dog.
I especially enjoyed Cate Blanchett’s turn on the show as a canine psychologist. (Though I could have sworn it was Paget Brewster when I first heard the voice!) She brought a fun dryly comic tone to the character, and her slow bond with SLH and wry asides were a winning combination. It’s often tough to find stand-outs in terms of late-era guest appearances, but Blanchett got the time and the writing to do her thing in a quite funny and memorable fashion.
I also appreciated the family’s response to it all. While the “one bite = we have to put him down” situation felt a little contrived in setting the stakes, the whole Simpson clan worrying over the dog’s fate, each wanting to say goodbye in their own (oft goofy) way, and even coming together to pray for him was alternately amusing and sweet.
I enjoyed the answer to the mystery as well. The reveal that SLH was pining for his mother (who’s name is, sigh, She-Biscuit), is a good one, with a nice visual connection drawn between the stain on the Simpsons’ cabinets and SLH’s memories of weaning. The worn santa hat that sets him off is a nice callback to the series’ very first episode, and the idea that SLH is in such a state after memories of being taken away from his mom is a strong one.
The stuff at the margins is a mixed bag. The humor picks up as the episode goes on, but is pretty weak in the early going. The gags about everyone slapping the dog trainer who originally owned SLH is a good one, but gets driven into the ground. And the cuteness of seeing SLH as a puppy is self-justifying, but you can see the seams of the show’s attempts to tug at your heartstrings in places.
Still, overall this is a winning way to close out the season, with an episode that centers on the family and its affections for their canine companions, features a great guest star performance, and ably answers its big mystery.
[7.4/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I really admire what the show is going for here. It’s ambitious to try to deal with a child losing his faith after wondering why his mother was taken away from it. And drawing a line between Todd’s grief and disbelief and Homer losing his own mother...repeatedly...is the kind of connection I never would have thought of, but which adds depth and commiseration to the episode.
The problem is that the episode has trouble knowing where to go with that idea. There’s some great conflict between father and son with the Flanderses, some great solace and efforts to understand and explain (and annoy) with Todd and the Simpsons, and Todd himself gets arguably the most characterization he’s ever had.
But the resolution is really off. Ned and Homer going to Heaven feels too contrived and otherworldly for even for the elastic reality of the show (at least as the major centerpiece of the third act). I’ll admit, Homer getting to reconcile with his mom in Heaven is really damn sweet (though since when is she not a hugger?), but it feels like a shortcut.
The same especially goes for Todd’s story. I like the idea that he learns prayer can be an earnest plea, rather than a specific transactional request, even if you’re not sure someone’s there, but him resolving his whole crisis of faith through his dad waking up feels like it doesn't really answer the question that Todd was asking in the first place. I guess it works as a confirmation that someone is listening, and it’s too much to expect even a great half-hour sitcom to resolve some of the trickiest questions in all of theology, but that ending feels awfully neat for starting in such an admirably messy and complex place.
Still, it’s largely an enjoyable episode. The Flanders-y twist on the opening is a neat little monotony breaker, and while the show goes to the “choir sings something funny” well too often, it’s a good gag. Lisa’s efforts to convert Todd to Buddhism are a good running gag, and smaller touches like Bart genuinely wanting his dad back and admitting he loves him are really nice. The shtick with Homer and Large trying to snuggle despite Todd’s trained ears is a bit hacky, and Ned casting out Todd feels a hair out of character, but both are within acceptable tolerances.
Overall, I just respect the kind of big swing the show is taking with this episode. It’s fraught territory, and the execution isn’t perfect, but the show’s really going for something incisive and meaningful here, which was a trademark of the show’s classic years and largely fell off afterwards. Even if the results aren’t perfect, I like to see the showing going bold or going home like this.
