Rate & Review: "Bart Vs. Lisa Vs. The Third Grade" (DABF20)

[Dave Shutton]

Whatever happened to the 3rd grade teacher? i am really surprised we have never ever seen her again, not even in like the teachers lounge or anything.

[Kid Moe]

I'll give it a 4/5.

[zitro]

3.2/5

Good episode, I liked the tv show parodies (The Clock Channel, reality shows, Japanese Friends) and while the premise didn't seem very interesting, they gave it a nice twist with Bart getting better grades than Lisa.

I felt the emotion on the 3rd act was a bit forced and awkward, tho I don't know how they could have made it more natural.

[bartyboy]

3/5. A Mostly Meh episode again.

[Nauru-1]

I don't think it was hilarious but it was a decent enough season 14 episode. Really liked the idea. 3/5

[Bella Drape 'er]

Nothing spectacular. 3/5. From previous reviews and the Episode Elimination Thread I'm sensing this is slightly overrated though.

[Fox Executive]

This is a definite meh. 3/5

[Green Man]

I like it. 4/5

[Dylan]

Great post-classic era episode, one of my favourites from the Jean era 5/5

[Blobulle]

Good episode for the season, but Lisa seems to be less smart than she used to be. 4/5 B

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Season 14 continues when Bart and Lisa both enter the Third Grade! Thanks to satellite dish shenanigoats Bart does extra poorly on a test while Lisa does extra well which results in the titular circumstance. The two get lost while on a field trip to Capital City but the status quo is restored in the end. I barely remembered seeing this one before and it dragged quite a bit. The Bart and Lisa story was alright, but the emotional moments at the end feel tacked on. I'm also already sick of the show taking on reality shows and we have an entire episode about that coming up soon.

The thing that got me most about this one actually was its foreshadowing of later episodes. These include Helter Shelter as I mentioned, I D'oh-bot, Bart-Mangled Banner, and the satellite dish reminded me of Tivo from Funeral for a Fiend. The Bender cameo was cool, but later episodes would use it better. I didn't care much for the design of the Third Grade teacher who we'll rarely see again and only with no speaking lines. Mary Bailey's re-appearance was nice from a continuity standpoint but they didn't really do much with her so she too felt tacked on to me.

I did like Nelson's random appearances, but they've been done much better in previous and later season episodes. I guess my biggest problem with this one is that it just doesn't seem memorable. I can definitely say many episodes from every season since have been better than this and I have to think it would've been trashed harsher if it aired today, even with the exact same story/script(excusing the now dated references like Japanese Friends of course.) So overall a definite meh episode which I'll kindly give a 3/5 for some good stuff, but certainly no better. Mr. Long has written much better episodes.

[Inblackestnight]

Hick - "Say ur prayers" Bart - "Oh Lord, please strick these mountain folk dead." It's been a while since I've seen this ep so sorry if I got the quotes wrong. Much like most of season 14 this ep had it's moments but was pretty much meh. Great quote though!

[kkkrusty]

Wow, this episode was hilarious. Very well written. Literally laughs every second. Quality-wise it could fit in Season 7. I only wish they could resolved the story better. The TV parodies at the start were hilarious and I don't even think they've dated much; there is still Friends repeats and reality crap on. Everyone's characterization was spot on and Lisa and Bart's rivalry was entertaining to watch and they did a good job of making it sweet towards the end. The scenes with Milhouse and Nelson could have been funnier but apart from that it's hard to think of moments that weren't funny. The Goofball had possibly my favorite line in the episode, along with Skinner at the end "that's just sad" and Homer calling back "you can't fool us, we're the right to fart state".

4/5

[The Governor]

I'd say more of a S9 episode. Season 7's episodes had more restraint.

[Prune Tracy]

Not a bad episode, really. I liked the plot, it had some really great Bart/Lisa interaction. It could have been funnier, but it was enjoyable, nevertheless. 4/5.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Actual continuity with "Lisa the Simpson" when they say Bart used to be very good in school, actually. Just noticed this. Anyways, it feels like a season ten episode to me, and that's good, I guess, 3.5/5.

[The Governor]

I saw this again and this would have been a better episode if the ending wasn't so awful.

[Prune Tracy]

I saw this again and this would have been a better episode if the ending wasn't so awful.

Yeah, the ending was pretty weak.

[zach]

C
pretty awful

[Jesse Pinkman]

4/5

what i liked:

"Young man, you're not in this class. What are you doing here?"
"Laughing at jerks."

and then later on he was there because he 'biked'.

"You can't fool us, we're from the "learn to fart" state"

Willie complaining about the field trip memorial and the kids on the list always having long names.

Bart acting crazy in the classroom, thinking his pencil was a TV Remote and we see Bender and Pikachu, amongst other things.

the ending was kinda weak but the rest of the episode was decent