Rate/Review: The President Wore Pearls (EABF20)

[Handsome Pete]

When this episode started, I didn't have very high hopes for it. The whole casino incident seemed kinda dodgy and unfunny, and was, in my opinion, a poor way to get Martin out of of there (though Homer's PlayStation One line was mildly amusing to this gamer). After that, though, things really picked up. For once, there were jokes that not only made me snicker but also made me laugh loudly! Lisa's indifference to gym, some of the antics of Milhouse and Willy, Marge believing herself to be in trouble after saying "fudgerucker" (or something like that), Chalmers's treatment of Willy (including his "taking advise from the janitor" line)...these sorts of excellent jokes have been sorely missing from the more recent seasons, and I probably haven't enjoyed myself with an episode this much since I don't know when.
Of course, I know come to the singing portions of this episode. To be honest, they weren't too bad. They didn't annoy me or fill themselves with too many unrealistic elements (the Evita inspiration being acceptable here), and it was nice to have some songs in the show again. The plot itself wasn't too disjointed or went too fast, so I could absorb the jokes and such a bit better.
So, besides part of the opening and a few odd things here or there (As somewhat amusing as Homer prancing about in a tutu is, it was just very strange), I really genuinely enjoyed this episode. 4/5, best episode so far this season.

[newhook_1]

To anyone who said the ending was a cop-out, you have to realize that the movie about Eva ended with her casket being driven up the street in a hearse (pretty much, it's been awhile since I've seen it). So unless they ended it with Lisa being driven to her new school, the only other thing they really could have done in the amount of time they had was the thing they did with Homer.

[kevin]

Another great episode. Well done.

Treehouse of Horror XIV- B+
My Mother the Carjacker- A-
The President Wore Pearls- A-

[doyle]

Awesome this one did not disappoint. In a beautifully spun parody of Evita, Lisa's characterization was the high point. We may have just witnessed her best characterization in 5 years. Every move she made was what would always be expected of her. The key incident which ignited the main conflict was a bit weak, but it was really something that someone her age would do, in amazement of having the priviledge that she had just received. The other chaqracterization was pretty good, especially with Marge. Unlike in Simpsoncalafrag..., no one character had to change themselves in order to fill a role that went hand in hand with the parody.

The use of minor characters was good. All of the school administration played a great role in the episode, and Skinner was particularly well done. The opening with Martin and the casino was very entertaining, and it leads directly into the plot, a far cry from other episodes from recent seasons that start with something that has nothing to do with the episode.

The humor, while not as plentiful as last week or even the average, was more than adequate, used in the right points. Nice gags were made at Milhouse's expense, and they were even able to squeeze one into one of the musical numbers. The Elanor Roosevelt joke and the ensuing line about the construction paper in a span of 5 seconds provided more humor than is present in many Sculla Era episodes. A couple jokes fell flat, mostly of the Homer variety, and they dectracted from the episode overall, but honestly, this was a funny enough episode. Though stupid, I must admit that I laughed at Brockman's line about Lisa's butt being directly pointed at the administrator's after watching Bart's interview regarding his sister.

The musical numbers should not be bashed by anyone, if they actually listened to the words. While the numbers were going on, parts of the story were being told. They had content, they were interesting, and they really made a nice addition to the episode, as Yeardly Smith did a wonderful job in this aspect of the episode. In fact, the voice acting was very good overall.

The big problem with the episode was the last couple minutes, as the wrters really seemed to run out of time trying to end the conflict in a good way. They didn't resort to anything ridiculous, but the fact that there was no resolution of the issue to speak of aside from the captions at the end were a minior complaint. With all that had to be done with the episode, it may have even worked better as a two-part episode. But on its own, this one was able to stand very well.

Grade: A-

[Tomacco]

WARNING: At least 75% of all negative reviews to this episode will be based on a hatred for any kind of musical number, parody or not.

With that said, I don't mind musical numbers if they work well in context, and these did (not to mention they weren't so long that they would become too annoying).

This episode was fantastic. It started right on target, and got moving before the bottom-screen credits were even half finished. The casino scene was brilliant actually, and the hilarious Homer we were treated to throughout the episode got going early with his "D'ohs" and surprisingly funny cruelty. The student body president plot goes from there, and from here on in, Lisa, Bart, Martin, Jimbo, Uter, Milhouse, Willie, Mr. Largo, Krabappel, Skinner, and Superintendent Chalmers are all given lots of screen space. So, it's one of those school-themed episodes, such as "The PTA Disbands". Fortunately, this one was handled a lot better than the chaotic "Skinner's Sense of Snow", and was handled within an Evita parody. All well and good. Good story-telling and pacing aside, I laughed A LOT during the episode at character-based jokes (Homer's over-the-top prancing as Nelson), to pop culture referencing (first to memory, let's go with Michael Moore).

My only problem with the episode was the ending which seemed rushed, in a quick text-based wrap up. Slightly better than last week's episode, this one's getting a 5/5 too.

If this continues, I'll have to start rating episodes on a curve because the standards will be changed.

[Tibor]

Icedragon:
I thought there were no more Mike Scully holdout eps left.

don't make such asinine statements. if you're going to criticize the episode, do it legitamately instead of throwing these kinds of lame punchlines around. There wasn't the first thing Scullyish about the episode's style... "Scully" denotes a style not quality. Ditto to whoever said something about 'Jerkass Homer'....

[newhook_1]

Originally posted by Dondelinger
The big problem with the episode was the last couple minutes, as the wrters really seemed to run out of time trying to end the conflict in a good way. They didn't resort to anything ridiculous, but the fact that there was no resolution of the issue to speak of aside from the captions at the end were a minior complaint. With all that had to be done with the episode, it may have even worked better as a two-part episode. But on its own, this one was able to stand very well.

Grade: A-

I was thinking the same thing about the two parter point, but I think the general audience of The Simpsons (ie: people who don't post on message boards)don't care one way or the other and would have just been alieninated by having a two parter.

[nathan]

An all around "meh" episode to me. Homer was even stupider then usuall and even though I know it was a parody the songs where really sub par. For a Lisa episode I was very disapointed this sounded like it was going to be a lot better than it was. It did have a couple lauph out loud jokes though. The crack at Rodger Moore was hilarious and "lisa is a nut..." joke bart made when he was interviewed had me lauphing out loud harder then I have in a long time...stupid as the joke was. All in all I give it a c or a 5.5/10

[J.Re*]

I wonder is smartgirl63@yahoo.com will be like chunkylover53@aol.com and be inhabited by a producer.

doubt it since it was smartgirl63_/@yahoo.com and I don't think those are valid characters.

[squishee lady]

A little dissapointing, but still very good. A-.

[Tibor]

A few more notes:

Martin's voice sounded kind of off. Yeardley's singing was pretty good, though. There isn't much to complain about the Michael Moore appearance- just popped on long enough to make the obligatory cheesy self-deprecating quip. It's far more palatable than most of the past Scooby Doo-esque 'guest star shows up for no reason.'

[doyle]

I apologize in advance if this ends up being a double post, but I'll just touch upon a couple things I've seen so far.

Originally posted by Dennis
BTW, did Martin sound off to anyone else at the beginning?

I did think something was off about his voice. We haven't seen him do more than one line in quite some time, so maybe Russi Taylor is a bit out of practice. I thought maybe it was just me who thought something was wrong, but I guess other people heard the imperfection as well as me.

I do like seeing that one of our biggest critics of recent seasons in or_smith enjoyed this episode. I do feel that this was classic Lisa, and none of the horrible Homer gags could take that away. Now, as for the Moore appearance, which I didn't mention before, was pretty funny actually. He was a pretty good choice to come in and say something pertaining to the strike. I don't feel it was a wasted guest shot as it was barely advertised and he got everything across that he had to. Had someone been impersonating him, it wouldn't have changed anything either.

Originally posted by Icedragon
I thought there were no more Mike Scully holdout eps left.

That is a bit of a stretch. Name 3 ways this episode paralled any average Scully episode.

[ShadowBun]

I thought there were no more Mike Scully holdout eps left.

This episode is the anti-Scully. Great writing, great pacing, great edits, great jokes, great songs, great use of secondary characters, great story...man, they pulled it off with flying colors.

Really, I haven't seen a Simpsons episode this good in a LONG time. In my opinion, it's better than Moe Baby Blues, Special Edna, Little Girl in the Big Ten, Trilogy of Error, Behind the Laughter, and even my favorites from S13 and 14, Half-Decent Proposal and I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can. I think the writers are finally learning...

...then again, I better not say that until I see next week's episode.

[Jolly Bengali]

Pasted ->

This episode reminded me a lot of the controlled insanity of Season 8. That season brought us a lot of episodes that mocked or parodied something for their entire running time. As well, the episodes from that era were incredibly funny and quite intelligent. "The President Wore Pearls" fits the descriptions of those episodes, and given that it's been seven years since that season it's great to see. The episode is tongue-and-cheek throughout, taking a parody of the film Evita and stretching it out for a sprawling, epic, hilarious episode. The plot, taking the premise of Evita and translating it into the animated world of the show, got going early and remained tightly focused throughout. I never wondered why a scene was in place, and for once the lack of a sub-plot didn't render the main one stale. Lisa was in top form, acting in a way that is perfectly consistent with her character. That made all of her actions and the plot points believable. The singing, too, was excellent. Just like the music-ridden episodes of Season 8, the songs blended into the episode well and were quite entertaining. Even though there a lot of songs, they never became a burden to watch, and when it re-inforces the central parody than it's even better. Even without the musical numbers, the episode also managed to deliver a great amount of laughs. Michael Moore gave a mercifully sweet and surprisingly funny cameo. Skinner, Willie, Milhouse, and all of the other school-related figures gave great one-liners too. The only flaw in this episode, albeit a signicant one, was a few too many jokes that didn't work. This episode had a massive amount of gags crammed in to it, and while most of them connected, a few stood out badly. Homer's "rumor about Nelson" scene was painful, as was a few of his other one-liners... and there were some scattered moments where a one-liner wasn't particularly funny. It can be ignored, however. The bottom line is that this was a fantastic episode that made me remember episodes from one of the best seasons the show ever had. Grade: A-

[Charmy]

Loved it. Despite it's many low grades I don't see very many legitamate complaints.

5/5

[Icedragon]

Ok, Tibor.

My beef w/ this ep:

1) Casino bit, meh.

2) Homer was Jerkass Homer in this ep. Horrible characterization

3) Michael Moore's appearance, not needed for plot development, and was a lot like other guest appearances as of late.

4) Ending - Er, did I miss something? Jerkass homer + abrupt ending+ no jokes = bad ending.

I will repeat, this felt like a Mike Scully ep.

[doyle]

I've been wondering about this for the last few weeks. What if Fox had ordered a couple more episodes for last season so it would have been extended. It would have aired Moe Baby Blues, My Mother the Carjacker, and The President Wore Pearls 3 weeks in a row. Image the fan reation that would have come from that sequence. It would have been astounding and my bet is that Season 14 as a whole would have gone up in everybody's estimations.

Edit: Sorry if this has been mentioned already elsewhere on the boards. I haven't read it anywhere though.

[Jolly Bengali]

Wow. But 15 would have been regarded as a massive dip, with TOH and the probably mediocre "Regina Monologues"

[Spartan]

I loved this episode, as well. Really great. I loved using Database AND band director Maestro in the same episode. Willie's lines were all great, especially him singing the musical on the tractor. Musical wasn't bad.

TheSpartan's Rating: 9.2/10

[Mike Scully]

Can you people please stop with the knee-jerk reaction against ever single cameo appearance? I mean, honestly, did the 2-second funny Michael Moore cameo detract from your enjoyment of the episode in any way?

[FlamingMeaux]

Best of the season so far. 4/5

I was momentarily horrified when Lisa/others broke into song, but I thought the Evita parody worked. Bart's butt song, and Nelson's 'Iron Man' tribute were funny, and I liked how much screen time Willie got (though his characterization didn't seem perfect, but what ever is.)

Will Uter ever go back to Germany?

I probably would have given this a 5/5 if not for Homer's extended "gay" thing.

[Tibor]

1) Casino bit, meh.

Well, th