Rate & Review: "Fraudcast News" (FABF18)

[Green Man]

5/5 Absolutaly fantastic episode! My favorite post-classic.

[bartyboy]

It was alright. 3/5.

[Nauru-1]

One of the last satirical episodes that I didn't think was bad. The "Smoosh Mr. Burns" was about the only hilarious thing there but there are a number of other things I liked. High 3/5.

[Mr.]

For me this is the last "good" Mr. Burns episode and the last one that's focuse around him as a treating villian.

"League of evil" is my favorite bit in the episode

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Season 15 concludes with Mr. Burns versus Lisa in an all out media war! But first, Geezer Rock is about to become a national monument and the family is at the celebration so that Lisa can read a poem about the rock. Much of the town has come out for the event, and Homer doesn't want it ruined...so he decides to remove a tree from the legendary cliff side. Unfortunately, this meddling sets off a chain reaction of events resulting in Geezer Rock being destroyed and Mr. Burns crushed under the debris. One utterly fantastic joke during this initial setup is the Squeaky Voiced Teen lamenting the cancellation of Futurama.

While Lisa is saddened by what happened, she decides to publish her poem anyway, as a sort of eulogy for Geezer Rock. Smithers is also devastated, but soon finds out Mr. Burns is alive. The tale of his improbable survival is admittedly wacky, but I love the mole-milk joke so I'll let it slide. It even gets a decent callback. Of course, no one else in town knows Burns is alive so they begin publicly celebrating his death. Enraged by this he does the most logical thing: buys out all forms of media in Springfield. We get several funny scenes from this including the gradual fall of the TV station owner into accepting Burns' offer, and a pretty good Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Burns goes after Lisa too, who has decided to publish her own paper with several of the school kids as contributors. Lisa can't be bought however, and her epic battle with Burns begins...at the end of act 2.

Act 3 has several decent gags as Burns attempts to defeat Lisa, first by using Homer to launch a smear campaign, and then finally by cutting power to the Simpson home. One gag of note here is Burns failing to crush an ant. Lisa tries to continue with the help of Skinner but ultimately gives up. Homer, trying to aid his little girl, starts up his own paper instead. Soon all of the town begins to do the same and Burns realizes he can't possibly own all the media in town. Accepting defeat, Burns cheers himself up by shopping as we end the episode.

This was a pretty great episode. It had good satire, characterizations, animation, and was an overall good story. There was some exaggeration that didn't work for me such as Burn's brain but it never got bad enough to hurt the episode. Other jokes I liked include Smithers' tattoo, The League of Evil, Burn's comment about Booberella, and the Rupert Murdoch fourth wall joke. There were probably too many places were I wasn't laughing, but I still enjoyed the episode and was interested throughout. A fine way to end a pretty good season. 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5/5.

PS: I just realized that both Seasons 14 and 15 end with a photo montage.

[Old painty-can Ned]

In the top 5 for the post classic era. It definitely could use some works getting some kinks out. But overall this episode is probably the last decent run at satire the show has done. Most of the jokes were well done with only one or two missing. Lisa is reminiscent of her classic era days and Burns is in pretty good form. The best episode of season 15 and makes its counter part Bart Mangled Banner look like shit in comparison of their satirical elements.

Grade: B

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Not really related to this episode, but a top 5 episode for the post-classic era only gets a B? Gotta admit, you are a much harsher critic than I thought. Not that that's bad, just genuinely surprising.

[Old painty-can Ned]

Yeah my top of the post classic era gets a B+. I dunno most of you do the out of 5 system which doesn't really leave much room because I give C++ all the way to B+ 4/5. I used to grade episodes just based on the post classic era but I felt that was just giving the episodes too much credit so starting with this season(I went back and did the old seasons as well) I did my reviews in comparison to the whole series.

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

Season 15 concludes with Mr. Burns versus Lisa in an all out media war! But first, Geezer Rock is about to become a national monument and the family is at the celebration so that Lisa can read a poem about the rock. Much of the town has come out for the event, and Homer doesn't want it ruined...so he decides to remove a tree from the legendary cliff side. Unfortunately, this meddling sets off a chain reaction of events resulting in Geezer Rock being destroyed and Mr. Burns crushed under the debris. One utterly fantastic joke during this initial setup is the Squeaky Voiced Teen lamenting the cancellation of Futurama.

While Lisa is saddened by what happened, she decides to publish her poem anyway, as a sort of eulogy for Geezer Rock. Smithers is also devastated, but soon finds out Mr. Burns is alive. The tale of his improbable survival is admittedly wacky, but I love the mole-milk joke so I'll let it slide. It even gets a decent callback. Of course, no one else in town knows Burns is alive so they begin publicly celebrating his death. Enraged by this he does the most logical thing: buys out all forms of media in Springfield. We get several funny scenes from this including the gradual fall of the TV station owner into accepting Burns' offer, and a pretty good Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Burns goes after Lisa too, who has decided to publish her own paper with several of the school kids as contributors. Lisa can't be bought however, and her epic battle with Burns begins...at the end of act 2.

Act 3 has several decent gags as Burns attempts to defeat Lisa, first by using Homer to launch a smear campaign, and then finally by cutting power to the Simpson home. One gag of note here is Burns failing to crush an ant. Lisa tries to continue with the help of Skinner but ultimately gives up. Homer, trying to aid his little girl, starts up his own paper instead. Soon all of the town begins to do the same and Burns realizes he can't possibly own all the media in town. Accepting defeat, Burns cheers himself up by shopping as we end the episode.

This was a pretty great episode. It had good satire, characterizations, animation, and was an overall good story. There was some exaggeration that didn't work for me such as Burn's brain but it never got bad enough to hurt the episode. Other jokes I liked include Smithers' tattoo, The League of Evil, Burn's comment about Booberella, and the Rupert Murdoch fourth wall joke. There were probably too many places were I wasn't laughing, but I still enjoyed the episode and was interested throughout. A fine way to end a pretty good season. 4.5/5, rounded up to a 5/5.

PS: I just realized that both Seasons 14 and 15 end with a photo montage.

I've read all your reviews for the fifteenth season and thoroughly enjoyed reading them (I often agreed with most of the things you said) And I just wondered if you will do something similar for a different season? If so that would be really cool

[Financial Panther]

This is a really good episode. I love the media war between Lisa and Burns, and it's definitely classic evil Burns in this episode. The first time I watched this, I went "meh," but now, I realize how deep and truly meaningful and heartfelt this episode manages to be. I think it's a little light on the jokes, which is something I usually don't like. But here, it seems to work. I give this a low 5/5.

[alex_on_ice]

This episode is always extremely enjoyable to watch! What an ending to a pretty good Season 15. This episode gives a little competition to other great episodes in this Season such as I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot, Diatribe of A Mad Housewife and The Way We Weren't.

Some great stuff in this episode. First of all, the opening sequence is pretty entertaining. The Setting and the backround is really well done and there's a wonderful atmosphere. The way Burns manages to escape from all those heavy rocks that were covering him is good fun (having him eat bugs etc.).

I also really laugh hard each time I watch that small scene where Burns enters Channel 6's Building to buy it from the guy at the head of the office. First Burns gives him a little bag of money, then a bigger bag with a woman that also pops out of the bag and finally the woman offers to give the guy at the head of the office some ice cream.

I love the whole idea of having Lisa printing her very own mini newspapers and trying to compete with the powerful Mr. Burns. A Big thanks to Don Payne, the writer of this episode.

The ending was well chosen and finishes off the episode perfectly (Barney, Lenny, Captain Mcalister giving away their very own newspapers).

4.5/5

[Snaked]

A few horrid bits (Burns sucking a Mole's tit ) but overall, a solid finale to season 15.

3.5-4/5

[Commander Flanders]

Seems like everyone else loves this one, but I thought this was probably the worst episode, worse than most of the more recent even. A bit too liberally biased even for my tastes.

[Bleedin' Gums Murphy]

3/5 or 7/10

[Blobulle]

Good episode but not one of my favorites of the season 15. 4/5

[irvine_11]

Revisited this episode for a first time in a while. One of the show's last decent satire projects and also probably the last episode where Mr. Burns was portrayed like his classic era self. 4/5 (B-)

[Prune Tracy]

Great episode, one of my favourite post-classics.

[AngusCastle]

This is definitely my favourite episode of Series 15. I thought the comedy was slightly off at times but it was a good, solid storyline and the ending was great. Lisa turned out to be an inspiration to everyone.

Definitely a 5/5

[clemsonfight]

Wow, can't believe I'd never seen this episode before... Just watched it on the DVD and I was impressed. My previous favorite of S15 was either Diatribe of A Mad Housewife or Tis the 15th Season...but I think this one is my new favorite. 5/5

[shawn]

Great episode. Really enjoyed it. 4/5

[Rembrandt Q. Einstein]

Hilarious

"My god are you always on?"

[Murphy, You Are A Elf]

Pretty mediocre. A few laughs, and a nice story, but a lot of the jokes didn't work for me. On the other hand, Mr. Burns is characterized well. 5/10