Rate/Review "Bonfire of the Manatees" (GABF18)

[Mike Scully]

It's the premier of The Simpsons' seventeenth season...in September!!!. "Bonfire of the Manatees", written by Dan Greaney, airs tonight at 8:00 PM Central. The episode's plot is as follows:

Marge, outraged after discovering Homer allowed Fat Tony (Joe Mantegna) to shoot an a "gentlemen's" film in their living room in compensation for his football gambling debt, flees, leaving Homer with the kids. While on her journey of self-discovery, Marge befriends Caleb Thorn (Alec Baldwin), an attractive marine biologist on a quest to save not only the endangered manatee, but Marge from a husband who doesn't seem to appreciate her.

[Necromancer]

awful

i don't really feel the need to elaborate.

[Andy]

largely uninteresting except for the ending

[Dennis]

Maybe I just didn't get it.

1/5.

[Homer Jay]

This episode didn’t have a lot of problems but it wasn’t that good either. Full review in a while.

[CMQ]

C+ - It ‘s a C+ episode because it had a few major flaws in the fact that many parts of the episode was overused with the Marge and Homer marriage problems or Homer being beat up for the millionth time. The first act had a few major flaws in the fact that Marge was wrecking Homer’s car and the football betting already being done in a better job in Lisa the Greek. The second act was good except for the part where Homer talks to his cousin in hick language multiple times. The third act was a disappointment because Homer threatens to beat up the other guy even though he had no interest in her and Homer gets beat up for the umpteenth time but however I did like the Burns and Smithers ending where they dance around the manatee to the tune of Carwash.

[Bloodbath & Beyond]

had some laugh-out-loud moments

had some "oh god that was just awful" moments (why do they think we want to see vomit?)

3/5

[blueguy]

Short, dull, too many things that have already been done. Couch gag was nice and I kinda liked how Marge got her hair to stand up again though.

[Thats A Paddlin]

Nicely Paced, well written, enjoyable.

3/5

[That Jerk]

"more boring than church..." 1/1

[Curtis]

This was a horrid ep in my opinion. It seems like they are running out of ideas. Because of my love of Manatees I will give it a 2/5

[JennSpence]

Meh...

[Galalimit]

Garbage. F

[Binky]

I'd give it a 3/5. It's about on par with last season's All's Fair in Oven War.

[eric]

an average to below-average episode until a great & amusing final five minutes... 3.5/5

[huh?]

D+

Overformulaic for the most part, although I did get a chuckle out of Homer's continuous prejudice to hicks and the ending.

[Ihaveblink]

Who gave this a 5/5?

It was paced nicely. But way too many flat jokes. The last part was the best. Homer's cousin was great and funny.

D+

[Keller]

I guess I'm one of the few that liked it. I thought it had great jokes, the couch gag was good, they played the full opening sequence, and I really didn't find anything wrong with it. Very entertaining.

[Raging Abe Simpson]

F 0/5

Horrible, dreadful; after that I honestly wouldn't mind if they cancelled the series now...maybe I'm overreacting, but...

Luckily no Simpsons episode has ever been without a funny moment; even Call of The Simpsons, Bart to The Future, New Kids On The Blecch, and Bart-Mangled Banner managed to get a laugh, and this episode did too (dumb country mouse, can't even count).

Other than that it was terrible. It ripped off a joke from Family Guy (he's not really a bear, he's a tiger) but did a horrible job at it, and the vomiting from Homer and the Manatee was certainly one of the series worst moments.

The plot may have been the worst ever; it was the same basic "Marge & Homer fight and one of them leaves" plot we've seen 300 times before, but this time it was 20x more half-assed than ever before.

One of the 10 worst episodes ever, probably one of the 5 worst.

[Patriot]

an average episode 3/5

[Homer J Brannigan]

An okay episode. The ending was definately the best part of the episode. 3/5

[nico_192]

Garbage. F

Act 1 - 2/5
Act 2 - 2/5
Act 3 - 4/5

Overall 2.5/5

A big let down. Hopefully not a sign of the rest of the season. Although had ONE really really LOL moment....

Homer: If it were up to me i would be HELPING you guys, and if anything be the guy that would take it too far.

Cant wait for family guy though
lol

[Wasteland]

3/5. It was ok, but my god it could have been better. Again, the guest star was wasted (there were so many possibilities). I twas horrible as a season opener, but was an ok episode. They should have waited and showed this after the World Series hiatus. I fear that if this trend continues on into the next episode, there will not be much hope for this season. I did love the ending with Burns and Smithers though. But I think that everyone agrees with me when I say that the person who wrote this episode should have his ass fired.

Still looking forward to next weeks episode, "The Girl who Slept too Little". I hope I will not be disappointed.

[PrecisionBart]

What a waste... 1/5 just terrible... i hope seaon 17 is better than the premier ...junk

[Semaj]

The second I saw the couch gag, I knew it was gonna be at Homer's expense.

Just an okay episode, but nothing more than what we've come to expect from the "marriage on the rocks" stories. However, the part where Marge bashes up Homer's car turned out much better than those promos made them look.

Maybe it's me, but the digital inks-and-paints seems to be getting richer every season. The part where Homer visits his country cousins was quite clever. Also, the August setting was in-season; had the episode premiered in November (the same crap we've put up with for so long), it wouldn't have worked.

The thing that brought this episode down some was how it was littered with corny jokes, mostly in Act III. Seriously, they need to level off on these jokes where the animals "understand" the humans. And yeah, how bout an episode where Homer ISN'T needlessly hurt?

So here we have our first September episode in six seasons. Not at all great, but I do feel things will pick up soon.

3/5

[Hapablap]

Overall I enjoyed it, gets a sturdy C. Nothing great, nothing too horrible. The puking seemed unneccesary, but the worst moment was Marge slamming into the car. Quite a few good laughs, especially the ending.

[Wavy Gravy]

Well, not every season can start with a boom. That's not to say this episode stunk, but it could have been better. It just seemed to go by so quickly - it's obvious the show was short, as evidenced by the extended opening and the unnecessarily long "Car Wash" sequence at the end. But I got a good amount of laughs out of it ("Marge, does the pizza guy take a check, and if so, where are the checks, and also, how do you write checks?"), even if the plot was nothing special. It wasn't sensational, but it wasn't horrendous - just somewhere pleasantly in the middle.

3.5/5

[st3vo]

Each act was better than the last, and there were some really hilarious moments. As Number One said, the last act in particular was very good. I enjoyed the subplot with Homer's cousin. The whole episode wound up better than I expected.

B-

[Raging Abe Simpson]

BTW, I just want to say this: I know standards have lowered enormously since then, but if this was placed in the middle of Season 6 (or any Golden Years season for that matter) it would be almost unanimously declared the worst episode ever.

Alright, I'm done bashing this episode.

[Mira]

3/5. The Plot was definetly lame and boring but there were some funny moments.