Rate and Review: "The Falcon and the D'ohman" (NABF16)

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

September 25, 2011: The Falcon and the D'ohman (NABF16) (Season Premiere)
Homer befriends a new security guard at the plant; Marge daydreams about being a contestant on "Top Chef.''



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[McClure]

Time for my poorly organized and not very detailed review!

Off-topic: The new old spice commercial guy is nowhere as good as the original one.

On-topic: I'm surprised, it was actually an enjoyable episode. Nothing spectacular, but the best new episode I've seen in a while (though to be fair, I still have yet to see most of the last season).

The visual gags in particular were quite good, such as the opening, Wayne's training session and various couples lying awake in bed. The Korean animated thing was funny too but it may have dragged on too long. Also fantastic was the Kiev, Ukraine typo joke.

Kiefer Sutherland also did quite a good job.

It was a fun episode, mostly void of the problems that have plagued recent seasons. The characters were tolerable, the one-liners were mostly clever and it was well-written. The plot was original, and the third act in particular was great (notably the kidnapping video).

The worst part of the episode, by far, was the thing with the children singing about Kim Jong Il. Actually, the ending also ruined the whole Nedna joke. I was going to say that they handled it very well with the hints, and then showing them in bed... Then they ruined it by having them do an announcement at the end and throwing in a bad Skinner joke. It's almost as if someone said "Hmm.... Perhaps showing them in bed together with Edna winking isn't obvious enough... No, to be safe, we'd better cater to the 0.01% of the audience and explain it."

Line of the night: "I'd take a moment to enjoy those store names if I didn't have a job to do."

For those curious, the director was Matthew Nastuk, and the writer was some new guy or freelancer.

[Patches O'houlihan]

The Good:

--The bad CGI replay of the incident at Moe's (most LOL moment in a LONG time!)
--That Angry Birds commercial...which wasn't part of the episode.
--Auto Tune Victim

The Bad:
--Everything else.
--Everything else where the joke ran on and on and on and...

DYK: This episode was a based a tiny bit on the movie "A History of Violence" when Wayne's video was shown on YouTube.

Random Musings:
--While I've pretty neutral to the "HD" animation, the scene where Homer tries to find a parking spot looked pretty amateur, like someone was moving layers around Flash.

Grade: 2.25/5. Barely interesting at all, minus a few surprising good parts.

[zartok-35]

The song at the beginning was a nice touch. The Tiwanese computer animation scene was bizzare and quite funny.

3/5, derrated to 2/5 on a moderate Nastuk deductable.

[Wail-id]

as far as s23 premieres go...

this was ok. what i enjoyed:

-the various couples in bed, and barney on the street

-the animation, like when the guy went through the training in the flashback

-Ned's orange juice scene. For some reason things like that make me laugh.

-the hostage video

-Kiether Sutherland's character as a whole was pretty good.

well, it wasn't a terrible premiere, but it wasn't too great either. kind of a little above average, if anything. 3/5 or so seems right

[McClure]

3/5, derrated to 2/5 on a moderate Nastuk deductable.

Huh? Does this mean you didn't like the animation in this episode?

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Well it was absolutely fantastic compared to Homer the Whopper or Elementary School Musical, but on the whole I'd probably go with just slightly above average. Wayne as a character was pretty good but I think they went to the flashback well one too many times with him. I know we'll never see him again but it'd be nice if he appeared working in the DMV in a later episode or two. I also liked his Clint-esque character design.

Marge's Top Chef scene was pointless now that I think of it and the third act was easily the best. I kept thinking wow it sure is taking Homer a long time to get kidnapped but I ultimately liked where they went with it at the hockey stadium. Nedna was handled well I thought and I can't help but wonder how much we'll see Edna next door over the next several episodes which were presumably written before the results.

No opening theme again for the second time in a row also surprised me a bit. Gags I really enjoyed included the Ned orange juice mislead, everyone being kept awake by Wayne and a nice callback to the Sleep Eazy Motel, that entire Taiwanese video, Homer's kidnapping, message video, and the way he was being kept. I also liked Wayne's line about reading the store names if he weren't so busy. For a first time viewing I'll say 3.5/5, and I'll be generous and round up to a 4 on the poll.

[lionelhutz123]

That was the best premiere in a while. I went into this with absolutely no enthusiasm or care, because what I really care about is the new Breaking Bad tonight, but the first act went by and I enjoyed it. Homer wasn't that over the top like the promo suggested. The song in the beginning was a fun way to kick off the season. The fist bump thing was kind of iffy to me because I like it when Homer is oblivious and traditional when it comes to his standards as a middle-aged father, and him doing the fist bump just feeds to that annoying part of his character today that is established as the hip cartoon dad. That was nothing though compared to how much worse things can get with his character. I laughed as if I was watching a decent comedy towards the end of the first act:

-Kiefer's character reluctantly getting in the car with Homer followed by him making it clear he doesn't want to be buddies. "...don't be calling me in the morning to turn to channel 6..." The line was executed very well and made me chuckle.

- Moe handing the gun over to Snake. This show does "screw the audience" jokes all the time, and for some reason, this one fooled me.

- Lenny's explanation of how we all know what we're doing

- Moe: "That's the farthest one of our eggs has ever gone down someone's throat"

The second act followed and was able to pick up the pace. The status-quo fakeout with Ned and his orange juice was funny, as well as the japanese news animation which I don't think went too long at all. The only thing that I didn't care for was the wacky training flashback. I was hoping Kiefer's character was just out of his mind from something that occurred in a more realistic manner but I guess not all cylinders can fire when it comes to a satisfying show. I think it would have made him alot more interesting as a character if that was so, but nonetheless, it's not a big deal. I'm glad the Marge thing was just a joke rather than a subplot. In fact alot of screen time was put into the main plot which was a good choice on the writers part. Bart and Lisa's scenes were kept short and I liked Bart confessing that he let Milhouse lay in Lisa's bed.

The rest of the episode kind of returned to the "character being in danger" leading to everything going back to normal, but it still held my attention. Nothing to write home about though. Again, it was alot less obnoxious than what the previews made it out to be. The ending with the kids singing about KJI was random and unnecessary, but the episode's overall story was pretty solid. Nothing made me really cringe, so I'm pretty content. The Nedna bump at the end was cute. 3/5

[biffwestwood]

5/5

Excellent episode. Kiefer Sutherland gave us a top notch performance for an appealing character. There were many great action sequences that kept my interest in the story. The flashback scenes and Homer's envisioned robotic future stand out. The 3d sequence was a nice touch. My favorite part was Bart getting violent revenge against the bullies.

We now know that Ned and Edna have decided to stick together which is what I wanted to happen. I hope that it gets put to good use.

[friz]

There appears to be two Zombie Simpson catergories. Terrible, and Not Utterly Terrible. "Terrible" episodes are, well, terrible. "Not Utterly Terrible" episodes can be watchable, but they have no rewatch value at all.

This episode was Not Utterly Terrible.

[Snaked]

What I did instead of watching this episode: Eat Sausage on a bun with The Amazing Race on instead.

[Xt'Tapalatakettle]

This was the best premiere in a long, long time (since at least season 16 or earlier). Yeah, there were a lot of flashbacks, but the episode committed to those flashbacks as a storytelling (and joke-telling) element of the episode. Wayne was a very compelling character overall and I'm glad they made the episode more about him and less about Homer.

I really enjoyed the flash-forward Terminator joke. Overall, 4/5.

P.S.- The Nedna stuff was a bit much. I didn't mind the fakeout, but Edna winking at the screen (as well as their comments at the end) drew a bit too much attention to it.

[Irvine]

Wow, what a let-down episode.

The last few episodes of season 22 were decent enough, so I was half-expecting this episode to be around that same quality. Boy, was I wrong. In fact, this episode was so bad, I actually found tonight's Cleveland Show more enjoyable than this one.

For starters, most of the plot felt like a rehash of Homer's Enemy. I'd honestly would have rather had Grimey's bastard son be the star of this episode rather than Wayne. He might have at least made this episode more bearable to watch. Wayne was probably the most boring and underdeveloped character of the whole series. I've never watched an episode of 24 all the way through, so that might be the reason why I feel that way. Nevertheless, The plot its self was also underdeveloped and poorly executed. I just couldn't find myself getting sucked into the story at all. Perhaps that is to be expected with a lot of modern Simpsons episodes, but this was just ridiculous. I've seen better action movie parodies on American Dad.

The only positive thing is that a few isolated gags did work, which is what saved this episode from getting an F. I'm torn on whether to give this a D or D-, but it'll get a plain D for now.

[Irvine]

The Good:

--The bad CGI replay of the incident at Moe's (most LOL moment in a LONG time!)
--That Angry Birds commercial...which wasn't part of the episode.
--Auto Tune Victim

The Bad:
--Everything else.
--Everything else where the joke ran on and on and on and...

DYK: This episode was a based a tiny bit on the movie "A History of Violence" when Wayne's video was shown on YouTube.

Random Musings:
--While I've pretty neutral to the "HD" animation, the scene where Homer tries to find a parking spot looked pretty amateur, like someone was moving layers around Flash.

Grade: 2.25/5. Barely interesting at all, minus a few surprising good parts.

I dunno, Jake, that AutoTune joke felt to me like the writers were saying "Hahaha, look. We're aware that people on YouTube use AutoTune! We can use AutoTune, too!"

[zartok-35]

Huh? Does this mean you didn't like the animation in this episode?

Yes. The first act was particulalrly bad.

[Patches O'houlihan]

I dunno, Jake, that AutoTune joke felt to me like the writers were saying "Hahaha, look. We're aware that people on YouTube use AutoTune! We can use AutoTune, too!"

It's not that the Auto Tune joke is all that funny, but this episode didn't have too many things that could be called "good."

BTW, one more plus for this episode now that I think about it--Wayne replaced the old security guard, Larry, because Larry was "violent and crazy." I guess they don't really screen the guard applicants. :P

IMO, K.Sutherland was included tonight to boost his visibility for his upcoming Fox show "Touch", or something close to that title (or he could call it "Fistbump")

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I forgot to mention it before but was this the first episode that had Charlie with dialogue since Trouble With Trillions? I know he's appeared in crowd shots in later episodes.

Also, liked several of the monster references in the Wayne training montage like Chucky, Pinhead, and the one girl from Kill Bill. Also got a laugh when Homer squeezing Wayne produced the same sounds from him as when he was nearly killed by that bear.

[Dave Shutton]

I forgot to mention it before but was this the first episode that had Charlie with dialogue since Trouble With Trillions? I know he's appeared in crowd shots in later episodes.

Also, liked several of the monster references in the Wayne training montage like Chucky, Pinhead, and the one girl from Kill Bill. Also got a laugh when Homer squeezing Wayne produced the same sounds from him as when he was nearly killed by that bear.

Yes, holy shit Charlie talked! only thing i remember about the episode and that Sutherland's character kinda gave me a McGarnagle/Clint Eastwood kind of vibe

[That Don Guy]

In accordance with the new "joint understanding" between NHC and SNPP.com, this will be the new location for my capsule submissions (also known as "stuff" posts on Usenet).

Written by Justin Hurwitz
Directed by Matthew Nastuk
Special Guest Voice: Tom Colicchio; Kevin Michael Richardson; Kiefer Sutherland; Marcia Wallace
Also Starring: Chris Edgerly, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Ping Marshall
No billboard, chalkboard, or couch opening
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-LV

How did Barney end up in the SNPP bathroom? He doesn't work there.
Wayne didn't particularly care about his job that much; Homer, Lenny, and Carl got in without their badges.
Homer's normal workday is 9 to 5.
Wayne was reading "Plant Security Procedures Volume 7".
Moe's - now featuring Brine on tap!
The SNPP locker room has a sign: "DON'T DO THIS" (with a mushroom cloud).
The SLE(ep-e)AZY MOTEL makes its return.
The bit about "finishing each other's sennnn-tennnnn-" was in Bob's Burgers last season.
The paper Homer holds up is dated September 6.
There was no separate music/lyrics credit for the songs, or for the production company that did the CGI segment. (It is possible that it was done in house by Film Roman, or by Akom.)
What do The Simpsons and Glee have in common? Whenever a group that isn't the stars or special guests perform a song, none of them get credited.
"What our fans have joined together, let no writer rip asunder" - then again, Fox once claimed that Luanne van Houten was leaving the show "forever" at one point. ("I thought you said they wouldn't break up!" "It said, 'What our fans have joined together, let no writer rip asunder'; it said nothing about two or more of them doing it.")

LYRICS
Homer's opening song (no title was listed in the credits)
Quiet steps are what I take, sneaking in at noon
Just in time for my lunch break - got my fork and spoon
Time the cameras just right; duck in the bathroom
I'm still drunk from last night
Got driven home - I don't know by whom
Some may say I don't deserve any pay
But hey - I came up with '60s day last May

Kim Jong-Il
K is for Korea - just the north part
I is for the internet he banned
M is for the millions that are missing
J is for our human-tasting jam
O is for Oh Boy, We Love Our Leader
N is for the best Korea - North
G is for Gee Whiz, We Love Our Leader

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

The Falcon and the D'ohman

Obviously a pun of "The Falcon and the Snowman" and therefore a ripe parody of 80's action movies. While it wasn't like what the previews suggested, it still wasn't any good or bad, just marginally serviceable.

For one, we do get references to the Nedna poll that nobody was talking about (except in an alternate universe where I'm guessing Nedna was talked about like wildfire.); It does start off with the Comic Book Guy that I didn't like (still don't) and while they do give hints throughout the episode, they just had to make it obvious by having Edna wink (as if having her wink will help, it could probably suggest "Hey, I'm sleeping with another guy.); they could of removed Nedna's winking and the message would of gotten though just fine, I mean were not dumbasses here. The adding of the ending with a weak Skinner joke certainly didn't help much but it did serve that 0.0000001% that didn't get that Ned and Edna were staying together.

Anyways, the plot is your usual "Homer meets a cool guy, is determined to get to know him, cool guy wants nothing to do with anything and suddenly gets famous, people find out where he is, he gets in trouble, Homer gets in trouble, the cool guy saves him, there are some action sequences that feel really boring and unmemorable (see Toomanygrandmas's post for more criticism), everything is resolved" There is a bit of difference by having the guy have flashbacks and being voiced by Keifer Sutherland but it's not that much of a difference as "Wayne" ends up as an above average serviceable character; one who fits his purpose well and even has some noticeable traits but then fades into obscurity for being mediocre, kind of like Lisa's girlfriend in "The Simpsons Movie", the flashbacks are okay but I somewhat disliked that they mainly go above and beyond the threshold for noticeability and parody/satire; I mean did we really have to have various movie characters appear in a similar fashion to the Treehouse of Horror segment "Tweenlight" just so he can beat the shit out of them, really? He does feel a bit of remorse for the actions that he's done and some of the lines he delivers are decent but there is nothing elevating him from the serviceable character designed to fit the 80's movie parody theme this episode has.

The other side of the equation, Homer; well, he's his usual Zombie homer self. Doing stuff like being awkward, sprouting out lines and seeing if they stick into the wall, acting out jokes written by the writers and being servicable for what the plot calls for. Which is for him and Wayne to be close. Again, Homer wasn't obnoxious but I found very few of what he does to be good, just serviceable. I did not like the kidnapping scene and while it wasn't like it was displayed in the commercial it still wasn't any good. As noticed above, some people will like this but for me I feel like it was trying too hard with what it was given.

While we did not see much of the kids or Marge, they didn't seem to have good parts to play. The "Top Chef" daydream lacked purpose and the kids reactions just felt average; I mean why even put the thing in the episode description if it's not going to play a major part. Anyways, the kids stuff showing them doing spy stuff is okay at best; even though it's supposed to be Wayne getting closer to the family. I mean sure, they fit the 80's action movie parody but it didn't really feel funny, interesting or memorable. In fact it feels like they're going through the numbers, except for Maggie; but that's only by a small bit.

I do have to say that not going with an opening sequence seems to be a recent occurrence; as if they've decided that this'll revitalize this show. Granted it leads up to a song number but the song number doesn't feel like a Simpsons classic and it doesn't fit in with the episode's sequence. I do have to take offense with the amount of fanservice shown on screen, I mean this doesn't even look like the SNPP anymore, it's been modernized and completely redone for reasons I don't even known of... Granted there are some stuff that worked such as the Taiwanese video which oddly worked but that's only a small some and even I can't decide whether or not to include the Auto-Tune thingy in that some because I thought it was just a fleeting reference while it was one of the good parts of an otherwise mediocre episode. Also the children singing to Kim Jon Ii? Really. It's just, it's not even funny and Kim Jon Ii just seems to be done better in other series before this one.

In any case, this was better then Elementary School Musical but it also manages to be just the "ordinary season opener episode." It's not outright terrible but it is marginally serviceable and like a lot of a modern-era simpsons episodes, it's forgettable after like the 3rd or 4th month. Still, gotta commend Keifer Sutherland for trying...

4.5/10

[Dyin]

carl's "word of the day" line and the Taiwanese animation bit were the times I laughed.

otherwise it was ok and held my attention.

not bad.

[Brad Lascelle]

Is it terrible that this was probably the best season premiere in 8 years and I still feel underwhelmed and gave this episode a 3/5?
I enjoyed Nastuk's direction and Sutherland's voice acting. This won't be a memorable performance like his father's museum curator in Lisa the Iconoclast but it was well-delivered.

Homer was in full lovable jerkass parody mode tonight which I've rather grown numb to. The biggest flaw in tonight's episode is that a lot of scenes went way too long and it desperately needed somebody to chime in and say "maybe we don't need 4 Nedna references" or a half-dozen Wayne flashback sequences or an extended YouTube auto-tune gag or a lengthy Kim Jong-Il musical number (if you're not going to best what Matt & Trey have done in this area, don't bother trying). Not only were there too many of these but they all went far beyond the point of being funny (which is a Family Guy trait).

[noaizuma]

For me it was a real middle of the road episode.

The standout bits were the Taiwanese news clip (they no shit really look like that), and Barts line about 'letting Milhouse sleep in Lisa's bed.' That line was totally out of left field for me and creepy as all hell...hence I loved it :P

other then that the only really solid bit was the interrogation tape.

[Adam723]

carl's "word of the day" line and the Taiwanese animation bit were the times I laughed.

Really? Carl's word of the day line was one of only two moments in this episode that legitimately bugged me, with the other being the entire town magically hearing Wayne's dream screams (nitpicky, I know). What's the joke supposed to be? I understand the misdirection, but is Carl supposed to be so stupid that "he's" is a tough word for him? That's completely out of character for him. Those types of nonsensical jokes are the only things that really bug me. Oh, and the Kim Jong-Il musical was stupid, but I can't say it really bothered me.

I thought everything else was really good, though. The gags mostly all worked. The Taiwanese clip, the autotune Youtube video, and most of the action sequences were all really well done. I don't really have an opinion one way or the other about how they handled Nedna, but I will say Ned's line about Lovejoy being cranky at 3 AM was worth a laugh.

[Mr.]

Not bad but not good.

Few good jokes and I'm glad the Nedna turn out the way it turn (I voted "Yes"... YEY!) Hurray for love!!!

For me the most funny part was Homer as the hostage.

The Top Chief (whatever that is) was pretty lame to have a cellebrity for the sake of having one more cellebrity on the show.

I don't mind the Kim Jong-Il musical (I actuall find it a bit amusing) but I think it would work way better if it was in the middle of the episode, not on the every end...

[Blobulle]

I had the feeling I was watching an episode of the season 11.
Except the Prokofiev part and the story, I didn't like this episode.
Also very poor animation... 2/5

[SUPERFOX5]

4/5
I liked the episode.
The Taiwanese animation was just so badly animated, that it was something to laugh at.
Also the Auto-tune disaster victim video was just awesome.

[The Law-Talkin' Guy]

3.5 / 5, best line was "stay on script!"

[TriforceBun]

Ugh, Fox and Hulu are now airing new Simpsons episodes eight days after they premiere. That's pretty lame, I must say. Is it like this with all Fox shows then?

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Ugh, Fox and Hulu are now airing new Simpsons episodes eight days after they premiere. That's pretty lame, I must say. Is it like this with all Fox shows then?

Unfortunately yes; but you can get them the usual one day earlier if you can prove you subscribe to cable.