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

[Friz]

I'm usually the first one to state how The Simpsons suck nowadays. I've just rewatched this episode... and I still laughed. This is bizarre. This is legitimately a good episode. I'm scared.

However, I just wished that this didn't have the whole climax of the Nedna business. I didn't care about Nedna. I will never fucking give any sort of shit about Nedna. But it is referenced four times. At the beginning, the cop-out joke, the massive wink and the shit joke at the end. Imagine if the conclusion of Who Shot Mr. Burns took place during "Team Homer". Ridiculous.

So, 4/5. Would have been 5/5 if it wasn't for the constant Nedna referencing.

[cloneasaurus]

It held my attention and made me laugh twice, but overall, no, I didn't like it. The plot was just all over the place.

Everything felt anti-climatic. Next to no drama (which really was needed to make this plot work) was implemented leaving me careless about Homer being kidnapped. Not to mention the boring animation. I'm starting to get zartok's hate for Matthew Natsuk (sp). For an ACTION based episode, the animation was remarkably dull. Watching this I really felt I could have directed better than this in terms of camera angles and shading. The Kim Jong Il Musical sucked too, as did the autotune thing (they felt too Family Guy-ish for my liking).

But on the plus side this actually started off rather well; the song at the beginning was nice and I thought Homer was actually characterised pretty well throughout. I laughed twice, at Carl's word of the day, and something else which I've forgotten. Wayne was also quite a good character.

As for Nedna, I was actually happy with the whole Ned and Edna being in bed to reveal the results (not too subtle, but obvious enough to get it), but then they had that bit at the end, which was annoying.

Very badly executed, not very funny, boring animation, rather typical I guess. Shame.

C-/D+
(2/5)

[D DEBBS]

Decent season premiere ep...best was the Japanese animation crime re-enactment (the kind Adult Swim usually have in between their shows).

[Mr. Krikt]

This episode is just littered with pop culture references that make the Simpsons seem so outdated.
Korean 3D re-enactments, autotune songs and worst of all "do you want to give it zero stars"? I knew an earlier episode that the line "I give all your videos five stars and I never give five stars!" would seem so outdated in the future; I didn't expect them to make another reference after it was removed from YouTube.

Perhaps I'll post a review later but this episode doesn't deserve it. Perhaps I'll post about it six or so months down the line. That's still hip and new by Simpsons standards clearly.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, what was with all the cutaways? Master Chef, Homer's post-apocalyptic future and the Kim Jong Il play? Pure padding.

[Toomanygrandmas]

I didn't watch Season 22 when it was first broadcast, but earlier this summer, I told myself that I'd watch Season 23. This is the first season I've watched at the exact time it was first broadcast. So, in a way, I was looking forward to 'The Falcon and the D'ohman' - not because I thought it would be good, but because it would be a first for me.

Opinions then? Eh, it was okay. The premise was nothing too creative. However, the character Wayne was a decent one. Though the episode did revolve entirely around him (not many episodes should really do this, but is is okay occasionally), at least he wasn't annoying. He wasn't that interesting, but something that I can be grateful for is that this is a case of a guest star playing a character, and not themselves. When a guest star has a major role in an episode as themself, it rarely works out. I don't really see what they were going for at the beginning with Comic Book Guy. Did I miss something? Did Simpsons fans (as 'hilariously' portrayed by CBG) really care that much about the result of Nedna? Also, I didn't find many clues suggesting that Ned and Edna would stay together (unless the one where they are lying together in the same bed as one - though that is hardly subtle). I might rewatch it and see if there were any other clues that were meant to be subtle, but I wasn't paticularly focused on Nedna on my first watch.

I didn't object to the plot too much. What happened didn't bug me. How it happened did. The action scenes were very dull. For an episode where Homer gets kidnapped by international criminals, the action scenes sure were dull. Maybe it's due to the lack of creative camera angles and shadows. Also, I disliked the ending with the criminal head getting killed. Maybe I'm misenterpreting things, but didn't Wayne's endless flashbacks show that he felt guilty for killing the criminal's wife? He didn't really show much of that guilt in the final showdown. Talking about final showdowns, compare the one in this episode to the one in a classic episode, like 'Brother From Another Series'. It's when you compare the action scenes of old to the newer ones, that you see how weak the scenes were in this episode. Another problem I did have, was not with pacing, but the blatant attempts at padding out the episode. So many pointless scenes. Maybe a subplot could have helped, instead of sporadic padding. The scene at the beginning with Marge was one I thought would be part of a subplot - it wasn't (and the celebrity cameo was slightly nul), but even a dull subplot could have somewhat helped.

Humour wise, 'The Falcon and the D'ohman' wasn't very funny. I'm not being too harsh on it though, as it isn't any less funny than most modern episodes - i.e. not funny at all, but not painfully unfunny, like some late Jean episodes. The episode began on a musical scene and ended on a musical scene. Neither were funny, and the second one felt like a real time waster (along with the drawn out Nedna scenes). They could have just showed the script for the Kim Jong Il musical, and ended the scene at that. Whilst I barely laughed all (I did laugh at the idea of Ned calling up Lovejoy at 3 in the morning), I didn't find that many things anti-funny (or 'trying too hard to be funny'). One exception though. That stupid Autotune disaster victim thing. Stop. With. The. Endless. Attempts. At. Trying. To. Parody. The. 'Latest'. Thing. Seriously Al and co., it's fucking stupid, unfunny and will work against the episodes, as they will quickly date (and already have - youtube hasn't used a star rating system for yonks). Also the scene with the Wayne being attacked by all the different characters was dumb, and simply a weak attempt at cramming in as many pop culture references in a short time as possible.

Anway, I've rambled as I tend to do in reviews. All in all, 'The Falcon and the D'ohman' was sort of what I expected it to be. It wasn't the worst of season premiers (I haven't seen 'Elementary School Musical', but I've heard baaaad things about that), but it was generally diseased with modern Simpsons blandness - especially in the action scenes of this episode. Still, maybe I'm just in a good mood (though I have sounded pretty negatvie in my review), but this felt like a three out of five, rather than a two (a lowish three though, maybe).

3/5

[lovebug]

1.5/5

I only watched 10 minutes of it. But I'm just going to assume that the rest of it was boring as shit.

[Dark Homer]

This episode is just littered with pop culture references that make the Simpsons seem so outdated.
Korean 3D re-enactments, autotune songs and worst of all "do you want to give it zero stars"? I knew an earlier episode that the line "I give all your videos five stars and I never give five stars!" would seem so outdated in the future; I didn't expect them to make another reference after it was removed from YouTube.

I don't think rating things with stars is something that's going to go away anytime in the forseeable future... not sure why you consider that to be the most egregious example of pop culture shelf-life

[lionelhutz123]

This is not me trying to defend the overall quality of the scene, but I don't understand the nitpick about youtube having a five star rating system in the episode. I didn't even realize youtube abandoned the feature until you guys pointed it out. Really though, who cares? Many videos on the internet use a 5 star rating system, and you can easily think of it as a commentary of the ones that do, even if it's established as youtube. The show is just using it for the sake of the joke, whether good or bad.

Imagine the episode had the video playing on the right side of the screen. "OMG BUT YOUTUBE PUTS IT ON THE LEFT!" Complaining about the rating system is just as ridiculous.

EDIT: bort knows the score

[Mr. Krikt]

I don't think rating things with stars is something that's going to go away anytime in the forseeable future... not sure why you consider that to be the most egregious example of pop culture shelf-life

However they're watching YouTube which dropped stars for the Like/Dislike system long ago. Sorry, MyTube. I think I consider it the worst one because it's clearly anchored in the past whereas with the other examples, the internet may have grown tired of them but they're probably still going.
Forgot to mention that it was prefaced by what seemed like a list joke too.

This is not me trying to defend the overall quality of the scene, but I don't understand the nitpick about youtube having a five star rating system in the episode.

Yes, it is a nitpick but it just serves to further underline how desperate the Simpsons seems to seem "hip" and how poorly they accomplish it. Arguably not as bad as the ironic "Skype - Skype - right-click" line from Ned Flanders, perhaps, in an earlier episode.
Also, you didn't notice the change it was pointed out? They dropped it a year and a half ago. More than enough time for one of the writers to pick up on that, one would think.

[Financial Panther]

This was good! Very good! It was really funny and legitimately made me laugh out loud at some points. I also liked Wayne's "Mystery Man" character. The ending even struck a bit of an emotional chord with me when Wayne left, and then immediately had me laughing when they showed him at the DMV. For me, that's perfect. Balance out the emotion with humor.

The only thing in the episode I didn't care for was that I think the montage of Wayne beating up a bunch of stuff, then finally getting squeezed by a bear went on a little long. (And that Ned ended up with Edna, but I knew he would anyway)

5/5!

[The Wiggs]

I enjoyed the little song at the beginning. It was nice and not too long. Not much else in the episode was that great. 3/5

[Monty_Burns]

it wasnt funny but at least a bit interesting when compared to anything shown in the recent seasons

[Diversity Pumpkin]

Damn. I was hoping Ned and Edna wouldn't get together, like it was the majority of the world telling The Simpsons writers, "No, your ideas suck. Why would you even suggest this pairing?"

[The Governor]

The general public doesn't really care if the Simpsons suck as much as they care the show continues...no matter how vapid it becomes.

[The Sovereign]

pretty crappy, only good thing about the episode was I found the awesomeness of Dance of the Knights

2/5

[Mr.]

To be fair I would rather seen entire episode as "part two" of the whole "Nedna" thing, rather then just a quick wink to the audiance but at the same time they would have two animate two diffrent episodes or just the final act (like they did for "Who Shot Mr. Burns") so I guess it may get to expenssive or something.

BTW -> I'm glad to see I'm not tthe only person who notice that the animation got wird... Not poor, but there is just something odd about how characters act at the moment. Can't put my finer on it...

[Diversity Pumpkin]

They will never make another episode about Ned and Edna.

[UndeadSamurai01]

I was suprised by Lisa's line in the beginning where she repeated 'I like routine'. It sounded out of character. I won't speculate further on what this means for fear of starting a flamewar, but no doubt some of you know what I'm getting at. The diagnosis doesn't fit with the rest of her character.

[Old painty-can Ned]

This episode was a prime example of how boring the later Jean era can be. Nothing offensively bad but nothing that really can hold anyone's attention. Plus there's nothing that really demands you go back and watch it again.

Grade: C-

[Dark Homer]

I was suprised by Lisa's line in the beginning where she repeated 'I like routine'. It sounded out of character. I won't speculate further on what this means for fear of starting a flamewar, but no doubt some of you know what I'm getting at. The diagnosis doesn't fit with the rest of her character.

I don't know what you're getting at

[Mr.]

They will never make another episode about Ned and Edna.

To be honest I have opposite filling about it. The very reason why they did it so they can make a change in the show and have many jokes about Ned having now a whife, and for Bart to have a teacher next door.
Still - beafore they make another Ned/Edna center episode (like a wedding episode or something) they will wate a season or two since they nead see the pools resolts to have them together in the first place.

[somejeff]

Jeepers H. Crackers is this show lame now. The jokes are all "Family Guy"d now. Something that is not funny and entirely predictable is not made more bearable by a long duration. That is a basic rule of comedy. Oh, he had to fight a bear after fighting other "humorous" opponents. Hilarious. I loffed and loffed... yech.

I do not get it. This was just Homer's past failures wooing his pal "Grimey" combined with some other episode from the awful years*. Was it good? Not at all. The lame intro of Homer singing as he walked into what the "new" Nuclear Panner Plant resulted in about as many laughs as photos of a crime scene. The rest was just awful as well. There is nothing redeeming about the show. I really do not care if it is not "The Simpsons" anymore. I am upset that it is so awful. It is an affront to funny.

But the writing staff is keeping things fresh by allowing viewers to vote on plot points and ham-handedly reminding them of the results. Was it really necessary to state the result? Could the results have no just been incorporated into the show? Oh, wait. They were. How stupid is the audience that the point needs to be directly made at the end? "Family Guy" sucked last night, but it was "Family Guy." This was just horrid.

This is the first time in over ten years that I have watched two consecutive first run episodes of "The Simpsons." Not a great decision I think.

* It is questionable at this time if "awful years" is even an apt description as there are more bad seasons than good now. The awful years make up the majority of the show's run. It probably makes more sense to refer to the early seasons as the good years. The rest are really what "The Simpsons" is known for.

They will never make another episode about Ned and Edna.

That would be rather clever, but there is no way it would happen.

[harveytwh]

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).

Aww. I'm gonna hang out at a.t.s for a while yet, I guess. (Oh, this is Matt Garvey.) Is it not possible/desirable for you to keep including your Stuff in your Upcoming Episodes posts anyway?

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.

LYRICS
Homer's opening song (no title was listed in the credits)

I get the impression that you don't recognize the song. The opening song is a parody of The Police's "Walking on the Moon". (The Kim Jong-Il one is a Mother's Day song or something - you know, M is for the many things she gave me...)

[Gatorgod]

Even tho i missed the first 5min, it was still my favorite animated show of the night. 5/5

[Adam723]

I was suprised by Lisa's line in the beginning where she repeated 'I like routine'. It sounded out of character. I won't speculate further on what this means for fear of starting a flamewar, but no doubt some of you know what I'm getting at. The diagnosis doesn't fit with the rest of her character.

It seemed very OCD to me, which fits pretty well with Lisa's character. For the life of me, I can't figure out what you were hinting at, maybe autism/Asperger's? Why would that start a flamewar?

[UndeadSamurai01]

It seemed very OCD to me, which fits pretty well with Lisa's character. For the life of me, I can't figure out what you were hinting at, maybe autism/Asperger's? Why would that start a flamewar?

heh... not quite sure what I was thinking when I posted that at 3am.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was hinting at (asperger's primarily), but yeah, people sometimes get defensive of their favorite characters, then people come back defending the condition, then people come back trolling saying that it isn't real, back and forth until it becomes a flame war (aspergers is particularly volitile when it comes to flame wars). Perhaps not on this forum though . Anyway, I would tend to suggest that OCD is unlikely given her love of adventure and travel, I haven't seen much ritualistic behavior from her. The scene just seems very poorly written - seriously saying in a distressed tone 'I like routine, I like routine', when you get a different snack would indicate a debilitating level of OCD when, in all of her other scenes she has appeared neurotypical.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

It was not OCD, kids usually like routines to stay the way they are. Sure, it was a well intended joke but it just sucked, the executions, the reactions, I know I'm going to get blasted for this but it felt mostly like Family Guy.

[HMS pinafore]

The good:
CGI news clip
Charlie

The bad
The gueststar character was Bland and bad
the show trying to be hip (This is very bad)
bad animation
bad plot
it was just a bland episode of blandness

[Üter]

I quite liked it, infact I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a new episode - So I rated it a 5 here (even though its definitely not a 5 compared to "classic era").

[Matty]

Taiwanese animated news item about the taiwanese animated news item