Rate and Review: "Holidays of Future Passed" (NABF18)

[jayleno]

Also just remembered they used "Google" instead of some lame pun like "Gaggle" to avoid trademark issues.

[Brad Lascelle]

That design for Mr. Largo is surprisingly funny.

Also, perhaps that Edna is a clone or Lisa hasn't checked her requests in a while?

I believe "Marcia Princess" is second from the left on the top row given the outfit (and the beret).

[Tubbb!]

Okay... which Flanders kid is second row, first?

[Alistair Leslie Graham]

I really enjoyed this episode tonight. It wasn't perfect tonight by any means, and like others mentioned, it fell flat just a little bit. But the jokes throughout the episode were consistently good. The Maude part was very funny to me. Though, I have a soft spot for atheistic humor on The Simpsons. Besides the aforementioned list of very good jokes, it was interesting to see how everyone turned out and also the future state of Springfield and its citizens. The part where Kerney was the taxi driver seemed like a homage to "The Fifth Element". The Internet becoming realistically virtual(Friend requests too lol) and Lisa's daughter's secret admiration for her were bright spots on the episode.
Very good episode. 4/5

[Tomacco]

I liked it, but not as much as most of you. I thought it was funny, had a slew of great sight gags, strong future jokes... but the one big issue I had was that the individual stories were kind of weak, just because there were so many going on at once, amidst so many little secondary character developments as well. I thought it could have made a way better 1 hour episode, if they felt up to it.

I think Lisa's Wedding and Future Drama are better overall, and also have a lot of heart.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

I also really like the design of M. Largo

[jayleno]

Here's a snip of some intense hate it's getting over on the Dead Homer Society comments page:

-Maggie is pregnant
-Lisa is married to Milhouse. She was much better off with Nelson, as they are much better suited for eachother. Milhouse has proven time and time again that he is far the whiniest, wimpy, fickle, desperate, needy, most lowest form of human being out there, who constantly embarrasses himself, by harboring the same hopeless
-Bart is portrayed as a loser (again). This kind of thing harshes on Bart entire rep and it’s getting quite old! He’s supposed to to be cool like Sonic the Hedgehog of the 90′s. Bart used to be so bad-ass.
-They keep the same character voices, even as adults. Honestly, would it really hurt to higher different voice actors for the children as adults? Billy West would’ve been perfect for Bar and Milhouse could have been voiced by Azaria (much like his father).
-Marge makes them take a family Christmas photo against their will. Marge is just flat out annoying. What will it take for the family to just flat out walk out on her when she’s at her most irritating.
-Maggie has no voice, since the umbilical chord is now a vocal chord (She isn’t allowed to talk). Maggie has been mute for long enough. It is some sacred golden Fox contract rule to keep Maggie silent at all times “under penalty of torture”?
-Their children have sucky attitudes. Zia is a total b**** who just emits negative vibes similar to Gina Vendetti and Nikki McKenna. As for the boys, just listening to them talk is enough to give someone a headache. All they do is whine about how Bart never spends time with them. They are worst version of Bart himself in recent seasons (“Yokel Chords”, “Homer the Father”, “O Brother, Where Bart Thou”, “Springfield Up”, “The Food Wife”)
-
-Finally, a court-mandated sincerity chip, Martin’s sex change, Lenny and Carl switching brains, Octuplets with Octuplets, Robo-Snake, just fall in the category of lame future showcase.

This episode is by far one of the most abysmal forms of writing that has ever had the dishonor of plaguing the current season, the entire series, and the holiest holiday of the year. It’s painfully obvious that the Simpsons writer suck hard at future tales more than the current episodes. It’s also painfully obvious that the holiday season is extinct and nothing can restore it (certainly not the Simpsons). And even people are said to learn from their mistakes, these writers intentionally do the exact opposite and make things worse, just to corrupt the minds of the neutral/current viewers and piss off more serious fans (not the raving bias Star Trek-fandom-esque ones *shudder*, but the one who keep score). It’s always, always, always a good idea to review your old work.

Maybe it’s high time that they start going into episode remakes. In this case, “Simpsons Roasting on an Opening Fire” should make a grand return and show the currently brain-dead viewers what a true Simpsons holiday consist of. That’s right folks! It’s time to bring it all back to the 90’s. Not just old shows and old episodes. It’s time for the return of 90’s-esque writing, because this crap is out of here like ’09. No stupid future jokes. No Bart whining about how his father doesn’t spend with him, they’re not supposed to be stereotypically father and son! Homer has a life of his own at work and at Moe’s Tavern and Bart a breakout character in his own league (and age group). That’s right! Bartmania is coming back at full force! The Bartman shall rise again!

But this holiday bombshell gets a Z (far worse than an F). Everything just kept happening too fast. And we’re talking about BS events! To everyone who hasn’t seen this episode yet, CAUTION: This episode is migraine-inducing. It makes the banned Pokemon Porygon episode seem like a bigger cult favorite than all of SatAM combined. I honest cannot see how people can enjoy or even call this “the most well received episode”.

But the only good thing I can say is PRAISE THE GOOD LORD THAT NONE OF THESE FUTURES ARE CANON! HALEJULLAH!!!!!!

Let’s just pretend that this entire Sunday night never happened. And the end of the series’ run is looking pretty good about now…….

[The Governor]

Jeez...I'm totally doing a 180 here....

...I'm defending a new episode that deals with a wacky future at the NHC
...I'm disagreeing with the Dead Homer Society and think this time their ire is over the top.

[noaizuma]

I thought this was the best episode in quite some time. I generally felt for Lisa and Bart as they confided with each other drunk in the treehouse, and the cloned Ralphs made me almost piss myself (seriously I laughed THAT hard). I really look forward to downloading this and freeze-framing all the gags, I cant rember the last time an episode's had such high replay value.

I think the simply notion of acctually moving the family forward in character progression really made the difference. I can see Bart being a bum who wants to change and Lisa despite everything being a less then fantastic mother who is emotional dead inside.

I really want to see Le Jake give a really detailed analysis on the episode since he's written so much in the vain of the family a few years into the future.

For the record I liked this one better then all the other future episodes.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

I'm totally disagreeing the dead Homer society and anyone can make me change my opinion about holyday of future passed.

You will know more about my opinion in the critic that I will make tomorrow.

[Tubbb!]

Here's a snip of some intense hate it's getting over on the Dead Homer Society comments page:

... and I thought I was cynical and filled with hatred. Those folks at DHS have got me beat!

Also: "Let’s just pretend that this entire Sunday night never happened. And the end of the series’ run is looking pretty good about now……."
WTF? They are watching the same show we are... right?

[zartok-35]

Well, that was pretty good. Not better than "Lisa's Wedding", but still quite good. This episode is chalk full of gags, so it feels like it has more better gags than most other contemporary Simpson shows. Homer's statement at the end was pretty cool too. I'll give this one a 4.7 out of 5.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Okay... With this post, I officially reach the 1,000th post mark and enter the glitzful world of platinum stars; I hope I can get past 1,000 and even 2,000 and maybe even 5,000! Anyway...

Holidays of Future Passed

I originally had thoughts about this being bad, but then I saw the reviews telling me this was good; even then I had my doubts but when I watched this episode, I realized something; this is pretty good...

Being a future episode, I was expecting it to go all wacky with the future and start including really weird stuff like flying cars and mutations and that. What the future is portrayed as here is surprisingly down to earth; with only a small amount of cliche futuristic technology (teleporters, flying cars, talking trees) getting through. I can see this happening within a reasonable amount of time and most of this is even doable. I don't know what my favorite future technology has to be but it had to be the internet, even though it's somewhat decedent from Futurama's internet (which may be the point). There is also a lot of details in this episode, so much that it makes the HD animation look bearable, good even.

Of course, the future isn't why we're here. Why we're here is to see The Simpsons characters "All Grown Up!" and facing a Christmas crisis. Which is played out as down-to-earth and relatable. Bart is a deadbeat dad who has sons, wants to love them but feels like he has to live as deadbeat as possible. Lisa is a respectable girl married to a somewhat respectable Milhouse (even though his life still sucks) with the typical teenage child (as it appears) and Maggie is a rock star (the fact that she is the lead singer and doesn't speak helps the scenes where she doesn't speak, even though the scenes themselves felt recycled.) with a baby on the way. Homer and Marge are the same as always, living together for all time doing their normal routine. (I'm guessing they got custody of Bart's kids.)

All of these people have separate plotlines but the way the writers managed to bring them in is mostly commendable and good. Homer's show of fatherhood directly infers with Bart's desire to be a good father. Lisa and Marge's conflict works well and even helps the daughters cause which is good since I kept thinking that the daughter was just going to be one big cliche; and even the two plotlines interact with Homer delivering lines that aren't forced jokes, Marge acting like the awkward housewife she's supposed to be and Bart and Lisa acting like rivals, though less so due to their respective sons and daughters.

The plotlines progress naturally and while there are some elements in there that are forced, I didn't find myself cringing as a whole. It eventually leads up to the infamous Bart and Lisa drinking scene which they didn't ruin, in fact the only thing that ruined it was that stupid talking tree that had no purpose being there. It's believable when Bart and Lisa are having troubles and it's even more believable to talk to themselves while drinking and let out stuff that happened in the past. Letting out something in the past helps us to connect with these characters the way no other Zombie Simpsons episode could ever do; and that scene even helps our characters grow as they both seek out their effective resolutions and come to terms when it comes to both of their issues.

Personally, all 5 of the characters act mostly the same as they did in the beginning (even the beginning was down to earth.) but have evolved traits. An example being Homer reading a children's book, while that may just be something cringeworthy. I'd like to think of it as something character-defining. Another example is Bart not seeming to pull any pranks and him not even thinking that Itchy and Scratchy is good anymore, and Lisa being mostly settled down in home life and doesn't seem as political as she did back then; the stuff that they had when they were kids seems to have quieted down and as a result, their more adult stuff has taken over them; well mostly... The other characters shown has also grown (what you thought it was about The Simpsons). We have the bully being a taxi driver and being less mean; we have Apu stressed out of their mind with more kids (even though a scene at the Kwik-E-Mark contradicts this). we even have Ralph Wiggum being cloned (though he's still as stupid as ever; personally I liked his portrayal in "Bart to the Future" even though that episode somewhat sucked.) Patty and Selma getting lovebots who won't love them and Ned marrying Maude's ghost (though it would of been better had he just married someone else instead; more character growth you know.) I would of loved to see more of Skinner though, and maybe Milhouse. Those seemed to be the two underused characters here.

Also the scene where Krusty does Andy Rooney seems to be a nice tribute, don't know if they added it in recently or not...

There are jokes in this episode and most of them are good but a lot of them are just bad. First off, the good; they did do a lot of good stuff with the future; stuff like the hospital. Most of Homer's lines (again, not forced terrible jokes.) some of the internet thing and the Google mention... Even most of the stuff that we're shown about the characters work as gags for the most part and even the beginning had some decent laughs. Now for the bad, the District 9 thing fell flat, Ralph should of been used better; Snake just felt okay; that British running reference; and Lisa befriending people on the internet. (A simple look at the friends list would of been sufficeive.) There is also the issue of jokes requiring explanation and the like, I mean the audience is smart enough to understand what's going on; you even proved it yourself when you did this episode with an intelligent plotline. I guess this is something The Simpsons will never escape, but there are a lot of jokes that get the point across in one shot. Maggie with her pacifier is nice but I would of preferred it without it.

Also a very cringeworthy thing; it's treated like it's canon but it should of been presented in a non-canon way. I mean with that photo album, it's like telling us that this is what's going to happen; Lisa experimenting with girls I did not like.

So anyway... This was a really good episode, I can see why people are giving these 5/5. This might be the best episode of Season 23, no wait... The best episode of the post Season 16-17 era. They really went all out on the characterizations and even managed to remain faithful to them; the lines are natural, the plot goes at a smooth pace and there are tons of good laughs to be had, though some bad ones manage to seep through as always. Though it's not entirely perfect as always, The Simpsons attempt at a Christmas special set in the future passes with flying colors. It's going to be really, really hard for an episode in Season 23 to top this one.

8.5/10

[zartok-35]

Here's a snip of some intense hate it's getting over on the Dead Homer Society comments page:

They need to edit their spelling.

Billy West would’ve been perfect for Bar

Which one is it, Dead Homer Society?!?

[Brad Lascelle]

I think the simply notion of acctually moving the family forward in character progression really made the difference. I can see Bart being a bum who wants to change and Lisa despite everything being a less then fantastic mother who is emotional dead inside.

Character flaws are a "good thing". They make the characters more real to those of us who've been watching them grow for years.

Lisa's situation is a complex one given that she sought out Milhouse as a love interest due to his straightforward devotion after college. No doubt he represented the complete opposite of what she dabbled with at U.C.-Moon (3-way lesbian tryst) yet when she finally took the plunge and got married to him she's unhappy (check out the photo).

She puts on a brave face for her clearly high-maintenance husband and her seemingly unappreciative cyberjunkie daughter (just like her mother does) and uses Nelson as a sounding board to vent about how unfulfilling her marriage is - effectively stringing him along as well as he's holding a torch for her.

I wouldn't say she's emotionally dead inside so much as harboring a number of inner demons of self-doubt that she finally has some success in tackling tonight due to her brother's pep talk and making a communication breakthrough with Zia online.

[That Don Guy]

4/5 - I almost gave it 5, but I felt there was just something missing (besides Maggie saying anything)

Written by J. Stewart Burns
Directed by Rob Oliver
Billboard: BAH HUMBUG & HAPPY HANUKKAH / Christmas Ignorers United (Mr. Burns and a rabbi - not sure if it's Rabbi Krustovski or not)
Chalkboard: CAFETERIA TRAYS ARE NOT TOBOGGANS
Couch: Everybody is a gingerbread cookie on a plate; Homer eats off one of his own arms
Also Starring: Chris Edgerly, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-DLV

For some reason, the TV series can use "penis" (and keep a PG rating) when it airs on Fox, but the movie can't.
The present-day card says, "Merry Christmas from The Simpsons...And a tranquil New Year from Lisa the Buddhist."
Apparently, future Lisa's last name is Simpson-Van Houten-Simpson-Simpson.
Milhouse went to University of Michigan, Dearborn (which really exists).
Homer reads "The Hardy Borgs"; Marge reads "Love among the Asteroids"
One of the teleports was to New New York; another, to the Independent Republic of Texas.
The quote at St. Beatles Cathedral is, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
They never do say what Bart's sons' names are (nor Maggie's daughter's).
I realize it takes nine months to make an episode, but was keeping Krusty's Andy Rooney bit in the best taste?
Next to the hospital is the Montgomery Burns Institute for Soul Extraction.
Speaking of "next to," King Toot's Music Store is still next to Moe's.
Apu's octuplets each had octuplets (and pretty much at the same time, apparently), but I only see 50-55 kids there.
Lisa's "Springfield Elementary" potential friends include Mrs. Krabappel, Sherri & Terri, Janey (far left, last row), and someone I think is Amber Dempsey(second row, fifth from the left); the person on the far right in the second row may be Groundskeeper Willy (you can see only the left side of his head and he's facing to the right, so it's hard to tell).
Lisa also has "friends" on UC-Moon, SUNY-Sun, and Miami of Ohio of Pluto.
Lisa says it's Dr. Seuss's birthday, but his birthday is March 2, not just before Christmas.
One of the chalk outlines at Moe's is Sideshow Bob and a rake.
Zia plays the cello.
In addition to Abe, the Cat Lady, Agnes Skinner, and (I think) Superintendent Chalmers are also frozen.
"Happy Holidays, Peace on Earth, and a Morphistic Quiznox to our Allies on Rigel 7.

MARGE'S COOKIE RECIPE
6 cups butter
6 eggs
3 tsp salt
3 cups sour cream
6-8 cups flour (enough to stiffen)
2 cups sugar
4 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking powder
7 tsp soda
Mix all the ingredients together
Chill for one hour
Roll and cut
Bake at 300 degrees [that's about 150 Celsius...and no, it doesn't say how long to bake them]
Makes a soft sugar cookie

Frosting:
2 boxes powdered sugar
2 sticks margarine
Small amount of milk
Vanilla
Cream together, adding just enough milk to make the frosting creamy

(My first thought was, they should have used the "sabotaged" cookie recipe from one of the Penn & Teller books - but then, what if somebody tries to make it?)

[The Governor]

DYN: Pattie and Selma's lovebots were from the movie A.I?

[Ryan]

Jeez...I'm totally doing a 180 here....

...I'm defending a new episode that deals with a wacky future at the NHC
...I'm disagreeing with the Dead Homer Society and think this time their ire is over the top.

Usually I think that Dead Homer's Society is almost always sickeningly negative, but I kind of agree with them here. It wasn't atrocious... but it wasn't very good either. I applaud some of the audaciousness and it at least made things more interesting than boring, but the choices ranged from plebeian to Scully outrageous. I know that Lisa's Wedding set the standard for allowing a "wacky satirical look in the future", but the reality is that it was kind of restricted. The future jokes weren't over-the-top and certainly didn't overwhelm the episode. I kind of lost it at "Ned marries Maude's atheist ghost".

The ending scene was kind of sweet, though.

[Toomanygrandmas]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? Never did I think I would see a new episode this well received. Now I really want to see it.

[THUG LIFE]

WHY SO SERIOUS ?!
Just give the episode 5/5
It was pretty good
I think this season is much better than 22

[Sideshow Ben]

I loved parts of the episode. Lisa and Bart in the treehouse was awesome. It was exactly how they should be. I also love that Maggie grew up to be how she was. That is just what I should she would become. Supremely talented and smart but very rebellious.

I didn't like how zany the whole episode was. I thought that really took away from he actual story. But I liked the Snake part so I am a bit of a hypocrit. But really too many gags about the future and not enough focus on what the characters had become. I also would have liked to see a few more of the kids grown up to see what would come of them. I thought it was cool to see Kearney and I would have wanted to see more.

[Dark Homer]

• I've mentioned before that the show has felt like a completely different show for a while now (the new opening sequence doesn't help). Everything in this episode was just weird and unfamiliar and I just felt so disconnected to it all
• The photos were a good way of transitioning and informing us of the changes

• Hm, I guess this makes my joke pro-polyamory Simpsons episode canon
• Wasn't Bart to the Future set 30 years in the future? Hm.
• Bart is divorced with two sons, just like Matt Groening...
• Lisa being married to Milhouse wasn't as depressing as I thought it was going to be. Still, I hate the cartoon cliche where the only possible romantic partners in Lisa's life are dudes she knew when she was 8 years old. (Aside from her girlfriends, I guess...)
• Um, why is Lisa such a bitch to Milhouse - frowning as she marries him, making sure their daughter shares none of his genetic material or even his last name? Nobody forced her to marry the guy.
• None of the grandkids had anything resembling a personality. They totally went the fanfiction route on them.
• All the "Maggie is about to speak but gets cut off" jokes in Lisa's Wedding were pretty natural and unforced whereas here it's much more of contrived stretch.
• I really like the joke in Lisa's Wedding where all the other houses have been future-updated but the Simpsons' house is still as crappy as ever. But here Homer and Marge seem to be up to date with the latest technology (b-mail, etc.) with some money for fancy vacations. I guess you could argue they got some of that money from Maggie, but it's always distressing to see their lower-middle-class-ness, which was so integral to the show in the early years, tossed aside
• The story felt secondary to all the dopey technofuture jokes when it should be the other way around. Not even Futurama does as much future gags.
• There were some surprisingly good reveals, like the tombstone and Chief Wiggum being Ralph
• Infinite Ralphs killing themselves is one of the most disturbing things ever depicted in The Simpsons
• Lisa feels alienated from her daughter. So what. I think Bart's conflict was richer even though neither story had enough time to reach their potential. Maybe they should've just focused on Bart.
• I like the idea that Homer is a really good grandpa.
• This isn't new or anything, but it sucks how Apu's only characteristic is "has 8 kids."
• The worst joke was easily the minute they spent setting up and then immediately setting down Patty & Selma and their sex robots.
• For a show that almost never fails to remind you that the convenience store clerk has eight children, they sure do forget Homer and Marge's niece an awful lot.
• A lot of the "here's where this character is in life" reveals were groaners. But Krusty as Andy Rooney made me chuckle
• I thought Bart telling Lisa she's the person he wanted to be was a nice moment
• Lisa's Wedding had a lot of futuretechno jokes but they were at least maybe-sorta-plausible. None of this "trees are conscious" bullshit.
• That said, I did laugh at Maude's ghost.
• "Martin becomes a phantom of the opera-type weirdo who lives beneath the school and plays funky versions of Beethoven on a large organ" is an infinitely better joke than "Martin undergoes a sex change." Just sayin'.
• I thought it was sort of an unspoken rule that Grampa doesn't appear in flashforward episodes, like maybe they were saving his implied death for the last episode or something. Guess that's off the table now.
• Maybe they thought this would be the last episode? Though I'm not sure how that's possible, seasons 22 & 23 were ordered at the same time, the production code ends in 18 instead of 22, etc. It would have made for an acceptable finale I suppose
• You're crazy if you think this was better than Lisa's Wedding

[Gobias]

DYN: Pattie and Selma's lovebots were from the movie A.I?

The male one was Jude Law's character. I'm blanking on who the female one was in the movie though.

[Brad Lascelle]

[*]You're crazy if you think this was better than Lisa's Wedding

I agree with this and I agree wholeheartedly with most of your other criticisms/observations as well (still saw fit to score this episode a 4 out of 5 by modern era standards).

But I will take the time to refute one observation.

[*]I really like the joke in Lisa's Wedding where all the other houses have been future-updated but the Simpsons' house is still as crappy as ever. But here Homer and Marge seem to be up to date with the latest technology (b-mail, etc.) with some money for fancy vacations. I guess you could argue they got some of that money from Maggie, but it's always distressing to see their lower-middle-class-ness, which was so integral to the show in the early years, tossed aside

This joke still lives. Not only is their house still the same but they're still driving the same two cars 30 years in the future.

Granted if this future falls within the Future-Drama continuity as implied then Homer still lives in an underwater house for a time.

[Dark Homer]

I guess I was distracted by the weird space needle vibe going on at the winfields/powers house

EDIT: VVVVVVVVVV

Almost makes sense if you disregard most other things.

hahahahahaha

[Matty]

[*]Wasn't Bart to the Future set 30 years in the future? Hm.

Well, that episode featured Maggie's baby girl, so Bart to the Future takes place within a year of this episode. Almost makes sense if you disregard most other things.

Compared to recent outings, quite a large numbers of jokes hit, yet for every joke there was a groaner. Aside from putting a man on the sun, I don't really care for all the space travel jokes. Takes the unrealism already there with all the science-replaced-by-magic up a notch.

In the end I think the little character stories needed more focus and felt very underdeveloped. This episode felt jam-packed and empty at the same time to me. Lots of places, jokes, characters, but little focus and engagement. Guess I'll have to go with a 6/10.

[The Spruce Moose]

Lisa and Milhouse?
The umbilical cord is a vocal cord?
Homer giving up beer permanently?
Irritating
Really obvious, signposted or just lame jokes ("I just like to dress up to eat my carrots and smoke" "You know we can hear your thoughts?" "They make me wear the veil", Ned marrying Maude, the 'irony' of Lisa the rude daughter, The British guy switching off the nurse to watch football, the invisibility cloak joke, the inn/manger joke, The Lenny/Carl thing dragging, Bart acting a 20 year old, Homer repeatedly freezing Abe where one might've worked)

Just so much lame nonsensical tripe passing off as jokes as to crowd out the good ones, mixed characterisation (Bart as a deadbeat good, Grandpa wanting to die bad, Bart wanting to be like Lisa - bad. This is the boy who thought being a drifter or monsterism were cool rewards for his lack of effort). And how did the ultimate half-assed dad Homer get so good at looking after kids? And why do they leave the Lisa-Zia/Bart and nameless kids 'tense' part when we all know what's going to happen? We all know this show doesn't do cynicism about the parent-kid relationship anymore.

That said, there is a better hit-miss ratio than usual ("Time to do this the old fashioned way...Gloves, to the hospital!", "The Monty Burns centre for extracting souls, Districts 9 & 10, The Ralph clones had their moments, "ah, I don't see what's great about them", Maggie's blank face when asked who the father was)

Enough jokes and nice touches to keep me watching in order to give a fair review, but not enough for any more than 3/5

[Gran2]

Uh, not again, you know I have far better things to do than watch this show. Like sitting around doing nothing. Oh well let's see how good it is...

So yeah, this episode wasn't terrible. But not terrible is very far from being good. Generally speaking if I have to describe something as 'not as bad as it could have been', then that's a bad sign. There were some good jokes, more than usual, and interesting future developments and some kind of genuine emotion, but it just left me with the overall feeling of: meh. If this was actually good then I guess I've just become cynical beyond the point of caring. I don't think I have. Maybe I could actually enjoy this show more if they stopped pretending it was still The Simpsons.

At least they remembered Sanjay... sort of.

A somewhat grudging-season-induced 3/5

[Cartoonnetwork]

Here 'ya go!

/

Wow, Allison got really hot!

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Allison looks like Laura Powers?