Rate and Review: 500th Episode "At Long Last Leave" (PABF07)

[The Governor]

The Simpsons stumble across another of those events where it seems that everybody else in Springfield knew about it in advance, but there's a reason for it this time; it's a town meeting that decides that they have had enough of the Simpsons' antics and vote to run them out of town.

[Homer I Am]

It hasn't been aired yet.

[Dark Homer]

you posted a thread at 11am friday for an episode that airs at 8pm sunday

[FranklinGeorge]

Great couch gag/intro.

[lolcats]

I guess we'll have to wait another 500 episodes to see something good...

This episode'd better prove itself...

[lolcats]

Well, I see Sideshow Bob speaking! At least I can say something good now..

[FranklinGeorge]

Great episode. Felt like an episode from the Oakley/Weinstein era. Al Jean actually gave me hope that this show can survive. I hope the next episode that airs won't disappoint me. Strong couch gag, good to see Sideshow Bob and Krusty's dad. A story that made sense. Good for the PABF season. 5/5, A-.

[IceDoesntHelp]

I missed act 1, so I'm not sure how it started. But otherwise, this was actually good.
Sadly, there were a lot of similarities to Cape Feare and The Simpsons Movie, but putting that aside, there were jokes...Funny jokes and a story that worked well.
Easily one of the best episode of season 23. 4.5/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

It was better than expected, but didn't they already move the town in the 200th episode? 4/5.

Also I missed the message at the end because it went by too fast, could someone post what it said?

[Sideshow Ben]

Worst 500th episode ever!

[joe007ofrockk]

Good episode, although I expect more from the 500th EPISODE!!! Otherwise, it was a good episode that shared a LOT of similarities with Cape Feare. I'd ultimately give it a B or a 4/5

[Tubbb!]

Initial thoughts: For a show that's lasted 500 episodes, and kept the FOX network afloat during the early years, they're not going all out... are they? There was more hoopla when the show hit 300. Hell, FOX did more promotion for that Asian guy who sang "She Bangs" on American Idol. Way to treat your cash cow, assholes.

Well... here we go.

Chalkboard: Milhouse writing "Bart's earned a day off."

Nice couch gag... that went on too long in typical PABF fashion. Way to screw up what could have been a good thing. No need for Homer and Bart in the tuxes.

ACT ONE:
The lunar eclipse photo.

...and a mysterious storm shelter appears out of nowhere. (I can think of two times in the series it would have been used.)

Lisa: "I could see a planetarium show without the second-had marijuana!" (How true that is.)

ACT TWO:
Kelsey Grammer has a line... is that one of the "surprises?"

Lisa's environmental initiatives: Not that expensive, but annoying.

(Uh... aren't they kicking Grandpa out as well?)

Homer sees the family as free sodas. Ha!

(So far, not too impressed... but not wanting to wretch. Meh.)

ACT THREE:
Yeah... we all saw "The Outlands" coming a mile away.

Marge and Homer as Burns and Smithers did make me laugh a little.

Nice callback to how Homer used to talk by Dan.
Wiggum: "You want I should spray some of my 'Jerk Off' on you?" (Really? REALLY?)


ACT FOUR:
Homer's head sucked into the jet engine.

Lenny... huh? Oh, I see... the whole town ends up in the outlands. Okay.

I've had all the fresh air I need today.


That really felt like a disjointed series of events that had no rhyme, reason, or heart.
Happy 500th, Simpsons. I will always remember you for what you were, not what you became.

The PABF mantra applies here: "Not good, but could have been worse." *sigh*
2/5

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Felt like an episode from the Oakley/Weinstein era.

I wouldn't go that far.

[McClure]

The couch gag was cool, and it had some moments (ie. Mr. Teeny dressed as Smithers), but for the most part: meh. Lisa was also extremely annoying in this episode. However, Maggie was quite funny. Cookie Kwan's comment ("babies don't act like that!"), and Maggie's behaviour in the outlands were great.

I hate endings like that as well. Yes, I know The Simpsons is a cartoon. But, this is not good writing. It's the "well, we've written ourselves into a corner and we're too lazy to come up with a proper ending, so lets just end it right there, and if fans complain we'll just say 'IT'S A CARTOON, STUPID!'" ending.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

I will do a real critic tomorrow night (I prefer to see an episode two times before give it a not) but I can say that I like it !

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Another thing, this felt short as fuck.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

Yes, this would be cool if this episode can be more long.

[joe007ofrockk]

Yah, it was too short. I hated that ending. Too...meh

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Yeah, Family Guy gets 40 minute long episodes usually at least once a season, why can't the Simpsons?

Not that I care enough about the show anymore.

[Tubbb!]

Another thing, this felt short as fuck.

Every four act episode feels that way to me. Also, HBW, if you can wait a few hours... I'll have a screen-shot of that thing at the end up. I just want to get the rest of the line-up recorded first.

[Alex_Of_Darkness]

Yeah, Family Guy gets 40 minute long episodes usually at least once a season, why can't the Simpsons?

Not that I care enough about the show anymore.

Maybe the staff of The Simpsons doesn't want an hour episode...

[Financial Panther]

One of the best intros in a long time.

The first thing I noticed about this episode is that it reminded me a lot of the movie. The first three acts I thought were pretty good. I enjoyed all the references to previous episodes, and some of the jokes were strong, particularly Smithers' reaction to Burns kissing the monkey. However, I didn't care much for the last act. It seemed that Springfieldians started popping up out of nowhere to move to the outlands area, and what happened to "We all hate the Simpsons!"? Suddenly they were best friends with everybody again. On a positive note, I laughed a lot at the message at the end. I love when they call out to us.

Overall, not bad; about the same as the last episode. 3/5.

[The Governor]

Grrr....I was in an optimistic mood when this began and the first two acts were near "4/5" quality and the drama surrounding the town being fed up with the Simpson family was actually pretty interesting along with Homer's "Remember when I used to talk like this?". Anyway, after the Simpsons returned, the story painted itself into another corner and the writers must've had some quanditry with ending this--for no reason, the town's mood suddenly changes from their rabid hate to sudden jealousy and that took the 'umph' out of the story and fucked up what could've been the second best epsiode of this dismal season.

The town invading the Simpsons newfound dystopia was so hacknied and cheap, it made the events preceding it completely meaningless. If you're going to say, "oh, its JUST a cartoon!", then that's the attitude that created that mess of an ending.

Anyway, for the good:
--the couch gag and blackboard gag were both good for this episode.
--they acknowledged the 500th episode is the most "meaningless Milestone of them all"
--Homer's "I used to sound like this" line
--Maggie being a badass

Grade: 1.5/5, rounded up to a "2."

Thankfully, there wasn't a pandering "the best is yet to come" shit.

[lionelhutz123]

It felt like a special episode of spongebob, except spongebob would have done it better. Honestly, it says alot when the best part was the couch gag montage. Overall, I'm a bit disappointed and it's not like I had any high expectations. Just another really disjointed, rushed, and sloppily written episode. 1/5

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I enjoyed it for the most part and it was definitely one of the better stories this season but Holidays of Future Passed was still better. I also didn't have enough time to finish reading the final message...I enjoyed the couch gag and early callbacks to Wild Barts Can't Be Broken, Brother's Little Helper, and The Squirt and the Whale. I wonder why we never saw Grampa after the town meeting though.

I think I enjoyed the third act the most, all the stuff with Marge and Homer sneaking around town was nice. The Walter Matthau voice callback gave me a smile. I liked several of the jokes given by secondary characters like the Chief or Burns and enjoyed the Sideshow Bob appearance despite how brief. Seeing the adapted Maggie was also enjoyable as was the use of Flanders. The ending was rushed and reminiscent of Trash of the Titans but I liked it enough. I'll say 4/5 on the first viewing.

[Snaked]

It was good, not great, but good enough.

3.5/5ish

[bradbradford]

The title carsd at the end said, " thanks for 500 episodes, now all that we ask is you go outside and get some exercise before logging on the internet to say how much this sucked"

[Redlion]

Hi everybody ! This is the first time I am actually writing for a forum but I have always read every Rate and Review. I am glad to write my first post for the 500th episode of my favourite TV show ever

Let's get straight to the point now: I loved the couch gag and the opening. Unfortunately, things got worse when the family moved. They should have included some of the older characters as a cameo for this special episode, which didn't feel special at all...

I have always been a fan of the show, but as many of you guys, my interest has lowered since the last few episodes...

Anyway, thank you soo much for your attention, I am glad to be a member

[lagozzino]

First half of the episode was solid fun stuff, but once they hit the outlands, it went into distincly "meh" territory.
Aside from the cameo from the Wikileaks guys, there's nothing that I'd say is particularly bad... but the second half just felt phoned in.
All in all, it earned a middle of the road 5/10 (or 3/5 for the sake of the poll)

[dave9199]

This was one of the many episodes where I felt there was no story. Not good, not bad, just meh although I did laugh a few times toward the end.