Rate and Review: “Them, Robot” (PABF10)

[The Wiggs]

The episode started out all right but it took a turn for the worse once Homer started bringing the robots out of the power plant. The concept had potential, but the episode didn't deliver. 2/5

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Them, Robot

With this episode, the show joins the luminaries of shows which had have robots that malfunction; shows such as "Family Matters". However, the episode which joins this is really, really bad. It's not 1.0/10 bad but it's bad regardless...

Michael Price has always been one of the worst writers of the show and this episode does nothing to change that. (even though scripts contain only 8% of the material written by the writer.) I don't know of anybody who can take a simple idea and turn it into a mess of sloppiness and unfunniness; not to say he's done good but episodes like this aren't helping his case. The plot itself is disjointed, it lacks a proper beginning, middle and end and it just jumps from scene to scene without any major purpose. It does start off well with the physical but then it just declines and declines and declines and declines until it reaches the point where it just has to end. I mean how can Homer not drinking lead to Mr. Burns firing all of the robots which leads to Homer goofing off with them which leads to a rebellion? It just doesn't make sense....

Maybe the intentions of the episode were to showcase what would happen if they lost their jobs and what would happen if Homer were around robots... Maybe that can explain the disjointedness but it doesn't exactly excuse it; the commentary about the robots isn't exactly one of the Simpsons high point, in fact it feels like every other episode involving robots ever made. Common things like human preservation, robots not having feelings, robots having strict rules are there and while there are stuff like the yellow paint and the configuration to make it different; it never gets taken to the max, there is never any true attempts to go above and beyond. I mean there are tons of stuff that could be done to robots; chips, enhancements, programming; I'm really sad they didn't get into the programming because it would of made a lot more sense then a drill and it would of been the catalyst for some pretty funny stuff. Anyways, you don't have to be a sci-fi geek to know the stuff that could of been done; the conversational aspect of it was decent but I feel like the guest star is more suited to appearing in podcasts rather then as a guest star on The Simpsons; in fact I will pay him money to do exactly that.

The unemployment thing is also pretty hollow; like they took a drive to one of the run down parts of LA and just decided to call a day. I don't care if you live solely in LA, why not take your cars down to Riverside or Orange or even San Diego County; there is a world outside of LA you know... Anyways, because of the fact that they don't do an accurate representation of unemployment, their commentary about that issue comes up thin; while there are some stuff that seems reasonable/relatable, a lot of it just screams that they're behind the times and they're trying, just trying to keep up. Worse is that it doesn't even get a lot of airtime, it's all taken up by the unfunny Homer and the robots... I know that it's a sideplot but it could of been given more attention, this makes the ending where the unemployed and employed destroying the robots undeserved; I get that these robots took their job but could you make it so that we cheer for them instead of think of them as convent, because that's what it felt like. No amount of lamp shading could ever justify this.

There are jokes but all of them seem uninspired and lacking; what's worse is that the scenes involving The Simpsons don't feel like they have a specific order, it just feels like someone was goofing off. There isn't any transition or any buildup to these scenes; it just happens. Hell, I don't get why they didn't include dramatic music, they at least would of made these scenes enjoyable. I don't know of any specific example I can say; well maybe Homer's obnoxious "Hardly Working" gag, the worlds smallest violin and the robots preserving their human masters but the fact that there are a ton of bad jokes compared to good jokes make this episode hard to watch. Additionally, there are just a bunch of things that feel off; Homer is not the one to be able to reprogram the robots but somehow he seems knowledgeable enough to read and operate the controls, I know this is for the episode but come on... Additionally, these people seem contempt on retconning stuff just for the sake of it; I mean during the moment where Mr. Burns parade happens we see how Moe got ugly in a different way... Not that it doesn't matter but it seems annoying that they would do this and expect rises from people, it may piss some people off but it's being used soo much that it's starting to feel like a gimmick. Next up: how Marge got her blue hair so stiff... Plus; Mr. Burns can run? I thought the joke was that he was so weak and frail that he needed someone to carry him, well it is needed to counteract the obvious Homer joke.

This episode is one of Season 23's worst. I knew it would be uninspired from the gate but I never thought it would be this uninspired. The robot plot is one of the weakest the Simpsons has done, the jokes here are uninspired and the plot is disjointed. Worse is that this seems like The Simpsons is spinning it's wheels, like this is the best idea that they could come up with. I don't know the reasoning behind this but I do know that The Simpsons is better then this robot rampage crap.

3.0/10

[That Don Guy]

Written by Michael Price
Directed by Michael Polcino
Blackboard: none
Couch: with a banner reading "America - Most Powerful Country in the World" behind them, everyone sits as the years pass from 1989 to 2012, with different characters appearing in every other year between 1991 and 2009; the banner changes to "Too Big to Fail, We Hope", and Maggie ends up holding a Chinese flag
Special Guest Voice: Brent Spiner
Also Starring: Chris Edgerly, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell
Closing theme: "Robot Parade" by They Might Be Giants
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-LV

Couch gag appearances:
1991 - Leon Kompowski
1993 - Stampy (with Ralph in its mouth), although "Bart Gets an Elephant" was in 1994
1995 - Poochie, although he didn't appear until 1997
1997 - Leprechaun
1999 - Ghost of Maude Flanders, although she didn't die until 2000
2001 - (WWI-era German soldier?)
2003 - (someone who's dressed like Willy Wonka)
2005 - I think that's Chazz Busby from "Smoke on the Daughter", but that episode was in 2008
2007 - Spider-Pig
2009 - Princess Penelope, but she didn't appear until 2010

I think this was the first time an opening logo gag (Maggie on the paper airplane) was repeated (it first appeared in NABF12).

I assume it was not a coincidence that the term "prime directive" was used quite a bit with Brent Spiner as the voice of the robots.

The ballot proposition Homer reads sounds like one to replace a "committee" that draws a state's Congressional district lines with having it done by the state legislature. (There is a proposal on California's November 2012 ballot, but it involves only state Senate districts, and would have them approved by popular vote.)

Burns's apps: Am I Alive?, Ukulele Hero, Google Naps, Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang, Angry Burns, Trap Door

Every robot's ID was a letter followed by two digits, except for the one that replaced Smithers, which was "LA6".

In the softball game, and at the "funeral," the robots were able to walk off of the yellow lines.
However, when they left the yellow lines to save Homer and then tried to kill him, presumably their prime directive took precedence over the "yellow line" restriction.

The robots put away their buzzsaw hands when they got to Burns Manor.

[Friz]

All in all, Treehouse of Horror XXIII wasn't all that bad. I thought it was a pretty brave move to just do one story, but I suppose it worked. However, it would have been nice to see-

Wait, hang on.

What do you mean it was a regular episode?

That can't be right.

[Beepo91]

I was actually quite shocked at how funny this one was based on the comments.

I hated Politically Inept and The one where they go to Israel but this one wasn't bad at all. It was dumb, but in a silly and fun way.

The plot was dumb, and really went nowhere, but the humor was right on, and I'd give it a 4/5.

Really don't get the comparison to some truly obnoxious episodes.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

2003 - (someone who's dressed like Willy Wonka)

I think this was the first time an opening logo gag (Maggie on the paper airplane) was repeated (it first appeared in NABF12).

That was actually Goose Gladwell from Season 16's "Fat Man and Little Boy" though making it represent 2003 doesn't make sense. At first I thought they were just referencing by Season, since Season 11 is 1999-2000, but some of their later examples(and earlier I guess) don't entirely fit with that. Need to review it though I suppose.

Also they've re-used flying intro gags already, last week's was a repeat involving Santa's Little Helper and the Frisbee and they've used the crow many times.

[Flimpson Tide]

The fuck was with all those errors in the couch gag? Especially considering Al Jean prides himself on his Simpsons knowledge. I bet they envisioned what characters they wanted to appear more than the proper years; they probably didn't have the time (for once, oddly enough) to incorporate characters into the even-numbered years and fix all those mistakes.

Anyway, this was a mixed bag. I found acts 1 and 2 very good and even reminding me of the classic years - particularly Mr. Burns just sitting at his desk like he used to, the total lack of "HAHA BURNS IS SO OLD THAT HIS BODY IS DOING THIS" gag, and the exchange between him and Smithers about training kangaroos. (I feel like there has been an exchange or two very similar to this one years back about training random animals to do unnatural things for bad reasons. Or maybe I'm thinking of his monkeys using typewriters. I don't know.) Other good moments:
-"I didn't say 'Monty says.'"
-"Yes...Hulk smash."
-"WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?" - You guys found this obnoxious, I found it hilarious. Come on, Homer's had small jerk-ass moments like this since season 5. Not every jerk-ass moment is necessarily bad.
-Seeing Lenny and Carl angry about unemployment at the bar. I feel like we haven't really seen the two jealous toward him in such a way before, and it was quite interesting and realistic (you know, until the violin).
-The "screw the audience" gag, when you think Homer's taking the robots to Moe's but he makes a baseball game instead.
-Did Bart reference his group from Bart of War? Nice callback.

Then the episode got off. Barney's hats were bad, Homer's head partially chopped, the city's unemployment not addressed til act 3, the town somehow saving Homer and Burns. Meh. I'd say it turned into 3/5 or so.

Was anyone else expecting a Robotic Richard Simmons appearance on the steps at Burns' manor?

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

-"WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?" - You guys found this obnoxious, I found it hilarious. Come on, Homer's had small jerk-ass moments like this since season 5. Not every jerk-ass moment is necessarily bad.

I could do that for a long time and think it's funny but you don't see me doing that. It's not that it's a jerkass moment, it's that it went on for way too long, didn't do anything to make itself funny and just serve to transition into a Homer pain gag.

-Seeing Lenny and Carl angry about unemployment at the bar. I feel like we haven't really seen the two jealous toward him in such a way before, and it was quite interesting and realistic (you know, until the violin).

The violin was one of the unfunniest things about the episode, dragged it on for too long and lead to similar unfunny gags. I get that they had an ideas but some ideas should be bottled up guys.

[bradbradford]

^I assume I'm the only one, but I actually liked the part about Lenny losing the violin bow and the "The buyer specifically said violin and bow". I don't know. Whatever. I like Lenny.

[Friz]

"WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?" - You guys found this obnoxious, I found it hilarious. Come on, Homer's had small jerk-ass moments like this since season 5

Yeah, but if Homer kept headbutting the safari park owner in Bart Gets and Elephant for 40 full seconds, it'd be a bit friggin' tedious.

I actually liked the part about Lenny losing the violin bow and the "The buyer specifically said violin and bow". I don't know. Whatever. I like Lenny.

I like Homer.

[Tubbb!]

2001 - (WWI-era German soldier?)

It's Kaiser Wilhelm from THoH XIII, which aired 11-3-02: "Yippie Whippie."

Wow, they were off on a few of those years, weren't they!
Why doesn't the staff of the show include a Simpsons historian? I've always wondered that. Simple research would fix so many problems....

[Friz]

It's Kaiser Wilhelm from THoH XIII, which aired 11-3-02: "Yippie Whippie."

Hang on, but Maude's ghost was in THOH XIII as well, and that was put in a different year. Blimey. They honestly didn't care about that massively long, barely animated couch gag in the slightest.

[Tubbb!]

Hang on, but Maude's ghost was in THOH XIII as well, and that was put in a different year. Blimey. They honestly didn't care about that massively long, barely animated couch gag in the slightest.

D'oh! It's not Kaiser Wilhelm, it's Baron Von Kissalot from Half-Decent Proposal, which aired 2-10-02. For some reason the first time I watched it... he registered as Kaiser Wilhelm.


Also, I found this while trying to get a synopsis of Beware My Cheating Bart:
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/...minimum-rates/

Interesting....

One more thing: Smithers' briefcase also contains two other works by gay authors

I'm going t