Massive delays in posting this, due to becoming a qualified
cheesemonger (a shockingly accurate statement). This week saw an
overall improvement across the board, with a range of witty Halloween specials
across all five series. I’ve added on my South Park review as well, but am saving
the promised Regular Show/Adventure Time show coverage for the next post (as
Animation Domination took a massive two weeks off air!)
The Simpsons – S24E510 ‘Treehouse of Horror XXIII’
After last week’s dead on arrival episode, the annual
Halloween Special brings The Simpsons straight back into its new silver age.
This time there are four tales, thanks to an extended opening sequence dealing
with the Mayan Prophesy. From there, we go into a fun little story about the
Springfield Haledon Collider, which creates a black hole that Lisa takes home.
It’s a pretty by the numbers story, but I loved the ending, where Springfield
is sucked through the hole into another dimension, and meet some trash
worshiping aliens (who naturally praise the Microsoft Zune).
Next we have the best story of the set; a Paranormal
Activity parody. Though coming perhaps a few years too late, it’s an excellent
spoof that is genuinely terrifying in places. I really loved possessed Marge,
and Homer’s oblivious attempts to seduce her. The end is again great, although
perhaps a little too adult compared to the rest of the episode. In any case,
it’s a much more solid spoof than previous years efforts, but in future I’d
like to see some more recent blockbusters being undertaken (a Simpson’s version
of The Hunger Games would be
incredible!)
The last segment is defiantly the most ambitious. It’s a
Back to the Future parody, where Bart travels to the 70’s to buy a vintage
comic book. While there he meets teenage Homer and changes history so Marge
marries the infamous Arty Ziff. The main problem with this segment is that’s
it’s referencing a 25 year old film, so immediately feels a little dated. That
said, it makes the clever decision to have Bart emerge in the events of the
classic episode ‘The Way We Was’. It’s
a lovely touch that makes the story a lot more memorable than it could have been.
The final sequence, featuring an army of time displaced Homers,was an excellent left field surprise.
This is the best Treehouse of Horror in years.
Let’s hope the regular episodes can keep things this consistent.
8/10
Best Bit: ‘Crush-a them! In the name of Jebus!’
Worst Bit: Back to the Future isn’t the freshest Zeitgeist to be taking on...
Family Guy - S11E190 ‘Ratings Guy’
Family Guy, despite another middling episode in general, proved to have some amusing moments this week; probably because it
riffed on one of the series all time classics, ‘PTV’. Sadly though, despite commercials to the contrary, it wasn’t
at all Halloween based; a shame given that themed episodes are quite a rarity on this programme, and when used correctly make a nice change; which at this point Family Guy could use.
Nowhere is this more obvious then in the opening minutes. The family take a trip to the Quahog fire station,
and we get the usual FG level of banter about Fireman and how they’re so very silly. Oh, and
then it just stops. Yep. Family Guy seem to have realised they suck at telling
stories and just stopped trying. A very disjarring start.
Swiftly moving on, we find out that the Griffin’s have been
selected as a new ‘Nielson Family’, whose TV watching habits contribute to
television ratings. Tom Tucker goes to great lengths to get them watching
Channel 6 News (included a pretty good gag of the newscaster sans-moustache),
and the power goes to Peter’s head. He steals more Nielson boxes, and
eventually counts for three million viewers. His habits change the face of TV,
and it’s up to Peter to put things right.
There’s lots of fun moments in this storyline; I loved Jon
Hamm guest starring on a Star Wars themed
episode of Mad Men, and it’s a shame
we didn’t spend more time getting a look at more of Peter’s changes (such as
adding another tree to One Tree Hill).
I also enjoyed the board meeting at the climax, with cameos from J.J. Abrams
and Dick Wolf, which were both very witty. And hey, they even managed to actually
get Dan Castellaneta in for a Homer Simpson appearance (ironically, a moment
that’s ripping off a South Park joke.)
But among these moments are some truly bad material; along
with the boring fire station scenes, there’s a horrific cutaway involving Peter
in a shooting, which should have really been edited out; its in very poor taste. The
other Family members are very much in the background, and the supporting
cast don’t get any good lines at all.
‘Ratings Guy’ is perhaps as good as we can expect from Family
Guy nowadays. There’s a lot of decent jokes here, compressed between some lazy
attempts at shock humour and even worst storytelling. But it’s still an ok effort, and at this point in the shows run, that’s something to be noted.
6/10
Best Bit: I’ll give it to the board meeting. Not exactly original punchlines, but ably delivered.
Worst Bit: The massacre is shocking in its inappropriateness.
The Cleveland Show – S4E66 ‘Escape from Goochland’
Poor old Cleveland Show returns for a surprise fourth season
premier. This program is pretty unloved, which in my opinion is perhaps a little
unfair. Forever in the (fading) shadow of its parent Family Guy, The Cleveland Show quickly mastered elements that the original never properly touched on – namely thought out storytelling and a good
cast of secondary characters. It’s never been particularly brilliant, but
neither has it been overly awful; at best it’s a fun spoof of family sitcoms
like ‘My Wife and Kids’ or ‘The Jeffersons’. Escape from Goochland won’t convince you to watch religiously, and
it was hardly anything to shout about; but neither was it a total train wreck. You’ll
perhaps forgive me if this review is a little bit short because of that.
The first thing I liked about this episode is, like last
week’s American Dad, it gives a
female character a bigger role. Now, Roberta is in no way the brilliant, well
rounded character that Hailey is, but it’s nice to see her being used for once.
She encourages her boyfriend (the kinda funny, kinda not) Fedeline Jones to go
to a football game with Cleveland, leaving her and Junior to go out playing
pranks dressed as their parents. Once at the game, Cleveland destroys a rival’s
car, forcing him and his friends to escape the enemy town, and fight a gang war
on the streets of Quahog.
And that about it to be honest. The jokes within are all
fairly solid; some fun stuff with a theremin, a Katy Perry costume (with foam
squirters) and a great ending with Cleveland and Donna mistaking each other for
Prostitutes. But there’s no ‘wow’ moment
here; nothing that sets this series apart from the other four programmes in the block.
It’s a shame, as there’s often a lot of effort put in animation wise in this
series; but I can’t really call it must watch television. Perhaps its natural
home is just as background TV, rather than something worth going out your way
to see.
6/10
Best Bit: I did like the Prostitute Joke at the end; I don’t think you could pull that off with any of the couples on others shows.
Worst Bit: The Ballgame was dull; just ‘rival town’ jokes we’ve all seen before.
Bob’s Burgers S3E24 ‘Full Bars’
Once again Bob’s Burgers curries all my favour, with another
fantastic episode centered on the kids. Bored of the meagre pickings from
trick-o-treating in town, the Belcher children head to the neighbouring ‘King’s
Island’, which is filled with rich people wielding bounties of chocolaty
goodness. Unfortunately, it’s also the sight of the annual ‘Hell Hunt’ (not Helen Hunt), where
the local teenagers through pee-filled water balloons at the town’s
youngsters. Que lots of haunting hi-jinks, in certainly the most Halloween-y of
the evenings programming.
This episode was a
candy-coated treat from top to bottom; from Gene’s ‘Queen Latifah in her
U.N.I.T.Y. phase’ costume, to the fun ‘Warriors’
parody the island adventure escalates too. There isn’t a single line out of
place, (“There’s a lot of carrots in that
stew...”)and the kids storyline comes together so well. The only oyster
cracker in the goody bag comes from the slightly underwhelming B-plot, where
while attending Teddy’s Halloween party, Bob’s accidently kills a beloved pet
hamster. What could have been a fun Agatha Christy parody soon gets very drawn out
and kind of paints Bob as an uncaring SOB. It’s one of the few times where the
shows relaxed pace and style should have been exaggerated, but it’s still not
enough to diminish the strengths of this episode.
Another classic episode which shows Bob’s Burgers has earned
its new three year tenure on FOX!
9/10
Best Bit: The sheer amount of banter Gene produced (“How does this not topple your economy?!”/”I can pee on myself! I don’t need handouts!”/”If there’s one thing a wiener hates, it’s hot sauce. I learned that the hard way!”). Also, the closed Year Round Halloween store was a great blink-and-you-miss-it moment.
Worst Bit: Teddy’s repetitive pining after his hamster.
American Dad – S8E135 Killer Vacation
Like its cousin Family Guy, American Dad seemed reluctant to
join in the early October spirit of Halloween. Instead we had a more relaxed
episode revolving around the family’s tropical vacation. Structurally, this
played out as a series of B-plots instead of one overriding story, which made
for an uneven episode, even if I did have some good moments.
The best jokes this week came from both the Hailey/Jeff
story, and Roger’s latest disguise as a widowed golden girl. His scheme was
hardly the alien’s most vicious ploy, but him messing around with a retired
gentlemen was still fun. Hailey and Jeff’s quest for renewed sexual passion was
also amusing, with a fun ending (and excellent use of mayonnaise).
Stan and Francine are also stuck in a rut, though this one
defiantly from a storytelling perspective. Stan is once again putting his work
before his marriage, leading his wife to take a stand. This is a storyline that
this show has done to death, and nothing really new is seen here (though I did
like the sudden appearances of the ‘helpful’ gardener). It wasn’t a bad plot,
but really just going through the motions.
Finally, Steve’s desire for adventure is met by a charming
English fellow, who leads him on an expedition across the island, in search of
a nudist colony. The companion turns out to be a total moron (“You sound like Hugh Grant the movie star,
but you’re stupid like Hugh Grant the person!”), and Steve blunders into a
number of death traps on his advice. It’s kind of funny, but gets old, since
American Dad normally punches a little higher than slapstick. The island
misadventures turn out to be a bit reminiscent of the last holiday episode The Vacation Goo, so again get tired
pretty quickly.
All in all an ok episode, but not American Dad’s strongest
moment. I hope something a bit more ambitious is waiting in the wings (and the
wait’s longer now... we’ve got three weeks of Cleveland Show to get through first... sigh...)
7/10
Best Bit: “Jeff, you have mayo on your back...” And the murder of several dolphins.
Worst Bit: The dolphin murdering is the best part of Stan/Francine’s dull adventure.
So this week Bob’s Burgers comes out on top, though it was a
pretty strong week all round. It’s going to be a long wait for the next set of
episodes, so my advice would be to catch up on Bob’s Burgers now; it has way
more chance of being around in three years time than any of the other shows!
BONUS REVIEW CORNER!
South Park – S16E232 ‘Raising the Bar’
Remember last week when I hoped these new episodes would
reflect Trey and Matt’s new creative passion. Well my hopes have paid off. Big
Time!
‘Raising the Bar’ is
perhaps the most side-splittingly brilliant episode of South Park since perhaps
‘Elementary School Musical’ in Season
12. It constantly excelled at delivering fantastic sight gags, parody and
brilliant one liners, nestled in with some fantastic meta-examination of
the series. It also has one of the best twists in storyline the show’s ever
delivered.
At its heart, the episode is a traditional Cartman-centric
episode, though one which wisely moves into some other directions so as to keep
the pace going. Cartman finally admits he’s fat, and invests in a ‘Rascal’,
along with many of South Park’s obese citizens. While he creates havoc around town , Kyle
begins questioning the root of the problem, leading to a South Park adaption of
trash-TV sensation ‘Honey Boo-Boo’. The parody itself isn’t quite as cutting as
it could be, mostly because Honey and her mother are portrayed exactly as featured on the real program.
But the point is made that the whole country seems to have no shame when it
comes to enabling obesity (least of all Token Black, who launches his own Honey
Boo-Boo rip-off featuring Cartman), and it falls to America’s favourite pioneer
to save the soul of the country...
The sudden appearance of the S.S. James Cameron and the titular director is a masterstroke, which
saves the episode from turning into just another Cartman episode. I love
Cameron’s portrayal, diving into the Mariana Trench in an attempt to ‘raise the
bar’, whilst his crew sit around bored; and forced to listen to Cameron’s own
theme tune (an instantly hummable tune, similar to the one written for Russell
Crowe in ‘The New Terrance and Phillip
Movie Trailer’). It’s actually a fairly respectable portrayal of the
Director, who actually succeeds in his mission, but not before a lovely
reflective scene from Stan and Kyle. Here they ask whether South Park itself is to blame for the lowering in
moral values, harkening back to its earlier days when it was criticised for
shock humour and foul language. It’s a great little side note in an episode
that really makes you think about the type of media were consuming, rather than
just making fun of it.
Overall, this episode is an absolute triumph. Its humour
ranges from simple sight gags (such as Cartman moving around on his Rascal
while delivering one of his trade mark rants) to the utter brilliance of James
Cameron’s portrayal. It shows South Park truly back on form, with an astounding
mix of parody, gross out humour and clever reflection. If the following
episodes are half as good as this, this could turn out to be the best season of
South Park in at least a decade.
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