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

How would you rate: "Holidays of Future Passed?"

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Patches O'houlihan

Patches O'houlihan

I'm baaaack!
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Holidays of Future Passed (NABF18)
Thirty years into the future (where Bart still has ten years to make it to Chief Justice of the United States), an adult Bart and Lisa bring their kids for a family Christmas reunion, and Santa may not be the only one delivering at this time of year when Maggie (who, by the way, is not given a voice credit in Fox's press release for the episode, so don't expect too much) goes into labor.
 
I really enjoyed it, but they really like to belittle the characters, don't they? (Lisa "experimenting" with women). Other than that, 4/5. But it was a little more depressing than I'm used to in a normal episode. I mean, Bart's life really sucks. Hell, even Lisa's.
 
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I haven't posted here in ages, but aside from some overly sappy and predictable moments, I have to say this is the best and consistently funniest episode I have seen in a looong time. So refreshing, and A LOT of laugh-out-loud moments for me.

A generous 4.5/5 for a new episode.
 
Another half intro, but Homer eats himself as a cookie... so, yeah.
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Marge's Christmas sweater under her Thanksgiving sweater.
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"Lisa The Buddhist" on the original Christmas card.
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Lisa the lesbian... then Lisa in a lesbian love triangle.
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Bart getting older, but going nowhere.
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Bart's kids: "It smells like dog, but there's no dog!"
(Uh... wasn't Lisa supposed to become president? I guess flash-forward episodes don't count as canon.)
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Michigan under Sharia law?
"The Benny Hilton"
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Homer: "That's when the new penis gets here."
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Homer: "I just like to dress up to eat my carrots and smoke."
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So I guess Nedna doesn't pan out....
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"68% of the original Cher is playing."
Robo Snake and the octuplets all grown up.
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Mr. Burns lives another 30 years?
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Bart and Lisa getting drunk in the tree house.
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Patty and Selma's "lovebots."
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The octuplets had octuplets.
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"Martain Prince is now Marsha Princess?"
Ralph and his clones.
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The Capital City Goofball and Sideshow Bob died at Moe's.
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Well... considering how much of a total train wreck I expected this episode to be, it actually turned out pleasing! A little flat in some places (well, a lot of places,) but it could have been way worse!
4/5.
 
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Well I guess J. Stewart Burns does it again because that was a pleasure to watch from start to finish and easily the best episode of the season so far.:D It felt a lot like Future-Drama only better. Seeing how everyone turned out was just very interesting and funny to watch and the future jokes were good too. Easily my biggest laugh came from the reveal of Homer killing Edna and Flanders marrying Maude's ghost but there were many other great moments. Hell the octuplets were even used well! Smithers releasing the hounds got a pretty big laugh from me too. I feel like there were several solid jokes like that, but I don't just want to make a list so I'll stop there. Homer as a good grampa was a great idea and his lesson regarding his father was actually a very wise direction to take the episode. Aside from that I feel like I missed out on a great many things so a rewatch is necessary, but I mean that as a good thing;this one seemed packed with great material. 5/5

PS: Did anyone else notice the outline of both Sideshow Bob and a rake at Moe's?

PPS: Did they actually show 30 christmas photos in the beginning because it felt like it. I need to go back and look at each one of those separately.
 
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Handsome B. Wonderful said:
I really enjoyed it, but they really like to belittle the characters, don't they? (Lisa "experimenting" with women). Other than that, 4/5. But it was a little more depressing than I'm used to in a normal episode. I mean, Bart's life really sucks.
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I really love it when the sweet and dour side of the family comes to the surface, it makes things more palatable in terms of modern storytelling. Being "depressing" gave this episode a lot of heart and soul.

Anyway, I'm not surprised by the comments Groening made when he said this might be the final episode, because it made the writers give a shit for a change. Even the stupid 'futurey' gags in the past two flash-forwards were funny this time around, especially the cloned Ralph's and shockingly, I felt some empathy for the family. About the ONLY negative I can give this episode that it wasn't the final episode it should have been.

Now I'm going to say two things that will shock and appall most of you:

1. This episode is now my favorite Jean era episode, period, and two...

2. It's the BEST future episode, yes, even better than Lisa's wedding.


Anyway, I'd give this a 6/5 if I could and all I ask is...NO MORE FUTURE EPSIODES. YOU BLEW YOUR CREATIVE WAD WITH THIS!
 
For a change, I decided to watch tonights episode and all I can say is.....that it was ACTUALLY Enjoyable from start to finish! Was it perfect? No but damn if it wasn't enjoyable. Many funny jokes such as Sharia Law still being implemented in Detroit (Not to be Racist or anything but hopefully the Muzzies won't be too offended by that bit) & how Milhouse was forced to wear a Burqa, along with other bits such as Homer Freezing & Unfreezing his Dad multiple times, Robo-snake trying to rob the Kwik-E-Mart whilist in a gunfight with Apu and the Octuplets, and the Birth of Maggies child (Also, am I the only one who thought that Maggie was going to speak for the first time ever since "Lisa's First Word" but it was purposefully delayed until she gave birth?). I also enjoyed how they called Google what it is instead of some pissant shitty pun like "Moogle", along with all of the Ralph clones.

4-4.5/5 (I rated it 5, though)
 
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Are they EVER going to get rid of Cookie Kwan? She's not funny in any way.
 
Great to see the love here, people are hating on it at IMDb for being "too depressing". Please, people like that make me think there will always be people who hate the new episodes regardless of how good they happen to be. I can't wait to see what Dead Homer Society has to say about this episode.

I can't say whether it's better than Lisa's Wedding, but it's definitely just as good.
 
There was a lot to love, and very little to dislike in this episode. I even thought they handled things that seemed doomed to be contrived very well, like Maggie not talking. I thought Bart and Lisa in the treehouse seemed very realistic, and a nice touching moment for the two of them. The mother of Bart's sons is Jenda, from Future-Drama, so I guess that episode is now cannon. I didn't like how Maggie became a singer, but it was barely touched on, and they neatly avoided the atrocious Lady Gaga parodies that could have been. (I'm assuming those will come later). I liked air travel being reduced to a combination of the subway and Mad Max. LIsa and Milhouse together wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, probably because it didn't feature Milhouse much at all. Freeze Frame and continuity gags certainly are making a comeback this season. Can anyone identify the list of Lisa's potential friends from Springfield Elementary and Traveling Simpsons? I could only get a few. Also, not only Bob, but the Capitol City Goofball, seem to have been murdered in Moe's. This episode was about as good as an episode with this premise, this late into the series could be. 5/5, and the second-best flash-forward episode.
 
I kind of liked this episode. For starters, I actually LOLed at a blackboard gag for the first time in 12 years or so and I actually liked how they did something school related for once. As for the episode itself, it was slightly above average for a typical modern episode. I liked the technology references and Yeardley using her real voice for Lisa was a nice touch. However, I think they could have done a little more with Zita than just having her use the "ultranet" the whole time than reveal herself at the last minute. The idea of Lisa having a daughter with Bart characteristics had potential to be interesting, but J. Stewart Burns didn't even try. I would have expected more from the writer of Eternal Moonshine. I also liked how in-depth this future episode went - we actually met new characters instead of seeing aged versions of our regulars. Other parts I liked were the Ralph clones, keeping with continuity (Jenda reappearing, Apu's brother Sanjay), keeping with the tradition of having Maggie not talking (though the reason was rather stupid). My only cons were that I felt that they could have done this episode a little better. It had more potential than they used.

Overall, nothing gained, nothing lost. Slightly above average. B-

P.S. When this episode reairs a few weeks ago, I think I will spend 30 minutes looking at Jake's drawings rather than rewatching. I liked his futuristic vision better.
 
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You guys thought much more highly of this episode than I did, even though I didn't dislike it. I can't pinpoint what felt off for me. When I look back, I found it funny (especially the cloned Ralphs) and I felt the characters all acted naturally and authentically. I think what was lacking for me was an extensive plot. However, the more I think about it, I somewhat liked the plot's simplicity. It was pretty much a story about them coming home. So, in short, I sorta liked it, but there was a lack of something.

I give it a confusing B-.
 
5/5

Fantastic episode! It has the best futuristic overtones yet. The best gags was when we learn that Homer accidentally killed Edna, Apu's kids all had octuplets giving him and Manjula 64 grandkids, and all those Ralph clones. Both of Bart's sons were great characters. I am thankful that this story did not get told by some psychic to a Simpson kid(s). The Simpsons cat and dog evolved into human-like creatures was the most unexpected scene to appear.

I once thought that due to "Kill Gil Volume 1 and 2" being my personal worst that they should quit it with the Christmas episodes. But they had made the next three Christmas episodes "Oh Brother where Bart thou", "The Fight Before Christmas", and this episode all good enough for a 5/5 which shows the writers can recover well.




On a side note if they make another Christmas episode, here are two things I would like to see spoofed:

How about a send-up of the Trans-Siberian orchestra in a scene or maybe the actual Trans-Siberian orchestra being seen in animated form and providing music in the episode.

Something else they should do is a spoof of that Chinese restaurant scene in "A Christmas Story" in which the Simpsons go to a Chinese restaurant for their Christmas dinner after Snowball II and Santa's Little Helper end up eating the families Christmas dinner.
 
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A great episode. Since we're getting two weeks of replays now, I'm glad its going to be this episode. I hope some of the people that have pretty much sworn off the show lately will catch this over the holidays and see there can still be great episodes.

5.
 
thewalkindude said:
Can anyone identify the list of Lisa's potential friends from Springfield Elementary and Traveling Simpsons? I could only get a few.
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I liked that travelling episodes reference, but the only one I think I spotted was the Queen from The Regina Monologues. Also, I guess Kang, Kodos, and sentient trees are canon now huh?:)

Thinking about it I'm not opposed to the sentiment of this being as good as Lisa's Wedding.
 
Wow... lots of people liked this!
It was nice to see the family members have a heart again.

Enjoy that feeling now... something tells me that on January 8th we'll be back to Zombies and Jerkasses. :-/
(Ted Nugent? Really?)
 
Enjoyed this episode a ton. Will need to rewatch it a few more times to appreciate it fully.
I do agree with irvine_11 that it seemed like this episode had potential it didn't fully tap into. The future gags (while uniformly excellent) kept coming and coming and coming.
I felt inundated with them to an extent where I just wanted them to stop and focus more on telling a meaningful story. Lisa's Wedding was paced far better in that respect.

Apart from that, I don't have much to quibble about. I had a smile plastered on my face pretty much the entire time. The voice direction, in particular, was top-notch.
 
Tubb! said:
Season 23's track record so far doesn't give me much confidence... sorry.
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I actually think this track record is pretty good right now. It's a little rusty, but I'm going to give it time. I wouldn't call it full-blown Zombie Simpsons right now, because when a recent season has 2 4/5's from me in not even the first half, that's a pretty good sign.
 
Le Jake said:
Now I'm going to say two things that will shock and appall most of you:

1. This episode is now my favorite Jean era episode, period, and two...

2. It's the BEST future episode, yes, even better than Lisa's wedding.
Click to expand...

This is the hospital. Irvine passed out after reading this and he's in a very unstable state right now.
 
Oh said:
PPS: Did they actually show 30 christmas photos in the beginning because it felt like it. I need to go back and look at each one of those separately.
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There are 30 unique photos each signifying a year. Can verify this.
I had a chuckle over Lisa hitting her growth spurt before Bart and her lording it over him.
This entire sequence was extremely well done.
 
That was strange. I mean it was interesting to watch and all but the only reason it was interesting to watch is because it's The Simpsons in the future... When you get down to the actual plot, what was it really? It was just a montage of them all getting older in every photo as a way of introducing the future. Then we see Lisa and Millhouse as a couple, suprise suprise he's still a loser and Lisa's not, then we see Maggie is a famous singer and Bart is living in the school...Eventually it turns into future Bart and future Lisa having prolems with their bratty children, a blatant waste but inevitable time on everyone from Springfield in the future. The conclusion ended with what? Bart's kids telling him they love him and Lisa's daughter telling her she loves her, SHOCKA!!! and then the 2 pets taking a final photo to end the episode...

Did anything make me laugh? I suppose seeing Apu's 8 kids as older people was amusing as was Bart and Lisa tipsy in the ol' treehouse but except from that, it was just smiles. Even for the Lenny/Carl switching bodies part and Ralphs scene didn't make me truly laugh...

However, I suppose nothing was TOO bad about the episode and it wasn't completely boring but it was no better than previous future episodes, it was an excuse to see everyone in the future and the big point of the story was...erm....Maggie STILL didn't talk! I guess... 6/10 and a very generous 3/5.
 
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