Recent content by Brad Lascelle

Online communities truly only manage to thrive when they're welcoming of different points of view and encouraging friendly banter, debate and discussion. Walled gardens where everyone is encouraged to align with an absolute consensus just invites echo chamber tendencies where everyone is...

My only disappointment is that the episode isn't named The Tell-Tale Jeans.

I may be part of "the old guard" of Simpsons fandom as it were (along with @That Don Guy) but I had a semi-sabbatical from hardcore fandom just as you did. There was a multi-year stretch post-Season 11 where I largely stepped away from enthusiast circles only to venture my way back in shortly...

I still feel slightly more optimistic about The Tell-Tale Pants over The Tipping Point despite Jean going back to the marriage crisis well. This is probably a case of me being foolishly naive... but Jean has hit under Jean more consistently of late than Burns has hit under... well ANYONE. It...

On the issue of the final Tumi scene, I put all of the blame on Tumi there. It's one thing for Lisa to be tolerant and accepting of other people's quirks/habits/tendencies... but that consideration needs to apply both ways. That Tumi... knowing that Lisa was upset with her for being dishonest...

Just for some added context, alt.tv.simpsons was a Usenet discussion group. Message boards WERE a thing even back then but they were largely still relegated to local dial-up bulletin boards whereas the Internet at large had Usenet as its communication space and not much in the way of dedicated...

I'm not at all going to go to bat for this episode (well, except for championing the Bart-Maggie B plot), but I think Lisa was more upset that Marge repeatedly LIED to her about liking jazz moreso than the fact that she didn't care for it. It was the flagrant dishonesty that so upset her...

Oooh... a modern Lisa thread... I know what belongs here!

One corollary that has me worried from the screenshots (that is almost guaranteed to be purely coincidental) is to Carolyn Omine's substandard followup to her hot streak of Highway to Well and The Way of the Dog in The Man from G.R.A.M.P.A. That too was billed as a mystery and featured Homer...

Oh I'm aware of how it happens... just haven't heard a good reason as to why those folks despise Hateful so much. At least I can understand why folks would rag on Thanksgiving of Horror (and similar violent episodes) if they're sour on excessive gore.

We're a largely inconsistent bunch sometimes. You'll note that Todd, Todd isn't even the highest rated episode from that consensus ranking list for Season 31 to then later show up in our latest rendition of the all-time Bottom 50 episodes poll just last year. The Hateful Eight-Year-Olds which...

It speaks volumes about how much this episode went off the rails that so much justifiable criticism has been retread this morning without anyone even bringing up how awful Lisa's characterization was here (or at least not until 4 minutes ago)... pouncing on Todd's disillusionment like some kind...

I'd have a difficult time coming up with a more densely layered and well-paced episode in modern Simpsons. Hell, I'd have a hard time coming up with one from classic Simpsons. In many ways it feels extraordinarily foreign to how this show is routinely approached. There are plenty of other...