R&R Yolo

R&R


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The Goode Family

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Marge convinces Homer to invite an old pen pal to stay with them, an item that was on a to-do list he created as a 10-year old. Meanwhile, Lisa is instrumental in revising the school honor code.

So uh yeah R&R after it airs.
 
Eh, this one wasn't that good. I liked a few things like the Rocky and Bullwinkle announcer and title cards, but much of it seemed kinda lifeless ironically given the subject. 2/5

Also, I did wonder why we couldn't hear Homer's scream as he landed on Bart but it was part of the gag.
 
Not bad but not good. I only liked the June Foray bit and the "can you mail me back what this means?". The subplot was largely laughless and dull. 2/5
 
Couch Gag: Very Good 4.5/5

Main Plot: Had a lot of funny lines and gags and made up for terrible subject 5/5

B plot: Went nowhere but glad Mrs. K had a few lines. 3/5

Best Part: Homer's "I fell faster than the speed of sound gag"

Did not like: Lisa going somewhat crazy at the end. Made no sense

Grade: 4.5/5 extra .5 for the couch gag

Btw, did anyone else think the design of Eduardo looked weird?
 
As someone said in the S25 thread, this episode is basically pointless since Homer lives in magical land where he's basically indestructable and gets what he wants pretty much most of the time anyway. However there were some LOL gags like the instructor in the video and the "...write me back and tell me what that means".

Alas, neither outstanding or awful. 3/5
 
Ehh...I guess it was okay. I think it started out pretty strong, but went downhill from there. The couch gag was odd, but I liked it. The Milhouse stuff was pretty good, but I thought Kirk was going to play a part in the episode and not just be what set it in motion. Eduardo wasn't that interesting of a character, but he wasn't awful. I liked the gag with Agnes and Nelson, and the "melancholy" quote made me laugh out loud after seeing the picture. I think Homer falling off the building twice looked like a bad version of the gorge scene. Th B-plot was adequate, but not much was taken out of it. I like the way Lisa was drawn, sort of like Bart in Brother's Little Helper. 3/5 I guess.
 
All in all, pretty bland. Not the worst of the season but not the best but may very well turn out to be among the top episodes of the season. Pretty good opening bit with Milhouse and Bart's turmoil between their pointless friendship but it really only set up the hack-eyed "YOLO" premise with Milhouse's dad. I honestly laughed at Homer realizing his life has been routine for the past twenty years and Marge popping back in the doorframe of the bathroom to add on to what she was saying to Homer. The title-cards before the commercial were pretty funny too, albeit a little out of place but I'll give that a pass.

Eduardo coming into the episode honestly dragged it down to me. I thought the premise was dumb but there was some good scenes, nothing memorable; the man on fire in the building telling Homer to ring the bell on the firetruck and Homer skydiving into the building several times. Lackluster ending, though. No resolution to Homer's "YOLO" crisis and everything is back to normal... but I shouldn't have expected anything different from modern Simpsons.

Really cool cameo with Sinclair in the theater, even a small fanservice is a fanservice. Best part of the episode was Homer's soundwave traveling behind him and hitting them in the crater on the ground, that actually made me laugh. I think the couch gag was a play on the movie Gravity which was pretty cool. I give this episode a 4/5. Typical modern Simpsons with some redeeming qualities.
 
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ACT ONE:

Wow, I'm shocked by how much was working in this act! The conversation where Homer and Marge mocked Kirk in the bathroom felt surprisingly realistic, and it was nice to see Kirk portrayed in a light where he wasn't a bunch of easy "loser" jokes.

The cheating subplot was a bit dull, but it had some good jokes (like Nelson sneaking a test off Agnes).

Didn't care for the joke where Skinner was looking at porn in his office.

Homer's penpal showing up randomly was a bit odd.

ACT TWO:

I liked the joke where Homer wanted to win the World Series with Jesus, as well as his "melon collie" fantasy.

I also thought the "____est kid in class" joke was pretty clever as well.

I didn't care much for the June Foray ass kissing. Not only is it out of character for Homer to know who she is, but it just felt like they were trying to get a gift basket from her or something.

ACT THREE:

Well, as is customary with the RABF production line, a good start is brought down by a bad end.

The non-ending ending was just... I'm still trying to figure out what it was exactly.

I did enjoy the animation of Homer gliding through the sky, and that the writers actually gave an explanation as to why a huge building exists in Springfield like that.

OVERALL:

Good start, bad ending, as I said above.

By modern standards, 4/5 (B)
By classic standards, 2/5 (D-)
 
Oh I forgot the melon collie, that was good. Couch gag was good, Marge with the geese was good...I think they were geese.

I really liked Skinner's animation on the "nooo" at the end of the Brockman piece, but felt the actual line reading was kinda flat. Homer's flying animation was pretty fun too I'll agree.
 
Yeah, the melon-collie fantasy was pretty good, too. I also loved the bit with Marge and the geese? "Are you mocking me?" I think this may turn out to be one of the best episodes of the season as I said before. It felt natural and not too forced which is a huge bonus in the zombie seasons.
 
While I agree on strong start, weak ending, all in all it was a pretty solid episode. Good jokes, believable emotions. YOLO surprisingly didn't annoy me, I really loved the You Only Live Twice spoof. And I just now get the gun sight shooting the titles... riffing on Bond. I'm feeling generous tonight, so 4/5
 
A completely frigging useless episode. Problems were abound in this episode with next to no payoff; it's been a while since I've been this turned off by an episode.

Just as I had expected, the plot is based on nonsense. Yes, Homer has had the same house and car for twenty years. But he's worked countless jobs and has had too many adventures to count. He's been a damn astronaut, for the love of Jeff! The only reason Homer went skydiving here is because it hadn't been used in any episode before this one. And Hell; Homer went skydiving in a CC's commercial a decade ago. That commercial had more laughs than this episode.

Marge's characterization was extremely poor. I mean, she invites Eduardo to Springfield (whose eyebrows are directly above his eyeballs; what the heck? It looked like he was wearing eyeshadow the whole time) and then almost instantly berates Homer for leaving the house to fulfill his dreams, even before Homer agreed to anything of the sort. Homer was still depressed and reluctant to do anything because, even though he fought in the ring with a heavyweight champ, jammed with Kid Rock and the Smashing Pumpkins, pigged out with George Harrison, outsmarted the most evil plutocrat in Springfield and took over his power plant, etc. etc. etc., he still felt he hadn't accomplished anything in life.

This all comes down to a rather lackluster finale, in which the two stories - Lisa's / Bart's and Homer's - lamely intersect. Lisa's story was interesting in principle, but I would have liked to see a proper ending instead of Homer crushing Bart. The only time I laughed was when Homer's fall beat his actual scream; that caused him to "crush" Bart a second time. That was kind of clever. Jon Lovitz's appearance, just like Eduardo himself, were very poorly conceived and had little to offer to this already struggling episode. If you haven't watched it yet, I implore you to skip it.

Skinner looking at adult sites, Milhouse's various allergies and mood swings and Kirk Van Houten's new look were also rather deplorable here.
 
An improvement over last week, but barely. Marge seemed to change her mind every minute about Homer doing things, and Eduardo wasn't an interesting character at all. There were a lot of little annoying moments, such as Skinner sleeping with his mother, some of the things with Milhouse, and a lot of other things I can't remember. I just remember being annoyed quite a bit. Also, the plot was so hackneyed that that in itself was annoying. 2/10
 
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It wasn't too bad, but it was nothing special. It was pretty funny throughout though, and I loved the nod to June Foray. 3.5/5 B-
 
3/5 - almost a 4, with the scenes of Homer soaring, but a couple of things ruined the moment; first, Homer running into the building turned into a rake scene (you all do know what "rake scene" means, right?), and second, there was no real resolution to the honor code story (okay, Bart ended up in detention, but then what?).

Written by Michael Noroki
Directed by Michael Polcino
Billboard: Santa's Lap - The Line Is Already Forming! / Springfield Mall - Never Leave!
Chalkboard: MY SCHOOL SCHEDULE DOES NOT INCLUDE A BYE WEEK
Couch: Everybody except Maggie has to climb to reach the couch, but from different directions, as gravity is affecting them differently; Homer ends up falling up through the roof and into the sky
Special Guest Voice: Jon Lovitz, Marcia Wallace
Also Starring: Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, Chris Edgerly
"You Only Live Twice" parody performed by: Denise Donatelli
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-DLV

The first time Milhouse's glasses come off, he has no whites to his eyes, but the second time they do, he does.

Is this the first time Wendell's first name (Borton) has appeared on the show? I have seen it before, but it may have been only in merchandise (the way Janey's last name is Powell in the merchandise but the one time it was on the show - in "My Fair Laddy" - it was Henderson).

One of Homer's dreams involves riding on a fire truck - but he did already, in JABF13, when he was a member of the volunteer fire department.

What, was Maurice LaMarche too busy to do a William Conrad impersonation for the Rocky & Bullwinkle "Tune in next time" segment?

LYRICS - "You Only Live Once"
No music or lyrics credits were given; presumably, the music is too close to the theme to "You Only Live Twice"
You only live once
Or so it seems
No life for yourself
And none for your dreams
You work every day
At a job so lame
And every night
The ending's the same
(Homer solo)
No dream will come true
You only live once

You only live once
But that's OK
You'll live quite long
In the USA
But back to my point
You only live once
You've got years and years
Unless it's just months
 
eh a 3/5 not horrible but not good. Pretty middle of the road average. I laughed at Milhouse getting thrown in the garbage line, Homer hitting the building, and the line Moe gave about taking away Homer's life or whatever.
 
episode had some chuckles but yeah it makes no sense that homer feels unaccomplished or whatever. wasn't this basically a different version of "he loves to fly and he dohs"? both ending with him crashing to the ground too...

good to see/hear some more edna
 
another not good/not bad episode. normally i'd give it a 3/5 for modern simpsons standards but i'm going to give it a 2 because these assholes are getting paid to write the show and there's no excuse for it to be this dull. if this is the best they can do then they have no business writing for the simpsons. boring, pointless premise with too few good jokes to justify it.
 
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this one (a definite step-up from the last episode). The main plot about Homer meeting his childhood pen pal Eduardo in person and him getting to live his childhood dreams was a really quite good story & the Lisa subplot was also pretty good; the episode had some fun gags that worked, like Milhouse's sudden allergic reaction & Homer threatening to throw him in the garbage, Lisa's trick to get the paper signed, the "Fat Splat" & "When You Squish Upon A Car" title cards, Marge talking to the goose & Homer having gone faster than the speed of sound (with the sound landing moments afterwards) and it wasn't overly stupid & wacky and actually sort of grounded for an modern era episode. I also liked the parodic version of 'You Only Live Twice' and that the episode didn't end on some silly joke and just had Homer and Eduardo walk together as friends. It didn't have a lot of things I didn't like, but Lisa's breakdown near the end was a bit too much and the brief scene with John Lovitz as Llewellyn Sinclair was maybe useless, but whatever; it was alright. Best episode of the season so far.

4/5
 
4/5
Thought this was very well paced, had nice animation, camera angles and some genuine laughs (rarity today). No real awkward or stupid moments. Character were believable. While the stories were not the most memorable ones I find this really solid episode in today's standards. More of this down-to-earth-style please.
 
Going to keep the review short and simple. Great plot, great humor, great characters, great use of animation, great dialogue, great use of references. Overall it's an okay episode. 3.5/5. OKAY WHO'S NEXT TO REVIEW!

Season 25 so far...
Homerland... 2/5 (Horrible)
Treehouse of Horror XXIV... 4/5 (Great)
Four Regrettings and a Funeral... 3/5 (Okay)
YOLO... 3.5/5 (Okay)
 
It was an okay episode, I liked the couch gag and liked the small cameo appearance of John Lovitz as Llewellyn Sinclair from A Streetcar Named Marge. It maybe would have been a better episode if they had a celebrity lending his voice to Eduardo's character.
 
I was pleasantly surprised. I was expecting it to be another episode of ultimate boringness trying to parody popular culture, but thank goodness no.

Episode starts with a simple and nice chalkboard gag, and a pretty nice cough gag too. What I didn't like was the Bond parody in the opening, anybody here remember when was the last time we saw a classical opening, with no movie or tv show parodies or extra long couch gags?

Plot was actually pretty good and simple despite the bland and stupid title YOLO. This YOLO theme wasn't as bad as you'd think.

I had no problems with the subplot, except it was really bland. But it's not like it was a bad plot or had some horrible jokes. Actually this was quite funny of an episode. I can't remember the last time there were this many good jokes. And in addition none of the jokes weren't extremely bad. Okay there was a fart joke, but Homer's response was pretty funny.

In a nutshell this was a decent episode with nice gags and stuff like that. Since you only rate once, I'm gonna give this a 4/5.

This season has started much better than 24. Or 23. Or 22. All episodes have been "okay" or good. Homerland was pretty forgettable, but I think it's a good sign, because if an episode turns out to be painfully bad, you usually remember that.
 
Yawn! Another mostly lackluster episode. Though I did enjoy Homer's referencing to June Foray (I think in the future, Grey DeLisle-Griffin will become the new June Foray.) I also enjoyed the imitation of the Bullwinkle narrator. I did also like seeing Homer glide along too.
(The Fox news promo plays where the weather part is longer, and the rest of the news is demoted to three-second segments! Then this Bob's Burgers promo where Louise jiggles up and down in a weird manner.)

Who did the mysterious Chris Edgerly voice this time? Was he just the stand-in for Jon Lovitz during the table reading like Karl Wiedergott would be?
(BTW, it was nice to see Llewellyn Sinclair again!)
 
Better than last week but thats not saying much it was still boring and unfunny with a couple of laughs and chuckles but nothing more. Very meh. Grade: D+
 
This episode was off to a good start, and it had some funny moments. I particularly liked "melon collie" and Lisa using Milhouse to manipulate the other students, but unfortunately neither of those gags were original as I have definitely seen those devices used before. There were a few other good bits (which have been mentioned), but ultimately the premise didn't really work because Homer is the last person I can see having a midlife crisis, and his desires were kind of ... not ridiculous enough when you think about it. I see the objects of Homer's unhappiness proper, to be pretty much confined to Marge's disapproval, the chore of interacting with Grampa, Patty and Selma, and whenever he can't think of anything positive about his offspring. The transience of those issues fully explains why he never appears depressed despite having ups and downs. None of that came into this, and instead we get the ZOMGiR0Nyy of him feeling as though he has never done anything worth remembering within 25 seasons of adventure, luxury and even endearing family bonding. Also didn't like the penpal's character model - his eyebrows were strange, albeit similar in his child model. Marge was pretty annoying throughout, and I don't usually feel this way about her. Like the previous episode, my issue with it is that all in all, it wasn't a very good idea to start with - but in the case of YOLO, the execution was at least better than it looks on paper. I will reiterate: some funny moments.

ETA: Would like to add that I didn't at all dislike this episode, nor the one before it. They have both been pretty enjoyable, with some good gags and nice visuals. I'm just saying that I don't think it's quite enough, and the characters' motivations are dull and irrelevant most of the time. Homer gliding was fun to watch, and I enjoyed the couch gag without having to understand the reference.
 
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