Hardly Kirk-ing
Zzzzzzzz.... Episode about Milhouse being an adult. Zzzzzz... Marge trying to avoid educational television. ZZzzzz... Huh, what happened. I'm up, I'm up! Quite honestly, the idea about Milhouse being an adult has not been done before; it seems like The Simpsons has finally found it's groove when it comes to original plots.
First off, they utilize the originality of the episode well. It helps to know that they seem to have a lot at their disposal when it comes to the things they can do; they don't go for unrealistic stuff such as sex, they go for reasonable things such as driving a car and voting or even buying some beer for some underage minors. Every one of these are done in a sensible and realistic way, sure there are times where it's used for the setup of a weak joke but these are all things they might do if they had the ability to act like an adult. This helps in the enjoyment factor of the episode, you can see how creative they were in coming up with these ideas and the best part is they manage to infuse just a tinge of that Simpsons humor whether it's something relating to the schools or Milhouse interacting with another character.
And the beginning of the episode, somewhat good what with it's nearly dead-on parody of Little Einstein and subsequent observance of book stores, it makes me feel like I'm being admired as a viewer and they're going through steps to retain me as a viewer such as actually putting on a good show for once. Sure, some of it may be blunt but at this point in time, you're willing to accept what you got and what you got here is pretty good, they utilize all sorts of humor from visual to observational to even random humor and it entertains you for however many minutes the scene might go on for. I have to say, I was expecting something pretty bad but then they go around and make something unexpectedly good, this may promise that the episode will actually be good.
However, the episode does not live to the rest of the expectations as it loses steam throughout. There was promise in the beginning with clever adult jokes but that promise is lost as they do downtown for an adventure that is frankly dull to say the least. Sights such as the Jazz Club are not seen even though it was mentioned heavily throughout the episode; without something to bring the scenes to excellence, the episode slowly goes down in it's pit of it's mediocrity, attempting jokes that fall flat (like the puppet show) to joking about something that has already been joked about (condo rentals), this original excursion into adulthood quickly turn into just another one of Bart and Milhouse's adventures except this time, Milhouse is bald and just so happens to be speaking in a deep voice just like his father.
There were some things I liked, Homer's ability to find things for one; it was kind of like classic Simpsons, it's parodying the educational value of books while at the same time providing a launching pad for a variety of jokes. In fact it could be said that without these jokes, the episode might of been unbearable; it justs goes to show the value of a neatly written subplot in an episode like this. I also liked Milhouse screaming at Homer to take better care of Bart, it showed the often abused but underutilized side of Bart who just wanted the appreciation of his Father, not to choke him but to love and care for him; of course Bart being Bart, he just had to go for the things he wanted and Milhouse being Milhouse, he just had to go for that often common Lisa bit.
So this was a better than expected episode, it has some entertainment value and much of the beginning was good. However the episode seemed to lose steam around the second act and seems to underdeliver on the promise that the episode set, it isn't unwatchable to say the least but this isn't the best episode of Season 24, it's one of the good ones but it's not one of the best.
6.0/10