Rate and Review: Homer Goes to Prep School (RABF02)

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Johnny Deformed

Johnny Deformed

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Today's the day this episode airs, so...

January 6th 2013: Homer joins the "Springfield Preppers," an off-the-grid survivalist group whose leader (guest voice Tom Waits) has set up a top-secret retreat outside of town to prepare for the end of the world. But Marge grows skeptical of the group's alarmist shenanigans.
 
Eh, I just see a black square.

EDIT: Ah I see now, but I woulda never got the reference. Don't even know who Tom Waits is.(aside from a guest star)
 
FIRST ACT:
I liked most of the gags, but I especially liked how there was absolutely nothing that helped advance the main plot. Hell, the main plot wasn't even introduced in the first act! Oh boy... this might be a pile of shit when it finally gets going.

ACT TWO:
What? Was the butter Homer ingested in Act One laced with LSD? Apes? What the....
Homer meets a strange man in a bar, and has no adverse reaction to him after fearing even his good-hearted neighbor... and now the plot thickens, er, begins. Thirteen minutes in, mind you.
Oh, Herman appears again this week. (Boy, one of this production run's writers sure has a hard-on for Herman.)
End of Act Two, and I can already tell the rest of this episode will be nothing but "run-of-the-mill" stupid randomness we've come to expect from modern Simpsons. At least there's a new "Bob's Burgers" tonight.

ACT THREE:
The EMP goes off, and they go to their little prepper camp... and there's The Simpsons' voice of reason, Lisa, smiling like a jackass and not saying a word. Are you fucking kidding me?
Just a thought here, but it seems like Tress MacNeille forgot what Lindsay Naegle sounds like.

ACT FOUR:
Look. The show's back on....
Just another thought here, but if an EMP actually did go off... they wouldn't be able to start a car, would they? I know, I know. Reality in a cartoon and so forth.
Oh great. NOW Lisa starts to talk, and of course it's to summarize the moral of the story. Grrrr.
Zombies for some reason... and the show's over.

I wish I could somehow slap this episode in its nonexistent face. 1/5 :mad:
 
Holy crap, that was actually really good and really funny! Some of the jokes reminded me of the classic era, and quite a few of them got laughs out of me (which is pretty rare when it comes to new episodes). I even liked the whole idea of the preppers and everything that went on with them. My only complaint is that L.T. Smash didn't get more lines, but I digress. A really great episode, and a great way to start the new year. 5/5
 
2/5: Highlight of the episode was easily the opening sequence. Couch gag was short, funny chalkboard gag and I liked seeing Spider-Pig. Also enjoyed seeing Herman and a few others in the episode. Beginning of the episode was also very good, but the rest was pretty bland and boring. Better luck next week.
 
Against all expectations that was....enjoyable! I mean it told a cohesive if wacky story that had a satisfying beginning, middle, and end and felt like it had enough time to breathe throughout. We haven't gotten that nearly enough this season. Homer and Marge were actually funny and sweetly enjoyable in their interactions and the secondary characters were used pretty well. Far more of their jokes hit then missed. The guest star's character actually felt natural to the world. Kirkland directed this and it looked good save for a weirdly drawn Wolfcastle in one scene. The shading on Homer in the basement scene with Marge was executed effectively. Quite possibly the most enjoyable episode of the season for me so far, 4/5.
 
This wasn't very good. I could never get into this, nor could I really buy any of it. While the show hasn't done this exact plot, it still felt redone. I usually have more to say, but this...this just wasn't much of anything. It was bland. 2/5
 
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First half of the episode was all over the place and a bit random with the monkeys/Homer's traumatic experience. Tom Waits was good as a prepper, and I found the whole doomsday thing to be pretty funny. The only part I really didn't like was the ending with the comet/zombies, but that's a minor issue. 4/5 for now, but I'll re-watch it later.
 
ACT ONE:

What the fuck was that?! That has got the be one of THE WORST first acts of the show's history. We got too much of an overdose of Retard Homer (him calling his wife "Mom," him not recognizing his own kids) and also a fair amount of Jerkass Homer (him being overly delightful about Bart being kidnapped). I didn't laugh once, but I did smirk at Ralph jumping on Homer's stomach. I noticed that the plot hasn't been established at this point, either...

ACT TWO:

So... a minor incident at a play area lead Homer to become super paranoid all of a sudden? Then he joins a society full of recurring characters that don't fit. Superintendent Chalmers and Lindsey Naegle? Like I said up top, WHAT THE FUCK?! And we still got two more acts to go... ugh.

ACT THREE:

Golly gee, an electromatic pulse that shorted out all the electronics occoured because Homer was too busy wrapped up in a stupid end-of-the-world video. So... was he so distracted, he didn't notice the fucking lights and sirens going off?! Huh? On a more positive note, though, I had the first genuine LOL moment with Willie trimming his beard with a chainsaw, followed by a lawn mower. But then it got ruined with Disco Stu about to shoot himself.

ACT FOUR:

Superintendent Chalmers drinking his own urine and the zombies on the comet. That's all I'm saying about this act. Why? Those are the two worst jokes of the whole series, that's why! What an awful, twisted episode this was.

OVERALL:

This was an incredibly implausable and stupid episode that is sure to make my bottom 10. After To Cur with Love looked promising, we got stuck with this monstrosity. Worst of the season so far, definitely. 1/5 (F)
 
it was Ok. Had its moments and was pretty straightforward plotwise (no subplots)
It was great seeing Herman again, if only briefly and Tom Waits was good.
Good enough to see once
 
irvine_11 said:
Superintendent Chalmers drinking his own urine and the zombies on the comet. That's all I'm saying about this act. Why? Those are the two worst jokes of the whole series...
Click to expand...
Did you forget about Chief Wiggum's “You want I should spray some of my Jerk Off on ya?” from last season? Just thinking about that still makes me cringe.
 
Tubb! said:
Did you forget about Chief Wiggum's “You want I should spray some of my Jerk Off on ya?” from last season? Just thinking about that still makes me cringe.
Click to expand...

I thought about that, and I definitely think the urine joke is worse.
 
Tubb! said:
Did you forget about Chief Wiggum's “You want I should spray some of my Jerk Off on ya?” from last season? Just thinking about that still makes me cringe.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, the next survivalist episode where Marge tries outlast her fellow cuponers will have Homer being offered some "Come'n Get It".

As for this episode, I'm not really sure if this supposed to be funny, because I've seen reality shows about Survivalists and "Conspiracy Theory" with Jesse Ventura that were funnier than this. Really, and I don't know what some people's definition of 'characterization' is on this board as I've yet to see any real displays on the show. Just because Homer's "character" ruins everyone's life he comes in contact with his negligence and stupidity doesn't mean he has "great characterization" you people, it means Homer's "depiction" is just a tazmanian devil of stupidity tearing up the screen. It was funny when Homer was half-assed stupid and had some goals and ideals, now people just cheer for the next stupid gag. (Gee, I can't wait for Homer to steal a truckload of tuna just to crash it on 69th avenue, y'huck!)

And, again, this was not 'classic era' funny, no matter how you slice it. It was a bunch of bad survivalist stereotypes mixed with uber-stupid Homer and because some people don't know any better, they think this is the funniest thing since Biodome.

1/5, accidently clicked 2/5.
 
It had bad writing and sloppy animation errors through out the whole show.
Sure a of the few jokes played well to minor laughs.. and the overall idea is interesting, albeit very obvious.
Also it was nice to see Herman, yet again.
But the zombie comet at the end was beyond retarded.

A 1.5/5.

I enjoyed 'Cur' much more.
 
This was an uneven episode overall, and in the end there was probably less good than bad, though it wasn't that terrible.

The first act was your textbook example of a lead-off act story that has little to nothing to do with the actual story. It had a few funny moments, like Homer trying to keep an eye on Lisa and Bart in the playroom and the difference between the moms and the dads dealing with panic. But then, just like that, the first act is over and we move on with the rest of the story (at least it was a mercifully short first act). It seems that the whole point of the first act is to make Homer paranoid to the point that he would believe an average guy when he claims that the world is going to end soon and he needs to start preparing. It's a weak way to get the ball rolling at best, and I wonder why we even needed it. Homer is naive and impressionable enough that we can believe that he would buy into all of this without a traumatic incident to help him along. Why not just start the episode in the bar? Things did get a little better after this, with Homer's characterization subdued enough to work. If he had gone all out crazy and was pushing his family and friends around it would have gotten very annoying. And I was worried that this was setting up the story to be about Homer turning on his family to survive with the group, but they didn't do that. Still, Homer fluctuated a bit in the second act with sometimes wanting to let his family in on his endeavors, and sometimes more concerned about keeping his secrets. While there weren't many great jokes in the second act, there were some chuckles here and there, like when Homer and Bart are watching the movie, or the suspended state when Homer leaves Moe's.

I liked how the third act started, with the irony of Homer essentially causing the disaster while worrying so much about preparing for the disaster. My favorite gag of the act was Kent Brockman reporting to no one, but once they enter the camp, things got surprisingly dull. I expected more conflict among the group, or the family to get more restless, or even for things to get more sinister or dark. Instead, it all just feels kind of lightweight, and you never are concerned about anyone's safety, since things just don't look bleak or dire enough. I did like the idea that Homer would decide to help the rest of the town in the last act, but that final chase wasn't funny or exciting enough to be a proper concluding sequence for the episode. The reveal that the town hadn't devolved into anarchy was a tad predictable, but still funny, and at that point I was preferring something simple over a really wacky or crazy resolution anyway. Lisa's little speech at the end seemed a little too directed at the audience more than the characters, and heck, I'd go so far as to say Lisa was very poorly characterized overall in this episode. Between cheering about the Learning Center not being about learning, to not being skeptical or trying to talk sense into Homer or anyone else either before or after the disaster strikes, she just seemed off, which I guess adds to the awkwardness to have her delivering that last little quip before we cut to the meteor. I mean, why give her the final lines if she was such a non-entity in this episode anyway? As for the zombie comet, it was kind of weird, but we've seen worse parting shots.

Again, there were things I liked, and things I didn't, and while it wasn't really all that funny an episode, it had fairly good characterization (except Lisa) and a story that was moderately interesting too. I give this episode a 2/5, but not because it was a really bad episode, just that it was below average.
 
It started out well enough, with Homer and the kids at the play place. Then it got really bland. Tom Waits has a great voice, but his charcter, unfortunately, had no personality. The Mark Kirkland direction was excellent, though.
 
This seems destined to be this season's "love it or hate it" episode (see A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again for the Season 23 equivalent).

Given how bland and unremarkable the first part of this season was (outside of a decent THOH, the forgettable Adventures in Baby-Getting and Selman's latest), I'm leaning towards the positive end of the scale on this one. If nothing else, I'm a lot more optimistic about the RABF production line given this start than the terrible PABF episodes.

Plus, it was nice to see Herman and L.T. Smash as supporting characters again. And Chalmers without a single pun involving Skinner's name.

I would rate this a 4/5 (seeing how it's not quite at the level of The Book Job or Holidays of Future Passed) but I'm probably going to score it a 5/5 to help cancel out some of the unjustified harsh negative reactions from people who were expecting something different than what we got (which was unabashed silliness).

I also have to openly wonder why Boots and Financial Panther still watch this show each Sunday. Probably some friendly competition to out-CBG the other guy. I may actually start rooting for which one can actively tear an episode to shreds the best, although I'd rather they save their venom for the episodes that actually deserve it. I'm sure Tim Long will have another episode on tap for us shortly.
 
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