Rate and Review "O Brother where Bart Thou" MABF01

Rate O Brother Where Bart Thou

  • 5/5: Brother from another Mother

    Votes: 73 39.0%
  • 4/5: Best Friend

    Votes: 71 38.0%
  • 3/5: Aquaintence

    Votes: 28 15.0%
  • 2/5: Barely makes eye contact

    Votes: 9 4.8%
  • 1/5: Oh, brother.

    Votes: 6 3.2%

  • Total voters
    187

Patches O'houlihan

I'm baaaack!
Joined
Oct 16, 2001
Messages
14,286
Location
Wisconsin: "More bars in more places."
"One snowy day in Springfield, Lisa informs Bart that she and Maggie share a bond that Bart will never understand because he doesn’t have a brother, so Bart asks Homer for a baby brother. When Homer denies Bart’s request, Bart makes his way to the Springfield Orphanage to find what he thinks he’s missing in the all-new “O Brother, Where Bart Thou?” episode of THE SIMPSONS airingSunday, Dec. 13 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (SI-2101) (TV-PG D, L, S, V)

Voice Cast: Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson; Julie Kavner as Marge Simpson; Nancy Cartwright as Bart Simpson; Yeardley Smith as Lisa Simpson; Hank Azaria as Moe; Harry Shearer as Skinner; Pamela Haden as Milhouse; Tress MacNeille as Dolph"


Please wait till the episode is over before posting.
 
3/5

Take a bit of time to start up and there weird Family-Guy like filling, but the story actually kinda good, I really like Nelson getting emotional

THE PLOW KING LIVES!
 
Very, very good. I loved the references back to other episodes, like the the Plow King. A 5/5.
 
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Best of the season for me so far. I liked the way the plot was executed. I was really interested in seeing what would happen next. I also thought that the brief emotion didn't feel forced. I thought this episode did excellent in the humor department. There were so many clever jokes throughout, like the gags with Nelson. I also liked the Plow King reference. I also thought characterization was pretty perfect. 5/5
 
Wow, that South Park bit just kind of came out of nowhere. It would have been funnier if it turned out that Kenny was Moleman rather than Ralph.

Forgettable episode. The Smother Brothers and Jordan Nagai were really good guest stars, but the rest of the guest stars seemed rather forced. I really liked the "He's like Annie but he hates tomorrows" "I hate them soooo much!" bit. The stuff at the end with Bart deciding he's okay with Lisa and Homer kind of came out of nowhere. They should have built that more.

It was really weird with the high def snow and it goes to show how far the animation has come since Simpsons Roasting.

2.5/5.
 
Easily the best of the season thus far.
Bodes well for future eps in the MABF series.

Can't wait for the litany of "Lisa was cruel to Bart by rubbing her sister bond in his face... I hate her" replies.
He's done far worse to her and you know it.

A rare 5/5 from me due to the fact that this will easily stand up to repeat viewings unlike some of last season's faves.
 
Weird episode. Had some good jokes but had a lot of weird jokes too. I liked the last half the best, the first half had a lot of time filler.

And I thought at the beginning of the second act the hat Bart was wearing was identical to Stan's from South Park. And then the parody. That was the funniest part for me.

Though really, I don't know how to grade this. It had a lot of time filler jokes and not all of them were funny. I liked when Charlie came into the plot.

I think a 3.5/5 or so would be best for this episode. Maybe 4/5, I am not entirely sure
 
Probably my favorite episode for sentimental reasons. The scene with Bart carrying all the clothes out of the store while having three sisters jabber away is a scene I'm all to familar with. (My sisters are all 8-11 years older than me.) Anyway, this episode was actually better than I expected as there seemed like there was real reason to Bart's anguish compared to some random shit that normally happens. Also, Charlie was a unusually sympathetic character for a change.

2/5 in classic era standards
4/5 in scully/jean era standards
 
Easily the best of the season thus far.
Bodes well for future eps in the MABF series.

Can't wait for the litany of "Lisa was cruel to Bart by rubbing her sister bond in his face... I hate her" replies.
He's done far worse to her and you know it.

A rare 5/5 from me due to the fact that this will easily stand up to repeat viewings unlike some of last season's faves.

Lisa came around in the end anyway. She probably was just being overely boastful in the beginning.

Personally, I love being an only child. I don't want to deal with middle child syndrome.
 
The first half of the first act was average, but as soon as the plot kicked in I was loving it.

The awesome:
-South Park parody
-Static-driven DVD player
-An ACTUAL child voice for a CHILD (the kid from Up as Charlie)
-Springfield in winter (winter episodes are always awesome)
-Brothers montage
-Plow King
-Kama Sutra
-Nelson bits

The good:
-Most of the rest of the episode

The "meh":
-First few minutes, though I might view it differently now that I know the rest of the episode was good

5/5
 
Not sure if you guys knew this, but back in the 1990's they tried to get the Smothers Brothers on the show and they basically told the writers to 'beat it.'

Also, I guess Homer isn't really sterile if Marge is on the pill. :confused: Maybe she's cheating off camera.

EDIT: I'm guessing IGN is going to hate this.
 
Easily the best of the season thus far.
Bodes well for future eps in the MABF series.

Can't wait for the litany of "Lisa was cruel to Bart by rubbing her sister bond in his face... I hate her" replies.
He's done far worse to her and you know it.

A rare 5/5 from me due to the fact that this will easily stand up to repeat viewings unlike some of last season's faves.

Yah but he never made fun of her about having a brother or sister. I felt that part was very mean of her :ashamed:
I liked the episode, the dream, good jokes......I felt it was good.
 
So Homer talking to the Smothers Brothers over the end credits probably made the entire episode for me. Everything else was good, but that was incredible.
 
I actually didn't find Lisa too annoying in the beginning If there was anything slightly negative about the episode, it was that, but I actually half-way enjoyed watching it. i thought it fit with the plot and it wasn't unnecessary. I also laughed at some of it.
 
Also, I guess Homer isn't really sterile if Marge is on the pill. :confused: Maybe she's cheating off camera.

Or maybe shes covering all the bases. Nuclear power can do some crazy things.

btw, isn't NoHomers member Jake all about Simpsons fanfics and Lisa having a third sister? The flash forward segment reminded me of that.
 
Or maybe shes covering all the bases. Nuclear power can do some crazy things.

btw, isn't there a user named Jake here that is all about Simpsons fanfics and Lisa having a third sister? The flash forward segment reminded me of that.

I think that's solid snake you're thinking of who had a third sister. Bart has a brother in my sig below (the one with blue hair).


.
 
Well considering that Mr.Burns covered up homer sterility Marge probably don't know
 
I think that's solid snake you're thinking of who had a third sister. Bart has a brother in my sig below (the one with blue hair).


.

Flash foward in mind, what the heck was with the british accent.
 
This being the first episode of a new production line, I notice they seem to have augmented the four-act structure so that Acts III and IV can be pasted together into one act with no ill effect on the pacing. It's now "joke-commercial-follow up joke", continuing with the same scene, with no establishing shot at the start of Act IV. Perhaps when Season 21 comes to DVD, we'll see the three-act format restored.

As for the episode itself, wow, really good! Solid humor all the way through, and good character-based stuff. The writers have been handling Bart really well this year - he's equal parts mischievous and inquisitive. I love that this episode takes place during the winter - the snowstorm sets up the opening set piece of the blackout, but it remains an effective device throughout the story, culminating in Bart and Charlie hiding out in the snowdrift. It also makes for some neat gray-and-cloudy atmospherics, like Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney sitting on top of the drainage pipe. I tell you, it'll be a shame once "The Simpsons" stops using layout artists; they're gonna lose a lot of nice stuff like this.

That "South Park" joke was great. I'm surprised they'd never done it before.

Eight guest voices this week; very close to their all-time record of nine. I knew Charlie sounded familiar, but I couldn't place where I'd heard him until I saw Jordan Nagai's name in the credits. Russell!
 
Poll isn't public :(

Anyway, strong episode with good jokes (South Park reference was great), the guest stars weren't too annoying, and a one-time character you could actually like. Everyone was in character, and nothing really missed the mark for me. Wasn't quite memorable enough for a 15, but a very strong 14/15 nonetheless. Matt Selman has proven this season that his Season 19 contributions were an aberration.
 
First absolutely standout episode of the season for me. That was really, really, really, really, really, really... good.

The episode did really look beautiful, I'll give them that. I've been loving these past few episodes and their use of snow, even when a story doesn't necessarily call for it (though this one did). Just, everything was really gorgeous, the characters all looked great, and Charlie actually had an absolutely fantastic design that allowed him to blend in with the rest of the characters seamlessly. So just watching this alone was a pleasure.

But even better - it had not only a well thought-out beginning, but even a well thought-out, not out-of-nowhere end. The entire story felt developed and fleshed out to as great an extent as was possible for the limited time, and not once did I feel really taken out of the plot due to this, and I was never really questioning any character's emotions or decisions or anything. Things were actually genuine here and while being Bart-centric, the whole family was well-included and all were relevant to the story; no gratuitous appearances.

Lisa and Maggie's bonding was cute, and Lisa's teasing of Bart rang true for a sibling relationship. Bart's interactions with Homer showed exactly the kind of relationship I like to see between the two. Homer isn't borderline retarded, still actually does care about his son, but is somewhat realistic about it. Bart goes to desperate measures, Marge catches him in the act, and they have a genuine heart-to-heart as well, like the two have shown in the past (and this episode wasn't even a focus between the two).

Not to say this episode wasn't funny, either, because it certainly did. I was wondering what Bart was doing wearing a Stan-like hat, since that would have been a weird coincidence (and considering how this is animation and it was specifically drawn that way, not really much of one at all), but then the South Park parody was... absolutely fantastic. Hilarious and perfectly played and I really was not expecting that. Likewise, the Sex and the City parody worked as well. It wasn't forced, it came naturally, it was relevant to the plot, and... just great. (Plus, I really would imagine that having three sisters like that would be a horrible fate - poor, poor Charlie. Kid may have maced Wiggum, but he sure didn't deserve that.)

So yeah. This episode actually made pretty good use of the four act format, finally. Bart comes to understand he wants a brother, Bart tries to get a brother, Bart does get a brother, and brother has to go away. Clean cut, smooth, nothing forced, and completely enjoyable.

It really does help here that Bart is my absolutely favourite character and he was in top form this episode, but without even considering that - everything had a natural flow. The episode looked beautiful. It was funny. The dream sequence was fantastic. Bart and Charlie hanging out together was great. Many episodes have had a well-developed beginning; this one had a great end - not quite as well-developed, but hardly out of nowhere, either.

It was satisfying, entertaining, best of the season thus far, really standout in this recent era. I'd actually love to rewatch this one.
 
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