Rate and Review "The Kid Is All Right" (SABF02)

Was the Kid Alright?


  • Total voters
    109
Let's just say that conservative bashing always gets my full support, whether it's supposed to be funny or not.

What about the blind praise for Democratic values; where Lisa praised that in a scene where people wouldn't vote for her. Surely there has to be some downside to that right?
 
What I liked:
Maggie's Bar
Lots of nice references to past episodes ("Get your funzos here!")
Bart helping Lisa with her campaign
Homer and the M&M
OFF in the attic

What I didn't:
The storyline itself is pretty uninteresting.
Chalmers continuity - he was in the Republican party scenes and yet his role during the debates was like he wasn't.
The smash cut just before Bart was about to moon on the computer. Why even bother going to show that at all, if you're too chicken enough to show actual nudity, FOX?

As this is my second episode I've watched of the season, I can only compare it to Homerland which personally was about the same. So it's a 3/5 from me!
 
Was it just me or did the episodes story seem all over the place to anyone else?
 
Not particularly great or witty satire wise but for the main I actually enjoyed the pacing of this episode. Sometimes the dialogue felt unnatural but I think it's more humorous than the average HD era Simpsons episode.

3/5, 6/10 C+
 
What about the blind praise for Democratic values; where Lisa praised that in a scene where people wouldn't vote for her. Surely there has to be some downside to that right?

Not really, no.

Democratic people (AKA liberals) care about our future. Conservatives are stuck in an idealized past. End of story.
 
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Democratic people (AKA liberals) care about our future. Conservatives are stuck in an idealized past. End of story.

Does Obama care for your future; right now he's just seen as the Democratic version of Bush, a president who isn't doing much to initialize the "change" that we want.

I'm an Independent and I care for the people; not for bullshit like the future or the past but for the people. These biased ideologies are dragging down politics as we speak.
 
Does Obama care for your future; right now he's just seen as the Democratic version of Bush, a president who isn't doing much to initialize the "change" that we want.

I'm an Independent and I care for the people; not for bullshit like the future or the past but for the people. These biased ideologies are dragging down politics as we speak.

I'll admit Obama has his own issues, and could be doing a lot more for the people than he is. But the future is just as important. Not in an ideological sense, but in terms of long-term planning for future generations. The way I see it, at least liberals still care enough for that cause, even if the execution is flawed. I'm not expecting overnight changes.

To me, the term 'ideology' means putting your effort in a cause bigger than yourself and your own personal desires.

Also, I question the meaning of the word 'change'. Change for yourself, or others?

We need to look within ourselves and question our own motivations. If the desire for people is for economical change, they'd better think hard before answering that. I, for one, don't care about getting richer, as long as the system treats everyone equally and fairly (which admittely, it doesn't). But if someone is only unsatisfied because he/she isn't getting as much money/freedom as they think they deserve, that's their own issue.
 
I'll admit Obama has his own issues, and could be doing a lot more for the people than he is. But the future is just as important. Not in an ideological sense, but in terms of long-term planning for future generations. The way I see it, at least liberals still care enough for that cause, even if the execution is flawed. I'm not expecting overnight changes.
But what about the politicians that game the system to their own benefit; surely it doesn't matter what side they are because they're still playing a baseless game that does not change. Again, I am independent.

We need to look within ourselves and question our own motivations. If the desire for people is for economical change, they'd better think hard before answering that. I, for one, don't care about getting richer, as long as the system treats everyone equally and fairly (which admittely, it doesn't). But if someone is only unsatisfied because he/she isn't getting as much money/freedom as they think they deserve, that's their own issue.
Here's the truth, the system doesn't treat people fairly; the rich want to stay rich because they're afraid to lose their money therefore they game the system in order to keep on being rich. If you don't care about getting richer, you will care when you're rich because that's basically what happens; you get addicted to the fancy stuff and you're afraid to lose it. Economic change needs to happen and rich people need less control over our government.
 
Compelte rip off of Lisa's Rival.

- Lisa is lonely
- Lisa find new kid
- Lisa finds diffrence between them
- Lisa gets Bart's help
- Lisa dosen't want Bart's help at the last second
- Lisa and new kid are friends again.

Also Lisa seemed very fat in this episode, too much pie.
 
I'll be generous and give this a 6/10. For an HD episode, it at least has a plot and a small slew of decent references, albeit amidst lots of filler, too.
 
Apparently i was in a cynical mood or something when i first watched this because on a rewatch i enjoyed it a fair amount, i give it a C+ after a rewatch.
 
The Silly Simpsony was good fun.

Really, really, really boring. Also... they're 8-year-old girls. Are they really that political by now?

E-
 
this is a rather interesting opening. i feel like it's probably going to drag though. yea... it took over 2 minutes for the actual episode to start. good opening but took a little longer than i would've liked.

Act One:

+The dog taking all of Ralph's ice cream

+Nelson kicking Milhouse. Predictable but it got a chuckle

Why is there no 'g' in google? This bothers me greatly.

+"I really think I've made my point." Good, because while I like her singing in this scene, she really has made her point by now.

+"And the best part is I'm bombarding her with her own homework."

-Anagram jokes

-the M@M

oh god this is going to be awful. I can tell.

Act Two:

+"Ay carumba!"
"Do you know what means?"
"There's a carumba in my eye?"
"It's the Spanish version of Hot Damn"
"Ay carumba!"

+"If you try to run, you'll get a heart attack!" I dunno why but that made me laugh

-Chris Christie fat joke

what? that was an act? OK... it's not awful but I'm still not holding my breath for a great episode here.

Act 3:

+"Just call me Ralph Nader. I don't know why."

+I like the call back to Nelson and Lisa dating, but the tattoo was a little much

+"You couldn't buy me with a wheelbarrow full of ice cream."

+"Sir, I am lactose intolerant."
"And I'm backtalk allergic. Now, get eating."

-Lisa continuously hurting Bart to show him how 'tough' she is

-Bombardment callback{never that funny in the first place}

+"Vote for whoever you want to, they're both losers."

+The end to act 3

Act 4:

-Lisa's dream

-Chalmers not knowing how to pronounce Lisa's and Isabel's names

+"Time's up."
"But I-"
"Stop showboating."

+The balloons hurting Burns

-the ending

Wow, that was actually better than I expected. Decent amount of laughs, but the plot itself didn't do much for me. 3.5/5, possibly rounded to a 4 if I was feeling nicer
 
While I rated this a 3/5 its definately not the best episode of season 25 so far, despite that the poll result is saying that when you vote 3/5...
 
5.5/10 - It's "All Right," not "Alright"

The Kid is All Right is a very mixed bag from Tim Long. The execution is done pretty nicely (surprising coming from the writer of such abominations as the Mary Spuckler episodes and Elementary School Musical), but the premise of the episode is no good.

The episode starts of with a "Silly Simpsony," which is by far the best part of the episode. In retrospect, it's probably one of the best moments of season 25. I've always been a fan of old Disney animation, and Music Land was always one of my favorite ones. Seeing The Simpsons take on their own musical version of Music Land, titled Music Ville, was amazing to see. Music Ville had some of the best satire of season 25; while the entire segment felt like Music Land and constantly reminded you of it, Music Ville never became a lame "Funtendo Zii" parody; it always kept a Simpsons touch to it, whether it's in the musical instrument versions of the characters, in the surprisingly well thought-out plot about freedom from oppression, or in Mr. Burns's very evil characterization. (Sidenote: French horn Milhouse's water from his instrument was a nod to the spit valve of a French horn always containing a bunch of spit, more so than other brass instruments.) It's nice that they paid homage to the original Music Land by having no dialogue in the segment, instead relying on musical sound effects to simulate speech and emotion. The music is very catchy; it's a little choppy at times (especially when they cut to the different genres of music toward the end), but overall it's blended quite nicely. It's not very easy to do, but they pulled this opening off very well. It's now one of my favorite extended couch gags. I'm not going to freeze-frame the segment, because here it is in its entirety:


After the opening, it unfortunately goes downhill from there. Lisa starts it off by singing "One is the Loneliest Number." Once again, the writers must have forgotten that Lisa has Sherri, Terri, and Janey, among many other friends. Still, good singing voice from Yeardley Smith and good joke with Lisa stopping abruptly and saying, "You know, I really think I've made my point." We get a lot of hit-and-miss jokes through the opening with scenes at the school, but the plot moves along nicely. It was fun to see Bart hurl spitwads at Lisa using paper from Lisa's report, "The Effects of Sibling Rivalry on Academic Development." As Lisa enters the school library, more hit-and-miss jokes ensue, my favorite being Bart hissing like a vampire when Lisa shows him "Little Women."

At 4 minutes, 20 seconds into the episode (couch gag included), Isabel makes her first appearance. That's a great score for modern Simpsons, and, combined with the lack of subplot here, makes for a very well-paced episode with ample time for character development. The dialogue when they meet shows them both as second graders, which is nice considering the turn the episode is about to take. I liked Lisa's anagrams of her name: "Alps Mission," "Pails in Moss," and "Plain Miss, so?" Isabel's anagram is "Be Lisa." The two then stop talking as Bart shows up in the background and makes faces. I would have preferred Bart to make faces while the two conversed, which would have made for a great background gag, instead of putting all the focus on Bart like they did here. Maggie makes a Gerald statue out of one of the best visual gags in years, "Play-(Annoyed Grunt)." The episode then wastes no time in getting Isabel to call Lisa. Nice side joke with Milhouse pulling a green M&M out of his ear, tempting Homer to argue with his brain over whether to eat it or not. It ends with a really funny payoff with Marge putting the M&M back in Milhouse's ear. Again, Milhouse getting bullied never gets old.

I really didn't like the cutaway gag with Marge calling to Lisa, "Someone you love put melted butter on it!" (her salad), and then cut to Mr. Bergstrom putting the melted butter on the salad. It was so random it felt like a Family Guy joke. The joke could have been much funnier if it had been, say, Grampa, who spread the butter and then asked where he was. Lisa and Isabel agree to work together on an FDR project. Isabel responds with a terribly weak "woo-hoo," which brings me to the point that Eva Longoria's voice acting with this character was really weak. Oh well, beats "Hey everybody, look, it's Eva Longoria herself!"

The next scene starts to ruin the potential of the episode. Lisa and Isabel read their reports on FDR, which sound nothing like a second-grader's report. While they read their overly sophisticated papers, Lisa finds out that Isabel is...unfortunately...a Republican.

The Simpsons have always had the potential to do amazing political episodes where they purposely mock both sides of the argument and give every political issue a deliberate Simpsons twist. With The Kid is All Right, the writers instead choose to portray the Republicans as evil monsters and Lisa the liberal as an angel voice of reason. "Purposely mocking both sides," much? No. And that's what ruins the episode for me.

Moving on to the second act: Lisa and Isabel argue very unrealistically (i.e. the dialogue is unrealistic for second-graders) over politics, none of which I actually care about. The only great line was Isabel (who is apparently Argentinian) asking Bart if he knows what "Ay carumba" means, to which Bart replies, "Uh, there's a carumba in my eye?"

Marge takes Lisa up to the attic to reveal that she voted for Reagan because she was going through a phase in her life. More politics? Ugh. I did laugh at Homer and Bart's 80s party, though. "Where's the beef? Tear down that wall! Because I think the beef is behind that wall." Also of note: We see the Olmec head yet again in the attic. Laughed at the Super Bowl Shuffle: "If you try to run, you'll get a heart attack!" It was really weird to see Homer actually choke Bart unconscious, though. Amid all this craziness, Marge makes a point that despite their political differences (I repeat: ugh), Isabel and Lisa can still be friends.

We're back in the library, and we get a scene similar to the one where the two first meet. Lisa and Isabel make up because, as Lisa says, "We're only eight. Can't we just play Monopoly or something?" Cut to a camera in the hamster cage (feels straight out of the Scully era), which leads to the Springfield Republican Party Headquarters ("Now 28% Wacko-Free!") Oh boy...more politics. Present at the Republican Party meeting are Chalmers, Mr. Burns, Wolfcastle, Dracula (??), the Rich Texan, and Krusty. The Rich Texan says that the Republicans have to recruit Isabel. Recruit Isabel, an 8-year-old girl? (Nice joke with Chris Christie thinking GOP stands for "gravy on pancakes," though. Wolfcastle should have used it in Let's Get Silly.) He did ruin the joke at the end, though, with "But seriously, despite my mirthful remarks, obesity is no laughing matter." As the act ends, the episode has taken a decisive political turn. And with latter-day Simpsons, that's never a good sign.

It's school election day, and there's a sign-up banner: "Reppy the Reptile Says: Don't crawl under a rock, run for class rep!" Hopefully that lame joke was intentional. Lisa will be running for president against Isabel...and Ralph. "Just call me Ralph Nader. I don't know why." At least make a callback to E Pluribus Wiggum instead of using some random pointless one-liner like this. Isabel and Lisa agree to run fairly, that is, until Mr. Burns shows up in Isabel's locker. "How'd you get in there?" "Slid in through the grates."

At Phineas Q. Butterfat's Ice Cream Parlor, the Republican Party gives Isabel the "scoop" on their stupid plan. They offer her a tainted victory over issues I really don't care about. Good joke, though, with Isabel saying "You can't buy me over with a wheelbarrow of ice cream." In the background, the Squeaky-Voiced Teen makes a U-turn with a wheelbarrow full of ice cream. Also, Mr. Burns: "I had enough money to convince People magazine that I was the sexiest man alive! Of course, most of the time was spent convincing them that I was alive."

Really odd joke with Bart's karate classes being his psychiatrist. Signs of the Republicans helping Isabel are showing, and I don't care for any of them. I did like Otto saying that he was "strictly middle-of-the-road." He then drives the bus in the middle of the street. Isabel confesses to not knowing what's going on either (like the rest of the audience who don't care for politics). The plot does kind of drag around here, but that's probably just me bitching about the Springfield Republican Party garbage.

It was fun to see a drunk Lisa (on imaginary beers) at Maggie's Tavern in her room. Lisa then asks Bart to help her win the election; once again, a political election that I don't care about. Lisa punching Bart was kind of cringeworthy. The political tactics Bart uses at the school; handing out brownies, throwing Isabel dodgeballs at students, and staging a mock debate with Milhouse (Bart as Isabel), all pretty devoid of jokes.

The plot moves along nicely, and thankfully winds away from religion for a second, as Lisa realizes that her political tactics are turning her into Mr. Burns. After being fired, Bart goes for a drink at Maggie's Tavern too.

Okay, so this is supposedly the "climax" of the episode. Chalmers says that the elementary school debates (what? This is an elementary school election, not a presidential election), the first of 37 ("good Lord"), will involve Isabel and Lisa (whose name is mispronounced...kind of confusing until you realize Chalmers is on the Republican team). Chalmers mentions to Skinner, "You can fog a mirror, but I wouldn't call you alive." True, since you're hogging all of his spotlight in the new episodes.

The climax of the episode is...Lisa making a dramatic speech about being a liberal? She's portrayed as some kind of hero because of her political views. The Simpsons shouldn't be taking sides, but that's exactly what they're doing right now, whether it's with the Republicans being portrayed as evil (Mr. Burns...need more proof?) or Lisa as the perfect girl, they need to stop with this political non-satire.

The fourth act begins with Lisa in a very political dream. I kind of zoned out during out that segment, because frankly it's almost as bad as the Springfield Republican Party scenes. It's a second-grade election, not a presidential election! The President Wore Pearls got that fact straight.

Wait, more debates? Fine. At least this one gets some moral straight; it throws away the political garbage between Lisa and Isabel and says that it doesn't matter who wins, because they'll remain friends. Despite getting the moral straight, there is no emotion in this scene, because of the buildup being clogged with a bunch of political garbage.

Willlie puts the "Election Results Today!" banner away, along with "The New Funzos are Here!" "Whacking Day: School Closed," "Congragulations Bart, on Being a Genius," and "Coping with the Dome." Any of these were better than the Mr. Bergstrom callback. Really fun to see.

So Isabel wins the election. Lisa is disappointed, which reminds me of the disappointed hug scene at the end of Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Mr. Burns being crushed by balloons and sent on an ambulance was funny, although it showed Burns at his weakest.

And because it's been political all the way through, throw in some political at the end too. Milhouse says that 53% of votes (keep in mind, these are second-graders) would vote for a liberal - just not Lisa. That makes her happy, I guess. Oh yeah, and because we need an obligatory guest star to appear as themselves, flash-forward to Decision 2056 where Anderson Cooper moderates a real presidential debate between Lisa and Isabel. Really good scene at the end, though, where we see Homer and his tuba counterpart from the opening (both aged) watching Lisa, saying "That's our girl." Really good callback. The credits play a really entertaining jazz version of the opening. Jazz has always been Alf Clausen's strength.

Too. Much. Politics. (like E Pluribus Wiggum) The idea of the episode was okay (Lisa makes a friend), the pacing was great, the jokes were slightly above average, but again, there was so much political crap in this episode I had to sift through to get to the decent moments. Overall, the goods and bads cancel out for a flat 5/10, but I bumped the score up half a point for the Silly Simpsony to end up with a 5.5/10.

Tim Long...*sigh*...just go away.
 
The only memorable thing this episode has was a cameo of Mr. Bergstrom. That girl Lisa became friends with could win the prize for no character atributions at all. 1/5
 
wait tell me again, did the Springfield Republicans try to interfere with the school election? because I've only seen this episode once and I honestly don't remember, because if they did, then that means that the Simpsons even predicted Russia interfering with the presidential election (well loosely anyway)

why can't they predict something that will make me happy? like I don't know say....the Jets winning the Stanley cup or something?
 
Bad, bad episode.

I normally say there’s no such thing as a bad idea; it’s all about the execution. But this was a horrible horrible idea.

Idk what’s worse, eight-year olds going full-on political, or being self aware and suggesting to do normal eight-year old activities As an alternative.

I didn’t know who our president was (George W Bush at the time) until I was 7 years old. Here, Lisa and her one-time friend seem to have encyclopedic knowledge of all the problems in our country. How interesting and relatable....
 
Downright awful. As bomberswarm2 said, it's another clone of Lisa's Rival, albert a bad one.

Whenever this episode comes on, I turn off the TV because it's so awful. But even then it's not the worse of the season (that goes to Diggs). Why?

Well, you know what I'm giving it...

 0/5 
 
This episode is indeed bad, but I don't get why you'd have a problem with the concept being similar to Lisa's Rival. You're bound to repeat yourselves after nearly 700 episodes, so that's not a problem as long as the idea is delivered differently, which it is(though it's admittedly delivered poorly). Also how is Diggs the worst of this season? It's mediocre, but it's not aggressively terrible like Yellow Subterfuge or Days of Future Future.
 
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