Rate & Review: Abe League of Their Moe (36ABF08)
- Thread starter Financial Panther
- Start date
stryke
Stonecutter
Hmm, well okay I hated the title on first reading it on here. Like fall on hackles raised, and yet, well, hmm.
I didn't think they could sell an Abe and Moe character combo, and that part actually worked better than expected.
There were a couple of decently out loud chuckle worthy bits like Homer wondering where he will go to drink after catching his bartender and his dad together.
It's way too soap-boxy and there's too long stretches which aren't amusing enough. Certainly not terrible though, and not offensive. At least, I think it wasn't. I don't want to over analyse the Martin thing, and I think it'd be hypocritical to take against it anyway as they've totally done straight romance with even younger children so eh, probably fine.
Call it a 2.
I didn't think they could sell an Abe and Moe character combo, and that part actually worked better than expected.
There were a couple of decently out loud chuckle worthy bits like Homer wondering where he will go to drink after catching his bartender and his dad together.
It's way too soap-boxy and there's too long stretches which aren't amusing enough. Certainly not terrible though, and not offensive. At least, I think it wasn't. I don't want to over analyse the Martin thing, and I think it'd be hypocritical to take against it anyway as they've totally done straight romance with even younger children so eh, probably fine.
Call it a 2.
When Homer is trying to put the zipper on pants home, she says some line.
stryke
Stonecutter
To add to the pants scene they also give her a bit where the baseball guy shows off his unconventional technique with a pair of oversized scissors that take out the top of her hair, and then possibly kills the mascot.
coft
I know right? Guys are the worst.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2024
- Messages
- 752
baby's first gambling commentary combined with a limpdick Moe and Grampa pairing. it's not that it's an abnormal pairing but that it isn't explored in any way. these episodes can be so lackluster and forgettable it's hard to believe we're near the end. 2/5
CherryRollArts
Oh, my egghead is pickled!
I actually has higher hopes for this episode when it first was announced. Abe episodes have been eh as of late. 'Shoddy Heat' was beyond terrible and so that wavered my hopes for this episode. Either way, this episode wasn't terrible!! It was fun and silly and I enjoyed it!!! I was watching with my wife (@violetsstaff) but she quickly pointed out, this is just Flaming Moe Again. Nothing much was different except Abe feeling tacked on since he really didn't do anything honestly, not sure why him and Bart were there, boring side notes with them and the conflict didn't have much weight. Even so, I did enjoy the humor, I thought that was the highlight. It was a good funny episode and I enjoyed it so much!! It wasn't bad!!! Overall, it was a 2.5/5 but I'll round it up to a 3/5!!
I must've missed somebody voicing complaints about it, but that part didn't really bother me.
In fact, my reaction was "Was that.... Martin and Lewis holding hands? Oh, it was." and like you said they've dabbled with romances of the cild characters before so I'm not really surprised. Unless they were trying to frame it as a friendship thing, but it did feel very overt ship tease.
stryke
Stonecutter
I never read the thread or other people's reactions before making my first post, then I do reading once I've done that so I know that my initial take is purely my own. So that was me writng the post, in the process saying there was nothing offensive, just meaning to mean nothing annoyed me much, and then I had a 'hang on' moment. So I double checked myself whether there might have been something there that was maybe offensive in general as the Simpsons doesn't always cover itself in glory in regard to the L G B also T, and so I explored that mental hypothetical to figure nah it's probably fine.
Sandboy
And the curtain opens
This isn't the first time they've done a baseball-themed episode, and while they'll never top the dizzying heights reached by the crown prince Homer at the Bat, this one wasn't bad. Starting with the familial connection between Abe and his grandfather (dad? I'm not sure) was an intuitive way to start things off, while simultaneously distilling his desire to connect with his family is its best use in a long time, sticking to his character dynamics without resorting to tapping into his well-known dynamics with Homer and gimmicky tricks (we had an example of this this season with Shoddy Heat) to stand out. Of course, the episode finds its freshest point in the Moe/Grampa dynamic. Watching the two engage in a relaxed conversation where the beginning of their friendship is simply based on the fact that they share similar interests, have fun at other players, and work as a team is quite endearing, and something that would have held the episode together on its own. I like it involved when an episode makes an effort to work with the personalities of those (the beginning of the Moe/Grampa friendship which is based on a spirit of animosity towards people, even though they both share a desire to connect with other people no matter what), while acknowledging their small distinctions between them that give way to conflict. (Despite the "character gets fame to his head" cliché, I can definitely see Moe being the first to lose sight of his original goals).
Moe loses sight of his original goals because his self-esteem is so deeply damaged: feeling unworthy and unloved, any external recognition—like fame—becomes an addictive validation. When he finally receives attention or success, he desperately clings to it, forgetting his original purpose for fear of returning to obscurity. His fragile identity makes him vulnerable to being blindsided, because more than ambition, what he seeks is love. And I think this is most noticeable out of the corner of my eye when he's the one who seems most desperate (or excited, interpret it however you want) for Abe to agree to be his friend, and for that very reason I think it's easier to lose sight of the goal. For that very reason, I interpreted his abrupt change as something coherent for that very reason. Moe is "drawn in" by the most modern, dishonest, and capitalist (merely self-interested) incarnation of baseball. While Abe shares a similar quest driven by his sense of loneliness, what's interesting is how the sport is used here as a metaphor for the catalyst for his own quest, in this case his own desire to connect with someone in his family, whereas for Moe this catalyst becomes his own "cage" or indeed the beginning of his troubles, which is also a consistent theme with Moe's character regarding losing sight of his initial goals in favor of more temporary ones. In a way, there has always been an element of superficiality regarding what he wants, and that comes from a genuine place (genuine friendship) to what he thinks he wants because he's letting his own impulses get the better of him (selling out on this much more self-interested, exploitative version of the game that gave him a symbol of friendship).
I think the episode’s biggest flaw is that it gets to a point where it seems to put its characters in the background (i.e., underestimate their character dynamics) in favor of, not exactly sports commentary because that was already done with the Moe/Abe character contrast, but more direct parody and reference to the real-life scandal, which to me becomes even more apparent in the last act where satire seems to drive the characters’ side of things—like how Moe abruptly changes his mind once he sees that Bart has fallen down the gambling rabbit hole (the change itself MAKES sense, but the way it’s written here is way too underdeveloped because the conflict itself before that was about Moe/Abe’s views on sports as it sees them facing off against their modern vs. old selves, while the last act changes that part to give more emphasis to Bart’s side. It’s not mutually exclusive, but it hurts the flow of the episode when it becomes the core instead of just another part of the episode)—and Moe’s speech to the finale on the state of sports. Michael Price episodes usually stick to their social themes (The Tipping Point last season comes to mind), but in this case, I feel like the episode was biting off more than it could handle (the last act in particular is a bit too rushed given how much stuff is being introduced), part of me feels like the Bart/Grampa dynamic could have used more mileage before this final twist, which in my opinion subtracts more than it adds. You know, sometimes less is more, and I think this episode errs on the side of the latter (especially when the first two acts were sort of following a general theme. The first act in particular is a slow burn because they spent so much time establishing the Moe/Grampa friendship and the themes of the episode).
I can’t really comment much on the whole Walkov thing and what he represents (beyond the fact that I find it interesting how they established, let’s say, backstories for the three main characters in the episode and how these connected to the past), especially because I want to avoid sounding like an inept who doesn’t know the nuances necessary to understand the , but I thought it was okay. It definitely can sound strange to blame the character who inspired this story, but in this case, I see it simply as a creative decision they made regarding the plot. Sometimes it’s just a matter of being aware that the writers may have simply seen/read about the incident and thought that the subject matter is interesting enough for the show to do its own thing on it; it’s not about following everything to the letter, but sometimes they can just take something from there and adjust it to fit the characters (and in this case, I think it was a good idea that they decided to explore this part about who was guilty of that scandal through a character in the show, instead of a guest star). Speaking of which, yeah, it's definitely a step up from episodes like The Longest Marge (which I definitely didn't care for) in terms of handling its sports guest stars, and I still sort of think they manage to convey the gray areas of the issue—after all, Walkov's personality didn't fit an evil profile, so much as he's just another victim of gambling and how that world sometimes shapes itself (the ending with another team simply covering for him after Moe became the scapegoat is a good joke in that sense).
For an episode whose subject matter just wasn't appealing to me, I ended up being moderately entertained and getting a couple of decent laughs. The small family cameos did make me smile, though. Did Joel H. Cohen tout this episode as the drunkest Homer has ever been? Meh, he was worse. There were a couple of decent character moments that I feel could have been used more. Better than I thought, worse than they could have been. I feel like this is one of those episodes that had the seed of something that never quite sprouted—still pretty close. I'm satisfied enough that I got some interesting bits out of it that didn't entirely require me to be familiar with the sport (even if I did have to Google some of them to find out more, lol). Best bad episode of the season? Worst good episode of the season? I don't know. I'm not entirely sure what the final verdict is at this point, but I enjoyed it for what it was despite a few (several) complaints.
3/5.
Moe loses sight of his original goals because his self-esteem is so deeply damaged: feeling unworthy and unloved, any external recognition—like fame—becomes an addictive validation. When he finally receives attention or success, he desperately clings to it, forgetting his original purpose for fear of returning to obscurity. His fragile identity makes him vulnerable to being blindsided, because more than ambition, what he seeks is love. And I think this is most noticeable out of the corner of my eye when he's the one who seems most desperate (or excited, interpret it however you want) for Abe to agree to be his friend, and for that very reason I think it's easier to lose sight of the goal. For that very reason, I interpreted his abrupt change as something coherent for that very reason. Moe is "drawn in" by the most modern, dishonest, and capitalist (merely self-interested) incarnation of baseball. While Abe shares a similar quest driven by his sense of loneliness, what's interesting is how the sport is used here as a metaphor for the catalyst for his own quest, in this case his own desire to connect with someone in his family, whereas for Moe this catalyst becomes his own "cage" or indeed the beginning of his troubles, which is also a consistent theme with Moe's character regarding losing sight of his initial goals in favor of more temporary ones. In a way, there has always been an element of superficiality regarding what he wants, and that comes from a genuine place (genuine friendship) to what he thinks he wants because he's letting his own impulses get the better of him (selling out on this much more self-interested, exploitative version of the game that gave him a symbol of friendship).
I think the episode’s biggest flaw is that it gets to a point where it seems to put its characters in the background (i.e., underestimate their character dynamics) in favor of, not exactly sports commentary because that was already done with the Moe/Abe character contrast, but more direct parody and reference to the real-life scandal, which to me becomes even more apparent in the last act where satire seems to drive the characters’ side of things—like how Moe abruptly changes his mind once he sees that Bart has fallen down the gambling rabbit hole (the change itself MAKES sense, but the way it’s written here is way too underdeveloped because the conflict itself before that was about Moe/Abe’s views on sports as it sees them facing off against their modern vs. old selves, while the last act changes that part to give more emphasis to Bart’s side. It’s not mutually exclusive, but it hurts the flow of the episode when it becomes the core instead of just another part of the episode)—and Moe’s speech to the finale on the state of sports. Michael Price episodes usually stick to their social themes (The Tipping Point last season comes to mind), but in this case, I feel like the episode was biting off more than it could handle (the last act in particular is a bit too rushed given how much stuff is being introduced), part of me feels like the Bart/Grampa dynamic could have used more mileage before this final twist, which in my opinion subtracts more than it adds. You know, sometimes less is more, and I think this episode errs on the side of the latter (especially when the first two acts were sort of following a general theme. The first act in particular is a slow burn because they spent so much time establishing the Moe/Grampa friendship and the themes of the episode).
I can’t really comment much on the whole Walkov thing and what he represents (beyond the fact that I find it interesting how they established, let’s say, backstories for the three main characters in the episode and how these connected to the past), especially because I want to avoid sounding like an inept who doesn’t know the nuances necessary to understand the , but I thought it was okay. It definitely can sound strange to blame the character who inspired this story, but in this case, I see it simply as a creative decision they made regarding the plot. Sometimes it’s just a matter of being aware that the writers may have simply seen/read about the incident and thought that the subject matter is interesting enough for the show to do its own thing on it; it’s not about following everything to the letter, but sometimes they can just take something from there and adjust it to fit the characters (and in this case, I think it was a good idea that they decided to explore this part about who was guilty of that scandal through a character in the show, instead of a guest star). Speaking of which, yeah, it's definitely a step up from episodes like The Longest Marge (which I definitely didn't care for) in terms of handling its sports guest stars, and I still sort of think they manage to convey the gray areas of the issue—after all, Walkov's personality didn't fit an evil profile, so much as he's just another victim of gambling and how that world sometimes shapes itself (the ending with another team simply covering for him after Moe became the scapegoat is a good joke in that sense).
For an episode whose subject matter just wasn't appealing to me, I ended up being moderately entertained and getting a couple of decent laughs. The small family cameos did make me smile, though. Did Joel H. Cohen tout this episode as the drunkest Homer has ever been? Meh, he was worse. There were a couple of decent character moments that I feel could have been used more. Better than I thought, worse than they could have been. I feel like this is one of those episodes that had the seed of something that never quite sprouted—still pretty close. I'm satisfied enough that I got some interesting bits out of it that didn't entirely require me to be familiar with the sport (even if I did have to Google some of them to find out more, lol). Best bad episode of the season? Worst good episode of the season? I don't know. I'm not entirely sure what the final verdict is at this point, but I enjoyed it for what it was despite a few (several) complaints.
3/5.
Scrooge McDuck
Stonecutter
I born and raised in the Bay Area and been a Cards fan since around 1987. If they don't start winning on the road, I might cry.
1. Actually, I think this was a mistake. I'm suprised no one caught this as calling a country by the wrong name has had state departments lighting torches and writing shake-fisting letters to governments and governing bodies. How dare we let slip the name Taiwan.
2. Sports around the world have one rule: NO GAMBLINGS. It is posted in every clubhouse. Tucupita Marcano received a lifetime ban from the MLB in 2024. No way in hell Walkov would he be allowed to keep playing. Also, you are not allowed to be associated with gambling.
B. Premier League referee David Coote was sacked not only for being a bigot he is also accused of pre-arranging a yellow card in a Championship game between Leeds United and West Brom in October 2019, allegedly to benefit a friend through betting.
3. I was watching a Cards game and behind the battery there was a BET365 ad. The only time I ever saw ads for this company was in European sports. There is quite a few teams with a betting company sponsorship. Some football teams even have them on the jersey.
Scrooge McDuck
Stonecutter
Walkov, like walk off homerun, a player from Macedonia who was born in Minsk. So is he Belarusian or Macedonian? Ok, at least his name was Macedonia. Right? Doh, 
Also the country name is North Macedonia. You think a bunch of brainaics from Harvard would know that.
Onlyfans reference.
I do like that it brought the attention that having online gambling site sponsor your team with athletes who could corrupt your sport might not be the smartest thing. Walkov committed the cardinal sin of sports: Gambling. Gambling on baseball. Gambling on your own team.
Brought the attention of underage gambling, which was done before with Lisa.
Not a bad episode
3/5
Also the country name is North Macedonia. You think a bunch of brainaics from Harvard would know that.Onlyfans reference.
I do like that it brought the attention that having online gambling site sponsor your team with athletes who could corrupt your sport might not be the smartest thing. Walkov committed the cardinal sin of sports: Gambling. Gambling on baseball. Gambling on your own team.
Brought the attention of underage gambling, which was done before with Lisa.
Not a bad episode
3/5
Last edited:
stryke
Stonecutter
And was one of the bigger laughs of the ep for me.
That was definitely Abe's grandfather. He told about a dream, when some day Abe the same would take his grandson to baseball.
Just saw, Wkisimpsons even indicated him as "Old Tut".
"understand the what?" You missed a word
Maggie like
Junior Camper
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2022
- Messages
- 216
4/5 grade. A good and positive episode, it's been a while since I've had a sports-themed episode.
Exordium
Stonecutter
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2016
- Messages
- 1,312
I thought this was OK. I think I was more into the gags and the baseball theme than the story itself. I'm not very into baseball or sports, but I like reading about baseball players online sometimes. I didn't follow the betting scandal that inspired this episode's story, so I can't say if the staff looked at it from the right angle or not. In any case, I thought it was very accessible. Grampa got in a couple of good lines, especially the "e-mail man" line, and I loved Bart using drunk Homer for the face recognition on the gambling app. I actually used to look at a website about old computers, so it was fun noticing the Macintosh Portable-like laptop Walkov was using early in the episode. 3/5
med2659
Pin Pal
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2024
- Messages
- 387
Slightly below average to average episode...liked the concept of two seemingly different types of people, Abe and Moe coming together with one common variable, loneliness...the execution after this was just meh...the idea of Abe and Moe trying to lure a big-time player to their local team is a pretty good idea and how this changes everything around the baseball team and stadium, but not obviously for the better is a decent idea but something was just a little off with the execution...maybe just a lack of jokes and a little too boring...i understood what they were doing with the betting angle that they tried to explore but again it was just not entertaining enough...liked the 'only fans' gag with Abe...didn't like Moe riding in the back with the oats gag...2.5/5.
Last edited:
Speaking of that opening flashback scene, I did want to bring it up but didn't find time for it.
It's arguably one of my fav little moments from this one: Was nice to see little Abe spend time with his father. And maybe I'm alone on this, but it did actually make me want to have an entire episode centered around Abe's youth & relationship with his grandparents and parents: Could be fun and interesting (and also a good way to flesh out and expand on the Simpson family of the past, such as "Happy" Simpson, Abe's grandma, and Yuma, Abes mother). And to tie in with the present Simpsons, it could be framed as a story told by him to Bart & Lisa.
Could definitely see that work as an episode (and surprising it's still not been done), if only as a Selman-run one, not Jean.
SarahEleki
this here is mona pizzaaaaaa 🍕✨️
- Joined
- Jun 11, 2024
- Messages
- 1,200
I liked it when it was just Grampa and Moe hanging out, but all the stuff with Walkov didn't interest me
3/5
3/5
Ryan
wee
wtf when did the isotopes become a major team
also we don't have the A's yet you goons
1/5
also we don't have the A's yet you goons
1/5
