Rate & Review: "Havana Wild Weekend" (VABF19)

What did you think of "Havana Wild Weekend"?


  • Total voters
    49
I genuinely feel that this was not that bad at all, the jokes were funny all the way and story wasn't so bad so I don't see why theres so much hate for this?
It wound up better than I was expecting it to be but then I was expecting it to be trash because I find most Dan & Deb episodes to be trash. Hell, I gave this one a 2 because it wasn't as obnoxiously indulgent as some of their recent episodes like A Midsummer's Nice Dream or The Ten-Per-Cent Solution.

That said, this episode also solidified something for me. Bob Anderson has the same bad habits of complacency as the writing team due to being around so long. This episode was lazy to a fault on the character animation front - especially on the small details that even someone like Steven Dean Moore catches even if the latter is still more likely to go off-model.

I know the directors can't all be pushing themselves like Rob Oliver and Matthew Nastuk but the discrepancy between the good and the bad is beginning to stick out like a sore thumb again. I think Michael Polcino might be my favorite right now for consistency's sake even though I'll acknowledge he's not as ambitious as those other two.
 
This was not exactly a good episode, then again I was not expecting much judging by the track record of Dan & Deb episodes. The plot also sounded uninteresting to me, as the Cuba setting and its related jokes feel to overdone by now and I'm not that much into Abe these days.

So the opening brought the black hole back from THoH XXIII... okay. I liked Bart's chalkboard gag with ''being right sucks''... because it really does. The couch gag was just weird. I didn't mind the ''Vulture Nest'' scenes, bit of an obvious Shark Tank referenced (which they even felt to mention it...). Fun way to both start and end the episode. Then we have the Simpsons suddenly caring a lot for Abe, while he could've had his situation before. Some of the pharmacy and hospital jokes were pretty funny, the ''bag of pigs'' joke is to random. Some of the boat and ''aduana'' scenes dragged on way to long, watching crimininals pass by for like 20 seconds gets a bit boring.

Once they are actually in Cuba, its basically were I doze off. Some jokes like Abe's last look at Maggie were okay, after that the episode just goes places with the doctor willing to help in return for smuggling football players... which we don't get to see. Abe steps into a car and starts to feel young, tries to seduce a bar waitress, ends up being an undercover agent trying to rally all criminals together to arrest. The scenes with the family wasn't much to speak off either, though my favorite joke was Homer being so angry towards a criminal from Ticketmaster over the biggest drug lord in NA history, who he actually shows repsect to. Some nice scenes with Abe, Homer and Bart bullying golfers. This actually reminds me that a plot with these 3 together could have potential to be good.

This is the weakest episode of the season so far, probably the first that I'd call bad aswell. And that coming from such a great episode from last week. The story and all the new characters were uninteresting, I could maybe give a point for some good jokes. But for most of the part it was pretty boring.

2/5
 
I haven't seen the episode yet, and I don't know if I want to. Geez, what a way to end Film Roman's long involvement with the Simpsons.
 
Wow... this is probably the worst Simpsons episode I've seen in quite some time. This episode was so fucking atrocious that it made me get out of the reviewing slump I was in and kick this episode's ass. So, let's see how Homer's second trip to Cuba turned into a complete disaster.

The episode starts off with a parody of something that I am not familiar with. I was so confused when I first saw this and it wasn't until hours after I watched this episode that I found out that it was parodying Shark Tank. I'm not familiar with that show, but I don't think it would be funny even if I was because it's just filler bullshit to pad this episode's time length and this episode has a LOT of padding. Well the last episode written by Dan and Deb started off with three Itchy and Scratchy cartoons, so I guess they've just given up on trying to set up an episode. The actual plot starts when Homer notices a piss stain on the rug while Lisa says it's not fair to blame the dog while reading a book called 50 Shades of 'A'. Lol I'm dying on the floor right now, this is so fucking funny. I can't wait for The Simpsons to do a 50 Shades of Grey segment on next year's Treehouse of Horror. Then after Bart tells Santa's Little Helper that he did walk him and Homer making some dumb joke about chewing his leg, Abe admits that he was the one who pissed on the rug. God, this episode is starting to sound like an idea from the Create Shitty Episodes thread. Homer then does this hilarious bit where he accidentally says the name of what the show's actually called. I really hate it when this show has to explain what it's referencing because if you have to explain what it's a parody of then it doesn't work. This isn't like that one joke in Treehouse of Horror V where Bart says "Shining" followed by Willie saying "Shh. You wanna get sued?", this is just pure laziness.

So after some pointless shit at the nursing home, Abe is at the hospital which is the part of the episode where the Simpson family decide that they're going to Cuba. Mainly because everything's cheaper there according to this episode. I also noticed this the first time I watched this, but I love how Homer says "D'oh!" on two separate occasions in the course of 5-7 seconds. I know this was in between commercial breaks, but come on. After a terrible scene on a ferry, they're at a customs where we get this painfully long list gag which feels like an eternity. Then after that The Simpsons are in Cuba and we'll get to see all the wacky stuff that happens here and at this point I'm giving up trying to describe this episode. It's mostly just boring travel episode stuff, so I'll just list the lowlights. That disgusting face Abe makes that feels like it belongs more in Family Guy or a bad episode of SpongeBob than it does here, that awful "Cuba-gasm" line that must be heard to be believed, Abe is no longer sick just because he was in the car, the joke about eating horse, the "hilarious" joke where Jasper says "I'm sending him a picture of my junk." only for him to take a picture of a pile of junk, Homer clapping at the TV for too long and for no reason other than to fill time and a terrible song that's not even sung in English.

This episode was AWFUL! I had a feeling it was going to be trainwreck when it was announced that this episode was not only written by Dan Castellaneta and Deb Lacusta, but they had another writer named Peter Tilden and while I don't know who he is, it just seems like they hired him just to put this shit sandwich together. As for Dan and Deb, their track record was never flawless. The only great episode they've done was Day of Wine and D'oh'ses. They've made a couple terrible episodes like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore and The Ten-Per-Cent Solution and while the rest of their episodes aren't particularly great when it comes to writing, they do deliver some good laughs. The laughs in this episode though are so scarce and the only ones that are funny aren't even that good. I chuckled at the joke that followed Abe's gross face where Maggie deletes him from her brain and Abe seeing things in sixes. Also the Bay of Pigs gag was so stupid that it was kind of funny. The rest of the jokes in this episode were just terrible. The worst ones tended to go on forever and there were at least a couple instances of jokes that would've been funny if they didn't hammer them in. There's also a couple of I Love Lucy jokes because hahahaha, Ricky Ricardo is from Cuba so let's shoehorn a couple of references of that show.

When this episode is not insultingly bad, it's really boring to watch. This is an episode that mostly focuses on Abraham Simpson and my god they managed to make an episode about him worse than Thursdays with Abie. Hell, I thought Let's Go Fly a Coot was a pointless episode, but this takes a boring story about him and have it set in Cuba. They barely even do anything interesting with the country they're in. With every other travel episode they've at least tried to play along with the possibilities and stereotypes they could do, but here they just waste it on a boring story about Abe. The show can still make good episodes about him every now and then, but when they're bad, they're really bad.

This is the worst travel episode of the show. Worse than The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed, worse than In the Name of the Grandfather. Shit, maybe even worse than Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore. I'm not sure if I can call this a bottom 5 episode, but it's at least in the bottom 10. It's so inept in almost every way. I'm not even going to thank it for getting me back into reviewing. Fuck this episode. 1/10
 
I liked Bart's chalkboard gag with ''being right sucks''... because it really does.

There's no mistake about it: This chalkboard gag is actually a response to the show's prediction to Donald Trump's win.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/...-donald-trump-win-being-right-sucks/93795176/

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Simpsons updates its 2000 prediction of a Trump Presidency... <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheSimpsons?src=hash">#TheSimpsons</a> <a href="https://t.co/Myf5rYb9Dj">pic.twitter.com/Myf5rYb9Dj</a></p>— The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheSimpsons/status/797975377104601088">November 14, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Great, now I can't even embed Twitter tweets! How can I? :(
 
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Well, the Dragon's Den/Shark Tank parody was a fun surprise to begin the episode with and Grampa is always a joy to watch, but something was off about the episode and I'm not sre what it is. Still, I was entertained and I laughed, so the episode served it's purpose. 3/5 for now until a rewatch.
 
[MENTION=24053]Brad Lascelle[/MENTION] Well 4 was a guess, but maybe Postcards from the Wedge, although that's really stretching the definition of marriage crisis.

This precisely is why I stick with my "Simpsons is in the eye of the beholder" philosophy. I realized this when talking about Jerkass Homer and celebrity worship. Hell, I don't really know if "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" should be considered a marriage crisis episode.

This episode? It just wasn't very good. Still wouldn't say I "hate" it (again, only six episodes get that dishonor), but it goes into the bland category. Abe episodes lately have been filling that category (Thursdays with Abie, Let's Go Fly a Coot, etc.)

And once again, a parody is spoiled by Homer saying "Shark Tank... I mean, Vulture's Nest". As said before, that can be funny sometimes, aside from that THOH and Simpsoncalifragisticexpiala - D'oh! - cious, I thought the Blocko/Lego thing in "Hungry Hungry Homer" was funny too. I mean, it's not as bad the Nappien/Ambien thing in "Crook and Ladder" because at least I knew what this was parodying (until Lisa said it, I had no idea Nappien was an Ambien parody).

I don't have a problem with travel episodes, but this one literally made no sense. I don't mind them dropping the sick Abe plot halfway through, but the rest was just too much to swallow. There were some good bits, like Maggie deleting Abe, "Tell me in an anectode", and good cigar callback, but I just couldn't swallow this.

2,5/5, down to 2 for the poll.
 
It wound up better than I was expecting it to be but then I was expecting it to be trash because I find most Dan & Deb episodes to be trash. Hell, I gave this one a 2 because it wasn't as obnoxiously indulgent as some of their recent episodes like A Midsummer's Nice Dream or The Ten-Per-Cent Solution.

That said, this episode also solidified something for me. Bob Anderson has the same bad habits of complacency as the writing team due to being around so long. This episode was lazy to a fault on the character animation front - especially on the small details that even someone like Steven Dean Moore catches even if the latter is still more likely to go off-model.

I know the directors can't all be pushing themselves like Rob Oliver and Matthew Nastuk but the discrepancy between the good and the bad is beginning to stick out like a sore thumb again. I think Michael Polcino might be my favorite right now for consistency's sake even though I'll acknowledge he's not as ambitious as those other two.

Bob Anderson has always been the lesser of the Andersons. He was never an expressive director to begin with (other than animating decent character tear drops). Both Polcinos, on the other hand, have always delivered solid animated work.

Regardless, it seems that fatigue has caught up to Mark Kirkland. Last season, he did two episodes. This year only one. He worked on a short film during this period, though. Nevertheless, both Nastuk and Oliver have managed to cover the gap, and still deliver superb animation work.
 
Also forgot to mention the chalkboard gag...

"BEING RIGHT SUCKS"

Wonder if that's a reference to the President Trump joke...
 
I'm a bit surprised at the overwhelmingly negative opinions on the episode; I thought it was just another bland and dull episode. The family going to Cuba to find a doctor who can help Grampa with his bladder problem wasn't a bad plot in itself (and I liked the focus on Grampa as I usually enjoy his episodes) and led to a few good and amusing moments even though it had little energy and sort of plodded on, never really catching on like it should have and that might have something to do with the writing being off (in fact, the whole episode felt wierdly off even though it was quite focused but I did like that it didn't go overly silly with the sterotyping).

Even though I didn't think it was that bad, it was pretty boring and nothing stood out. Some of the gags were good, such as Bart writing "The Bart" on a wall and Maggie deleting her mental image of Grampa, but most fell pretty flat or wasn't funny (and I disliked the overlong listings joke and Homer clapping infront of the TV for like 20 seconds). It also felt like it was building up to something big with the climax involving Grampa's new flame turning out to be a CIA agent who steals the plane and gasses everyone aboard (excluding Grampa and Maggie who uses a gas mask) and then... nothing. They just end up back in the US and Grampa forgets everything he experienced in Cuba and starts having fun bothering golfers along with Homer and Bart. That was a really disappointing anticlimax which brought an already wobbly episode down further.

So yeah, maybe not bottom of the barrel awful and has a few decent moments but it's still far from great, being quite dull, uneventful and pretty unfunny (and Grampa's potty problem, the reason they even went to Cuba in the first place, being dropped and never referred to again was lazy). Now when I think of it, they should probably focused much less on Grampa (it would have been better as a subplot) and done something with the entire family instead, who now got all sidelined. Disappointing, poor episode overall.

2/5
 
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well I'm finally seeing this episode (mostly because my dvr is almost full) I had no reason to be afraid of it, but for some reason I felt more invested in the ahem I love lucy homage, man the seahawk is an old pan am plane, I miss that show

3.5 out of 5
 
I did not find anything too offensive in it but it's a very boring and dull episode without anything memorable or particularly good about it. 2/5
 
hoo boy, looking through some of these reviews has me nervous... let's see how this fares.

Act 1:

-"Now that's a Milhouse I'd marry." What...?

+50 Shades of A

-"Can't you just enjoy Shark Tank? I mean Vulture's Nest." We get it... it's a parody. Thanks for clearing that up.

+Bay of pigs gag

+"I'm sorry, there's a fee if you don't cancel within 24 years."

this isn't that bad. not every joke has hit but I've smiled a few times. moving on...

Act 2:

-the reasons for visiting Cuba. stupid time-filler

-"Apparently he was a writer. Like Mindy Kaling." What does that even mean.

+Maggie looking at Grampa and her brain erasing the picture of him

+"Never discuss family business in front of the Cubans"

yikes, what a difference an act can make. this episode got pretty boring pretty fast.

Act 3:

-Smelly anvils

+"You charge me to sell me something!"

+"Just move those logs aside"

-the ending

well, this wasn't completely devoid of laughs, but it was a pretty dull and lifeless episode. I also wouldn't say it's the worst travel episode(greatest story still holds that title for me), but it's definitely up there. 2/5 for the couple laughs it did give me.
 
For me, the worst episode of the season. A baffling plot that I didn't know to keep looking forward to, even though I've seen it several times. His humor suffers many shortcomings, with the exception of two great moments (the entry of the Simpsons to Cuba and the meeting of Abe and Homer with the inventor of Ticketmaster) and some others able to make me smile. Not much else to say. Unfortunately, I didn't like it.

Note: 4/10 (2/5 for the poll)
 
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