Well, it's to review Team Homer 2! Yeah, that's not the actual name of the episode, but that's pretty much what this episode is honestly. Another continuation in Season 29's bizarre tendency to try and create sequels and follow ups to classic episodes. We start out with one of the most bizarre couch gag of all times, the Shrimpsons, which is just the regular Simpsons opening but everyone is a fish. My question is...why? Why is this a thing? What's the point of this? Will we get a version of the opening but everyone is a dinosaur? Everyone is in space? I also specifically dislike how they show the part where they make it look like Maggie is driving but it's actually Marge, as it suddenly cuts away showing Abe's skeleton is attacked to their turtle despite not being shown in any previous shots with it, which comes off as a cheat. Also the scene where Maggie shakes her fist looks better animated here then it does in the real intro, which makes me wonder why the animators have never tried fixing it in the years since the show went HD. And then the gag ends with the Shrimpsons about to be eaten by lobsters. Ok.
The actual episode opens with the Simpsons getting Chinese take out. This is apparently an important event, as not only is Maggie wearing a cute panda suit, but this time the generic music sounds vaguely Chinese. Marge gives everyone their dinner and it turns out she gave a Homer a box full of salt, to which he puts more salt on it...wouldn't she be worried that amount of salt is dangerous? Homer gets a call from Burns because he has four tickets to a basketball game, and literally everyone else said no. Homer talks with his brain who says to not tell his family and go to the game with his friends, because why would Homer care about his family, right? There's also a joke about Homer's heart having a a cardiac arrest, which shocks me, as I was expecting the joke to be that Homer had no heart. So Homer goes to the bar and invites Lenny, Carl, and even Barney, but not Moe, which shocks him as he thought Homer would invite him. I'm shocked too, considering Moe is basically Homer's third best friend now and Barney is pretty much an extra. It turns out they all hate Moe now because he sells bad beer and bad chicken wings...but didn't they always know his beer was crappy? Also why were they hanging out in his bar if they don't like him? Moe is sadden by this and sees the four of them having a good time on tv. Moe gets sad at being alone even though he always knew people didn't like him, and there's a decent joke about his anti-suicide keychain.
The next day Moe starts acting nicer to the gang, much to their confusion. I am more confused as to why they showed up at a bar where they openly said they didn't like the owner. Moe says he wants to be nicer to the gang and make it like the good old days, and randomly points to a picture to the Pin Pals. In a bizarre moment, Homer looks at Lenny, Carl, and Barney and says that it's "their own team". Um...no it wasn't. The only other member from the bar who was on that team was Moe. They even show the actual team on the picture. Why is Homer looking at people who were not part of the team while saying this? It's just really baffling laziness. Moe claims that the reason why the Pin Pals is because Apu became a dad and was too busy to bowl with them. Ok, but what about Otto? Why did he stop bowling? Actually, Otto is never seen or mentioned in this entire episode. outside of him appearing in the photo, and he's not even name-dropped. There is also no reason given as to why Otto doesn't rejoin them later on. I guess the writers really are completely incapable of writing any scene for Otto if he's not getting high. But anyway they decide to remake the Pin Pals. but with Lenny and Carl instead of Apu and Otto. Due to some dumb joke, Moe can't bowl anymore so Barney takes his place, though Moe stays at a coach. So the Pin Pals go to bowl in a tournament in a montage, including a terrible joke where Lenny says there's been a lot of music in this episode. Also Sideshow Bob, the Grumple, and the Leprechaun also like to bowl apparently. The bowlers defeat the elderly and the sidekicks, and goes up against the religious characters. Carl gets a split and we get a bizarre joke where he's at therapy for two seconds before he manages to hit both pins. They win the tournament by defeating the gangsters and there is a way too long joke about everyone getting Moe hit in the head by bowling balls.
The Pin Pals go to Capitol City where Moe exposits that if they win they will go to ESPN. This leads to a minute long gag about how everyone in Capitol City is rich. They meet their opponents who are all a bunchogn of generic rich guys with no personality outside of being dicks. The lead one, voice by Hank Azaria (instead of Kevin Michael Richardson for some reason) gives Moe a hundred bucks not to talk, and then gives Bart 100 dollars for no real reason until he is convinced into giving him 400, with Bart saying that he now knows he should be a sociopath. Why does Bart think being greedy is a sign of being a sociopath? Then the lead rich guy throws a cheeseburger at some nerdy looking guy for absolutely no reason other then to be a cartoonish dick. Lisa gets offended at this and the rich guys make fun of her, with Bart laughing alone, so the rich guys decide to keep around as a toady. Bart recognizes i that they will treat him like dirt but is happy at this, for some reason....because he's a pathetic suck-up now? Anyway the pin pals win one out of three games, and we get a shitty joke about how Moe saw La La Land win the Oscar but turned off the tv before the part of Moonlight actually being the winner. Is this foreshadowing the La La Land parody episode? The rich guys decide to buy lunch because despite being one-dimensional assholes, they honor and respect their opponents...I guess, it doesn't really work with their personalities. Also there's a joke about the rich guys actually eating the heads of dead animals. I'm surprised that Lisa didn't react to this at all.
So at lunch, the rich guys, despite apparently being so honorable they buy lunch for their opponents, decide to be assholes to Moe and make fun of him. Their not even being subtle about it, the lead rich guy decides to do and says it while sitting in front of Moe. They make Moe cry when they get him to admit how lonely his last birthday was (wow, so much for the guys at the bar being friends with him. Not even Marge said hi even though Moe is pretty much a family friend now?). Lisa warns Bart not to hang with these guys, but Bart doesn't give a crap, and is now dressed like a sleazy looking businessman for some reason. Because he's evil now I guess? The rich guys proposes a bet with Moe and the rest of the Pin Pals get up and leave because the bet is private I suppose? But the rich guys don't even wait until it's just them and Moe alone, so what's the point? Also the Simpsons aren't shown leaving so I assume they overhead this bet too. But anyway, the rich guys propose that if they win the next two games they get Moe's Tavern and Moe's name has to be changed, but if Moe wins he gets something a rich person can only get. The next game, the rich guys show up in compression shirts that make them bowl better and reveal they were just hustling the Pin Pals by pretending to be bad. The nerdy bowlers try to suck up to the rich guys but the lead one just throws another cheeseburger. Lisa decides to team up with the nerds to get revenge on the rich guys. Also the Yes Guy makes his first appearance in the show in a long time, although maybe it's not suppose to be him, since he says "no" here instead of "yes". Meanwhile Marge is now worried by Bart's behavior, especially when Bart casually admits he got drunk earlier. We do get a decent joke where Marge is forced to admit that Money is actually really important and has lead to happiness in people's life. The rich guys win the second game and Moe decides to kill himself and throw himself down an out of order elevator shaft, only to be on the top of the elevator as it rises and starts to get crushed. He doesn't die though. Also he blurts out the details of the bet so I guess it wasn't suppose to be a secret after all.
Back at the bowling alley late at night (with Spider-Pig and King Kong making cameos) Moe gives a speech to his teammates that turns out to be a planned love confession to Marge. Didn't they resolve that stuff last season? Also it turns out Barney is now sober for the match and Moe loudly tells him not to get drunk, with the rich guys overhearing. The rich guys were also sitting right behind Moe when this happened too, so I guess the theme of this episode is people loudly telling information in front of other people that was probably meant to be a secret. But they get him to drink some expensive beer and Barney spits it out then uses the force to put it back into his mouth and make Chewbacca noises while vaguely Star Wars esque music plays....comedy? Then we get a bizarre scene where they try to parody Quentin Tarantino movies, with Lisa dramatically walking with the nerds while their names appear in captions. Also all the nerds names are "Quant" for some reason. Anyway Lisa reveals all their secrets (how she got the secrets are never explained) to get back at them, which might have actually meant something if they actually gave these rich assholes any real personality or if they had given Lisa more then two scenes of interaction with them prior to this moment. Otherwise, it's just a random meaningless moment because we don't care about the nerds or the rich guys. Also one of the guys screams out the Wilhelm Scream...I don't get it. Lisa smugly then declares that she "wins" because of this, since she found out secret info about the rich guys that makes them slightly miserable. The lead rich guy (who Bart calls his father for some reason...is this another Star Wars joke?) tells Bart to throw a burger at Lisa's face but she gives a speech about how their connected and he decides not to, and the sub-plot ends here. Good thing they decided to set up this Lisa/Bart conflict over a whooping two scenes so the audience couldn't care about it. Whatever, it was kind of cute seeing Bart and Lisa actually getting along for once.
The bowling game is in it's final frame and the Pin Pals need three strikes to win. Since Barney is too drunk now, Homer has to do it. Homer gets two strikes and Moe wonders what life would be like if he had to start over, and we get a bizarre fantasy where Moe imagines moving to France, starting a tavern there, and becoming popular and famous. So based on this random fantasy, Moe tries to stop Homer so they can lose, but accidentally causes him to win. This makes Moe mad and he brings up up he's unpopular that they wouldn't invite him to a basketball game. Hey, remember that plot element? So he leaves and nobody really gives a shit. Also wouldn't the team win a big trophy because of this game or something? But when Moe goes back to the tavern, suddenly the gang is there and say that they are his friends. Then why did they just let him walk away earlier? Then Homer immediately says their leaving to go to a basketball game and Moe is still not invited. And Moe is happy about this for some reason. After we get back, the short fourth act does follow up on the bet and it's revealed that the rich guys let Moe and everyone go into a bar in a zero gravity plane.
This episode was a lot like Kamp Krustier in that it feels it started out as an unrelated ep before being shoe-horned into having a connection with a classic episode for the sake of nostalgia. Other then the Pin Pals name and shirts, there are almost no connections to the original episode. Apu is only mentioned briefly with an explanation that his kids ended his bowling career, and Otto is just flat out never seen or mentioned outside of the photo of the team. It seems like the episode is trying to make your forget about the original team in favor of this new one. The episode is really just mostly about Moe feeling depressed, then it becomes about him wanting to win a bowling game, until it ends up being about his depression again. Except a lot of it feels really unfocused and half-assing from plot point to plot point. Everyone randomly hates Moe at the start, but they still hang out at his bar and come back later, and act like buddies again. Then they don't care when Moe leaves, only to show up to his bar to say they do care, then just leave a second later to go watch a basketball game without Moe. I get this all done as a joke, but when you have your characters have completely different reactions to someone or a situation in scenes that are a minute or even seconds apart, it comes off less like their trying to be funny and more like their schizophrenic. The whole ending with Moe wanting to stop Homer so that he can go to France is completely nonsensical. Why would Moe believe any of that would happen? It would have made sense if the rich guys had instead offer to bribe Moe to throw the game instead of the stupid bet. Then we could have had some conflict with Moe having to choose his friends or money, perhaps even having Moe choose the money after how they've treated him and Homer and the others trying to apologize. And what happened to the tournament? Moe mentions they will go on ESPN if they win, but it's never mentioned what happens after they do win. Their not even seen getting a trophy.
The villains all sucked. They were just rich assholes with no real personality or character, and were all completely unfunny. The only one even slightly memorable was the brunette, and that's because he was the one with the most lines. But they were pretty much flat characters and Hank Azaria just sounds bored doing the voice of the lead rich guy. The conflict with Lisa felt forced and was barely set up, so it ends up being just a half-baked Lisa fights for a cause set-up. I thought for a moment that Lisa making fun of them is what would lead to Homer winning but it doesn't play into that scenario at all. The nerds were also all completely forgettable, thus making it impossible to feel sorry for them whenever they get made fun of. The whole sub-plot with Bart becoming the rich guys suck-up felt very bizarre and tacked on in order to pad out the episode. Plus it makes him look pathetic if he's gleefully doing anything these guys say even as their being rude to him. The whole ending with Lisa was probably meant to be dramatic, but it comes almost out of nowhere, as until this point they only had two interactions during this sub-plot and they were both Lisa just trying to warn Bart. It felt like they had a whole plot about Bart becoming a greedy jerk that they cut for time, and the whole thing falls flat. I would have actually preferred if Bart had thrown the burger at Lisa, since at least it would have gotten some kind of emotion out of the scene.
Overall, the whole episode felt completely unfocused and rush, with character and plot points jumping around seemingly at random. I give this episode a 1/5, one of the worst of the season and another dud.
No, seriously, what happened to the tournament? That still bugs me.