Episode 23 - Judge Me Tender
27 May 2010
Review
Synopsis: Moe's bile leads to him becoming a beloved local judge. TV comes calling and Moe ends up as a new judge on American Idol. Simon Cowell advises him not to be mean and lose all his friends. With Moe gone Homer spends more time at home and gets on Marge's nerves.
The Good: I give the writers credit for connecting all the plots together nicely. Santa's little helper is judged to be Springfield's ugliest Dog and so Lisa ends up comforting him. Moe judges the contest successfully and thus goes onto bigger and better things. And of course with no Moe to run the bar Homer is forced to seek other entertainment.
Certainly Moe's bitter character suited the judging business very well and the success of Simon Cowell and Gordon Ramsay means the plot felt very timely. Simon's betrayal was spot on and was the natural plot to prey on Moe's desire to be loved and send him back to his old life. The American Idol parody was well written too.
One or two other moments were fun such as the driver refusing to play a song about LA or California when Moe arrived and playing "Sweet Home Alabama" instead. Or the rich Texan approaching Moe to say "I'm no judge of talent, but I am a judge of judging and in my judge judgement you have a talent for judging talent." I also liked the correct characterisation of Homer as the kind of sports fan who only really cares "when his team makes the playoffs."
The Bad: As you would expect though, instead of focussing in on Moe and drawing out the emotion and the humour in his changing life we got two needless side plots thrown in. Santa's Little Helper feeling insecure is just silly and a totally unnecessary addition to the episode. Whereas the Homer getting on Marge's nerves plot has been done before and with greater depth than this. Two jokes in particular crossed a line of reality and plausibility which just shouldn't be allowed. First he puts a fake title page in one of Marge's books just to get her attention, a feat of ingenuity and effort beyond him and reality. Then later he causes a pipe to leak and tries to drink all the water, puffing him up unrealistically and then the water shoots out his ears. There's no joke in impossibility played straight.
In the end once Moe returns to the bar the writers make fun of FOX which they once did rather cuttingly. But having essentially spent the episode cross promoting FOX's biggest hit show, this mocking felt empty and a bit pathetic.
Best Joke: The paparazzi take photos of Simon and Moe on the sidewalk. Cue the headline "Simon Cowell with creature from 'Pan's Labyrinth'."
The Bottom Line: A nice idea for Moe and an easy bit of cross promotion for FOX but not a great episode by any means.
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