Episode 1 - The Elementary School Musical
27 March 2012
Synopsis: Krusty wins the Nobel Peace Prize and takes Homer (and Bart) along to provide an easy audience for his speech. However it's all a ruse by the Hague to put Krusty on trial for his European crimes. Back in the States Marge takes Lisa to Performing Arts camp where she becomes inspired to become an artist.
The Good: It was nice to see Lisa acting out the scene from the credit sequence as part of the school orchestra. It's good to remember the origins of each character.
The Bad: Because sadly the writers have forgotten everything else about what mad The Simpsons successful in the first place.
There's no soul to the show anymore. This episode felt more like a variety show. Between plugging fellow FOX show Glee, giving Flight of the Conchords an extended commercial and running through youtube parody clips of Krusty's career there might as well have been no plot. The show could just become an animated talk show where Homer and family interview celebrities and perform little skits with them in between musical numbers from hit bands.
Even the attempt to show Lisa that the life of an artist is not necessarily paved with gold the moral of the story was somehow lost amongst the endless irritating back and forth between Kurt and Ethan. They are fine on their own show, but this is The Simpsons and it's sad to see the show's writers throw in the towel like this. The script catered to the guest stars and musical numbers to such an extent that the producers were practically admitting they think they have nothing entertaining left to offer us.
The Krusty plot didn't have a shred of reality in it making all the Euro jokes and inappropriate remarks fall flat. The whole opening joke about the kids and Homer getting excited over the Nobel Prize awards was a template for how the modern Simpsons writers don't understand what satire is. We all know that the average person doesn't care about the awards. So "old" Simpsons would have mocked that fact and had the people at the awards acting as if everyone cared. Instead here we get Lisa and Homer and company acting exactly the opposite of how normal people would and being excited by the announcements. That's not a joke! That's not satire. That's simply the laziest way possible to point out the obvious. All that does is drain the show of any emotional resonance and it's that resonance and plausibility that makes comedy possible.
I hate characters randomly flying. This is the second time it has happened in recent memory (1907). It adds nothing to the show but takes away a lot.
Best Joke: I suppose Homer being the only person to start laughing at Krusty's joke (after he had explained it) was smile-worthy if far from original.
The Bottom Line: End this show. It's sad to watch.
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