Episode 19 - The Squirt and the Whale
27 April 2010
Review
Synopsis: Homer is outraged by his electric bill and buys a wind turbine to take himself off the grid. A storm destroys the turbine along with many things in the town. Lisa finds a beached whale and asks Homer to help her roll it back into the sea. Unfortunately the whale dies. Lisa is relieved to see the whale's children living on until she spots sharks on the prowl.
The Good: The writing of this episode was very joke focussed which made a nice change. Not that many of the jokes were great but it was encouraging to see so many attempts to make viewers laugh.
The opening Tic-Tac-Toe movie parody hit on some nice absurd clichés. They certainly exploited the wind turbine for every conceivable gag. The montage of intermittent wind related troubles was fun with Homer choosing to nap whenever the power left him with nothing to do. Late on Lisa stops Homer from shooting a shark in order to protect all animal life and deflects his shot right into a passing seagull.
The Bad: This episode essentially turned The Simpsons into all the old cartoons which the show used to satirise. The interaction between the Simpsons and the whales and sharks was just silly. There was no ironic or comic purpose; the whales literally "saved" Homer from attack in order to create a happy ending story. Throw in Bart falling down the whale's blowhole and being tossed aside by its flipper and you are essentially just watching a kids cartoon. But The Simpsons is on at night and aimed at an adult audience.
The morality play was also pretty lame as the message was confused as to whether Lisa's faith in animal kind or her father was actually at stake. Jokes like Homer taking an imaginary dog for a walk are just an exaggeration with no purpose. Ditto Homer imagining a screenplay about a whale in a Mexican prison.
Best Joke: Bluella the whale's corpse is blown up and used by the town in various products. Comic Book Guy buys a whalebone-corset and in a Star Trek Captain's uniform he announces "Behold I am Captain Kirk from Star Trek One." Unfortunately the corset keeps giving way to the hidden bulk and he keeps revising his estimation of what he now looks like "Two...Five...Generations...Boston Legal."
The Bottom Line: With no solid focus and no sense of reality the show devolved into simple childhood nonsense. It's an amazing fall from the heights of once being considered a great satire.
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