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Not likig it so far....there was alot that could've done here... Mythbusters stuff has been stupid. The Lisa x Nick thing, unless it has some kind of dramatic climax, will be stale...just like everything else. 13 minutes remain.

Well. this episode had real potential, it really did-and that's rare for newer shows; but as usual, they failed to live up to what could've been. Bart and Millhouse MythBusters sub-plot was lame and uninspired, the Lisa and Nick subplot was grossly misdirected. All in all I'm glad my expectations weren't that high because, this was pretty mediocre. Better than most of the episodes this season but that's not saying much. And if the little preview of the 500th episode is any indication: These words will ring familiar next Sunday night.2/5

3/5
Its much better then the previous episode it was funny enough I liked grandpas bones cracking sounding like gun shots.
I'm really glad they didn't have the guys from mythbusters for very long. And Michael Cerras character was actually okay a bit better than her previous boys, not as flat of a character.

3/5 - the Mythbusters part was good, and the minute I saw the boat to the island and Marge and Homer driving towards them, I figured it would end with Marge having to save them from some boat-related mishap (and when that didn't happen, somehow some random event would drive Lisa away from the boy, rather than having Lisa leading the breakup), so at least they didn't dip into the "usual endings" bag this time.

Written by Rob Lazebnik
Directed by Chuck Sheetz
Special Guest Voice: Michael Cera, Jamie Hyneman, Adam Savage
Also Starring: Chris Edgerly, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor
Chalkboard: I WILL NOT REPLACE A CANDY HEART WITH A FROG HEART
Couch: Moe helps them celebrate the 500th episode, only for Lisa to point out it's only the 499th
Overseas Animation: Akom
TV Rating: TV-PG-LV

Presumably, Lisa gave Milhouse a pity valentine - she's good at that.

Milhouse's eyebrows were, and I do mean were, real this time.

Actually, in Japan, women give men chocolate on Valentine's Day.

At the restaurant on Valentine's Day, Lindsay Nagel was sitting alone.

In fact, you can still buy candy cigarettes online, which is probably the only explanation as to how they got into a vending machine that was invented years after candy cigarettes were first taken off the market.

Before anybody asks, the music while Homer and Bart were shooting baseballs at each other in the batting cage is von Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture.

Third time's a charm!
2008: Cera played Nick O'Leary in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
2009: Cera played Nick Twisp in Youth in Revolt

Seriously, that was lost on me 'til I checked Wikipedia.

Originally Posted by That Don Guy

Before anybody asks, the music while Homer and Bart were shooting baseballs at each other in the batting cage is von Suppe's Light Cavalry Overture.

Just to add to that: Alf Clausen's musical cue while Homer was tidying up for Marge was based on Paul Mauriat's Love Is Blue, and the Edith Piaf song during the Lisa and Nick montage was, I believe, Non, je ne regrette rien.

Last edited by Tubbb!; 02-12-2012 at 10:50 PM.

Originally Posted by SpeedwaySquad

You liked this episode, I didn't. There's no need to get so worked up about it.

"In Rand McNally, they wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people!"

Perhaps this is just me being easily impressed but I've got to give them credit for maintaining the character design of what was effectively a one-shot character in Sherri and Terri's mother barely featured in a non-talking role in Bart Sells His Soul.

Little things like that show they're not half-assing everything even while paying their writers barely industry scale.

GAH! Okay, this is the last edit for the night... I swear, but did anybody notice Marge brings out three wine glasses? That just struck me as odd.

Nothing odd about that. She figured it would be rude not to presume Nick wouldn't want some of the wine he brought over as a gift.
Or, failing that, she was planning on getting her 8-year-old daughter's boyfriend drunk.

Nothing odd about that. She figured it would be rude not to presume Nick wouldn't want some of the wine he brought over as a gift.
Or, failing that, she was planning on getting her 8-year-old daughter's boyfriend drunk.

lmfao.
Lisa could've had a much stronger performance here, that whole A story could've been an episode by itself, and had potential...I'm working on a little picture right now of how I wish it could've been.

failing that, she was planning on getting her 8-year-old daughter's boyfriend drunk.

She is giving Nick a rather odd "come-hither" look in my screen grab...

Originally Posted by Gobias

Was that the first time Sherri and Terri's mom has spoken? Her character design is really bizarre for a character introduced as late as Bart Sells His Soul.

I'm watching "Bart Sells His Soul" now... she doesn't speak. Also I'm guessing her design is just based on Sherri and Terri, who have been there since the first season. Her design got grandfathered in.

When I saw a framegrab for the couch gag I thought "hey, this looks quite good", thinking it would be a brief shot of Moe celebrating and everyone else telling him he was wrong. But then it went on and on and on.......

It was cool seeing Homer and Bart having fun but Homer's voice still really annoys me. It's evolved in to something really groany and loud and just not very nice to listen to

I actually liked the subplot. Milhouse was in good character and not overly pathetic. Could have been a bit shorter though to allow for more Lisa/Nick stuff.

....which didn't feel very significant. I think it's fair to say that Nick didn't feel very developed at all. I think more time would have made him more rounded than just a standard and quite boring "charming intellectual who's a wimp" character

stuff that went on too long included: the couch gag, the peripheral vision scene, Marge's overly obvious meta "hmm usually something embarrassing happens at this point", probably some other stuff as well I've forgotten about.

Sherri and Terri in the sewing shop was so surreal that I actually found it kinda amusing

Homer plunging the airboat in to the water was a good quick sight gag I thought.

Overall, a step up from the previous episodes but that just means it's very average. On the border between 2/5 and 3/5 so I'll abstain from voting for now and just say C. Forgettable but still okay.

Wow, this was a great episode. I laughed at how people presumed it was going to be shit, haha jokes on them. There could've been more done to it, the episode didn't have enough emotion in it and they could've made the storyline a bit more polished. There were a lot of great jokes and some jokes that weren't quite funny. Thankfully there wasn't anything zany about the episode. I've never seen Sherri and Terri's mom speaking before, which is odd. And does Sherri and Terri have a 3rd sister or was it a joke? Also:
Marge is staring at Nick weirdly and 3 wine glasses, hint anyone? And "I don't normally approve of out-breeding" HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA! Best line from the whole season! 5/5!

Best episode since "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Any More. I usually hate episodes with Lisa or Bart dating someone, but this is an exception. Great plots
A - Plot: 4/5
B - Plot: 4/5
Whole Episode: 4/5
For the Era: 7/5
Score: 5/5

I think this is the best episode I have seen in ages.
Excellent humour, brilliant plot, smart script (although at points the references do become a little far-fetched), wonderful pacing. Some of the lines are a bit corny so I watched this on my laptop XD 5 OUT OF 5 AL JEAN CRACKERS
Edit: the unneeded padding for newer episodes is still here of course... the continuous references etc, etc but I don't think they'll ever remove that. The new introduction's silly visual gags are proof of that.

Last edited by Boris Johnson; 02-13-2012 at 03:16 AM.

"So, I'm closing up the bar right, and some punk executive producer comes in and tries to stick me up.""Whatever did you do Moe?"Well, it coulda been a really ugly situation, but I managed to shoot him in the spine. Ha ha! The next studio he produces at better have a ramp!" - Moe on Al Jean

My third favorite episode of Season 23 (up until now). "Holidays Of Future Passed" and "The Book Job" are still better. In my opinion the Milhouse/Bart story was more enjoyable than the Lisa/Nick story. I found that Nick didn't have much of a personality and that sort of rubbed off on to Lisa (I found her to be pretty strange in some scenes in this episode). But oh, well, there were some good jokes.

this...this wasn't actually bad. Nick was a ropey characterisation and Lisa was off but it also had a few very funny moments, and i'm more willing to forgive them pulling this shit when the surrounding material is funny.

I thought it started out good enough but halfway through it lost steam. I felt like the Lisa plot radically derailed halfway through for no apparent reason. I might have missed something, but the second act break where Marge suddenly and randomly told Lisa she doesn't want her to spend so much time with Nick came right out of nowhere and was incredibly forced and awkward. Everything that followed felt unmotivated, and Nick's quick transformation into a wuss and Lisa's forcefulness in their relationship hardly made sense to me. Overall it wasn't as bad as the last few episodes but it was pretty murky storytelling overall, and wound up being a really forgettable episode.

This episode proved two things:
One: Modern day Simpsons episodes are at their best when not doing a fucking parody. The past three weeks have been awful, but this week they decided to not "skewer" a current film, tackle politics or attempt a half-baked wacky format episode. Sure they went with a premise seen before, but it worked then and it works now.

Two: Every time I miss the episode when it airs, it turns out to be a good one. So I should really start intentionally missing the broadcasts so all the episodes are good.

Favorite bits:
-couch gag - Hey, Lisa's reading what I'm reading! How very meta!
-I&S cartoon. Not the strongest one, but always happy to see them
-Bart reading Radioactive Man in the background
-How they handled the guests. Mythbusters guys didn't overtake the episode, in fact THEY STAYED ON THE TV. No unnecessary showing up in Springfield to say "Hi, Homer!"
-Marge commenting on the house, then waiting for something wacky to happen
-"So school is just everything we see?"
-More of Willy's backstory
-Out-breeding
-long pan of the Springfield streets before landing on Le Petit Appetite
-Homer at the arcade, I've always wanted to combine arcade peripherals
-Licky Strikes
-Grampa helping out Lisa, happy to see the two interacting
-American Girl Doll Day
-Homer's fan boat

least favorite bits:
-Cera's character was a bit bland, but I guess that was the point. Also, his voice was too low, they should have pitched it up a tad
-Water shoe gag was stretched out for too long
-Didn't need to be told that "Everyone's speaking Spanish!", it was pretty apparent

Third favorite episode of the season, behind Holiday's of Future Passed and The Book Job.

I might have missed something, but the second act break where Marge suddenly and randomly told Lisa she doesn't want her to spend so much time with Nick came right out of nowhere and was incredibly forced and awkward.

Yeah, I totally agree with you Tomacco. Here are the exact lines Marge pronouces :

"But Lisa, after this, I don't want you to spend so much time with this boy! If you do, it will mean you are a seperate person from me!

I really didn't understand why Marge said that. Nick must of really felt insulted. I mean, Nick was right in front of Marge, sitting on one of the couches (too bad we didn't get to see his face...). It's as if Marge were saying right in front of Nick : "I hate you and I want you to stay the f... away from my daughter". You don't say that in front of your daughters boyfriend if you're a decent mom!

Very weird line... It's as if the writer of the episode had forgotten to delete/change something in the script before he handed it in.