Season 21 picked up pretty much where Season 20 left off, in the darkest center of a comedy black hole from which nothing can escape. It hit all the usual Zombie Simpson notes: recycling plots and jokes, filling time with humor free “action” sequences, giving Homer a new job, and having him act bipolar. In this particular instance it was a wretched cross of “Radioactive Man” and “King of the Hill”, only it was actually worse than that because it was so openly aping Entourage that it mentioned one of the characters.
There’s lots to pick on here, but for tonight I just want to highlight this little nugget of smug, baseless self satisfaction:
Zombie Bart: That was awesome!
Zombie Lisa: Although there were a few holes in the story.
Movie Guy: That’s the problem when you have seventeen writers. But don’t worry, we have two fresh ones working on it.
(Cut to Maggie and Mr. Teeny baning on laptops.)
Clearly the Season 12 commentaries are not an anomaly. Going by previous season premiers, plus the heavily advertised debut of the newest Family Guy spinoff, I’m setting the over/under on the ratings at 9.5 million viewers. As always, I’m hoping for the under.
Update: The numbers are in and the under has it. Last night’s Zombie Simpsons was endured by a mere 8.21 million viewers. Pointless gloating here.
You guys will be praising Season 12 like it’s the best thing since sliced bread, by the time you get round to listening to the audio commentaries for these Season 21 “classics” in years down the track! Me thinks you’ll be resorting to a Moe like suicide attempt. Incidentally, should we be expecting another episode soon where Moe gets depressed and considers ending his life once more? Zombie Simpsons writers seem to think we enjoy seeing his character destroyed even more. Gone are the days when we sat there in uncontrollable fits of laughter when he was pacing ferociously towards Evergreen Terrace and ranting ‘Ah yes…rusty and dull!’ with a giant knife in his hand.
Good memories…
Remember the good old days when Moe was just the cantankerous-but-savvy-tightwad bartender (who dispensed relationship advice to Homer in “Some Enchanted Evening” and was actually able to bed a babe in the “Flaming Moe” episode)? I think the powers-that-be at Zombie Simpsons went too far and shat on Moe’s character when they made him depressed/suicidal/sexually perverted/chronically self-loathing etc.
As for your first point: given how non-committed the commentators seem to be on the Season 12 DVDS, I doubt any of the writers/producers will be bothered to reminisce on the season 21 sets. Maybe they should have fan commentaries, with the episodes getting the kind of savage put-downs they deserve?
I somehow can’t see the powers that be letting fans have their say on any commentaries. If they did, there would be far more bleeps than when Drederick Tatum had a go at what a dump Springfield was!
It sure would be fun for the true fan to be able to have his say on how rotten the show has become, though.