Did you know that Homer is capable of being Carl’s hyper-competent assistant? Did you know that Carl, all previous evidence to the contrary, is secretly a management-level jerk? Then you clearly don’t know your Zombie Simpsons. But wait, there’s more! Homer went to France, and Marge almost kissed Flanders, and then the plot was resolved by – I am not making this up – having Homer call the President of France.
That’s a lot to have going on, but if you skimp on the jokes you can still have enough time for five . . . count ‘em five! . . . time killing montages where nothing happens.
Dead Homer Society 
9 responses to “Character “Development””
Al Jean on “The Devil Wears Nada”: “We’re always a bit nervous when we push the boundaries or do something unusual and I usually think that’s where we do our best stuff, and this [episode] is definitely one of those cases.”
“Best stuff”?? Do you think Al Jean secretly knows that’s not true, or do you think perhaps he’s been spouting on about how the show is still on top of its game for so long that he actually believes his own bullshit?
I couldn’t sleep, so I watched it, and…that was a whole lot of stuff cobbled together. Plus, the calender thing, which was set up as being the main point of the episode, was actually of no consequence, and was merely faintly embarrassing without any point. Also, I’m sure the writers etc thought they would make the whole “photographer gives Marge wine to get her naked” thing less rapey by making the photographer Julio, but I didn’t think there was a lot in it.
I suppose the thing with Carl was a comment about how people change in positions of power. I don’t see why he would have made Homer his assistant when Lenny is right there though. Sometimes, the show puts Simpson family members in places for no sensible reason except that that’s who the show is about. As another example, the s16 episode “There’s Something About Marrying” has Homer marrying gay couples because Reverend Lovejoy won’t do it, even though there are surely other places that’ll marry couples in Springfield. I could write a lot about how stupid that episode is, but I’ll spare you.
Anyway, the high point of this episode was Uter. In fact, if the episode had been just Uter eating cake, it would have owned harder. This seems to be happening a lot – I prefer three second clips of some minor character nobody else likes to the entire rest of the episode. I thought the high point of “Bart Gets A Z” was Mr. Largo. Perhaps I need to see the doctor about this.
That church scene particularly pissed me off. I’m THIS close to giving up on the show, I swear to God.
“I’m THIS close to giving up on the show”
Come on in, the water’s fine.
Well, I’ve been planning on doing it since “wedding for disaster”, when it became clear my favourite characters’ appearances weren’t worth sticking around for.
It’s a bit like a relative suffering with dementia. It should be clear that it’s never going to be the same again, but one keeps going back and hanging around out of loyalty, and out of hope that something that isn’t depressing might happen.
At least, this is why I’m still watching. And why I’ll be sad to see it go when it finally does. Yes, I’m a dork.
This is exactly why I kept watching it for so long. I nearly stopped after season 19 (which I hated) but I kept on watching. Then I really should have stopped after I heard about “Homer the whopper”, but I didn’t. Then there was “Wedding for disaster”… Personally, I’d refer to it as the triumph of hope over experience, although I wouldn’t say it’s much of a triumph.
There are still episodes that are better than others. Just that that doesn’t mean ever so much when all it is is “my favourite minor character got a line!”
I used to be guilty of that. Recently, though, I watched several episodes I used to like for that reason and realised that they sucked. It was a real eye-opener.