I hope everyone enjoyed their summer, because now it’s time to pay the price. Welcome to season 24, and another episode of Bart in love.
When Bart’s love life heats up again it will this time involve five flames. But when Bart learns that Mary has relocated to New York, he decides that she’s the one that got away and embarks on a mission to track her down. Meanwhile in New York, Marge and Lisa try to find something cultural to do that doesn’t cost a fortune.
I don’t remember which past girlfriend Mary is, but that’s probably for the best. Feel free to leave your thoughts as always, even if you are like me and plan on skipping this one.
Dead Homer Society 
28 responses to “Sunday Preview: Moonshine River”
Mary is Cletus’s daughter, if I recall. She is voiced by Zooey Deschanel. I will be watching it. What can I say? I guess I’m a masochist that way. Will probably be changing the channel in favor of the Giants/Eagles game.
Bart Simpson’s many girlfriends have ascended to an advertised part of the show, and he’s having a conversation about dating with his 8 year old sister.
I think by now, Bart has had more girlfriends than Cletus has children.
So, this is pretty much one of the only times I’ve ever missed a new episode, in my entire life. I know I should’ve given up a long time ago but I held on for … something … some reason. Some loyalty to the early years, I imagine, and how much joy and laughter and quotes and hilarious moments to think about throughout a depressing work or school day or whatever. I have held on more than long enough. I read the synopsis for this episode and said, “Eh. I give up.”
So…. lemme know if anything good happens (a good couch gag or two maybe), fellow DHS commentators…
….Someone who watched it told me it was boring but there was a not-so-subtle joke about Homer’s favorite city being New York since “those 2 buildings that [he] hated fell”. Then, they mention two NYC buildings that AREN’T the WTC towers, but still….
Sounds like I didn’t miss much besides, uh, that.
The other notable callback was an appearance from the Khlav Kalash guy. Like everything in ZS, it completely missed the mark because the characters don’t behave realistically or even like themselves. It’s also hurt by the show’s inability to maintain a consistent story throughout an entire episode.
Earlier, when Bart asks to go to New York, Homer asks Bart if he remembers what happened the last time they went to New York, and then proceeds to have a completely unrelated flashback that’s reminiscent of Homer recalling his behavior at the party in “War of the Simpsons,” (but excessively drawn out to waste time) only this time Homer isn’t drunk or hungover, and thus has no excuse for his apparently poor memory.
Despite this, when Homer hears the familiar call of “Khlav Kalash,” he immediately recognizes the street vendor by voice alone, so I guess he does remember the trip. Then he audibly groans and goes “Ohhhh, not THIS guy,” which is a bizarre reaction because back in Season 9 Homer was never annoyed by or angry at him. If anything you could say he was mildly disgusted by the product — but not so disgusted that he wouldn’t eat it. So then they show the Khlav Kalash guy, who is dressed to the nines because he’s turned his humble street cart into an extremely successful restaurant empire, and he delivers some very expository and not funny dialogue about it, despite having no reason to do so and no reason to be there.
Now, does he just explain that to everyone who passes by, or did he remember Homer? Maybe it’s not totally out of the question since Homer probably bought more crab juice than any other customer ever, but even then, 15 years is a long time to remember the face of a guy you only met once. Of course with the way time works on the show, who knows how long it’s really been, since some things change with the times and other things stay set in stone. I guess one could argue that these things shouldn’t matter and it’s just a cartoon in the end, but it’s ultimately because ZS spends so much time explaining what’s supposed to be funny, rather than just generating genuine laughs, that it gives the mind ample time to wander. The Khlav Kalash scene was totally self-referential and didn’t contain a single joke for anyone who has never seen “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson,” which is just about 100% of anyone currently under college age who hasn’t happened to catch a repeat of the episode.
Thanks for this. Interesting read, and now I know how to spell ‘Khlav Kalash’!
I always liked “crab juice or mountain dew” / “yuck. ew. give me a crab juice.” …
To Be fair, it can’t be supposed to be 15 years since they last met, as Bart would 25 years old in the new episode if so. It’s just the old floating timeline.
I think the show gave me IBS.
All I can say without actually watching it is that it sounds like the writers saw a bunch of shows lauded for the strength of their continuity and thought, “Let’s do something like that!” without really thinking of the results.
I doubt it. Mary was never Bart’s girlfriend in the first place. They were forced to marry, but didn’t want to.
Food for thought here, but it’s actually the second time that the Simpsons go to NYC. And they haven’t been to LA or Chicago or San Francisco yet, not even once. I will watch the episode later today, because I still wanna watch it, just to make sure it doesn’t go into their premiere ratings.
Well, idk about LA or San Franciso but remember that one episode where Burns and Homer went to Chicago via airplane? And the one where they went to California to visit Wine Country and that George Lucas guy? And, yes, it is the 2nd time they have been to The Big Apple. Though the first time was much better for obvious reasons.
LA – Beyond Blunderdome
San Francisco – Bart Mangled Banner
Homer also goes to SF in “I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can.”
I only caught a little bit of this episode, but was it really worth bringing Sarah Michelle Gellar and Natalie Portman back so they could say two or three words?
Arrghh, forgot about Bart Mangled Banner! Also, in Professor Farnsworth’s voice from Futurama: “What a terrible episode.”
Ok, yeah, you guys may be right. But it doesn’t change the way this episode is probably just another bad recycling of some previous idea.
I was thinking a few weeks ago about how many times the Zombie Simpsons have visited Florida and I happened upon this excellent list:
http://simpsons.wikia.com/wiki/Places_visited_by_the_Simpson_family
Ohhh, in “Angry Dad: The Movie” (ugh) they go to that awards show which takes places in L.A.
I strongly agree with abra cadaver regarding this episode and his feelings and thoughts about the show. And I think the writers went too far with the misleading NYC WTC joke or whatever though. Way too far imo. And creepy. Also, Family Guy has copied many episodes and ideas from The Simpsons and now The Simpsons are starting to copy Family Guy it feels like. The rest of this episode was ok btw, but nothing special. Average.
Mary was never Bart’s girlfriend (and neither was Gina Vendetti) but all of a sudden we learn Bart was madly in love with her.
Why was an 11 year old girl living in NYC all by herself?
Bart’s only real girlfriend was Jessica Lovejoy. Period. The rest… ewrgh.
To be fair, Bart wasn’t actually in love with her, he was just desperate to prove that he could find a girl who liked him. And out of all his past girlfriends (at least the ones they bothered to acknowledge), Mary was his very last resort.
Unfortunately, as it so often does, ZS failed to make that into an interesting story by immediately treating them as estranged star-struck lovers once they finally paired up. At no point was the story consistent or coherent; it was just a bunch of stuff that happened, and not in the lovably inverted sense that was featured in “Blood Feud,” but in the “we don’t have any idea what we’re doing” way that is par for the course for ZS.
Did anyone else really like the song Mary sang?
According to the press releases, Zooey Deschanel will be playing Mary for a third time later this season. My theory is that the writers are trying yet again to make the show look relevant by pumping it full of guest stars from other more prominent FOX shows. They’ve already done it with 24, American Idol, Glee, and Hell’s Kitchen – why should New Girl be any different?
Well, I love Zooey. I’ve had a crush on her for a long time….But, meh. I’m not interested in anything she does besides look cute haha.
And eh, “CELEBRITY GUEST VOICE APPEARANCE!” doesn’t work anymore, if it ever did past a certain point…. people are REALLY going “Oh, they managed to get such-and-such to read a few lines into a mic? WOW! This, I gotta see!” …. not so much anymore…
But yeah, wasn’t the New Girl premiere on last night or is on tonight? I seem to remember it premiering soon so they probably did this to boost ratings for both brands, and will have her return in the season finale to coincide with the New Girl season finale. Probably.
The show is on life support, it needs a blood transfusion from more relevant celebrities.
Even then it will never walk again.
You can’t really expect to resurrect a zombie… can you?
Overall, what they did to Mary was an abomination. Not only did they make her older (while other characters do not age at all), but they changed her hair design and gave her an eyebrow. I know most of the Spuckler children aren’t lookers, but sheesh! (Although Mary, Crystal Meth, and Ruby (Rubella Scabies) have some potential) This is just Fox’s way of ruining anything good left in the series. I just hope they don’t bring back Samantha Stankey, or they’ll ruin that too. Rare and delicate flowers don’t deserve to end up in a pile of pig turds, feasted on by irate and cynical swine (at least not under those pretenses).
And who the heck were those other girlfriends from the photos? Plus, the way they swiftly showcased all of Bart’s girlfriends (after Laura, Jessica, and Greta) was cheap at best. Just shots from door to door (and not house to house). Apparently, Jenny still hates Bart, Gina was never really a love interest (just a stone-cold juvie thug girl), Darcy hates Bart for some unknown reason and is with Jimbo of all people (I’m starting to hate that guy. Shauna wasn’t enough, you bird-dogger) (even though teen moms are terrible candidates for 10-year old boys), and Nikki is still as contrary and “Sarah Silverman/Jennifer Aniston/The Break-Up” nuts as ever.
In addition, Homer can’t remember the real reason he hates New York, yet he remembers the Khlav Kalash guy.
This would’ve been a better episode if they kept Mary’s design the same (and not just in the photo, taken when?) and just left out Lisa and Marge’s B-plot altogether.