Animation on FOX Talkback 2018-2019 (Spoilers)

[JTOONSAnimation]

Season premiere Sunday is just a week away. Now all of Fox animated series are airing back-to-back
Bob's Burgers is on at 8:30pm now, so we football games shouldn't preempt new episodes

PREMIERE NIGHT
8:00 PM (EST/PST) - The Simpsons - "Bart's Not Dead" - Bart lie about meeting Jesus in heaven leads him to extreme guilt.
8:30 PM (EST/PST) - Bob's Burgers - "Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now" - Convinced she's met the love of her life, Tina disguises herself as a boy and sneaks into the Boys 4 Now auditions to find him.
9:00 PM (EST/PST) - Family Guy - "Married to Cancer" - Brian falls in love with a woman named Jess, but after finding out she has terminal cancer, Brian proposes to marry her.

THE SIMPSONS
Sun September 30th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3001 - Bart's Not Dead [SEASON 30 PREMIERE]
Sun October 7th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3002 - Heartbreak Hotel
Sun October 14th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3003 - My Way or the Highway to Heaven
Sun October 21st - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3004 - Treehouse of Horror XXIX
Sun November 4th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3005 - Baby You Can't Drive My Car
Sun November 11th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3006 - From Russia Without Love
Sun November 18th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3007 - Werking Mom
Sun November 25th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3008 - Krusty the Clown
Sun December 2nd - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3009 - Diddicus Finch
Sun December 9th - 8:00 PM (EST/PST) - 3010 - Tis the 30th Season

BOB'S BURGERS
Sun September 30th - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 901 - Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now [SEASON 9 PREMIERE]
Sun October 7th - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 902 - The Taking of Funtime One Two Three
Sun October 14th - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 903 - Tweentrepreneurs
Sun October 21st - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 904 - Nightmare on Ocean Avenue
Sun November 4th - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 905 - Live and Let Fly
Sun November 11th - 8:30 PM (EST/PST) - 906 - Bobby Driver

FAMILY GUY
Sun September 30th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1701 - Married... with Cancer [SEASON 17 PREMIERE]
Sun October 7th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1702 - Dead Dog Walking
Sun October 14th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1703 - Pal Stewie
Sun October 21st - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1704 - Big Trouble in Little Quahog
Sun November 4th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1705 - Regarding Carter
Sun November 11th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1706 - Stand By Meg
Sun November 18th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1707 - The Griffin Winter Games
Sun November 25th - 9:00 PM (EST/PST) - 1708 - Con Heiress

 

[JTOONSAnimation]

The Simpsons - "Bart's Not Dead" - 7/10 - Wow, 30 seasons. That intro was cool. The episode was pretty good, I preferred the subplot over the regular plot of the play, not a great episode, but not a bad one"

Bob's Burgers - "Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now" - 9/10 - New season, same humor. I personally enjoyed the "baby rat" storyline more than Tina's story. There were some funny moments that threw me off guard and I kept laughing at them over and over. Great episode.

Family Guy - "Married... with Cancer" - 8.5/10 - This episode had SO MANY twists and turns. I liked the episode more towards the end, with Jess gorging herself with food, Brian acting like Snoopy, Jess' awakening at her funeral". It was also funny seeing Brian trash the Fox network twice too. Amazing episode, cant wait to see part two.

 

[Fone Bone]

The Simpsons “Bart’s Not Dead”

Wow, that was excellent. And it reminds me again why I want the show to end. I want it to end while it is great again. I don’t want it canceled in the middle of another fifteen year slump. Now if the quality keeps up, there’s no need to end the show until a major cast member dies. But I don’t feel safe tempting that particular fate. This is a show that deserves to go out on top and episodes like this are phenomenal.

I have an unkind opinion about Marge: This was probably her worst example of mothering I have ever seen her do. I can’t even say she was simply being an uncool mom, or a clueless mom like the show wants me to think. But she was being a BAD mom. I mean a boy refusing a reprehensible dare for bully peers is a good thing, and the fact that Homer thinks the opposite means I am right. But a GOOD mom would have made Bart feel cool, and independent, and fearless in not caring what the losers in his class think about him. Instead she’s smothering him, and making him feel like a Mama’s boy, and like a loser himself. Bart already feels bad and confused. She is absolutely not only feeding into the misery, but feeding into the precise reason he was second-guessing himself in the first place. And frankly, after all that, jumping off a cliff is sensible in comparison. And it wouldn’t be had she framed the discussion that Bart is so cool because nobody else at that school matters to him, and that makes him fearless. She did very wrong by her son in this episode. She is not usually so bad a mother, but in the show’s defense, we’ve never seen her in this exact position, and it seemed sadly credible to me, which kind of sucks. I love Marge. I also think she is a character that needs to be written perfectly every single time to work properly. You have a LOT more leeway with how to write Homer, Bart, and Lisa. And the thing that saddened me tonight is that it’s quite possible the episode DID write her perfectly, and I just didn’t like Marge after all. It was convincing enough to me to not think they were actually bad writers, or doing wrong by the character. Which disturbs me a little.

I love Homer raising the hypocrisy of Christian filmmakers never giving their profits back to the Church. Great, great moment.

I am also really annoyed by the amount of movies and shows that thank Georgia in the end credits. That’s SO stupid. You never see people thanking the people of Vancouver or Hollywood, and on the rare occasions you do, it’s in a tiny font, rather than a huge trademarked logo. It’s outright bizarre to me and Homer alike.

And yes, the selling point of the Golden Globes is having TV and movie people all in one room at the same time. There is nothing else good about them.

I like that Homer never sees DC movies because the logo always makes him fall asleep. And that’s only slightly worse than me falling asleep within five minutes having to watch a Zack Snyder abortion. Gal Gadot was a good sport.

For the record, a Christian movie could NEVER land Gal Gadot. Not simply because they wouldn’t hire her because she’s Jewish, but because those movies all star has-beens and D-listers. Pretty much Kevin Sorbo and Kirk Cameron are their A-Game. Truthfully, a Christian movie probably couldn’t even get Emily Deschannel.

I would find Bart’s inflicting Flanders on Homer to be overly cruel and uncalled for if his father hadn’t earlier essentially convinced him to jump off a cliff.

I not only love Lisa’s weirdly gross trick with her hair and her eyes, but I liked Yeardley Smith’s totally sinister line reading when she told Bart Satan was at the door. Unlike the rest of the cast, Smith does NOT get the chance to modulate her voice very much (if ever), so she was probably ecstatic that get that moment in the script. For now it’s pretty much just that and Grandma Van Houten’s “Hello, Joe.”

Excellent episode. *****.




Bob’s Burgers “Just One Of The Boys 4 Now For Now”

Mostly favorable impression.

That being said, this is another recent episode to not only say that Tina is useless, but a bit trying as well. I don’t disagree with Linda that dressing up as a boy and sneaking into the audition wouldn’t actually hurt anything. It didn’t. But it would certainly never HELP anything either. But I guess parent’s have to pick their battles.

Speaking of which, learning Linda actually dislikes Jimmy Junior makes her a far better mother than I’ve ever given her credit for.

Louise implies she know Brazilian Jujitsu. I totally believe her.

I love that when Teddy says it’s a rat, the first words out of Bob’s mouth are “Get out.” And this isn’t the first time Hugo has seen that scenario? That was a funny joke, but I didn’t buy it for second. Even the idea of 8 other girls attempting the same cross-dressing trick as Tina strikes me as more plausible.

I think this modern era is going to be the death of Bob Belcher. Because Tina dressing up as a boy to perv on another boy is outright weird, but Bob feels wrong using those correct words because of the political implications. Same thing with him having say he loves the fact that Tina is boy crazy. Bob always strikes me as a liberal, and not just any kind of liberal. He’s the fearful kind. And that’s usually the kind white guys like Bob are. I’m kind of that too, to be honest.

Louise asking Linda if they could simply kill Hugo, and Linda saying maybe, was one of the more rational discussions of the episode.

I love that being insane is Bob’s alibi. That and the mistress. It’s like the Belchers aren’t even trying. It’s lucky their enemies are so lackluster.

I also love Bob stating he should try out for the boy band because he’s the same age as Matt. The twisted thing is that’s probably true. Where Bob goes wrong is thinking he would ever have a shot. Forget the fact that he’s ugly, he’s pretty much the lousiest singer on the show, and that is clearly the part of the show H. Jon Benjamin puts the least amount of effort into the performance. He phones in every song because they don’t seem to interest him. Bob’s out of his mind to think he could ever join a boy band, even if he’s the correct age.

Good Gene:

I LOVED the way Gene said he respected Bob, in the moment he did, for the reason he did. I mean, I loved, loved, LOVED it.

Bad Gene:

I find it especially creepy when Gene asks if he’s the only person who finds Dino hot. To be fair, Gene is an especially creepy character anyways, but I still don’t have to pretend to be happy about it.

Tina has pretty much become a parody of herself at this point. The episode was good though. ***1/2.




Family Guy “Married... With Cancer”

Do you know the precise moment I knew next week was gonna suck? When Quagmire actually apologized to Brian. Now we know things are going to get effed up.

Here’s a controversial opinion: Brian is under no obligation to stay in that marriage, no matter what the town thinks. Why? Because he never promised her anything of the sort. The marriage proposal was done under the understanding it was wish fulfillment, and that he was fully committed to the next two weeks, and that’s it. He never once made the marriage sound more than it was, or like he wanted more than a month with her. I don’t care if the rest of the town is Oprah book club-crazy, Brian does NOT have to stay married to that horrible woman.

Which is what I liked about Jess. She’s a scumbag, even when she’s dying. The bucket list was outright gross, and her calling the GRIFFINS that was her being complimentary. And it’s the fact that she’s a scumbag which is why I liked her and Brian together. Because Brian’s a scumbag too. They weirdly fit.

But not past two weeks. That’s an unreasonable expectation, and the worst thing is that I am 100% certain the series will find a way to make Brian completely at fault, and the actual bad guy, which is nuts. But the series is not interested in giving Brian layers anymore. It is now fully invested in saying how much Seth MacFarlane’s surrogate sucks. Brian Griffin has somehow crazily turned into a character all about Seth MacFarlane’s self-loathing. I personally think it’s weird that he’d actually WANT that from the character who used to speak what he was thinking about the given issues of the day. What truly disturbs me about the self-loathing in MacFarlane / Brian is that the other writers help him along with that idea, instead of telling him he’s a crazy person, he’s actually a good liberal, and his opinions are worth listening to. No, instead they seem gleeful to be able to write their boss as a creepy, pervy, hypocritical, know-nothing, know-it-all. I almost admire MacFarlane for allowing his surrogate to be portrayed that way. No, what truly disturbs me is that the fact that the writers happily go along with it, means that the characterization is almost certainly completely accurate. Which should disturb anybody.

Let’s just say the last time I saw a cartoonist put all of his psychological hang-ups into a cartoon this way was John Kricfalusi and Ren and Stimpy. And we all saw how that went. I expect a similar end for MacFarlane, sooner rather than later, and every Brian episode convinces me more and more that I’m right.

Brian was not actually insufferable or unforgivable this week. I am certain they are saving that for next week, and I expect it to be SO bad and self-loathing, there is a knot in my stomach. This show’s perspective about self-examination of liberal values has gotten outright insane to me. The show has started to get indistinguishable to me from Stimpy frantically carrying around Ralph Bakshi’s giant dump. And the subtext is becoming rapidly similar too.

For the record, my surety that MeToo is gonna knock out Seth MacFarlane is made worse by the fact there is a Trump episode coming up. I am filled with dread for that, next week, and whether or not there will be bodies found buried under Seth’s floorboards very soon. Let’s just say I’m not optimistic about all three of those things.

But hey, Brian crying like Snoopy was funny, wasn’t it? ***.

 

[SaneMan]

Somehow I feel they would not be able to get away with that ending if Tina was a boy

 

[Zanneck]

Yeah, I fear that Bob's Burgers may have jumped the shark with Tina being into what is clearly... I'll let you figure it out; just know it's not normal or cute. Then again, when you don't end yourself after especially 8 seasons, you're asking for trouble - ask Robot Chicken for a major example of something that should have bowed out by now.

 

[SaneMan]

Yeah, I fear that Bob's Burgers may have jumped the shark with Tina being into what is clearly... I'll let you figure it out; just know it's not normal or cute. Then again, when you don't end yourself after especially 8 seasons, you're asking for trouble - ask Robot Chicken for a major example of something that should have bowed out by now.

I mean, it was an established character trait of her since episode 1.

 

[Zanneck]

I mean, it was an established character trait of her since episode 1.

It doesn't feel a little over-exaggerated here to you? Because that is what I felt here, unfortunately. I sure hope I'm just overanalyzing here, because I want to trust these writers to keep making this show great , but trust is a 2-way street, after all.

 

[Radical]

Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now was great/funny,

Cool seeing Boyz 4 Now, they're looking for a 4th member with no Boo Boo.
Tina's boy crush on Damon was funny, she'll move on and forget Jimmy Jr.
Tina's boy disguise as Dina was funny.
Tina's many boy crushes and nice musical numbers was great/funny.
Bob, Linda, Gene, and Louise babysitting the cute baby rat was great/funny.
Louise wanting to kill Hugo was funny, Louise so awesome.
Bob, Linda, Gene, and Louise not busted by Hugo was great.
Poor Tina caught was funny.
The other girls cross-dressing as boys was funny, hahahahaha.
Linda's hatred on Jimmy Jr. continues, awesome, the best mother ever.
Boo Boo returning to Boyz 4 Now was epic, Louise/Boo Boo the best cute couple.

Married... with Cancer was great/funny,

Brian's girl/dating problems continues, hahahahaha.
Stewie calling out Brian was awesome.
Jess a great funny scumbag, the poor chick to have terminal cancer.
Chris in the photo, hahahahahaha.
Peter on the Tom Hanks movies and being a boomerang was funny, hahahahahaha.
Peter's Suit-Chute commercial and Dennis Franz, hahahahahaha.
Glen supporting Brian was great.
Kanye West gag, hahahahaha.
Brian being Snoopy after Peter from the Peanuts Movie was hilarious, hahahahahahaha.
Jess living, sweet, great twist.
Sitcom audience background reference on Stewie/Lou, hahahahahaha.
Seeing Brian suffer while trying to escape the marriage was satisfying, he deserved it for the awful things he did.
Jess fattened up was funny.
Poor Jess dead.
The FOX Network titles annoying Brian was funny, hahahahahahaha.
Jess alive again, hehehe.
Brian doing Snoopy at the end, hahahahahaha, satisfying ending to see Brian suffer.

 

[ShadowBeast]

Bart's Not Dead: I liked the intro, but most of the episode was just bad. Bart only lied so he could bring his mother's spirit up, and here we have Lisa guilt-tripping him with no mercy. Even her and Bart's little talk on the roof doesn't make up for how much of a jerk she was. Usually I feel sorry for Lisa when Bart ends up really messing with her, but I don't think I'm gonna feel sorry for her anymore. The bit with where Marge keeps her alcohol wasn't funny either. Speaking of Marge, her treating Bart like an infant was one of the dumbest things she's done. I'm surprised that Bart would lie to protect her feelings when she was a big reason for why he took the second dare in the first place.

Married....with Cancer: I only checked out the last five minutes, and even though I'm still not gonna keep up with the show, I hope Brian continues to be stuck with her. Brian has been deserving such a woman for a long time now. And the title of the episode fits perfectly with his relationship with her as it parodies married....with Children. I also loved the part where Brian cries like Snoopy.

 

[wiley207]

Geez, another Treehouse of Horror written by Joel H. Cohen. Does Al Jean think Cohen is their number-one top writer currently on the staff?

 

[PapaGreg]

What is with Seth's hate boner when it comes to vaping.

 

[Dudley]

So Brian’s wife just dies offscreen? Lame:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fone Bone]

What is with Seth's hate boner when it comes to vaping.

In fairness, other than getting people to stop smoking tobacco, what possible value does it have? It simply switches people over from tobacco addicts, straight into nicotine addicts, without the middle man. Yeah, it doesn't have the adverse health effects that tobacco does for your lungs. But I think the addiction is actually the thing most adverse to one's health, and I think vaping makes it worse.

The Simpsons “Heartbreak Hotel”

Wow, it is amazing how much I disliked that.

One of my annoyingly constant criticisms of recent episodes of the series is that it always puts Marge and Homer’s marriage in jeopardy for a bogus reason. I hate that. That is Al Jean’s worst flaw as showrunner. What amazed me about the episode is that they did that, and it wasn’t actually the worst part of the episode, or the actual reason the episode sucked.

No, the episode sucked because it was just cruel as frak.

I could not get over it. This is something they’d do on Family Guy, and that is NOT a compliment. It disturbs me that Marge’s dream is being on that horrible reality show. If she learned to understand that the show was stupid and pointless at the end, that would be one thing. Instead her dreams for this horrible thing must be stomped, and she MUST be punished for it. It’s hard enough to see the writers abuse the fact Homer easily gets his heart stomped on for immature reasons. It feels completely wrong to see it happen to Marge. And finding out it was due to Homer after the fact, doesn’t make it interesting, or even all right. It makes it even worse. And she must be humiliated at the end a final time. I found nothing satisfying about Homer’s words of enjoying pity. And maybe after all he’s put Marge through I should have. But I didn’t because this stupid crass show meant the world to her, and she was shown publicly botching it twice on national television (three times if you count her dumping Homer on-camera).

And she sincerely dislikes the idea of a six week vacation in a paradise without the kids? It’s like the show didn’t even let her actually enjoy the very real selling points of being kicked off first. The episode is unending cruelty and misery to Marge.

That black and white sequence was horrible too. It was supposed to be a parody of old movies based on Tennessee Williams’and Arthur Miller plays, but there wasn’t actually a single funny thing in the scene. And I’m wondering, “Why on Earth does Al Jean think I’d EVER want to see Homer and Marge in such a scene?” The thing that bothers me most about Jean’s “marriage in turmoil” fetish is that he crazily somehow thinks I’m supposed to enjoy it. Which is the like craziest ask of the viewer ever. It’s not quite as bad as the writers on Family Guy constantly coming up with new girlfriends for Brian to treat horribly, even though nobody likes those episodes. But if it’s not as bad, it’s exactly as misguided and tone-deaf as to what the audience actually wants to see.

Were there ANY good things in the episode? I liked the joke of Bart feeding the dog marshmallows just to see what would happen. And I like that we got to see it too. But that specific joke would have worked equally well in a better episode. It’s not going to raise the grade for this travesty at all. 0.




Bob’s Burgers “The Taking Of Funtime One Two Three”

Oh, that was a GREAT heist episode! What a caper!

Where to begin? There were the proper amount of tricks and doublecrosses here. Louise is usually less smart than she thinks she is, but she was smart in this episode, not only for figuring out Fischoeder’s betrayal ahead of time, but for realizing and accepting the dune buggy was off the table. Louise usually wouldn’t accept that, and would go down in flames because of her own hubris. That’s what happened with the Ambergis. She was smart tonight because she understood the reality that she’d never win the dunebuggy, and decided to make Fischoeder pay for his treachery instead. It was what is known as a moral victory. But it wouldn’t have happened if Louise hadn’t been adult enough to realize that not only were the odds stacked against them, they weren’t actually playing under the rules of odds in the first place. There is no way to win that prize and never was. Best to take the Mammoth instead and make Fischoeder look like a classless chump.

Bob saying that you’d have to spend far more money at the arcade than what any of the prizes are actually worth, was a really smart way to state the problem to the kids in the audience. I was impressed with his logic. It would be less expensive just to BUY a dune buggy.

I love the Mammoth because even though he is the most coveted prize at Wonder Wharf, he was probably very cheaply made and is in fact worthless. Did I mention this was moral victory?

When Bob the Mammoth is blocking the TV, I think Louise’s response that this is what they watch now, was a master class in sardonic sarcasm. She can’t really believe that. But she’ll believe it for a day or so, even if only just for show.

I love Louise describing going to the “Mom and Dad bank”, and Gene saying he thought they went out of business when they were bought by Chase. That joke was a little too clever for a moron like Gene, which is my entire problem with him in the first place. He is much smarter and funnier than a thick-witted kid his age should ever be. He SHOULD be Ralph Wiggum. Instead he’s Veronica Mars. How does that make a LICK of sense? Seriously.

Another complaint: Since when can Bob sing? The entire joke of the musical numbers is that H. Jon Benjamin is a lousy singer, who puts no effort into the performance, and sings atonally. I don’t approve of getting a professional singer to step in when Bob sings to the chicken. Either he sings in that barely singing voice all the time, or he just shouldn’t be singing at all.

But man, I enjoyed me that episode. That was SO much fun! *****.




Family Guy “Dead Dog Walking”

Wow, Family Guy beat The Simpsons tonight. That hasn’t happened in awhile. Admittedly both were destroyed by Bob’s Burgers, but Family Guy should still savor the little moments.

I expected the worst from Brian after last week. It wasn’t. But there is something that bugs me, that probably will not bother Brian haters very much. But when Jess accuses him of letting her die in the restaurant, he admits that he did that. But that’s not what actually happened last week. He did TRY to save her. Not very hard, granted, but it was not an equivalent situation to her sending him to be euthanized at the pound. But they are both right that they are terrible people.

I adore the fact that she’s died during the last commercial break. Did you actually need more than that? Kudos to the show for not pretending that you did.

The kiss was creepy, but I love Stewie’s justification to Chris for telling Peter: He didn’t think he’d be able to understand him. And Peter says he’s gotten pretty good at it so that he can understand him sometimes. Keep in mind, it used to be Chris who could only understand him sometimes, and now he can all the time. Picking up on Stewie language is not an impossible barrier for the rest of the family.

Can I just say how refreshing it was that the show admitted the Pilot was terrible? Truthfully, the entirety of the first two seasons was just as bad (when it wasn’t busy being measurably worse). I am under the impression that Seth MacFarlane dislikes and resents the Family Guy fans who stupidly believe the show is worse now than before it was canceled. But he can’t outright say that those viewers are tasteless morons because they are literally the reason the show is back at all. But, by God, were I MacFarlane I would be absolutely mortified that there are a large contingent of people out there who think Stewie sucking Peter’s nipple is the pinnacle of his career, instead of the tirefire it actually was. Usually when fans moan about a certain show losing its magic over time, the early episodes WERE actually good. I think any Family Guy fans who prefers them to now, as flawed as now can be, is out of their mind. It. SUCKED.

The best joke was about Cherry Chevapravatdumrong being a total mystery. Honestly, even though I have seen her in a couple of interviews, and I know that’s her actual name, I am obsessed with the idea of her. Not her specifically. Just all of the questions a woman possessing that name raises. If you told me she was a lawyer, I’d believe it, because that is the kind of name which means you kind of have to put a little extra effort in your life to make up for it. Being the only woman writer on Family Guy is pretty amazing, but the mystery of her in my mind is that she would have an amazing backstory whether she wrote for Family Guy or not. And for Peter to frame it as a mystery is perfect, because that’s always how I’ve seen her and the jokes the show has done at her expense. You’d expect for someone with this level of mystery attached to be a recluse like Bill Watterson or John Swartzwelder. But she isn’t, and she has my unbridled fascination anyways.

The Al Pacino Machine wasn’t funny, simply because there is no-one anywhere who would actually want that. Family Guy has come up with some really bizarre celebrity-themed inventions in the past, but there is usually a hint of truth about why the machine should exist in the first place. This does nothing and is simply annoying. I think the show failed that joke.

That was not a great episode, but I was surprised at how much I wound up liking it. ****.

 

[Radical]

Dead Dog Walking(Part 2) was great/funny,

Brian/Jess marriage continues.
Peter/Chris fitting the couch by the door, hahahahahaha.
Jess and the couple's obnoxious laughing was so funny, hahahahaha.
Astronaut's 3 the lowest number gag, hahahahaha.
Married husband place, hehehe.
Fat Brian, hahahahaha.
The men watching Chris/Stewie was funny.
Teenage Peter crushing Bryce, hehehe.
Brian broken/injured, pretty satisfying.
Cool seeing Dr. Hartman who's great/funny there.
Chris/Stewie's subplot was funny, the poor guys vaping.
Glen and the scary ghost girl, hahahahahaha.
Al Pacino maker was funny, hahahahaha.
Jess leaves Brian, sweet.
Brian in the pound, pretty satisfying, love seeing Brian suffer.
Clifford with rabies, poor Clifford.
Brian doing Michigan J. Frog was hilarious, hahahahahaha.
Lois the hypocrite and messing with poor Chris.
Nice seeing Peter do the right thing like saving Brian.
Peter wanting the choking, hahahahaha.
Brian/Jess learn what marriage is all about though.
Both Peter, Lois, Chris, Stewie, and Brian arguing at the end was funny, hahahaha.

 

[PapaGreg]

In fairness, other than getting people to stop smoking tobacco, what possible value does it have? It simply switches people over from tobacco addicts, straight into nicotine addicts, without the middle man. Yeah, it doesn't have the adverse health effects that tobacco does for your lungs. But I think the addiction is actually the thing most adverse to one's health, and I think vaping makes it worse.

I mean both are equally addicting but at least vaping isn't as bad as cigarettes and it doesn't create second hand smoke.

 

[Fone Bone]

I mean both are equally addicting but at least vaping isn't as bad as cigarettes and it doesn't create second hand smoke.

Not as bad as cigarettes is a pretty low freaking bar.

 

[Zanneck]

And... despite my hangup earlier on, Bob's Burgers continues to be the only show I care about being good on this channel, IMHO. I still think it needs an endgame someday, however. Anything that prevents zombification is OK with me.

 

[Radical]

The Belcher Family showing up in the couch gag was awesome/funny, loved it.

Tweentrepreneurs was great/funny, love Bob's Burgers, still the best thing of the FOX adult cartoons.

Louise doing the red light on Gene was hilarious, hahahahahaha.
Both Louise/Gene/Tina, Jimmy Jr., Zeke, Jocelyn, and Regular-Sized Rudy joining in the Tweentrepreneurs seminar was great.
Always cool to see Zeke, Jocelyn, and Regular-Sized Rudy.
Bob/Linda dealing with the dine-and-dasher was great/funny, great subplot.
The dine-and-dasher, my favorite great funny antagonist.
Teddy's funny moment on describing the dine-and-dasher, hehehe.
Tammy the unlikable piece of crap as usual, I'll love seeing her suffer.
Poor Tina manipulated being power hungry with the Tweentrepreneurs business was funny.
Tina's moment with Teddy was funny.
Cool with Tina back to normal and having a new creation idea was great.
Louise owning Tammy was awesome/satisfying, go Louise.
The Belcher Family finally catching the dine-and-dasher was great/funny.
The "She's a Business Monster" song at the end was cool/catchy among the best ending songs.

Pal Stewie was great/funny, love Stewie episodes,

Cool seeing Stewie wanting to kill Lois, his villainous nature always enjoyable.
Hudson, a great new friend and him/Stewie's friendships were great/funny, he's a better friend than Brian.
Talking bed joke, hehehe.
Peter/Lois's funny subplot with Tony Robbins.
Tony Robbins, great/funny with those big hands, hahahahahaha, and funny with him mentioning the cutaway.
Peter superhero cutaway gag.
Tony Robbins Jurassic Park tyrannosaurus rex reference, hahahahahahaha.
Peter's nose picking in the car.
Tony the talking car, hehehe.
Paul Hogan gag twice, hahahahaha.
Stewie not being evil, he'll go back to it, hehehe.
Chris jumping thinking it's a pool, hehehehe.
Poor Stewie not invited, it's Brian responsible.
Peter/Lois, Brian, and Glen's Saturday Night Live celebrity slam gag, hahahahahaha.
Tony alive and the best to change Peter.
Stewie being the hardcore villain attacking the Family Funtime place was awesome.
Brian Griffin did it being awful/unlikable jealous of Stewie/Hudson's friendship, I'll still enjoy seeing Brian suffer next episodes.
Cool of Stewie roasting Brian.
Tony Robbins at the end, hahahahahaha.

 

[Fone Bone]

The Simpsons "My Way Or The Highway To Heaven"

I liked some of that, but not all of that, or even most of that.

But based on the episode description, I expected to hate it, but I didn't wind up feeling that strongly for or against it either way.

Here is my request for ten years from now: If and when the 30th Season of The Simpsons is released on DVD, or Blu-Ray, or whatever physical platform is left, for the love of God do NOT let Jon Lovitz do a commentary for this episode. We have been punished enough on that front.

Speaking of cameos, this episode shows the value of Tracy Morgan. He has enough fearlessness about his shady image to do THAT if you pay him for it. And Tina Fey is valuable for actually being the first person to get that and put it to good use.

I adored the Bob's Burgers couch gag at the beginning. I love the idea of seeing the other side of the theme song from the restaurant's perspective. NOT fun.

Flanders' story was the one of the trilogy that I actually thought was okay. And it was JUST okay. But I like the fact that the series still had his parents beatniks, and him as a young adult during the moon landing. That sort of thing is already established canon, and I'm glad that for this episode at least, the show has enough faith in the audience not to make a federal case out of it. I like that because the show often has a huge chip on its shoulder about that sort of thing, and it's a bit refreshing that in the very recent seasons they've stopped caring about keeping the flashbacks modern, and simply made them consistent with the earlier part of the series. And I prefer that to the hot mess that was "That 90's Show".

The Marge short was stupid. It had nothing to do with the premise, and seemed to probably be something that was on the writer's board for years, but they couldn't either stretch it for an entire episode, or find a good Halloween or trilogy episode for it before now. And they still didn't find a good trilogy episode for it.

Is this actually canon? Is Marge actually related to one of Moe grandparents? Because if so, ew. Having a young Abe Simpson in the flashback confuses things further, especially since none of the other Springfield cast present were actually members of the Flying Hellfish. This was pretty much a misfire on every level.

Speaking of which, so was the Lisa thing. It had two good jokes. First Lisa saying this was the only fairytale not trademarked by Disney, unless they were currently owned by Disney. That was fabulous. I also like how they subverted the Disney "I want" song and reversed the desire from every other wanting princess.

But the story is stupid, unrelated to anything else, and hardly shows why Lisa is a good candidate for Heaven.

What especially frustrates me about using Lisa to give the Buddhist perspective is that by all rights, Lisa should not be a Buddhist. That was decided during an extremely shaky era of the show, and unlike Paul and Linda McCartney, who they promised to keep Lisa a vegetarian for the rest of the show's run if they guest-starred, I don't feel the show owes Richard Gere a damn thing. Basically she chose that religion in that episode because a trendy, handsome, and famous actor was one. It was completely out of character, not to mention antifeminist. Lisa is a scientist. Lisa is a skeptic. Lisa is the perspective they should have given of a morally virtuous atheist, not some never-before-heard-of ancestor of Marge's. I like that the show often does changes to characters that they are reluctant to walk back, even if it hurts the show. I think they learned a powerful lesson from having Barney quit drinking, and realizing he wasn't funny sober. And the truth is Lisa is a lousy Buddhist, and a lousy advocate for that specific faith, with all of the rest of the rational and skeptical stances she has taken throughout the show's run.

Stop being beholden to Richard Gere's feelings. Release the gerbil. (Yes, I'm awful.)

I had suspected the episode would be awful just based on the description. In reality, it was merely mediocre. Although the couch gag was fantastic. **.




Bob's Burgers "Tweentrepeneurs"

Lots of funny stuff. You broke Rudy!

They'd walk out, but that is also work. And they'd quit if literally every other class in their school wasn't worse than harsh child labor.

I love that when Louise says it smells like "entremanure" Gene says, "That was me. And, yeah!"

I love the resolution to the dine and dash story. Simply because I thought the story was super dumb. That is not something any restaurant could believably use as a recurring B plot. And that turns out to be the point. He keeps coming back because he actually loves the burgers. And I love that the show does stuff like that. But he's gonna be tied down and fed the train way, if he's gonna dine there again.

I laughed hard at Rudy's Inhaler Hider. That was SO funny and sad at the same time.

Funny (if not amazing) episode. ***1/2.




Family Guy "Pal Stewie"

Oh, my God! I did NOT just see that! Are they freaking serious? Sometimes I think the Sethverse writers are so bad at their jobs possibly as a put-on, and I especially thought this for the first couple of seasons. But no, it turns out they are still this clueless after all this time. I cannot get over that. Why didn't the Fox network step in at some point? What were they thinking?

I think Family Guy is a show that becomes REALLY terrible if you think too much about it, or overanalyze the premise. Because if you actually take a step back, everything about the show is pretty much ghastly. You only can laugh if you think it's just a dumb cartoon, and don't think of it beyond that. The show has done some previous drama (admittedly a bit clunkily) but they've made sure to do that without ever poking at the questionable part of the premise of Stewie Griffin.

The second Stewie made friends with a normal human kid, I was like "This episode is going to go off the rails." Admittedly, it could have been a LOT worse (the fact that the kid was black was thankfully not even mentioned once) but every inch of the episode was creepy and made me feel a sinking pit in my stomach.

When Stewie shows him his guns and brags about trying to kill Lois, I was like, "They are breaking the reality of a toddler doing that by having a normal toddler question it." Hudson looks at Stewie with those big wide eyes of his and says innocently, "You play with real guns? You want to hurt your mommy?" And I'm pretty much horrorstruck. What frightens me is that the show is so clueless it doesn't consider the fact that I would be. And it's the casual way Seth MacFarlane and his writers feed into the worst of human impulses which is why Family Guy is pretty much usually a contemptible show, and always has been. I was previously like "The show has grown out of that since it came back, it now has amazing observational humor, epic animation, and fantastic musical numbers." But in the end, Family Guy is still the show that has a child walk into a kids arcade loaded for bear with weapons and takes out a roomful of toddlers and their parents using gas and other PG-rated non-lethal measures. I cannot overstate how much the show sucks for this.

What amazes me is that any other week I'd be screaming bloody murder over the gag of Brian and Stewie telling the woman to shut her bleeping mouth. That repeated joke is SO bad because it's basically Seth MacFarlane treating a woman horribly as a joke / character quirk. And this is why somebody needs a search warrant for his house and home computers. He's the specific kind of person who thinks that's funny. It's not even actually a joke. I'm just supposed to laugh at the line itself. It's absolutely sick.

Honestly, the fact that Lois has a flask and "bush vodka" also makes me very unhappy. Because even Peter is smart enough to know that means she is in no position to try and get him to grow as a person. Glass houses, Lois. Keep yours in order first. The person Tony Robbins should be stalking is you.

The booger joke wasn't funny, it was revolting.

Yeah, so maybe so anyone reading this review won't think I'm just ragging on this show to push an agenda, I should note the positives in the episodes. And it kills me that there are many positive things. I would have preferred the jokes that DID work not to occur in an episode so horrid.

The funniest joke was Bill Paxton winking in Heaven. And you know what? I'm betting IF Paxton was asked that question in Heaven he WOULD wink. That's why I liked that joke. It wasn't actually insulting Paxton and Pullman after all. It was saying Paxton was cool.

I also liked the Star Wars toy jokes. It's kind of a low blow to point out that Forest Whittaker's eyes don't look in the same direction, especially after the guy poured his heart and soul into Terlington on American Dad. But honestly? That is the first thing I ever notice when I watch him on-screen. He's practically cross-eyed.

And the Adam Driver slam was fabulous simply because Driver is one of my most hated actors in Hollywood. The joke that he was hot for the two months during which Star Wars cast him and then they were stuck with him summed it up, except I don't think Driver was ever a hot or in-demand actor. That was the mistake all of the projects made that cast Driver due to Girls. I don't think there was a single person who watched Girls who ever said "Wow that guy who plays Adam is handsome and fascinating and I want to see him in more stuff!" They mistook the fact that Girls was popular for the fact that Driver was, when he wasn't, and the worst thing about Girls. The character of Adam is so deplorable and sociopathic, that I have a hard time understanding why people think Driver would ever make a decent main lead. The fact that he looks like a total ugly goon too also told me that DC was out of their minds to float him as a trial balloon for Nightwing. But yeah, Driver isn't a good actor, or funny, or handsome, or likable, or even scary. And Star Wars is stuck with him because they confused the audience responding to how terribly the character of Adam behaved, with actually liking the character of Adam. And that joke summed it up much quicker than I ever could.

The last thing I really liked was the SNL celebrity slam. That was funny with Streisand the ONCE on Coffee Talk, but it is now exactly as predictable and trite as the show is portraying it as. And the braying hyenas who watch that show eat it up every last time.

So I want to be clear that the entire episode is not 100% without merit. But the episode is flawed from the ground up because it actually pressed the pause button in my mind about the fact that Stewie is a baby who hates and wants to kill his mother, and shows his gun collection to another toddler. That is not something my mind should EVER be focusing on. And it kills me that nobody second-guessed this entire thing, even after Parkland. I was very unhappy by the end of this. *.

 

[JTOONSAnimation]

The Simpsons - "My Way or the Highway to Heaven" - (6/10) - My most favorite part of the episode was the opening and maybe the final scene. Not as funny as last week's episode was.

Bob's Burgers - "Tweentrepreneurs" - (8.5/10) - Pretty decent episode, I thought the "Quarter Assing" was hilarious. Got to see cranky Edith again and another episode with, Tammy, Jocelyn, and Zeke in major roles.

Family Guy - "Pal Stewie" (8/10) - Holy crap this show has changed. Lois attempts to get drunk like three times, just out of boredom, I can see why Stewie wanted to kill her in this episode. That SNL scene was hilarious to me: "MY PLANE HAS WIFI!!!".