The Simpsons Season 23 Episode 1

It was awful. It was not watchable. It sucked. It stunk. It was too violent. It made me wanna break the TV. That's all I have to say. Oh wait! There is one more thing. Nope there isn't. Just kidding. You see, even though that last line was stupid, it was funnier than this episode.

Homer befriends Wayne Slater, the nuclear plant's new security guard, who later saves him and friends from Snake's attempted robbery of Moe's tavern. It's learned Wayne was formerly a CIA agent who's had special training and a number of violent flashbacks from his various missions, including an incident when a Ukranian terrorist's wife was killed. When Wayne's heroics at Moe's become big news, the terrorist has Homer kidnapped in order to seek revenge against him. This was a perfect start for the 23rd season of the Simpsons. I had no problems with the episode here so that would be my score. There were funny moments lines such as the beginning when Homer was singing, "That's the farthest one of our eggs has ever gone down someone's throat," Ned orange juice part, Auto Tune video, and some more. Again, like in other reviews, I'll only list the parts that are memorable since I don't have a good memory in the Simpsons rather than all the funny parts. Score 10/10

I thought that this was an excellent Season 23 Premiere of "The Simpsons". In the Season 22 finale, I told all of you in my review that I voted "NO" for the Nedna thing which is if Ned and Edna should stay together. It was revealed at the very end of this episode that Ned and Edna are together. It really doesn't disappoint me but I didn't think they should be together but oh well. Although, it was revealed in the middle of the episode when we saw Ned and Edna in bed together. Anyways, so many parts in this episode made me laugh so hard. Homer's song in the beginning of the episode was very funny. Moe's line "That's the farthest that someone has ever thrown an egg inside someone's throat" made me laugh very hard. Keifer Sutherland guest starring in this episode was pretty good and the flashbacks of his past was very interesting. Kiefer saving Homer from those bad guys was very funny especially when he shot the fire in that green monter's eye.I don't know how to explain this scene but it was three dimensional and I was laughing super hard at that scene. Lots and lots more parts made me laugh that I can't even say them all. Overall, an excellent Season 23 Premiere of "The Simpsons". 10/10

"The Falcon and the D'Ohman" is a good episode. Not a great or particularly memorable one, but it is entertaining. The scenes of flashbacks from Wayne's past triggering violent episodes is recycled right out of First Blood. I was not impressed with that. The scenes of Wayne teaching Lisa how to get Bart to talk are a highpoint. The best part of the episode is the ending where Ned and Edna thank viewers for voting in favor of their relationship. I too thank my fellow fans for voting in their favor. Viva Nedna!

Okay season opener. But then again season openers are usually some of the best of the season. I've decided this year I will review every simpsons episode(this season) then average the reviews, if the number is higher than 7 I will continue to watch The Simpsons, if not I will stop.

The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant hires a new security guard named Wayne and Homer soon become friends with him. Wayne has to deal with his past work with the CIA in order to rescue Homer from a Ukranian mafia. Meanwhile, Marge dreams of appearing on the reality seriesTop Chef. A couple laughs but not enough. It was an action episode. Very okay episode. Like i said earlier in my review most of the time the season openers are some of the better episodes, if this is one of the better episodes The Simpson will have its problems. Next week I will reviewBart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts.

Overall, I thought this was a great start to the 23rd season of The Simpsons. There were a few scenes that didn't really capture my attention and bored me a little, but it was mostly pretty funny and had a good plot. This episode pretty much showed Homer at his best, and a lot of scenes made me laugh like the scene at the ice skating rink and when Flanders just randomly appears and says he started drinking orange juice with pulp. Homer's song at the beginning was also funny, and it was funny when the Ukrainian gangsters captured him and he said "There's no middle seat in here!" or something like that. The ending with Skinner's mother appearing was also funny, and it was interesting to see that Ned and Edna are still together. I missed the season 22 finale, though, so I'm not really sure what my thoughts are on that, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.:) So, overall, I thought this was a pretty great episode, but not one of my favorites. I can't wait to see what the rest of the season will be like.:) Final grade: B+. Marebear2009, out!

~dedicated to tigerdude22~

The episode started with a musical intro and I got worried. I am not a fan of musical episodes, but moments later it came to an end and I was relieved. This episode had me laughing, and I am usually the one staring at the screen with a blank expression, although enjoying what I am watching, just not humored enough to 'lol'. This episode was entertaining, and a good start to the season. I don't really care about the relationship thing that was voted on over the summer, so I wasn't looking for the clue hidden in the episode. I enjoyed it and hope the rest of the season is just as good!

what i liked- Homer's song at the beginning, Kiether Sutherland as a whole was pretty good, Carl's 'word of the day', Homer getting the fist bump from that character, the hostage video, all the various people in bed over Springfield being able to hear KS' character screaming in his sleep, Ned and Edna in bed, Ned's line about Orange Juice; WITH Pulp!, Moe's line about 'eggs down someone's throat', etc.

pretty good. as far as season 23 premieres go... nah, this was decent. one of the better premieres of the show, as of late. The only things I did not like were the children singing aboutKim Jong ending, and before the end credits where it showed Edna and Ned and revealed they were together. I mean, did the scene where they were in bed together earlier in the episode not already basically prove that they were together? They should have had that one scene, as that scene proves they were together (Ned wouldn't get in bed with a woman he wasn't dating). The rest was pretty good though. B- or so as my final grade

(Synopsis - some spoilers): Homer invites Wayne, a surly and troubled guard from the power plant, to live with the Simpsons after Wayne loses his job. (How Wayne loses his job is kind of a convoluted story, but basically Wayne defends the Moe's Tavern crew from Snake using all sorts of far-out martial arts techniques, Burns attempts to give Wayne an award, Wayne has a flashback to his troubled past and assaults burns). The Simpson family members learn to stop worrying about a former CIA agent prone to unprovoked violent outbursts living in their home and start loving the ways he seamlessly teaches elaborate martial arts tricks to the kids (aside: yet Fox still thinks Homer's animated ass is too "adult" for thechild audience the show increasingly solicits). When Wayne's Ukrainian foes discover that Wayne is in Springfield, they come to Springfield and kidnap Homer, believing Wayne will come to rescue his friend, at which point the Ukrainians will have the chance to exact vengeance upon Wayne.

(Major spoilers here): Homer doesn't die. Wayne saves him and defeats the Ukrainians with some pep squad gear he got from the closet at an ice arena (see, the Ukrainians decided to hold Homer hostageat an ice arena. How they got access to the arena is sort of left up to the viewer's imagination). It is revealed that Wayne accidentallyshot the Ukrainian boss' wife after they (the boss and his wife) got into a cartoonishly silly domestic argument. In one of the episode's few inspired moments, Marge gets Wayne a job at the DMV, where HR takes kindly to borderline psychos. In a completely unrelated epilogue, Ned and Edna announce that they're together. Seymour interjects his disappointment and Agnes gives him predictable grief. Welcome to the 23rd season!

It's never a good sign when the first episode of a new season focuses entirely on a one-time guest character. No one fromOFFgrew, developed or even did anything except Homer, and all that Homer did was serve as an accessory to Wayne's storyline and be the butt of cheap jokes about his (Homer's) stupidity. As you can tell from the synopsis above, the storyline was farfetched, and lacked theirony/satirical witthat made similarly farfetched plots work in the past. E.g. whereas "You Only Move Twice" took a common reality - thatpeople work for evil corporations without really being aware of it - and exaggerated it to great comic effect,there really didn't seem to be any point to this episode.The whole idea seemed to be: take the rough outline of a really bad action movie, fill in all the blanks with Disney Channel cartoon-standard goofiness (to eliminate the possibility of anything being at stake dramatically), sterilize it to the point of unnerving germaneness, dumb down all the humor to Disney Channel levels, and insert a few jokes about Homer being dumb. The writing was atrocious. From the Comic Book Guy's opening speech to maybe five lines each from Bart, Marge and Lisa to nearly a minute of an autotuned Crazy Cat Lady to an introduction to Springfield'sLittle Ukraine (remember when Springfield used to seem like an actual small city?) to Homer cutting away tohisfuturistic dreamsto the predictable Seymour/Edna banter at the end, this episode was an exercise in hackneyed characterizations,Saturday morning cartoonishness and Family Guy-inspired cutaways to uninspired randomness.

End rant.

All that said, it was nice to see that there really wasn't much fo a "B" plot here. Sticking to one storyline - albeit a pointless one - is a step in the right direction.

Look,I don't want to see "The Simpsons" get cancelled. I don't want to see it continue losing viewers. I don't want to see it go down in the books as simply part of a Seth McFarlane-dominated evening of cartoons on Fox. I don't want it to go down in the books as just *a* show. I want it to go down in the books as *the* show, the show that defined the generations that watched it, the show that brought disparate tastes together, the show that never gave up trying to reach new heights, the show that always had something to prove, the show that pushed every limit of the televisual medium and emerged with week after week of unprecedented greatness. Yeah, the show's been in a rut for over a decade, but the rut's gotten a lot deeper over the past couple of years, and it would be really, *really* nice to see the producers try to make this season a special one.Ep.500 is going to spark a lot of renewed interest in the show. People who stopped watching long ago might tune for old time's sake and might keep watching if the quality is any good. People who never watched before might start tuning in due to all the free publicitythat will surround the show over the months to come. What effect, if any, this will have on the show could have a major impact on its future. Based on tonight's episode, it doesn't look good.

For a long time, fans have been saying the same things: fewer guest character-oriented episodes, fewer "The Simpsons do [insert convention here] humor, less distillation of supporting characters to stock caricatures, less Family Guy-inspired humor, less Saturday morning cartoonishness. Honestly, it's nice to see the writers and producers listen to the fans with respect to "Nedna," and I acknowledge that Fox probably deserves more blame thanAl Jean doesfor pandering to elementary school tastesto the exclusion of all others, but it doesn't seem like the show's producers/writers are paying attention to fans' input on things that really matter to the show.