Music indeed makes the people come together
"Covercraft"
So, Homer creates a band. Hhmm. Has this happened before? Why yes, yes it has. In season 5's Homer's Barbershop Quartet (personally in maybe my top ten least favorite episodes of mine from this golden era. Perhaps a list like that should appear on this blog at some point?) and season 19's That '90s Show (which I have not heard, but apparently it's not very good). There could very well be another one in between seasons 16-25, when I didn't watch a single episode of the show. Why am I bringing this up? Is it to illustrate the fact that the writers can't possibly come up with new ideas for episodes, and instead have to reach back into their own glory days to reuse ideas (that they end up doing a poor job with)? Well, honestly no. I mean, they certainly do do that, but in this instance, it doesn't bother me. THAT'S my point. It's been 21 years since the golden era episode about Homer being in a band. Sure, they have that crappy season 19 one, but that's more a flashback/retcon kind of episode anyway. If they can take a simple story idea from 20 years ago and make it again, but make it different and make it interesting, I have no problem with that. Did they do that with this episode? Mostly yes, I guess.
If you haven't guessed by that mind-vomit of an introductory paragraph, this episode sees Homer taking up bass, then starting a cover band with other dads of the neighborhood (Dr. Hibbert on drums, Rev. Lovejoy on guitar, and Kirk Van Houten on keyboards). They recruit Apu as a singer, because hey, he sings just like an '80s hair metal singer. They do shows in Springfield. Then, Apu is recruited by the '80s band (Sungazer) that taught him to sing so well, to join them on a tour. Apu tours with them, hates it, and eventually he gets out of his contract by getting arrested for helping to poison the rest of the band with rotten Kwik-E-Mart hot dogs. So, yeah, it's certainly a different idea than the one from 20+ years ago. I don't mind the story actually, as it is fairly unique and pretty fun. It's not an enormously funny episode, but it's heads, shoulders, arms, waists, knees, and feet better than that awful Blazed and Confused episode I recently watched/wrote about [fun side note: on IMDB, someone gave that episode 10/10 stars. Thought that was interesting. Maybe it really is a great episode, worthy of being on anyone's top ten list.]
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| They actually look like they're having fun! |
Let's start with the couch gag. I'm sorry I always harp on the length of the couch gags, but the super long ones really annoy me. Luckily, this one was short, and probably my favorite couch gag of the season so far. All the members of the family, distracted with smart phones, enter the living room. They bump into each other and all fall onto the floor. They continue fiddling with their phones on the floor. Short and awfully timely. Take THAT jab, phone-obsessed society!
I noted in my notes that it kind of does the whole "throwing away continuity" thing that newer episodes seem to do. It's not huge, but just the fact that Apu can sing much differently than he did with the B-Sharps, and that no one seems to have any memory of that other band they had, is kind of annoying. However, and I didn't notice it as I watched, but as I typed the members of the band up in that second paragraph, I realized that some of those actually are tied into continuity. Well, maybe not continuity, but character history. Obviously Kirk plays the keyboard, because that's what he did in A Milhouse Divided [author's note: yeah, this one is BOLD! Um, I haven't watched that episode in a while, and I really thought he did play keyboard, but I just looked online for a few minutes, and while he definitely sings, I don't think he plays keyboard. However, I feel it's the absolute perfect instrument for him TO play], and Lovejoy plays guitar, as he once did in one old, great episode (that I can't think of). Yeesh, this second half of this paragraph didn't go the way I wanted it to. Aaand star wipe...
At any rate, this was a decent episode. Everyone (Homer included) was tolerable. Unfortunately, that's something I have to mention now. The writers love to over-exaggerate these characters and their various foibles and characteristics to beyond-Family Guy levels sometimes, and that's scary. A character that I really don't like much in these newer episodes is Kirk, yet he's fine here. Thank god for small favors. I was afraid, after the opening minute or two, that had Moe and the King Toot guy fighting over a dumpster, that I was in for an awful episode. I'm lucky the story didn't focus on them anymore (except at the very end, during the credits, with an actual decent part from Sammy Hagar), and it was an okay episode for it. So, it's pretty standard season 26 fare, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
Thanks for wading through my rambling with me. I'll give this episode a mighty...
5.5/10
- I like the look of the King Toot guy. I'm glad he was barely in the episode, but he was visually different from a lot of Springfield denizens.
- When Homer first plays the bass in the guitar store, his animation gets all jiggly. I enjoyed this
- Stacko: A Game of Stacking
- Homer bringing his bass everywhere was kinda funny
- In general, I love the sound of the bass, so I aurally enjoyed this episode quite a bit
- The band plays the Springfield Cabbage Festival. I actually thought this was quite funny. Later on, in a montage, they are shown playing the Purple Cabbage Festival, which I enjoyed even more. But then they are shown to be playing the Savoy Cabbage Festival, and I didn't like it as much. They should have stopped at Purple Cabbage
- There's a bit where Homer over-explains (and goes on for too long) about the band Genesis. A perfect summation of a big problem with new Simpsons: jokes that go on for way too long
- The "Gold Parking" bit was pretty funny
- And speaking of the goddamn B-Shaprs, Apu's dressing room has a picture of them. I didn't really care for that
- The ending is nice at least
- HOMER: "Well son, I do have the talent. My mind is full of ideas for great songs I could write...down the names of and then cover". (this was the only quote I wrote down, but I thought it was awesome. Two thumbs up!)
Here we are, at the end of another of my "reviews" of an episode of The Simpsons from the fabled season 26. I'm trying to FINALLY get caught up to where they are on TV. I'm still six episodes behind, but I plan on watching three-or-four more this week. So that means, next week, I should be ALL CAUGHT UP (now that there's only like five episodes left or something). Thanks for sticking with me, and check back tonight or tomorrow for another new post!
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