Simpsons Round-up!

Hey y'all!

I'm almost a week late with my Simpsons Round-up, but that's cuz I'm a lazy bastard, plus I've been working like mad to send out a submission package for my horror-epic, An Axis Oblique. Maybe I've mentioned it once or twice. The first twelve chapters can be read here on this blog! Lucky number thirteen is scheduled to be posted soon.

Kay, on with the show!

I won't lie, last week's was near and dear to my heart. Here's the officical synopsis:

"Boy Meets Curl"
02/14/10
"Homer takes Marge out for a romantic evening of ice skating and hand-holding, but upon entering the rink, they encounter a curling team practicing. Marge and Homer take to the ice and discover their love for the sport, and soon after, join the curling team and compete with them in the Olympic trials. Team Springfield claims the win and moves on to the 2010 Vancouver Games, where Bob Costas, (guest voicing as himself), covers the action. Meanwhile, sleazy vendors inroduce Lisa to the world of collecting Olympic pins, and before long, Lisa is hopelessly addicted."

Show Title: The Simpson family clad in old-style clothing flying over in a car similarly designed like the one from the 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Billboard Gag: None.
Chalkboard Gag: None.
Couch Gag: The scene switches to the inside of a gypsy wagon where a fortune teller passes out tarot cards with each of the five Simpsons pictured. She deals Grampa the Death card with Maggie pictured, but he quickly deals it back to her and she collapses on her chair. [edit]

Aside from The Simpsons heading North of the border for the--count'em---third time. (The first was my hometown Toronto for a movie shoot, then onto Winnipeg for some free perscription drugs, woo-hoo!), the episode itself was pretty solid. Yes, it was littered with the usual absurdities common to most episodes over the last ten-plus years, but it also had a pretty straight-forward narrative, which I strongly apreciate.

Anyway, here are my highlights:

- Homer and Marge missing date night so they catch the movie, "Love Formulaic," starring Ben Affleck.

- Agnes Skinner's priceless flashback to the Oslo Olympics in 1952, where a pre-natal Seymour ruins her life for the first time, kicking from inside her belly to cost her the gold medal for pole-vaulting. Of course, I might mention the obvious continuity contradiction, if I weren't sworn never to mention it again under penalty of torture... (cough--Armin Tamzarian--caugh!)

- Marge enjoying another classic episode of "The Real Housewives of Shelbyville," where everyone speaks with a thick New York accent for some reason.

- Bart's new Canadian friend, Millhoose and possibly a Canadian Nelson, who laughs: 'Hoo-Hoo' when he punches Millhoose in the goot!

- A surprise appearance of the mysterious 'Boob Lady' last seen guiding Homer's spiritual epiphany in The Simpsons Movie. She was from Alaska. I guess that's close enough. Must be a snowboarding fan.


All in all, a fun romp with lots of rewatchability. The b-story with Lisa was a bit underwhelming but somewhat consistent with her addictive personality. (Anyone remember the Cory Hotline?) The writers might have been commenting on the reasonably severe street-kid problem cursing the streets of Vancouver twelve months out of a non-Olympic year. At one point, Lisa, looking pretty strung-out, was on the corner playing her sax for change, (wearing nothing but lots of strategically-placed Olympic pins). Riske perhaps, if Southpark, Family Guy and the rest of them hadn't already pissed all over that line a long time ago.

Next week, I'm pretty sure we've got another new one coming. If so, you know where to find the round-up.

Later, and Go Canada!