Season Eleven - Episodes 1-11

Episode 1: Beyond Blunderdome
Decent start for the season. There was enough funny gags and Mel Gibson's quest appearance was good. Best part of it was obviously Homer's ending for the movie. Then there was the ending with the dog, that was hilarious as well. Other than that it was normal wacky Scully, whole different series to what show was just couple of seasons ago. You get some laughs that keeps it up, but there's zero emotion and plots are usually worse. But now I'm repeating myself. This had decent plot for Scully episode, which is not saying much. I'll go as high as 5/10 for this though.

Episode 2: Brother's Little Helper
Premise was interesting and Bart was completely out of character justifiably. But it just got worse act by act, wasting a good premise. There's some fun stuff but mostly it could've been better. I'm kind of split between 3 and 4, but I'm on generous mood so I'll rate it 4/10. The first two acts were decent and kept you interested. Third act should've been better, but these episodes tend to go to hell in those.

Episode 3: Guess Who's Coming Home to Criticize Dinner
I picked a hell of a spot to pull a marathon viewing session - right in the middle of the worst era of the show, on the top of that with episodes I've seen already too many times. That said this isn't honestly that bad. This has actually a decent plot, good enough humor and proper characterizations even if Homer is again a bit jerkass. It's top end of the season probably, I rate it 5/10.

Episode 4: Treehouse of Horror X
I think this THOH holds it own among the others of the series. There's decent opening segment, very good second segment and fair third segment even if I really didn't care for that one. First one was decent as I said, perhaps not fully satisfying ending but otherwise good stuff. Second one was great concept with not perfect execution, but it didn't need one to be one of the best THOH segments ever. Third one I didn't care for and it brinds down the rating to 7/10.

Episode 5: E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)
Decent laughs, especially the movie stuff in the first act. The dueling part was interesting as well. Plot lost some momentum with the farming stuff, but it still was fairly good stuff and tomacco is a classic creation from the Simpsons. The ending could've been better. I for one am frustrated seeing Simpsons suckered out time and again from becoming millionaires. Overall decent but lacking that extra punch to really be top episode, 5/10.

Episode 6: Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder
Why is it that the better episodes seem to always concentrate early on the season? I mean this is not brilliant or anything and it has some quite big flaws, but it's still decent. Let's start with the flaws: This is the second time Homer commits suicide, and he is saved ridiculously. I mean are you writers for real? You couldn't come up with better way to convey Homer's inner struggle than to have him kill himself but survive with amazing luck? Jesus Christ. Then there's the ending. While Maggie is kind of superbaby, always shooting people and stuff and the chosen like she is revealed much later, it's still ridiculous that he saves Homer. In a way though it's kind of sweet and it's hard to stay mad at that decision as Maggie is so damn cute. It had some good gags though and plot kept you interested enough all the way. It's good effort in emotion as well, I mean for Scully era - compared to normal episodes it's not that good, but all the good things add up to 4/10 score. For some people though, understandably, this is one of the worst ever.

Episode 7: Eight Misbehavin'
First act was decentish, the downhill started in second and just got steeper in the third. Once again only couple of good gags keep this episode up. There's decent premise, but not very good execution. The whole baby show is silly and it just gets worse with Homer's show in the end. It's amazing that this was written by Matt Selman, whose episodes tend to be good if not excellent. This gets 2/10 for not being absolutely atrouchious, but for a such important event in Simpsons universe they certainly could've done better.

Episode 8: Take My Wife Sleaze
This wasn't that bad again. Concept was decent, Hell's Satans is an amusing name though I prefer Christpunchers but they stay on it maybe too little time. It turns out to be Marge-centric episode and for that, it's pretty good. Character-types fit to the plot very well and it's interesting. This is though one of those episodes that polarize opinions, some people rate it among the worst. Some people probably can't get over the stupid/wacky scenes, like Homer eating the gear and some other points of the plot. For me there was a few decent jokes, interesting premise and just semi-bad execution. 4/10.

Episode 9: Grift of Magi
Well this is genuinely good, no more looking for good sides with a microscope. Or, I don't know. It ends well leaving you with the illusion of that at least. But the episode goes through multiple phases that feel their own episodes. That said it does flow well, but it's kind of weird. I don't even remember how we got to the end. But the end with Gary Coleman and all the Christmas clichés spoofed is great. Perhaps it was rushed and the third act overall doesn't work that well, but the very ending brings smile to my face. A bit of a messed up plot, but plenty of good jokes and deserving of 5/10 rating.

That's 26th episode of today. Next episode will tie with reigning record and after that, it's clear sailing to new record. I might not be able to do 30 after all, I've wasted too much time.

Episode 10: Little Big Mom
Interesting premise, some classic jokes ("Stupid sexy Flanders!") and at least average execution. I have no trouble with this one, there's very little normal Scully stupidity and everything is pretty solid. They fuck up the ending as usual, but I'm kind of used to bad endings by now. There's some trouble with characterization too, but I'm going let it pass. It's another 5/10.

This is the last episode of today and will make the second record of the month. Only two more and I've kept my promise of breaking my record four times this month. That said, I didn't do it every week like I intended.

Episode 11: Faith Off
I pretty much hated the ending. It's got suspense, but it really goes over the edge. Plot is reasonable overall I guess, charaterizations didn't bother me either but there has been complaints about those. But let's just mantain that there's lot wrong with this episode. But there's good things too. Few good jokes and the song was decent. There was enough good to lift this to 3/10.

That's 28 episodes in a day for you. I'll go for over 30 in a few days, but this is fine for now. Only little over 220 episodes to go and ten full days to complete them. That means roughly 23 episodes a day. Tough, but manageable.