Season Four Episodes 7-12

Episode 7: Marge Gets a Job
A fun little episode that is probably lucky to be the first of the day. I don't think there's anything really bad about this episode, but it isn't as good as those that I watched at the end of yesterday. Good solid plotline with an okay characterizations and funny jokes. I especially liked when Bart moaned about his ovaries. Main plot was okay and it had the average amount of laughs. The sideplot managed to be predictable and surprising at the same time - you knew that something bad was going to happen to Bart, but you didn't expect it to be exactly wolf attacking him. We got to admire Willy's physique again.. Decent episode, 5/10.

Episode 8: New Kid on the Block
I don't really care too much about Conan O'Brien, and this was the first episode where he got the writing credit. I gotta admit that he did a good job on the Simpsons though, but his style of humor shows and all of it doesn't work on me. That said, this episode had some good jokes, especially Homer trying to talk about women to Bart. It's first Bart gets a girfriend (sort of) storyline also. I don't there's anything that special about the story - they get a few laughs of it and in the b-plot the Sea Captain is introduced. I used to like him, but nowadays I am a little bored of him. Laura was a good side-character, it's a shame that she didn't become regular (After all, she did move right next door). I guess it all amounts to 5/10 rating. Good, but not great.

Episode 9: Mr. Plow
This is again an episode which is considered a classic but I don't rate it that highly. Yeah, it has bunch of great jokes, but on the top of that there isn't really that much. It deserves a mention among the top, but like I said it doesn't get top of my list, but if I gotta raise something to closer examining, it's the second mr. Plow commercial, which is hilarious in it's absurdity. There's too many good jokes to list, and the plot was good. I'm struggling to explain why I don't rate it as highly as other people do, but it just seemed missing something and then again there's the matter of almost 20 years in between it's making and me watching it. I have not seen this originally so it doesn't have any nostalgic value for me. It's memorable and fun episode, but nothing else, 7/10.

Episode 10: Lisa's First Word
This episode is just overflowing with sweet emotion and it manages to be funny at the same time. They manage to put some new swing on the old jealousy over new kid -plot. The ending is kind of predictable, but it doesn't make it any less sweet. Also the kids calling Homer "Homer" is a great joke and it set-ups the very ending with Maggie, which was very sweet, although I admit a little sappy. Bunch of great jokes and nostalgia in this one, but a few slow moments drop it "way down" to 8/10. Lisa is especially cute on this one, even when she is bald.

Episode 11: Homer's Triple Bypass
This concentration of emotion inside a two episodes was probably what got me hooked during the first run. Another emotional episode in a row.. I'd say it was lower on laughs than the previous episode, but it just might be as funny. There's really serious atmosphere and it gets really tense when we wait for the results of Homer's operations - even if we now that the show has went on for nearly 20 years after that episode. That takes some skill to pull off. Another 8/10 clearly, these are the episodes that make you love Simpsons. Funnies moment for me was Barney thinking that Homer's going to have sex change.. Yeah I guess I like low-brow humor. There's lots of other fun stuff too, that was just an example. Oh and who wouldn't love that COPS-reference, especially the Bad Cops -song?

I'll do one more, and then that's it. I'll come back today obviously, but no more in a row.

Episode 12: Marge vs. Monorail
To be honest.. I don't get why this is so appreciated. It's another solid episode, I give it that, but it isn't the funniest, it doesn't have that much emotion and plot has some parts that bother me. It's funny alright, but Simpsons have many better episodes in that department. The song is of course nice and makes this episode very memorable, but that's pretty much it. Well I gotta praise the Flintstones parody at the beginning as well. Leonard Nimoy makes a pretty good appearance as well. That said, "only" 6/10 for this one. What bothered me? Well I wasn't satisfied with the way Lynley was dealt with - the plane just happened to land in North Havenbrook and the people somehow knew he was on it? I guess these just aren't my kind of episodes. But like I said, it's not bad, it's really good, just not as good as people think of it.

That was pretty stellar six episodes. I'll be back.