Season Nine: Episodes 1-8

Episode 1: The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson
I actually didn't care for this in the first run, it felt somehow too different, but now after a rewatch, it's okay. Characterizations are ok, there's plenty of funny gags and the story is interesting enough if tad predictable and simple. Nothing wrong really after all, it's just a different kind of episode. When it comes to Simpsons' travel episodes, this is one of the better. That said it's not amazing or anything, it's merely good. 5/10.

Episode 2: The Principal and the Pauper
I'm just baffled how this episode got aired. They knew they fucked up in the end. If you can look past retarded Arman-stuff, it's fair episode, but nothing special. Characterizations are ok and plot is interesting. I kept thinking during the first watch that how the hell are they going to write their way out of this to maintain status quo. And I guess it wasn't possible to write a satisfying ending. If they're not going to change anything after all, then why have this episode? It's useless. They've had bad episodes before, but this was truly an omen of worse things to come. 2/10.

It's midnight and day just changed. So I got 9 episodes today. Way too slow pace still. Let's hope this day is better. Actually I have to go for record if I'm going to do one today.

Episode 3: Lisa's Sax
Another flashback episode and one of the later classics of the show (that said, there usually is even nowadays episode or two that are great). There's great characterizations, interesting and heartwarming story and enough good jokes. My favorites were Apu randomly appearing throughout the episode and Bart's drawing. The ending was pretty sweet and I especially liked the saxophone-clip part of it. Also Marge & Homer singing "Those Were the Days" is worth a mention. Only minor flaw is that they cut back to present a tad too much. But even with that it's still 8/10.

Episode 4: Treehouse of Horror VIII
They keep the solid THOH's coming. Three good segments, no standouts, but not really bad ones either. It's not the best THOH but not the worst either, kind of middle of the pack outing. There's the good Fox censor bit at the start 'n' all.. Well anyway, Homega Man left me wondering how did the A-bomb kill everyone but left most of Springfields infrastructure intact? Other than that I really have no gripes with this one. Good balance of gross, creepy and fun stuff. 7/10.

Episode 5: The Cartridge Family
I guess this was okay. The soccer parody at the start was so over the top you can't help but to find it a funny. As a soccer fan I was a little offended by it the first time around, but I can take it with good spirit now. There was plenty of other decent jokes as well. The plot was okay. There wasn't really anything wrong with characterizations either. So it was an okay episode with good humor, nothing else, nothing less, it's 6/10 from me. You gotta love Homer's vision of what live would be if he robbed Apu.

Episode 6: Bart Star
Well we've got somewhat justified Jerkass-Homer here and gross mischaracterization of Lisa just for one joke's sake. I don't really like that but I try look past that. It had some decent gags like King of the Hill-cameo, Marge's C-U-P and Homer's cuts during the credits. Homer's behaviour made it a little hard to stand watching this, but at least plot is okay. It's good episode that has some problems, it's 4/10 rating.

Episode 7: The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons
This was funny as hell. Apu posing as Marge's husband provides us with some great laughs and Homer's schemes are as crazy as ever. I also loved it when people at Moe's toasted for Marge and the conversation prior that. And that's just the icing on the cake. Plot was okay, even a bit cliché maybe, but it didn't really bother me. Besides it introduced us properly with a new character and changed a bit the series dynamics, so it's a prominent episode. Some people will say this forgettable and while there's some slower moments, I don't really get that. I was at least grinning pretty much the whole time. It's a very good episode, but for some slower moments and Homer being a goofball in the last act it gets only 6/10.

Episode 8: Lisa the Sceptic
I don't know. It was a little low on laughs and Lisa's characterization was pushed too far. She got annoying and that is coming from someone who likes her. At least when she's properly characterized, that is. That said her behaviour is not completely out-of-character, just streched as far as it goes without any gain. At least the plot was pretty good and interesting. The episode was also very memorable due to it's peculiarity. There was some moments though that just didn't feel right. I can give this 3/10, but nothing higher, I just see too many problems.