Season Thirteen - Episodes 4-22

Episode 4: A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love
This is pretty good episode. Mr. Burns might be a little mischaracterized, but the plot is good stuff and humor is top notch. It's been a while since I last time chuckled so much along the episode. My favorite joke was when Marge wonders if the kids heard and then we see kids faces... Showing Flanders next is the crowning moment of that scene. Good plot combined with good humor, you can't go wrong with that. Still, it's not good enough to get better than 6/10.

Episode 5: The Blunder Years
The start of the episode was very uneven, overall at that point it just seemed silly. The episode turned around though once they started investigating that murder. The flashback scenes from Homer's youth were nice addition and had some good jokes. Plot was overall well built and every little detail was made use of. It was one of Scully era's best episodes, while still not being anything outrageously good. It marked the end of that era. 6/10. Next episode will be the first one with Jean as showrunner.

Episode 6: She of Little Faith
First really serious episode in a while. This tackles religion and while there could've been more satire and funny stuff, it works well for what it is; a character-driven story of Lisa's search for spiritual truth. I think she is well characterized here, maybe a bit heavy-handed in the church scene but other than that she is okay. The plot itself was fine and you gotta love Lenny & Carl in the buddhist temple. Richard Gere's quest appearance was okay, it could've been mediocre but it was handled well and he landed couple of funny lines. Marge and Homer were well characterized, though Marge was at times too stupid. That said, it's sort of realistic as I can remember many times when my parents misunderstood something as badly. Overall it's a strong outing and Jean gets a good start, 6/10.

Episode 7: Brawl in the Family
This episode had a weird atmosphere. And a weird structure, it basicly was - or should've been - two different episodes. Come to think of it, there was a little weird in everything. I'm not saying it's bad, but it did drag on at times and like I said, there should've been either two different episodes or they should've scratched the first half alltogether, because honestly it was pretty useless part. Episode got a bit interesting when the Vegas-wife plot came back into play, but it still managed to drag a bit on. Very mixed bag, but overall it leaves positive enough impression to get 4/10.

Episode 8: Sweets and Sour Marge
Really struggled to stay awake on this one. Partly because it's dull, partly because of my intense sleep-deprivation. Whichever it is, this simply didn't have that strong of a promise and it had Marge in a too big role. Marge really needs strong plot not to be dull, she can't elevate a mediocre plot similarly like for example Lisa can. It's not bad, it's merely an average episode. There was some decent attempts at humor and fairly well-constructed plot, enough to get it up to 3/10. Bit of Scullyesque episode, but that's what to be expected so close after his time.

Episode 9: Jaws Wired Shut
Very interesting episode. I considered this always a part of classic era, it's got that right feel in it, but it just shows how well my memory works. First half of the show was pretty well paced and Homer's transition is well made. Marge acts little oddly in the last act, but the Popeye-parody is so awesome that you don't even care. Overall this was a strong story that kind of naturally was also very funny episode. Top notch stuff and like I said, very classic era feeling episode. 7/10.

Episode 10: Half-Decent Proposal
It's amazing how steep the differences in both sides of the Scully era were in the end. We're only few episodes in Jean era and it has been more of consistent quality stuff they've put in. This one's expands on Artie Ziff's character and in other ways too the setting established in "The Way We Were". As such it's a solid showing. Characterizations are what they should be and everything just feels right, unlike in Scully era when even in good episodes you always felt that something was wrong. Humor was good in this one good especially I loved the line "If Marge marries Artie, I'll never be born." Pretty much flawless outing, and triumphant return to 8/10 ratings.

Episode 11: The Bart Wants What It Wants
I kept blacking out during this episode as well, so it's probably not the best review. It had plenty of fun stuff, even if I was too tired to really notice (now that didn't make any sense, did it?) Plot could've been "tighter" but as it is it works well enough. It's not bad episode by any means, but it falls short from excellent quality. I'm kinda split between 5 and 6, I'm going to go for 5/10 for now.

Episode 12: The Lastest Gun in the West
This episode was a mess. We start with uninteresting plot with the white dog and then proceed to even more uninteresting plot with that western guy. He is a complete stereotype and paperthin character and therefore I really don't give a damn what happens to him. There's some stupid metahumor as well. I like meta-jokes like anyone else, but when they're just tacked on they're not worth breaking the suspension of disbelief. They need to work, goddamit! There's couple of good jokes in the mix, which save this from the bottom rating, but overall it was pretty bad. 2/10.

To be honest.. I'm kind of sick of this. 10 episodes Simpsons a day is okay, but continuosly watching near 20 episodes a day.. Man that's crazy. I'm not giving up at this point, it's too late to turn back.

Episode 13: The Old Man and the Key
Again I had hard time staying awake, but it adds nice little challenge to this challenge. Premise wasn't particularly interesting and the end product isn't much better. I don't know, I didn't particularly care for this episode. Good gags were few and far between. It's okay, not bad, but not particularly good either. 3/10 for this episode also.

Episode 14: Tales from the Public Domain
It's another solid episode. These three-segment episodes are always memorable because they are so different from the usual. Here we have three quite strong stories that only needed an okay execution to work. The first segment was probably the best and they got gradually worse every segment, but they were all ok at least. There was plenty of good jokes in every segment. It's very solid episode, 7/10. Who doesn't love that Ghostbusters ending?

Episode 15: Blame it on Lisa
I can't help it but I got sort Simpson Safari vibe out of this episode. It has silly plot, the kind that seems staple for some reason for these travel episodes, some funny stuff and the usual Homer getting on trouble bit. Ronaldo's whereabout got solved a little easily, I guess the plot could've been better constructed. Some people actually like this quite a lot, and I can admit, it's nothing too bad, just nothing inspired either. Like so many episodes at this point. 4/10 is my rating for this.

Episode 16: Weekend at Burnsies
Fun episode if nothing else. It shows and makes fun of both sides of the matter, just like Simpsons did on their best days. Drugs are easy material for humor so this was obviously a fun episode to watch. That said, it's not perfect. It could've delved a lot deeper into it's theme as there was certainly enough material there, but instead we see extended periods of Homer getting stoned. The crow part in the beginning felt a little stupid too. It gave us a couple of jokes, but still, episode could've done without that and we've had more on the other plots like Homer getting a promotion. Still, it's solid episode, 6/10.

Episode 17: Gump Roast
I actually kind of liked this clipshow. Maggie's two first memories made me vomit through my eyes as well. The plot was just an excuse to show clips, but whatever. At least there was some new material, like the song, which was catchy and provided an ample montage of 13 years the Simpsons had seen by that point. They've truly had stories for years. I'm still waiting for that Marge becomes a robot -episode, though. 3/10 for this one, which is decent for a clipshow. I guess it's more down to the fact that I like the clips they picked.

Episode 18: I Am Furious Yellow
Another very good episode. Hilarious jokes, well-built and intersting plot, good usage of quest stars and decent characterization. Angry Dad cartoon's are great, as is Stan Lee's quest appearance. His interactions with Comic Book Guy are gold! The end with Homer turning Hulk could've been too silly, but it all worked perfectly and now it's just another very funny scene. I guess I'll go for 7/10 for this one. It lacked that little something to make it 8/10 episode.

Episode 19: The Sweetest Apu
Slowly but steadily we're coming closer to the end of the season. This episode was a little heavier on it's theme than recent episodes, but it still never fails to be funny. Great gag with Homer backpedaling combined with the music cue and some good Apu-lines are the most prominent jokes in this one. Marge was acting a little uncharacteristically and the plot started again far away from where it ended, but those are minor flaws. 5/10.

Episode 20: Little Girl in the Big Ten
A great episode - even when this has the disadvantage of being seen very recently by me. I've seen it before this blog, during the first run obviously, between the runs it aired on tv and now I watched it again. It had to endure lot more rewatching than other episodes therefore. Yet I liked it everytime. Some jokes, like Raplh's "Lisa's winning us back!" don't cause the out-loud laughing reaction anymore, but it's all good. The plot is set-up unrealistically though - There's no way that 8-year-old girl would pass up as college girl. But it's a cartoon so I'll allow it, besides it's a great concept, too good to pass up for such triviality as realism. Only problem with characterizations for me was Milhouse's hostility towards Lisa. I might be generous especially since it isn't surrounded by good to great episodes like classic era gems were, but I'm going to rate it 8/10 anyway.

Episode 21: The Frying Game
Hard episode to rate... It had some beautiful moments like Homer taking the blame of the murder and some funny moments as well. However, plot was overall too crazy and the Screamapillar was annoying and the most ridiculous plot device we've seen for a while. I'd say that it was weird premise executed very well. Green Mile parody was good as well. In the end good outweigh the bad and it's average 5/10 episode.

Episode 22: Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge
Fairly good episode, a little low on laughs compared to episodes that preceded it. There was good Sopranos-parody in it though that makes this episode memorable and the main plot was pretty solid. Homer is well characterized and you just gotta love Maggie. It doesn't have any real flaws, but it should be funnier and have more unique plot to make it to really high scores. 6/10 for this one.

That's the end of first season under current Jean tenure. Episode quality took a huge leap already. I'd say that there's some sort of postclassic era seasons 13-??, but we'll soon see how it is exactly. This averaged 5.36, beating Season Nine and barely losing to last classic season. Great season overall, but the great episode frequency recovered only partly - 6 episodes with 7 or better rating. The consistency made up for that. Looking at the Season Fourteen's episode list it seems that it's going to be another fair season. Let's see the lists.

Averages:
Season Three 6.21
Season Four 6.18
Season Six 6.12
Season Seven 5.88
Season Five 5.73
Season Two 5.59
Season Eight 5.40
Season Thirteen 5.36
Season Nine 4.88
Season One 4.69
Season Twelve 4.29
Season Eleven 4.14
Season Ten 4.00

Great episodes:
Season Seven 13 (52 %)
Season Six 12 (48 %)
Season Three 11 (46 %)
Season Four 10 (45 %)
Season Eight 9 (36 %)
Season Five 8 (36 %)
Season Two 7 (32 %)
Season Thirteen 6 (27 %)
Season Nine 6 (24 %)
Season One 3 (23 %)
Season Twelve 2 (10 %)
Season Eleven 2 (9 %)
Season Ten 1 (4 %)

Nineteen episodes already today and still time for few more. Record seems to be beyond reach though. I'll go for new record tomorrow.