Season Three Episode 18-24

Episode 18: Separate Vocations
Oh God. Rebel-Lisa is awesome! But she's the type of character that goes all the way whatever she does.. I guess that's the long-winded way to say that her characterization was spot-on! Bart was awesome too. Plot starts at a one place, brances to Bart's and Lisa's own plots before it all wrapping up beautifully. Meanwhile there's plenty of funny stuff going on. Great episode, I'm going all the way to 8/10 for this one. I mean if there's a problem with characterization it might be Lisa rebelling to begin with, but the way she rebels is spot on for me. Let's just say that this one is among personal favorites.

Episode 19: Dog of Death
That felt a little bland after so many great episodes. I don't really care for Santa's Little Helper-episodes anyway. As it seems even in classic era they're not that great. It's not really bad episode, but after seeing so many great ones it feels literally meh. This has only the dog plot really, but it starts really late after completely unrelated lottery-plot. The only payoff from that plot is one callback in Marge not buying his lottery ticket and thus avoiding winning $400k. Like I said though it's not bad, there's some albeit not much emotion and there's still the classic era quarantee of funny stuff. But even the funny stuff isn't really a-material.. There's enough in this episode to merit a 3/10 rating, but nothing more.

Episode 20: Colonel Homer
I've seen this episode now, umm, 5 times? Not because I like it so much, it just has happened to be on tv many times when I've watches Simpsons. You'd think that makes reviewing easier, but I don't know.. I didn't feel it - I think Marge was a little too bitchy here considering Homer has done a lot worse stuff than what what happened here. And there weren't a moment I really suspected Homer would do anything. I don't know if there were supposed to be, but anyway that weakened the conflict. But this is considered a classic and I didn't hate it, I just don't think it's as strong as people say. Songs were decent and the gag where everyone calms when hearing Lurleen's song was funny enough (though it doesn't take repeated viewings that well). 6/10 is my rating.

Episode 21: Black Widower
Well, they really maximized our repulsion with their usage of Selma. That's not really a complaint, but *insert Sideshow Bob/Bart/Lisa sound of disgust here*. It's the second Sideshow-Bob episode and it has pretty sane plot, which has not been the case in all of them. Add good humor and proper characterizations and we have a classic in our hands. I loved the animation and the fact that they used extra effort to construct the mystery really tells. The song Selma & Bob sung was good stuff as well. It's an excellent Sideshow-Bob episode, but Cape Feare improves on this and perhaps some other later episodes as well, still it's 7/10.

18 episodes done, only 9 to go! Now the job seems doable.

Episode 22: The Otto Show
Otto is a great background character with his drug hallucinations and occasional interactions with Bart, but when he is at the center stage it gets tired really fast. I wouldn't say this is a terrible episode, but it seems very mediocre in the middle of the great Season Three. That said, this episode doesn't start with Otto plot until the halfway of the show - the Spinal Tap bit really drags on. Luckily it's pretty decent stuff. The Otto part wasn't that interesting. I kinda would've wanted the Bart's guitar playing to result in some kind of plot, but it just doesn't happen - it breeds a couple of good jokes though, Bart's imagination about being a rock star and Homer's talk about how nothing hard is ever worth doing. Good jokes but pretty much nothing else worth of praise, this is a 3/10 episode.

Episode 23: Bart's Friend Falls in Love
This is an excellent episode. Bunch of great gags, like the Indiana Jones -reference in the beginning, Skinner's Vietnam-stuff, the sex ed video, Lisa imagining Homer's funeral, the woman voice in the tv describing fatty foods, Homer talking fancy ("sextet of ale" was my favorite), and umm.. Lots of other stuff. See what happens when I start picking things I liked? The list just goes on and on. So in short, it's a great episode. A definite 7/10.

Finally the season finale (which will force me to have a short break due to having to calculate season average).

Episode 24: Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes?
I didn't remember this episode came so soon. But yeah, it's a sequel for "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" and I'd say it's a pretty important closure. I mean it would've been tough to end that storyline with Herb hating Homer. This is a good episode with great jokes and a good storyline. The standard stuff in other words. I guess there's certain "bunch of stuff just happens" effect in play here, but it doesn't really bother me. It makes you feel good to watch, except early when Herb just keeps smacking Homer in the face (though some people will like that too). It's 6/10 clearly.

That concludes Season Three. No really bad episodes, couple of mediocre ones, but so many greats that I could watch it again straight away. One of the most memorable season's for me. I guess everyone's waiting for how much it beat Season Two. Well I gotta punch in the numbers first.. Magnificent 6,21. Improvement is slowing, but it's still huge pace. I defined the rating of six like this in opening post: 6 = Great episode, unique or just so funny that's it's really either a classic, or I just liked it really, really much. So when your average is a bit better than that after 24 episodes, you know you have a gem of the season. But it just keps better. If it'd go statistically next season would average 6,8 or something.That's possible when I look at the episode listing - there's some true gems in there. I'll start it soon, I'll just have short post break. I'll do the record with 6 episodes and then I'll be done for the day.