The Simpsons 24.1 Review - "Moonshine River"
rating: 4
Well, The Simpsons is back for season 24. Man, who would have thought that was going to happen back when it first began? Some say the program is showing its age at this point, and I can understand that, but I still find it amusing, and if it isn't quite as great as it was, its still pretty darn good, as this episode proved. The story features Bart realizing that hes had an awful lot of girlfriends over the years. He tries to reconnect with some of them, only to find that none have any interest in speaking with him again (which does give us a chance to revisit some of the wonderful voice actresses who have played his girlfriends over the years). The last one he tries to visit is Mary (previously seen in the nineteenth season episode, Apocalypse Cow). Turns out Mary is hiding out in New York city, and that gives the show a good reason to revisit the Big Apple. There were some very great, classic Simpsons moments in this episode. I loved the opening credits bit where we saw a sign for a new movie: McBain Capital: Consider this a hostile takeover!, and it was great seeing the return of the Ayn Rand School for Tots. I also got a big kick out of Homers plans to take a popcorn bath. I read about it in a mens health magazinein a dream. The glimpse of Lisa and Milhouses future baby was hilarious, too. But it isn't until the family gets to New York that things really kick into high gear. We get to see Lisa and Marge searching for culture while Bart and Homer try to track down Mary. This leads to some bizarre moments that dont quite work, like Homer with an AC unit on his head, but it also leads to some wonderful comedy gold with Lisa and Marge unable to afford to attend really any of the cultural events they want to. As someone who recently tried to buy tickets to Spamalot, I can empathize. I also really loved the callbacks to the previous time the Simpsons visited NYC (klahv kalash, anyone?). The show did stumble a bit in places, like the previously mentioned AC bit, and the bits with Bart and Mary felt a little bit strained. But aside from that the show displayed the humor and wit that I've come to expect from it. When compared with something like the rather meh season opener for South Park (so meh I couldn't even be bothered to review it, and even watching it was something of a chore), and certainly better than most of whats on TV.