Episode: Saddlesore Galactica After the Simpsons rescue Duncan, a diving horse from a state fair, they quickly realise (or should that be remember?) just how expensive keeping a horse can be. And so Homer decides to train him as a racehorse under the name Furious D. Things go well at first, with Furious D's bad-ass attitude intimidating the other horses and winning every race. But it isn't long before the other jockeys conspire against Homer and, having dragged him into their underground lair, they reveal their true identity. For their diminutive stature and high-pitched voices hide a terrible secret: the jockeys are actually elves. Evil ones, at that. After a bizarre musical number, they issue Homer with an ultimatum: lose the next race or we'll eat your brains. Erm...what? Such an outlandish plotline might have worked as an 'anything goes' Treehouse of Horror segment but as an episode's main story it's just absurd. What's more, the show seems perfectly aware of this; with Comic Book Guy (seemingly representing a disgruntled audience) pointing out that not only have the Simpsons already owned a horse ('Lisa Gets a Pony') and Marge has shown signs of a gambling problem before ('$pringfield'), but he later appears wearing a T-shirt stating ''worst episode ever'', pushing the episode from self-referential to self-satisfied.
Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.
