Haven’t done this in a year!! Crap, what I’m supposed to do? Do I talk about stuff before reviewing the show or do I just get right to it? I’ll do the former, but not for too long. now I’ve just spent about an hour gabbing with the movie sections very own Brendan Campbell. Brendan‘s a cool guy whose taste differ from mine, though we are both strongly united by our disliking for Kill Bill. Go check out his postings in movies, and give a peek to the other guys in movies. They may be the newest addition here, but they’ve already done a stellar job of holding their own. How’s that? Good? Alright. Lets get on with the show
“The Simpsons”, Sundays at 8:00 P.M. on Fox.
“Midnight Rx”
Official Synopsis- Homer, Grampa, Apu and Flanders travel to Canada to buy sorely needed prescription drugs with fake Canadian health-care cards.
Favorite Moments- Act 1-Cletus feeling up the velvet rope outside of the museum, Moe’s backless tuxedo, the history of aviation audio-visual materials (and the pilot who tears up), Agnes Skinner as a young woman(never thought I’d see that), “Wow, a wooden plane. It’s about time trees did something, instead of just standing there like jerks!!”, The bathroom of the future (which turns out to be Apollo 12), and Chitty Chitty Burns Burns(Mister Burns in a flying car. Stranger things have happened, right?)
Act 2- Homer as Rachel’s Irish cousin on “Friends” (which is funnier than that entire show), Krusty the bipolar clown, medicating Ralphy with stuff from the evidence room: “I’m cuckoo for contraband!!”.Huey Lewis as a drug spokesman, The Canada border billboard (“Welcome to Canada, now Celine Dion-Free”, Grampa’s gift for giving drugs to the residents (An Operation Dumbo Drop jacket.), “You haven’t done anything for me since you lent me that $5,000 yesterday”, Flanders and Apu arguing religion, and the Winnipeg welcoming billboard (“Now entering Winnipeg: We were born here, what’s your excuse),
Act 3- Homer’s fantasy of getting into Canada, “Katherine Hepburn!!”, Grampa’s wisdom (“Typical Canadian wimpiness, that’s why you have snowballs and we have the H bomb”), the Springfeldians symptoms,(and referencing Sideshow Mel being lactose intolerance, which was mentioned over ten years ago!), and Mr. Burns giving drug benefits to all full-time employees, thus making Homer a freelance consultant.
What Flat Out Sucked- Nothing flat out sucked. Nothing! Were there any sub-plots? No, but there didn’t need to be this time. The story was strong enough to stand on its own as a full-length episode. The ending with Homer and Grampa in the crashing plane was hokey, but didn’t take up enough time in the show to make much of a difference
Most Valuable Character.- Abe “Grampa ” Simpson- The more senile my own grandmother gets, the more I relate to the humor that lies within the character. Sure he’s cantankerous, and often rambles incessantly, but he still has enough sparkling qualities to justify the prolonging of his existence.
Personal Thoughts- Hands down the best episode in recent memory. I feel bad for not catching the writer and directors names at the beginning as they are worthy of high praise for this weeks show. It provided continuity by referencing previous episodes, and most importantly it restored Mister Burns as a heinous villain. I’ve commented in the past about how Burns’ character has had a diminished presence in the show as the years go by, but this weeks show brought him back to top-form and had Smithers acting as sniveling and spineless as he should be. Kang and kudos all around.
Top 3 Canadian references-
3. A Canadian Musical Moment from “The Bart of War”- Bart and Milhouse’s boys clubs are in an all out feud the likes of Steamboat-Savage until everyone sings the peaceful national anthem, “O, Canada”, in one of the shows more surreal endings.
2. The Simpson’s in Toronto” from “The Bart Wants What it Wants”- In attempt to gain back Renier Wolfcastle’s daughter, Bart and the family head to Toronto, or as Homer calls it “America Jr.”.
1. Special Ed. Student from ” You Only Move Twice”- Bart gets stuck with the special students when Homer moves the family so he can work with Hank Scorpio. Among the students is one little boy who spouts one of my favorite quotes from the show: “I come from Canada and I’m a little slow, eh.
See you in two weeks when the next new episode premieres. Adios!
