First of all, congratulations are in order for Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, as it has been reported that the two of them are expecting their first child. Along with that, a huge congratulations to Edge for capturing the WWE Championship. I really liked the possibility of both Cena and Batista holding onto the championships for a full year, but I’ve always been a really big Edge fan, so I was really excited when I read about Edge’s title win. A definite huge moment for him. Lets hope its not a Kane title run, and lets hope he’s able to stay injury-free.
Other than that, there’s not much to talk about this week. We are OH-SO-CLOSE to returning to our usual format (including the returns of the Continuity Police and the TV Fun Fact of the Week), as many shows return to new episodes this week. However, until then, I only really have the Sunday night Animation Domination line-up to talk about.
Simpsons, Simpsons, Simpsons, how the mighty have fallen. Believe it or not, I’m actually a massive Simpsons fan, but in the past year or so I’ve come to terms with the fact that the show is absolutely atrocious now, and has been for quite some time. There were a number of things that have irked me this episode, one of which is that a few years ago, they could have done a fantastic episode devoted solely the storyline that a toll booth has been added to Springfield. That would be the entire episode, and it would have been hilarious.
Now? Well, we get about five minutes of the toll booth, with absolutely no back story or resolution whatsoever. Instead, it just segues to the discovery of a frozen mailman from the 60’s. Which, by the way, got no back story or resolution whatsoever either. Ultimately, it all leads to the story that Abe may not be Homer’s actual father. And speaking of a story getting no resolution whatsoever, what was the deal with the buried treasure? It had no impact on main story at all, and we never found out what happened with it. I had the same reaction to this episode that I have for pretty much every one this season. I walk away asking myself “What did I just watch?”
All of that said, I do have to give credit where credit is due, as I really laughed when Marge told Grampa “See, we still visited you even though we have no biological obligation” and Bart whispers “Mom, you said that three times already.”
Did anyone else notice that Family Guy and American Dad started the same exact way? With an alarm clock going off at 7:00, and a character shutting it off. Anyway, I found Family Guy to be hilarious, as usual. The stuff with Stewie and his ear was especially great. I also really liked the random Chris/Darth Vader moment, especially since it was completely ignored by Chris when he got caught by Meg. The stuff with Brian was really funny too, but nothing necessarily stood out for me. Same with Meg and her faux-lesianismness. The stuff with Chris and Quagmire in the closet during the lesbian scenes was pretty funny as well.
American Dad was actually quite funny as well, especially the stuff with Stan becoming a drunk, and Francine continuously getting black eyes. I was glad they actually put pants and shoes on Roger when he pretended to be human, because there have been countless instances where he’s put on nothing but a shirt and a wig, and managed to get away with being a human. I mean, I can forgive the fact that people don’t notice that he’s gray and doesn’t have a nose, but when you can clearly see he has no human traits whatsoever, my suspension of disbelief only goes so far. So I was quite relieved with how well (relatively speaking) they pulled off his disguise.
Well, that’s it for this week. I believe pretty much every show I watch (including 24) returns before next week’s column, so I’ll finally have something to talk about again. Until then, Case Closed.
