Warning: full episode spoilers follow!
The Simpsons isn't a show that generally acknowledges season finales or attempts anything especially ambitious to close out the year. As per usual, Season 26 closed out with a pretty standard installment that rehashed some familiar beats and could have aired at any point in the past eight months. But as unremarkable as the conflict was this week, "Mathlete's Feat" crammed in just enough humor and inside jokes to entertain.
The only aspect of this episode that did stand out was the much-hyped opening couch gag. In recent years the show has placed more and more emphasis on elaborate opening sequences handled by a variety of guest animators, to the point where I'm convinced it's only a matter of time until we get an episode that's 100% couch gag. Maybe that would be for the best? I'll admit that I have yet to dive into Adult Swim's Rick and Morty cartoon, so some of the humor in this sequence was probably lost on me. Even so, it was an amusing and slightly surreal way to kick things off. And it featured plenty of cameos from past episodes as Rick raided the Simpsons home (Mr. Burns' teddy bear Bobo, Bart's evil Krusty doll from "Treehouse of Horror III") and even a few nods to Futurama (including a can of Slurm and the Planet Express ship).
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
The Simpsons isn't a show that generally acknowledges season finales or attempts anything especially ambitious to close out the year. As per usual, Season 26 closed out with a pretty standard installment that rehashed some familiar beats and could have aired at any point in the past eight months. But as unremarkable as the conflict was this week, "Mathlete's Feat" crammed in just enough humor and inside jokes to entertain.
The only aspect of this episode that did stand out was the much-hyped opening couch gag. In recent years the show has placed more and more emphasis on elaborate opening sequences handled by a variety of guest animators, to the point where I'm convinced it's only a matter of time until we get an episode that's 100% couch gag. Maybe that would be for the best? I'll admit that I have yet to dive into Adult Swim's Rick and Morty cartoon, so some of the humor in this sequence was probably lost on me. Even so, it was an amusing and slightly surreal way to kick things off. And it featured plenty of cameos from past episodes as Rick raided the Simpsons home (Mr. Burns' teddy bear Bobo, Bart's evil Krusty doll from "Treehouse of Horror III") and even a few nods to Futurama (including a can of Slurm and the Planet Express ship).
Continue reading…
Continue reading...