Haruomi Hosono is pretty great.

It sure doesn't resemble Sherlock Holmes in any way.

It felt like the kind of overwrought soap opera you'd find during daytime television, only with the budget of 'Prestige TV'

Sweet! nearly 600 episodes of the Simpsons! and almost 150 of them are good!

Its not cost. They're trying this thing that anime does all the time - marketing the show through the voice actors - the new cast for the girls are all cute 20-something's who play video games, have twitters and are kinda kooky n' fun.

Same here!

I do enjoy their analysis, and hopefully they'll parlay their crazy voices into their new podcast. I do think they go on far too many tangents.

I understand, don't worry - many people can't the forest for the trees. I forgive you.

Those are standalone jokes which correlate with Homer saying something stupid impulsively. This is an entire third act driven by Homers *conscious* immaturity.

this is an emotional Homer doing something on impulse. he might be doing something stupid on purpose, but hes not extolling it as a lifestyle choice, like he is in this ep.

I get what the reviewer is saying. This is definitely a threshold crossing episode - Homer going from behaving outlandishly either out of emotional impulse or because he's being manipulated to do so by others, to
Homer being aware he is a destructive moron and actually extolling it
as a way to live. Arguably its…

Oh okay, now I getcha. Yes, I think that sentiment was in this episode, but in a mangled, badly articulated manner.

I prefer seasons 1-9, yes.

I hated Homer so much in this one. was a callous, uninterested, mean spirited jerk.

I agree. it was lazy to make Bart an artist, but I also *hate* the loser they make him out to be in future episodes. That doesn't feel true to Bart either (note I'm going by the 'classic' Bart model - someone who is resourceful and motivated, though thoroughly let down/uninterested by the school system, as opposed to…

In this episode, it felt like Homer just out and out didn't care at all. No interest in spending time with his son throughout the entire episode, and really just being angry at Bart for being a kid - The example given the longest screen time being Homer is forced to take Bart camping, then deliberately half asses it.…

On the one hand, I'm glad this episode gives Bart a nicer adulthood than other future eps.

Homer's bad parenting was never callous. It felt callous quite a number of times here. Its one of the things I hate most about modern Simpsons.

I felt this episode was in some ways a final step in the long transition from "classic era" Bart, with all his dimensions - to modern era Bart, who is moreorless an empty shell. Why they want to take this direction i dont know. I assume they've just forgotton how to do nuanced writing.

you don't like a single Bart episode?