 |
| NON-STOP ACTION PACKED ACTION RIGHT HERE ON FOX!!! |
The episode is basically a full-blown spoof of 24. You remember 24, right?
The intro sets up that Principal Skinner has created a new, high-tech facility to find and capture truants, with Lisa, Milhouse, Martin and Database as the main core of the group. They learn that Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney have skipped school and they make efforts to bring them in. Bart gets caught in another prank and is sent to detention. Marge learns that the school's bake sale is less than 30 minutes away, and has to come up with something fast to sell there, and Homer is sent home from work after leaving a container of yogurt in the cafeteria fridge for way too long, leaving it full of mold and it stinks like all hell. The rest of the episode takes place from 2:34 to 3:04 pm.
Milhouse is sent out to find the three, and trails them to the Kwik-E-Mart, where Homer has attempted to return his smelly old yogurt. With Homer and Apu distracted, the bullies spy the pungent item and decide to take it. Lisa communicates with Milhouse and has him spy on the bullies some more to learn what they would want with the yogurt. However, Homer blows his cover, and the bullies put both Milhouse and Homer in a dumpster, sending them on their way. With that loss, Lisa suggests to Skinner that they have only one other option to stop those bullies: Bart. Bart agrees to help, with various conditions, and commandeers Skinner's car to go to Jimbo's house. The bullies show that the yogurt is the key piece to a stink bomb they plan on releasing during the bake sale.
As Marge botches her raisin cake, burning it to a crisp in an attempt to cook it really fast, Bart approaches Jimbo's house. However, Martin is a mole, and informs the bullies of Bart's approach, allowing them to escape. After seeing the room where the stink bomb was made, Bart gets a crossed up call from Jack Bauer (you know, from 24!), and takes advantage of the opportunity to prank call Bauer. The bullies infiltrate the school with Martin's help as they take the stink bomb to a ventilation room; not even Willie can stop them. Homer arrives in the dumpster just in time for the sale, as does Marge with her abomination that could once be called a cake.
As Martin continues to hastily cover his tracks, Bart spies Nelson letting Martin go despite his flamboyancy. Bart quickly learns that Martin is a mole, but Martin knocks him out before he can relay this to Lisa. Bart wakes up tied up next to Willie and the stink bomb, with the bullies setting the timer for three minutes. It turns out Martin was being blackmailed, as the bullies had stolen his ant farm (Martin later atones for what he did by giving himself a wedgie). With the fan above him ready to spread the fumes of the bomb across the school, Bart spies a tube that carries a large quantity of used hot dog water. In an attempt to short-circuit the fan, Skinner gives the go ahead to release that water, even though Bart and Willie will likely drown. Bart isn't quite licked yet, and sees a small window nearby that reveals he's right next to the gymnasium where the bake sale is being held. He makes himself noticed, but the window is bulletproof. However, Marge uses his stone of a cake to break the glass, allowing hot dog water to seep into the gym along with Bart, Willie and the bomb. Lisa quickly arrives to disarm it, relieved that it has a simple emergency cancel button on the top. The day seems to be saved when suddenly Jack Bauer arrives to get his vengeance on Bart for the prank call, bringing in every agent to take him down, regardless of the price.
Quick Review
I'm going to start off by admitting that I've never seen 24, though I am vaguely aware of how it sets itself up. So while I'm not going to say the crossover hurt the episode, because the show has already done two such episodes wonderfully), I do feel as though that some of the humor based around 24 and its themes were lost on me as this is the first time I hadn't watched a show that crossed over with The Simpsons.
I did enjoy the plot, though it isn't to say the plot was inherently funny. The episode tries to sprinkle in some jokes while making a really serious attempt to copying 24, but in the end it makes for another subpar episode that isn't as bad as it could've been, but it wasn't that great either.
Final Score: 6.8
No comments:
Post a Comment