You Kent Always Say What You Want (S18, E22-400)

Even news anchors have their bad days and enemies.

Plot Summary
The episode opens up with a reshowing of the Simpsons short Family Portrait to commemorate their 400th episode.

The Simpsons go to the dentist for their checkups, but then afterwards go to get ice cream.  Homer buys himself a cone, which ends up being the one millionth cone sold at that store.  As a reward, Homer gets to appear on Channel 6's Smartline (because the ice cream store and Channel 6 are owned by the same company).  Kent Brockman is clearly displeased with the arrangement, but he tries to do the 'interview' anyway, when Homer accidentally spills his hot coffee onto Kent's lap.  Kent reacts to it poorly, yelling out quite the offensive swear.

Kent apologizes for it a short time later, fearing the worst, but it turns out that nobody watched the broadcast because most people nowadays get their news from the internet.  However, there are people that watch TV for the sole reason of finding and complaining about offensive material, and Ned Flanders is one such person.  He finds Kent's swear, and goes to the internet to inform the masses.  The FCC learns about it, and fines the network $10,000,000 for the swear.  This, along with another misunderstanding, leaves Kent without a job.

Marge lets Kent stay with the Simpsons as it was Homer who led to all of this.  One day, Lisa points out the contradiction that is regular FOX and FOX News, which Kent points out is on purpose so that FOX will pay the FCC fine money for their smut, which then gets sent to the Republican party, which everyone in the media knows but refuses to say because of corporate interests.  Lisa, though, offers Kent an opportunity to make that known: through the internet!  On Kent's first broadcast, he outs the media and the Republicans for what they do.  The Republican Party holds a meeting on what to do about Brockman, and quickly decide on a course of action.  Later, as Lisa commends Kent as they walk down the street, Channel 6 offers Kent back his old job with a 50% pay raise.  Lisa hopes Kent will turn them down, but Kent instead quickly accepts the offer.  Lisa is saddened that nobody will stand up for the truth anymore, but Homer reveals that Kent told him one huge secret about FOX, but FOX itself refuses to let Homer share his secret.

Quick Review
We're at the 400th episode now, and each milestone becomes less and less impressive.  This episode was hard to watch through at times.  Krusty's voiceover of the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon was pretty great, but it was really the only good thing the episode had to offer.  As an episode that oddly focused on Kent Brockman, the episode quickly devolved into a message against corporate-owned media and the whole thing just wasn't funny (with a cringe worthy appearance by Ludacris early on making things that much worse), though FOX's attempts to silence Homer at the end was okay.  Its the last episode aired before the theatrical release of The Simpsons Movie, and it leads to the movie on a rather low note.

Final Score: 5.9

Homer Simpson, This Is Your Wife (S17, E15-371)

It takes a very strong and/or naive woman to not get creeped out by a guy like Charles.

Plot Summary
Homer is invited to Lenny's party, where Lenny reveals his new plasma HD TV.  Homer falls in love with it so much he spends several days in a row in Lenny's house watching it until Lenny finally kicks him out.  Seeing how envious Homer remains over Lenny's TV, Marge tells Homer that she entered a contest where first prize is an HD TV.  A few weeks later, though, it turns out Homer has won the third prize: a trip to FOX studios.  While there, Homer learns that he can earn just enough money to buy an HD TV if he enters a reality TV show where families swap mothers.  Homer quickly agrees to do so, and Marge reluctantly goes along with it.

Soon, the Simpsons are met by the Heathbars.  Marge goes over to Charles and his son, while Verity goes over to Homer and kids.  Homer quickly learns that Verity is not only far stricter than Marge, but she also despises Charles and is using the show as an opportunity to embarrass him further.  Meanwhile, Charles takes a liking to Marge, as she isn't verbally abusive like Verity, in fact Marge's compliments strike a chord within Charles and he soon falls in love with her.

Charles decides to make his move on Marge, but she promptly turns him down as they both agree that Homer is somehow irresistible.  Still, Marge has given Charles new life, and he decides he's going to break up with Verity.  With the show's taping at an end, Marge goes back home with Charles where they learn in shock that Verity is going to break up with Charles first!  It seems Verity has hooked up with Patty, the two bonding over their shared hatred of Homer.  Still, Charles is a free man and Homer has his new precious HD TV.

Quick Review
I begin this by saying I'm not a fan of Ricky Gervais (the voice of Charles in this episode), and I was worried that my bias against him could hurt this episode's score.  However, I found this episode rather enjoyable, and that Gervais enhanced the episode's quality with a few humorous situations involving Charles.

Final Score: 7.6

Missionary: Impossible (S11, E15-241)

Oh man, I remember the PJs!

Plot Summary
Homer has come to enjoy a British sitcom that airs on PBS, however he catches PBS in the middle of one of their 'occassional' pledge drives (hosted by Betty White).  As the pledge drags on, they 'promise' to return to the show once they've been pledged $10,000.  Homer desperately calls in to 'pledge' the money, trying to do so anonymously in hopes they don't find out who pledged.  PBS tracks him, though, and soon confront him for the money.  Homer is eventually forced to run for his life, and makes his way to the church.  Homer pleads Reverend Lovejoy to help him out, and the Reverend does so, helping sneak Homer away from PBS officials.  Until the heat dies down, Lovejoy has Homer take a plane down to the south seas for missionary work, much to Homer's panic.

Upon reaching "Microasia", Homer sees a pair of missionaries who are departing.  They tell them that they've taught the natives some English and mocked away their original beliefs, making them ripe for conversion.  Although Homer initially gives missionary work the ol' college try, he quickly realizes he's over his head and decides to help out the locals in his own way: by helping build a casino full of beer, gambling and macaroni salad.  In a tiny subplot, Homer over a ham radio makes Bart man of the house, so he goes to work in Homer's stead.

At first, this change seems good, but quickly the locals become violent drunks, corrupted by the gambling and booze.  Morally aided by a young girl that dresses and sounds like Lisa whom Homer calls "Lisa Jr.", Homer decides to finish building a previously half-built chapel to get the locals back in God's good graces.  He rings the bell loudly, but that sparks a chain reaction where a nearby volcano breaks up, spewing out hot lava.  Homer and Lisa Jr. appear to be on their way to a fiery end, but the episode is interrupted by a FOX pledge drive (also hosted by Betty White), with Rupert Murdock and friends needing money to keep low-brow entertainment like Family Guy airing.  Bart 'donates' money because, after all, saving FOX seems to be an attribute of his.

Quick Review
This wasn't a great episode, and some of the bits involving the chase of Homer by PBS was a bit over the top, but there were a few good jokes spread inbetween and Betty White's appearance was good.  The pledge ending, I felt, was done well enough if not a grand way to end the episode.  Overall, the episode is just alright.

Final Score: 7.3