Steal This Episode (S25, E09-539)

What's with the hair, Channing Tatum?  "Based on a true story", my ass.

Plot Summary
It's Monday, and Homer is ready for some water-cooler talk.  However, the talk all across the plant is about the latest Radioactive Man movie, and it seems like Homer is the only one who hasn't seen it yet, and he tries his damnest to avoid getting the movie spoiled before he can see it and talk about it.  He and the family go to the movies to watch the film, but a 3D film for two adults, three children and a senior exceeds $70, and Radioactive Man-based advertising that isn't the actual film leaves Homer feeling broke and confused.  He rants about how bad the movie-going experience has gotten while in the theatre and is promptly thrown out before he can see it.

Seeing Homer depressed later on, Bart decides to help his dad out by introducing him to the world of internet piracy.  With a few clicks and a decent internet connection I presume (methods FOX refuses to let be known even though its pretty obvious at this point), Bart quickly provides Homer with an illegally obtained copy of the Radioactive Man movie.  After watching it, Homer is impressed with the process.  The next day, Homer goes to tell his co-workers about the movie, but they've all since moved on to a James Bond movie for discussion.  This time around, though, Homer is ready, and lets Lenny and Carl join him to watch a pirated copy of the latest movie at his house.  With the three thoroughly enjoying the movie, Homer is inspired and decides to host movie nights in his backyard, inviting people from across town to watch his illegally obtained material.

Marge finally catches wind of what Homer is doing, and how he's doing it, and is aghast in shame as she's seen one illegally downloaded movie already.  Unwilling to take part any longer, she sends a letter along with a check to a movie studio, but the head of said studio realizes he just got a name of a movie pirate and alerts the feds.  In short time, the rather expansive movie piracy department finds and arrests Homer for his supposed misdeeds, with Homer stunned that someone would turn him in for simply sharing his love of illegal content.  Marge realizes what's happened and feels massive guilt for what she has unwittingly done.

On the bus ride to prison, Homer is attacked by other prisoners when they learn of Homer's heinous crime, causing it to tip over and crash.  Homer is able to return home, and Lisa is quickly able to come up with somewhere he can legally hide: the Swedish consulate because, you see, the Swedes don't care about movie piracy or the legal ramifications thereof, you see.

As the feds fail to convince the Swedes to give up Homer, Marge confesses she sent the initial letter that got Homer in trouble.  Homer, stunned by this, gives up hope and gives himself up to the feds.  In court, the movie industry is trying to take Homer down hard, but with Marge's encouragement Homer decides to stand up for himself and his actions one last time.  The movie bigwigs there, including Judd Apatow, realize Homer's story is just like your sample movie blockbuster, and decide not just to drop the charges against him, but make Homer's tale of movie piracy into its own movie.  Homer gladly accepts and, somewhat predictably, gets upset when he learns other townspeople are trying to watch an illegally obtained copy of his movie now that he has a stake in its profits.  Bart and Lisa, in the episode's conclusion, try to find a moral to the story but admit that pretty much everyone involved is being a thief in some way, so whatever.

Quick Review
I really liked this episode, its the best episode I've watched in several seasons.  There are a lot of jokes that worked well early on, and thankfully the episode keeps the pointless movie references to a minimal, allowing the episode to really shine.  Things slow down at the end when Apatow and several other movie celebrities get involved, but the episode did so well up to that point they couldn't even ruin it.  The stance on piracy was mostly pro-piracy, I believe, but the more important thing was that the episode wasn't heavy-handed in its message (well, mostly), and it kept things at a 'parody' level of entertainment.  It really was the best episode in quite awhile, like as though it took the good will this season has shown so far and really displayed it all in one go.  It gives me probably misplaced hope for the rest of the season.

Final Score: 8.2

A Star Is Born Again (S14, E13-304)

I think she might have a 'seducing unassuming men' fetish going on here.

Plot Summary
The town of Springfield celebrates a day when red jellyfish wash ashore.  A dance is also held during this day, at which point Ned Flanders is feeling pretty lonely.  He decides to slink away and fill out some tax forms at his Leftorium store.  There, he's met by a gorgeous lady with an admitted fake nose.  After Ned unwittingly charms the woman, she invites him to dinner, while not telling him her real name.  Ned soon learns, though, that the woman is the popular movie actress Sarah Sloane.

Sarah, in Springfield to film a movie, finds herself fully attracted to Ned's charms, and is very forward with him physically.  The tabloids find out about Sarah, who has been in a relationship with many actors and other such men in her time, and cause trouble for the two, but they get through it.  The filming for Sarah's movie wraps up, so she tries to convince Ned to move with her back to Hollywood, but he quickly turns away that idea.  So, Sarah decides to live in Springfield instead.

Though Sarah quickly learns that Springfield is pretty dull, she doesn't mind.  As the two go out for a night, though, she decides to convince Ned to have sex with her, because she's been ready to do it for, I dunno, days.  Ned is, of course, hesitant, but with Homer's advice and a snippet from that ever-so-contradictory bible, Ned agrees to consent, and the two go all the way out in the woods somewhere.  The morning after, Ned tries to get Sarah to marry him, as he's unwilling to continue the relationship without doing that, but Sarah declines and decides to go back to Hollywood.

Quick Review
I have to be honest here, there were parts in the episode I had trouble watching through, it got pretty cringe-worthy.  The only real good portion of the episode was James L. Brooks' cameo during Ned's vision of Hollywood, but most other things - especially Helen Fielding's rather out-of-place Benny Hill routine because 'this is British comedy, all of it' - I couldn't find funny.

I might have developed a bias against episodes focused on Ned's love life post-widowing as I haven't even given any such episodes a score above five yet, but this was pretty bad as well, regardless of that.

Final Score: 4.3