Elementary School Musical (S22, E01-465)

The two hear a classic form of art outside: the art of killing!

Plot Summary
Somehow, Krusty wins the Nobel Peace Prize.  He has a press conference about it in Springfield before flying to Oslo to claim his prize, when a joke he gives elicits the laughter of only one person: Homer Simpson.  Krusty decides to bring Homer along to laugh at his jokes at the prize ceremony, and Homer is allowed to bring Bart as well.  Lisa, the only Simpson to actually care about the Nobel prize, is miffed that Bart gets to do all the cool things because he's the oldest, and Maggie gets to do some other things because she's the youngest.  Marge understands Lisa's frustrations, so instead of going home Marge takes Lisa to a week's worth of Performing Arts camp, much to Lisa's joy.

After other campers who sound suspiciously like the cast members of Glee welcome Lisa via song, Lisa meets two men who are the camp's counselors.  With their help, Lisa has the best week of her life.  The two counselors, along with Stephen Hawking and a cow, pronounce Lisa has artistic talent and to pursue it as best she can.  Unfortunately for Lisa, the week eventually ends and Marge picks Lisa up much against her will.  Lisa has a hard time readjusting to her boring life at school and at home and decides to run off to "Sprooklyn", a borough of Springfield, to meet up with her magical counselors again.

Meanwhile, Krusty's plane does not land in Oslo, but rather in the Hague, as it turns out Krusty fell into an international trap to nab him for various supposed crimes against humanity.  Krusty gets sent to jail, but will be released if he can show one instance where he positively influenced the world.  Of course, Krusty can't, so its off to jail for him, but Bart and Homer try to find anything over the internet which can save Krusty.  Bart eventually comes up with something: a video from 1990 where Krusty cancels a performance in South Africa, and three days later Nelson Mandela is released from jail.  The judge for some reason makes a connection between the two events, and lets Krusty go free for his supposed good deed.

Lisa finds her counselors in their apartment, but gets hit hard with reality when she finds out neither guy is doing all that well.  Turns out, a career in performance arts leads to ruin for most and they're left to work at a Subway parody getting lunch from the sandwiches and sandwich toppings they "drop" on the floor.  The two have also since lost some musical ability since camp, and Lisa is glad when Marge finally finds her.  Before they leave, though, the counselors tell Lisa they do have a surprise for her: they paint a sign on a building's side stating that Sprooklyn is the "once and future home of the great Lisa Simpson".  Lisa is happy with this parting gift, and the two counselors go back to their minimal wage, if that, jobs.

Quick Review
Once again I'm left with an episode that's better than I expected it to be.  Advertised as an episode featuring the cast of Glee, those people actually had very little presence and it was other guest stars that made the difference.  A surprise guest spot from Stephen Hawking is more than welcome, and the two members of the two member group Flight of the Concords provided excellent spots for their respective counselor characters, making the main Lisa story very decent.  Add in a good Krusty side story, and it makes for a good, if not great, start to the season.

Final Score: 7.6

Stop or My Dog Will Shoot (S18, E20-398)

The design flaw here is that now, Robodog can not literally take a bite out of crime.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons go to a Harvest Festival, but end up getting stuck in a massive cornfield maze.  For some reason, the family splits up, and eventually Marge and the kids escape.  Homer, though, is unable to get out and he remains stuck inside for hours.  The police arrive to help, but their retrieval dog has gotten old and has given birth to puppies, so that's no help.  Instead, Bart calls over Santa's Little Helper, who had been resting in the car, to come and help.  After picking up Homer's scent, the dog is able to locate and bring out Homer.  The police are impressed with the dog's effort and invite him to be a police dog.

After some brief training, Santa's Little Helper becomes part of the force, teaming up with Lou in the K-9 unit.  As Bart begins to miss his dog, Santa's Little Helper quickly becomes overwhelmed with his new life on the force, and begins to display a more aggressive attitude to stay in the game.  The dog is able to catch and apprehend Snake after he tried to sell illegal steroids, but after incorrectly filing the paperwork, the court is forced to let Snake go.  Lou lets the dog go home for awhile to cool off, but it does little good; as Bart comes from behind to greet his dog, the dog reacts aggressively and bites Bart in the leg.

After some discussion, its decided that the dog will stay with Lou.  Homer and Marge decide to get Bart a new pet, and Bart eventually decides on a Python he calls "Strangles".  Bart takes Strangles to school for show and tell, but the python slithers away, forcing the evacuation of the school.  The police arrive with its K-9 unit, but as they go in the python slithers into the science lab, unwittingly creating a toxic gas.  The police are forced to flee the school, but its learned that Bart is still inside, looking for Strangles.  Santa's Little Helper storms in to rescue Bart.  Bart does succumb to the gas, but is rescued by Strangles and/or the dog, and Bart decides to let the dog finish saving him.  The dog is freed of its responsibilities as police dog, reuniting him with Bart, while Strangles becomes Willie's new pet, though its new role at the school is something I'm not quite sure of.

Quick Review
This ended being a pretty weak episode.  Stephen Hawking makes a quick cameo during the dog's search in the cornfield maze, and it was appreciated, but there was hardly much else to like here.  Once the dog became part of the force, it was hard to find anything worth laughing, though the bit with Snake (Jailbird) was alright.  Strangles had its moments too, but it all still made for a less-than episode.

Final Score: 6.4

Don't Fear the Roofer (S16, E16-351)

How can a professional roofer be so likable?

Plot Summary
During a rather rainy night, the Simpsons' roof starts to give in, causing leaks everywhere.  After Homer's half-assed attempt to circumvent fixing the roof fails, the entire family gets mad at him.  Homer goes to Moe's in frustration, but comes in just as everyone there (including Stephen Hawking, who owns a local Little Caesar's now) tries to surprise Lenny with a party.  Homer ends up ruining the surprise, and Carl's cake that looks like a stool, and he's kicked out of there as well.  Lonely, Homer winds up going to a Hooters Knockers.  After being shrugged off by the bartender, who has a patch over his eye, Homer finally befriends someone: Ray Magini.  The two quickly get along, and Homer learns that Ray is a roofer, and asks Ray to help out.

The next day, with Marge still mad at Homer over the roof, she and the family leave to do various chores.  Homer is by himself for only a moment when Ray walks up and the two begin on the roof.  However, the two goof off, drawing the ire of Ned Flanders, forced to run off after Homer shoots nails at him.  Soon, though, Ray is forced to leave, and Homer winds up falling through a weakened portion of the roof, falling asleep in the aftermath.  Marge becomes increasingly frustrated with Homer not just because the roof still isn't fixed, but because Homer begins to depend on this 'Ray' she's never met, and forces Homer to buy some shingles the next day to fix the roof himself.  Homer takes Bart with him to the hardware store, where Homer comes across Ray again, and the two agree to work together on the roof again.  However, Ray doesn't show up, and Homer wastes the entire day sitting on the roof awaiting Ray's arrival.  Marge eventually figures out that Ray is only part of Homer's imagination, and after Homer's delusions cause him to get injured Marge takes him to a mental institution.

Homer doesn't believe that Ray is imaginary, but he learns that nobody has actually seen Ray.  Not that bartender, not Flanders, not even Bart.  Dr. Hibbert agrees to help Homer become sane again through a series of electroshock therapies.  Six weeks later, Homer is good as new, but Ray walks right up to Homer, which shocks everyone else because, hey, they all though Ray was fake.  Ray begins to casually explain that all those instances of people 'not' seeing Ray was because something was blocking their sight (the eyepatch for the bartender somehow, Flanders couldn't see Ray behind the chimney).  However, Bart had no such object blocking his sight, but Stephen Hawking arrives just in time to explain that a miniature black hole appeared between Bart and Ray which absorbed all of the light Ray was reflecting, thereby making it look like nothing was there from Bart's perspective.  Lisa confirms its plausibility, and everyone is happy.  As for why Ray didn't show up, Ray has a simple explanation, the most believable one of them all: he's a professional contractor!  Still, Homer went through a lot of crap for nothing, and forces Hibbert to do something to make up for it.  Soon, Homer and Ray are chilling out on the rooftop as they watch Hibbert fix the roof, talking about a certain program that aired at 9:00 on CBS on Mondays at the time.

Quick Review
I'm being honest when I say this, and the scores will back it up: this was the best episode I've seen since Season 12.  It is, thus far, the best episode in Al Jean's zombie Simpsons run.  Why is that?  There's a few reasons.  First off, the guest stars were wonderful.  Ray Romano provided an excellent guest voice for Ray Magini, and even if only for a couple of lines Stephen Hawking provides great comic relief.  The plot was pretty good as well, even if the explanations behind everything got kinda farfetched.  This is Season 16's best episode, and I can only hope that this episode is an indicator of improved quality to come.

As an aside, this episode touts itself as the 350th episode, but the 350th episode that aired was the one previous to this one, Future-Drama.  Why producers or FOX or whomever keep getting their numbers wrong, I'll never guess.

Final Score: 8.6

They Saved Lisa's Brain (S10, E22-225)

America will be in smoldering ruins before it even thinks about adapting metric time.

Plot Summary
The family goes to a grossout contest where the saddest act wins a trip to Hartford, Connecticut.  However, when the judges give the award to themselves (for being seen in public with the actual sad acts), a riot ensues.  In the chaos, Homer is able to 'earn' the second place prize: erotic photography, yeah.  The grossout contest and its ensuing riot greatly depresses Lisa, who writes a letter asking for betterment and change to a local newspaper.  The newspaper prints the letter, though Lisa is unable to find anyone in town who actually read it.

Soon, she gets a mysterious letter paper-planed to her telling her to visit a specific house.  There, she meets the Springfield chapter of Mensa, consisting of Dr. Hibbert, Principal Skinner, the comic book guy, Professor Frink and a typical businesswoman, Lindsey Naegle.  Lisa's letter garnered their attention, and they accept Lisa into the organization where intellectual thoughts can be discussed.

One day, the group tries to have a public meeting at a gazebo they reserved, however the gazebo is occupied by boozehounds, and Chief Wiggum makes no effort to fix this.  Lisa encourages the group to do something about it.  They attempt to confront Mayor Quimby over the gazebo issue, but the way in which they pressure him makes Quimby think they're on to much worse, and he flees town.  After checking the town charter, which states that in the case of the mayor's absence, leadership goes to a group of intellectuals, in this case Mensa.

Meanwhile, Homer goes to get erotic pictures taken of himself, which takes place in his home.  After a botched attempt thanks to Bart's meddling, Homer gets the photos taken in the basement which is dressed up for the occasion.  Later, Homer gives the photos to Marge, and though she is initially turned on by the photos, she is soon distracted by the basement designs shown in the photos, and goes to dress up the basement herself, much to Homer's disappointment.

Although Mensa is able to change a few ways the town operates, making it more efficient, each member's own agenda starts to get in the way of progress.  They host a public forum to announce more changes, but as each member tries to implement policy based on their own preferences (Frink banning every physical sports, comic book guy forcing mating just once each seven years, etc), they start to argue with one another.  Stephen Hawking comes in to berate the group, noting that power has corrupted them, which prompts the crowd to start another riot.  Hawking is able to save Lisa, and as he ponders that even the smartest of people can still act childish, he and Homer go out for some beer.

Quick Review
This episode wasn't doing much good for most of its time.  Though the opening grossout plot was fine, the Mensa plot had little going for it in terms of hilarity, and Homer's erotic picture subplot wasn't doing much better.  The appearance of Stephen Hawking, though, was superb and it really saved this episode.  Sure, it sets up his animated character both here and also in Futurama as a know-it-all type who gets places by stealing ideas from others, but he still provides a level of comedy in this episode that just wasn't there otherwise.

Final Score: 8.0