Yellowjackets is a TV show I should like. The theme song and opening credits are pretty cool. It features a lot of 90s songs and actors who were popular in the 90s, triggering my nostalgia. The image they use to advertise the show of someone wearing antlers and a veil is pretty cool and makes you think the show will be pretty wild. However, by the end of the first season, I wasn’t planning on continuing to watch it.
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The Simpsons Season 6
In “Bart of Darkness” (S6, E1), there’s a scene in which Bart falls from a tree. Nelson points and laughs with his characteristic “Haw Haw”. When another child says Bart’s really hurt and has probably broken his leg, Nelson replies, “I said Haw Haw.” It’s funny because it’s so horrible. My brother really liked this line and would quote it often.
“Lisa’s Rival” (S6, E2) is pretty funny. A new girl in school is smarter than Lisa which causes her to sabotage her Tell Tale Heart diorama. Ralph Wiggum gets a couple of good lines. “I crushed my Wookie” and “My cat’s breath smells like cat food” are hilarious. The funniest part of the episode is the subplot in which Homer steals sugar from a crashed truck. He keeps the pile of sugar in the backyard and guards it, paranoid that someone will steal it. He mangles a quote from Scarface, claiming that in America, first you get the sugar, then you get the money, then you get the women. His monologue in which he impersonates the blue bloods wondering what is to be done about this Homer Simpson was great.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 5
Sideshow Bob returns yet again in “Cape Feare” (S5, E2) and this time he wants to kill Bart. There’s a scene in which Bob repeatedly steps on rakes that smack him in the face that went on way too long. This was done to pad out the episode which was originally too short. It was hilarious to me that the scene went on so long when it first aired, but on a rewatch, this sort of thing is less funny.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 4
As a kid, one of the cartoons I watched was Tiny Toon Adventures, which featured younger versions of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other Looney Tunes characters. Around the same time season 4 of The Simpsons premiered, Tiny Toons featured an obvious Bart Simpson analog named Blard Simpleton. Blard came from a realistic cartoon and was unprepared for wacky things like anvils falling from the sky. Ironically, The Simpsons largely decided to abandon realism in season 4, opting for a lot more Looney Tunes style gags.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 3
For season 3, the opening credits change again. This time, the tune Lisa plays on the saxophone is different from episode to episode. Season 3 continues to have a lot of famous-at-the-time guest stars. There’s sports stars such as Magic Johnson and Darryl Strawberry, musical stars like Michael Jackson, Sting, and Aerosmith, and actors like Neil Patrick Harris, Jon Lovitz, and Steve Allen.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 2
The first episode of the second season is the highest rated episode of The Simpsons overall, getting 33 million viewers when it originally aired. I remember “Bart Gets an F” (S2, E1) being the last episode of the first season. Since it takes place at the end of the school year when seasons typically end, this would make sense, but I guess my memory is wrong. I was fully expecting Bart to go on to the fifth grade the next episode and was surprised when he remained in the fourth grade. I was Bart’s age when the first season aired, so I thought Bart and I would always be the same age. Alas, I have continued to age while he has remained a permanent fourth-grader.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 1
The Simpsons is the longest-running American primetime TV show. It may also be the most influential in terms of phrases and memes. Several new words invented by The Simpsons such as d’oh, meh, embiggen, cromulent, yoink, and craptacular are now in the dictionary. It’s probably influenced every comedy show that’s come after it in some way. Merchandising was hugely successful from the beginning, with as many as one million Bart Simpson t-shirts selling on a single day.
Continue readingEvil and Some Other TV Shows I’ve Watched Recently
After yesterday’s post in which I expressed my disappointment in Deadpool & Wolverine, it occurs to me I tend to spend more time reviewing movies and TV shows I don’t like while not even mentioning shows I do like. Shows I’ve enjoyed recently include Evil, The Penguin, Agatha All Along, and Dune: Prophecy, but I don’t have much to say about them other than I like them. I think this is because when I love a show, I simply go along for the ride, but when I don’t like a show, my brain has to do something to keep from being bored, so I start to analyze it and pick it apart.
Continue readingDeadpool & Wolverine
I remember thinking the first two Deadpool movies were hilarious, plus there’s been a lot of positive reviews for the third film, so I was looking forward to Deadpool & Wolverine. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. I didn’t laugh once. The main joke of the movie seems to be that’s it’s funny to play a pop song during a fight scene as they do this repeatedly. I think the first time I saw a show play upbeat music during a violent scene, it was an episode of the X-Files back in the 90s. I was impressed at the time since it was so unexpected, but decades later, upbeat music playing during a bloody scene no longer feels novel.
Continue readingThe Glass Looker: Collected Tales of Joseph Smith by Mark Elwood
I read Volume 2 first since Volume 1 was out of print at the time. Now that Volume 1 is back in print, it’s certainly worth the wait. Once again, the artwork and attention to detail are amazing. The artist traveled to see these places in person. He paid attention to small details like how pregnant Lucy would have been at a given time and portrays Joseph Smith being barefoot while divining since this is mentioned in an account. He refrains from having lumberjacks shout “Timber!” since the word wasn’t in use yet. The notes in the back of the book point out easter eggs hidden throughout referencing future events, stories from the time, and even the names of the ships depicted. A lot of work went into this. Elwood is as much a historian as he is an artist.
Mania Delight 