[6.7/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I have to give “Tis the Fifteenth Season” this much. It picks a plot and sticks with it, more or less. The first act is about Homer being selfish. The second part is about Homer watching various adaptations of A Christmas Carol and having a change of heart, aiming to be selfless to everyone he encounters. And the third act is about his good deed rivalry with Ned Flanders that goes off the rails when Homers takes a lesson on Buddhist detachment in an overzealous direction.
That’s not the sharpest plot The Simpsons has ever come up with, but it’s a solid one. There’s cause and effect there, and a vaguely heartwarming ending built on Homer trying to be considerate and ending up messing things up in a characteristic Homer way.
The problem is that the tone, timing, and characterization for so much of this is just off. It’s not a very funny episode with only a few good comic lines, and a lot of gags that feel too random, mean-spirited, or Family Guy-esque for the show. I’m willing to give this one a bit of a pass on featuring a good helping of Jerkass Homer since his change of heart is the point here, but plenty of other characters are jerks for no good reason, without there really being much of a joke.
A lot of the jokes don’t land due to strange cuts or lines that just land with a thud. I don’t know if the show was trying to pack too much in and so had to end scenes or transition to new ones abruptly for that reason, but there’s plenty of decent gags that crumple and collapse because of a rushed line-read or not having enough time for the joke to land.
Still, as post-classic Xmas episodes go, this one isn’t bad. It doesn’t feel much like The Simpsons, and there’s a lot of time-wasting filler like an oh-so-timely spoof of the California Raisins that gets in the way. But at the core of this one, there’s a sturdy, seasonally-appropriate character story for Homer, which at least puts “Tis the Fifteenth Season” into “could be worse” territory.
Shout by KevibVIP 3BlockedParent2023-10-13T05:40:15Z
Decent story, some good jokes, could have been an episode from the early seasons but unfortunately it's just boring at times.