5.4/10. Look, I’m over the criticism that The Simpsons is just repeating itself at this point. When you’re on the air for thirty years, some stories are going to come up again. But the story of Homer feeling rejected as a father by Bart and finding solace in a surrogate kid out of jealousy is just a reminder of how much better the same type of story was done in “Brother From the Same Planet.” Sure, throwing in Millhouse as the surrogate kid and Kirk Van Houten as the surrogate dad makes things a little different, but it’s another scattershot, kind of mean-spirited episode that only serves to remind us of when the show did these stories in a better fashion.
The same goes for the B-story of Grampa trying to run away from the girlfriend he impregnated. Setting aside the ludicrousness of someone of his age (held to be basically just short of Mr. Burns) accidentally fathering a child, it’s another terrible story that makes the characters seem like unmitigated jerks, and only mildly ties into the unfocused father-son bent of the episode as a whole.
The “ChoreMonkey” bits have some mild humor, and as a Longhorns fan, the affectionate but barbed-enough digs in Matt Leinart’s cameo are amusing enough. But the whole father-son rivalry between the mismatched Simpsons and Van Houtens is pretty contrived to begin with, and ends with a rushed and slapdash resolution. Another instance of the show seeming to have lost its characterization, heart, and ability to tell a coherent story.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-11-28T03:51:16Z
5.4/10. Look, I’m over the criticism that The Simpsons is just repeating itself at this point. When you’re on the air for thirty years, some stories are going to come up again. But the story of Homer feeling rejected as a father by Bart and finding solace in a surrogate kid out of jealousy is just a reminder of how much better the same type of story was done in “Brother From the Same Planet.” Sure, throwing in Millhouse as the surrogate kid and Kirk Van Houten as the surrogate dad makes things a little different, but it’s another scattershot, kind of mean-spirited episode that only serves to remind us of when the show did these stories in a better fashion.
The same goes for the B-story of Grampa trying to run away from the girlfriend he impregnated. Setting aside the ludicrousness of someone of his age (held to be basically just short of Mr. Burns) accidentally fathering a child, it’s another terrible story that makes the characters seem like unmitigated jerks, and only mildly ties into the unfocused father-son bent of the episode as a whole.
The “ChoreMonkey” bits have some mild humor, and as a Longhorns fan, the affectionate but barbed-enough digs in Matt Leinart’s cameo are amusing enough. But the whole father-son rivalry between the mismatched Simpsons and Van Houtens is pretty contrived to begin with, and ends with a rushed and slapdash resolution. Another instance of the show seeming to have lost its characterization, heart, and ability to tell a coherent story.