Mini-Review – The Simpsons: “Bart’s New Friend”

This Simpsons episode written by Judd Apatow 22 years ago was pretty darn bad! Obviously it had some recent edits, but the plot progression is simplistic and definitely feels like early-career scriptwork.

This is not the episode’s only problem but the premise that Homer is hypnotized to think he’s 10-years old is too outlandish for the period in which it was written. But now the Simpsons just met aliens so who cares. Also, the premise is kind of just Office Space (though this was written well before).

Some characterization issues. The first act of the episode sees Homer becoming a workaholic after he learns there’s been a guy, who’s now retiring, who’s been covering for him all these years at the power plant. I think this is a clever premise, but the result—that Homer realizes he has to step up his game at work and takes on that responsibility of his own accord—does not feel accurate to Homer at all.

Some of the episode was pretty fucked up. It really bugged me how in one scene Bart seemingly drowns Homer (he shoots a squirt gun up his nose over and over till Homer gurgles and collapses) and then multiple scenes happen before we get to see that he’s okay and that was just meant to be a throwaway gag.

It had a little more heart than your average modern episode. But it wasn’t done well enough to significantly impact the overall not-good quality of the episode.

Community Spec Script – “The Science of Sleep Deprivation”

This is a spec script (my first one ever for anything) that I wrote for this TV show called Community that I believe some people like.

VIEW/DOWNLOAD THE PDF RIGHT HERE!!!

If you’re interested, after the jump I’ve written a big, rambly postmortem sort of thing of the whole screenplay.

Community Reminded Me of Why I Like Sitcoms
And It Was a Great Show, Too

Here is proof Dan Harmon is a lovely sonofabitch:

http://kellyoxford.tumblr.com/post/479774445/my-story-about-the-film-monster-house

However, I’m sure he is something of a network nightmare, evidently to the point they couldn’t even stomach him for one more mini-season. I’m only just really realizing that the finale last week was effectively the series finale as critics like Alan Sepinwall have noted: http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/whats-alan-watching/posts/can-community-work-without-dan-harmon

Furthermore:
http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/saying-goodbye-to-the-dan-harmon-era-of-community

I don’t think I’ve ever watched a show that was so clearly driven by one person’s head get suddenly upended in such a way. It’s vastly different compared to something like The Simpsons which certainly had a golden age but has swapped writers constantly throughout its existence, its drop in quality more of a gradual deterioration based on just going on for way too long as it exhausted all its ideas and novelty. Probably the closest comparison I can think of to this Community debacle is Twin Peaks, which had big problems every time David Lynch left the room and was, in the second season, irreparably wounded by network interference that effectively forced the removal of all potential future dramatic heft and tension from the show in one fell swoop.

Of course, I haven’t actually yet seen what a Community without Harmon looks like, but I honestly can’t imagine how it won’t become completely crippled. I feel there’s something very creepy about this — a kinder, gentler, more budget-conscious, less challenging Community going through the motions, in no way ever attempting to overextend itself — because, even at the times it didn’t exactly work, that’s what Community did.