OK I got to ask this, but did anyone notice that Lisa appears out of nowhere on the side stairs after the Allosaurus head that Homer was in moved acrossed the side stairs?
This review was inspired by the Freeform channel playing The Oceans trilogy, like, every morning during family vacation a couple weeks ago. Just the first three movies, every morning, no variation. Whoever does the scheduling for that channel must have the easiest job in the world.
Haha, I noticed TNT has been playing Kong: Skull Island on repeat for the last 10 days. I guess they pay a ton of money for rights, so, they're gonna get their money's worth. :-)
I love, love LOVE, this episode! Personally, I think it's the best modern episode there is, just because of how dense the plot is without being confused and because of how much fun it is. I also think Neil Gaiman's performance is just brilliant. He supports the plot without dominating it or warping it around him, which I always think is the true mark of a good guest appearance in the Simpsons. However, I think you're wrong about Lisa and the ending. I think that Lisa can't be in on the heist because she hasn't actually contributed to the book. When the others break into the building, Lisa supposedly betrays them to ensure her name is on the cover, suggesting that the others version of the book did not have her as the author or it wouldn't make sense that she needed to do this. In contrast, if she had been in on the plot to switch the books surely Lisa would have insisted on being credited as the author, but this wouldn't have worked from a narrative perspective as it would have seen the others implicitly agreeing that Lisa could be rewarded for their work. Of course this was the plan initially, and it was fine when it was all just for money, but once they realised they cared about the book that wouldn't work as a satisfying ending. This is why Neil Gaiman has to steal the credit at the end, because it would be weird if Lisa actually got to take credit for the others work. So I think Lisa had to not be in on the heist for it to work as the alternative would leave the viewer feeling weird if the others just rolled over and let her take the credit for their work, even if Neil Gaiman was to steal the credit anyway. (Sorry this is so long, it's a complex point and I hope I've actually managed to explain it well).
Thanks for doing these recommendations from the post-90s seasons of the show. I know my Golden Age Simpsons back to front, but there's 20-something years of quality-challenged content I've ignored. Selections of standout episodes are helpful for a starting point or just to give credit where it's due.
Steal this episode and the one where the simpsons go to Boston is pretty entertaining. Although it kind of bias on the latter Mostly because I live in Massachusetts myself
It's always nice hearing someone talk about the more modern ones positively. This was already one of my top, well 20-ish. There's a lot of good ones. But this one is still underrated.
Let's also take a moment to appreciate that this is the third(?) time we learn something about Patty. They could have easily written the YA backstory for someone else. I'm actually surprised they didn't, given Patty and Skinner's history.
I like that the episode really stuck it to the era's YA novels and how formulaic and uninspired they were. The best part, however, they didn't get heavy handed with the parody/commentary. It's such low hanging fruit to go after this genre, and it's very easy to go the route of slamming everything about them and coming across either angry, snobby, or bitter. That even hand really gave the episode the opportunity to be smarter and better than it could have been, and they took that opportunity with gusto. I think they did a much better job satirizing the genre better than the pointless Hunger Games parody in the otherwise delightful Lego episode.
Maybe you should Review more GOOD modern Simpsons , sure theres are More bad ones than good one and of course its pretty much imposible to find something at the same quality to the old ones, but at least if at least you give them a chance then there Will be a little chance that you could find a little bit from what make the Simpsons great in the past.
Agreed. Each recent season has to have some good highlights if someone payed close attention to each episode. It won't be easy, I'm aware of it. But I think its possible.
As an aside, I was marveling the other day during a binge on your channel, how unlikely I found your ability to write every single contribution by your self. You do such a marvelous job I thought for a moment in time that you had to have help. But alas you didn't so I bow to you and say bravo.
I agree that the heavy use of (Steven) "Soderbergh montages" is both funny and brilliant. I almost imagine the writers storyboarding the (boring) writing sequences and realizing, "hey, this feels like a Soderbergh montage", and the lightbulb goes off and suddenly the episode evolves into a heist caper story.
This is actually one of my favorite episodes post-Season 20 (probably because there’s so few episodes from Season 22-present that I can even tell apart). No joke, I seriously would read the Troll Twins of Underbridge Academy; sounds pretty trolly.
This has been my go to "There's some good stuff in new simpsons" episode since it came out. I must have watched it at least 10 times now and I still crack up every time at "and the best part is, I can't even read!" line at the end. Modern Simpsons parody episodes are highly entertaining
A thought -- the fact that Lisa had her own plan at the end, while I agree not effective for the parody, may have thematic significance? Showing us that groups like the book team aren't always the best way of doing things, and sometimes an individual can save the day. Adding a little more grey area into the themes, perhaps. Not endorsing either side, but not discounting either out
As much as I love the Mike Scully era and the "middle years" in the 2000's, I never cared for the post-movie seasons, But there's a few good HD/post-movie episodes that are done very well. I'd say The Book Job is one of them, alongside Barthood, Married to the Blob, and In The Name of the Grandfather.
I used to hate this episode when I was younger, simply because my parents are ghost writers and I being a dumb over emotional tween thought this episode was an attack on the book industry my parents worked in.
I never watched an Oceans movie but this is probably the best episode of the modern era. I was just talking about it last week so it's funny you decided to cover this one.
any chance that RealJims could put a collect call through to Australia on behalf of Dr Bart Simpson of the international drainage commission in Springfield USA?
Since you're so into the Ocean's movies, I think you might also get a kick out of the Star Wars book "Scoundrels", by Timothy Zahn. It takes place between Episodes IV & V, and is about Han Solo having to put together a crew for a vault heist of his own.
Finally watched this one on your recommendation last night. As a fantasy writer myself, I got a lot of big laughs and, “That’s it, that’s exactly it” out of it. Thanks, Jims, you make some excellent suggestions.
Holy darn ,,, I never noticed you were using a style simaler to ocean 11 , great movie been so long since I seen it but your editing style very well and interesting so it must be a good source to take from . Thank you
Wow it’s quite interesting that Skinner joined the group. I saw a suggestion for a Skinner and Bart duo history video. I’m going to do a second recommendation! Skinner and Bart! They have had a lot of interesting experiences together! Please make this video soon! Great episode report!
Thank you so much, when I saw you do your quick review of episode I was hoping you would do a more in depth video for it. I'm not as big of Simpson fan as you but always like this show and eventually the show got stale but when this episode came out I was so impress. Because every so often in more recently season their be gem or two that was refreshing to see again from such a great show it was once
Holy smokes, that's it! From now on I'm thinking, acting, and looking young, and I'm gonna start with a bottle of Buzz Cola! Ooh, ooh, ow! The bubbles are burning my tongue! Ow, ooh, water, water!
This actually looks pretty good. Unfortunately im one of those people who stopped watching the show around 2002-2003. Dont plan on getting back into it.
It took until you mentioned Brad Pitt that I got that you were talking about the REBOOT of Ocean's Eleven. I assumed you were talking about the Rat Pack one.
Hey man, big fan of your content, understand anime probably isn't your thing but you were a source of inspiration for me starting my channel and making my own content, how do you deal with things like copyright?
I mostly just hope and pray Fox (or now Disney) doesn't hit my channel with strikes or anything. Although whenever I did have videos taken down, I would have to submit a counter-notification, which they would always let expire and reinstate the video. They haven't done it in a couple years now, don't know if anime companies are tougher or anything. Good luck!
I made sure to watch the episode before watching this review and I gotta say it's actually pretty good. I didn't expect to like the episode as much as I did. I'd love to see more videos detailing more modern classics.
I remember thinking this was a pretty good Zombie Simpsons episode. Surprised to see you do a full review like this. Honestly, it might be hard, but you should cover more modern episodes.
You might already know this but that joke with the dinosaurs at 1:20 with them smoking is from a Gary Larson comic strip called "The real reason the dinosaurs went extinct", exact to the colour of the dinosaurs.
This is one of a small handful of modern episodes I truly enjoy. It may not be Last Exit/Cape Feare/Streetcar level good, but it certainly holds its own! And I've never seen the Oceans movies! Should probably fix that...
You should do top 10 simpson episodes from beyond the simpsons glory days There are some really good ones that get overlooked because they aren't in season 1-9
