Fixed Perspective

A week with no posts, wow. I think we've all either been working or too busy playing Call of Duty to bother writing about TV shows. And besides, there was no Lost this week.

I ended up staying up until 3:30am playing that game with Rhee last night, ending with a match on Rust where I got a lucky CP and tore shit up as the Chopper Gunner. With Rust being such a small map, damn, that was a nice 30 seconds. Still, 3:30am rolls around and it's at that point where I remember that there was a new episode of The Simpsons that night.

Apparently Fox has been doing a week of musical themed programming called "Fox Rocks", but I had no idea when I sat down to watch--so you can imagine my surprise when the Kesha song "Tik Tok" replaced the usual Simpsons intro. The song was done with a unique music video that was pretty much the same as the regular one, except they add more scenes and the characters are singing the song. I gotta admit, at first I was a little peeved, thinking that this was an actual change, but it didn't take long for that to wear off. I love when the creators of the show care enough to go out and do something fun like that.

Anyway, the episode was my favourite of this season, and lately it feels like I say that after every new episode. I like new stuff, and since The Simpsons has lasted so long I'm always intrigued as to how they are going to make the episode fresh and not just have some re-hashed idea. I bet that sometimes they mask it so well, we wouldn't even know anyway. This one deals with that "big brother" aspect of modern surveillance after Homer leaves an unattended bag (with plutonium inside) at a train station, the town freaks out (in classic Simpsons style) and installs a similar surveillance system to Great Britain's, where virtually every spot in town is being watched over by concerned citizens, namely Ned. I use the word "virtually" for a reason, as Bart soon discovers a blind spot to the cameras and he and Homer open up a party zone to get away from the constant nagging of the goodie neighbour.

Meanwhile, Lisa is being ridiculed for her blonde hair at school. It made me realize that, yeah, the Simpson kids do have blonde hair. I guess I just never thought of it that way. Lisa ends up dying it brown to prove  point, but I felt a little shortchanged here. The Simpsons writers have a tendency to sell their B-story short if the A-story is strong enough to be funny and smart. In this case, I think Lisa should have had to do something more before she gives way to the lie of her new hair colour, but instead she does it during her first appearance with it. This almost makes it obvious that part of her story was cut to make room for the other one.

It made me laugh, and that was the most important part. It was the part that made me okay with having to stay up until 4:30am to watch the episode. I went to bed almost giggling in my sleep at some of Lisa's one-liners from the second act, and Homer's logic in the first. Looking forward to next week's, but not as much as Lost and Parks and Recreation.