REVIEW: [UABF09] Pretty Whittle Liar

[Stretch_Dude]

Spoiler

One for the eggheads, in that, like an egg, this had no point.

This wasn't terrible, but I question why it's even there. Who wanted a Brandine episode? Who wanted a "Brandine is secretly smart" episode? Who wanted a Homer and Marge subplot that even the end of "Husbands and Knives" managed to do better? Who wanted quite possibly the most pointless Lisa subplot in the show's history? Why was this basically a collection of Simpsons plot ideas that everyone's tired of?

[Nidotamer]

They do have this odd obsession with the spucklers that is I really don't get

[c_nordlander]

Yeah, sounds like another case of "everyone likes this side character, right?" And even more pointless than that Crazy Cat Lady segment in "Homer Simpson, This Is Your Life".

[Nidotamer]

Thing is... okay confession, if Crazy Cat Lady was just in her one episode? I'd be calling her one of the best single-joke characters out there along with the evil street sweeper from Bart Sells His Soul.

Spoiler

Something about this one just pissed me off. Like on an almost intagible level. Not necessarily for the things that happen in it (well aside from making Skinner a moron) but just the way it's written. I think it's that everying is so bleedingly obvious and hammered in that it feels patronizing. We actually have characters say out loud about how Brandine has more layers to her character than it seemed and Cletus even makes her leave because she promised no character growth or something during their vows. Can we just be left to INFER things at all?

Also the sideplot was such a missed opportunity, and also pointless. We have Lisa enter a club of smart kids that pretend to be dumb. Now there's a lot of characters at the school that used to be written as smart that'd be ideal for this. Allison, Sherri & Terri, Wendell (well, pals with Martin so I'd guess smart?) but nope, just generic nobodies... and Database even though he's openly a nerd so it makes no sense he'd be pretending to be dumb. Or that we don't see any of Lisa blending in at all. I don't think we even see her "hiding" her smarts so it's pretty meaningless when she declares she won't anymore.

But more than anything it was the hammering. The writing is so subtle I think I have blunt-force trauma from it.

[Nidotamer]

I think also... this is admittedly a problem with a lot of Lisa's plots along this line but something about this one feels especially elitist since the A plot had signs of it too. They mostly if not all have this thing where literally everyone but Lisa and one or two people, usually guest stars, are subhuman dreck with no value and only geniuses like her have any value. Been looking into Jehovah's witnesses out of curiosity and it's almost exactly like they see "worldly" people. At best, they're unwashed masses pointlessly cruel and wicked and love to persecute "us" and if not saved should be left to rot. The writing was so patronizing that they clearly saw us as total imbeciles this week.

I think that might actually be the thing that really rubs me the wrong way about most Lisa plots. It's not like the standards Lisa sets are at all possible for most adults to reach in real life and that anyone below her is villified... sometimes even Martin, the only other character that hasn't been lobotmized to serve the plot. You're really gonna say SKINNER can't tell use the sentence "I am not amused" right and goes for "bemused"? Really?

A Ms MAgazine interview said that most of the writers see themselves as Lisas, in which case... *whistles* that's some raging narcissism there.

[c_nordlander]

Haven't seen it myself, but what you describe really sounds dire.

(And yes, Crazy Cat Lady would have been great if she'd only ever been in one episode. I feel the same way about Duffman.)

[Nidotamer]

Well, let it out of spoilers because it is more than just one episode. It's most of the Lisa-at-school plots nowadays.

And tbh, it wasn't like that back then. Early seasons Lisa didn't fit in because she was just out of touch and had weird priorities. The latter being highlighted by Janey existing. It wasn't like either side back then was straight-up evil or worthless, they just weren't on the same wavelength...