(originally aired September 28, 2008)
This episode feels like someone just wrote the bare basic outline, and then they just went into writing it without developing anything. There have been plenty of shows like this, but this one feels particularly egregious, where we just hit the familiar plot beats so transparently: bonding scene, chase scene, dramatic “twist.” Everything is explained and laid out so openly so the dumbest of viewers can follow. After a drunken St. Patrick’s Day Parade brawl, Homer is arrested and must see a bail bondsman, because this is normal behavior for him now. Arriving there, he’s introduced to a bounty hunter, who, in one long piece of exposition, explains who he is and what he does, and Homer automatically decides to become one. He tracks down his first perp, Snake, and is saved from being shot in the face by Flanders, in one of the biggest cheats in the history of the series. The two end up becoming partners, just ’cause, and bonding in the process. But soon Flanders must take Homer to task for his past transgressions, as his last job is to bring him in.
Homer can’t stand Flanders, but I guess because he saved his life, he decides to team up. Then we see the two grow to like each other during a stakeout, a scene that just feels shoehorned in for the purpose in showing them growing on each other. They sing from Flanders’ white-washed AC/DC cover band, then Homer shows Flanders a new way to eat pizza… like, what the hell is this? Then we finish it off with a big two-minute chase across town in an overly elaborate and choreographed fashion, because parkour is popular and it’s a thing we can do to show we’re still relevant. I thought back to previous instances of over-the-top chases involving these characters. In “Homer the Heretic,” Flanders chases Homer in his car in a last ditch effort to bring him back to Christianity, which is the whole point of the episode. In “Homer Loves Flanders,” Homer latches onto Ned’s car a la the T-1000, a complete lunkhead who doesn’t realize he’s pushing his new friendship too far. He’s being dragged by a speeding car, but we buy it because it ties in with the theme and makes sense in the story. Here, Homer and Ned are agile acrobats doing backflips and jumping across cars on the highway for no particular reason. Anything to pad twenty minutes, I guess.
Tidbits and Quotes
– Small moments sometimes hurt and reveal the most. The Simpsons comment on the Springfield river being green for St. Patrick’s Day. Then Mr. Burns chimes in (“Actually, my nuclear plant did that. And now that you know, your life is in danger.”) Music sting. Tint fingers. Then he walks away. Why would Burns just openly mention this? And of course then the threat is deflated. Burns used to be a formidable force, an actually legitmate antagonist. Now he’s a toothless, doddering old fool who’s of no harm to anyone, unless the writers remember he’s supposed to be evil, then he becomes a one-dimensional cartoon super villain. None of this is new though. That’s why this blog has become so stale.
– Not only do we see that goddamn leprechaun again, now there’s an orange Northern Irish leprechaun for him to play with. And the Hulk and the Thing are there too. Oh wait, in court he says he’s the Mulk. Goddammit.
– There’s a B-story here too where Marge becomes an erotic baker. Okay. She works in the guy’s shop for what seems like a good amount of time, and yet doesn’t realize what’s going on until he comes clean. It’s just more awkward attempts at trying to be racy, but not understanding that saying “penis” on The Simpsons just isn’t funny in and of itself.
– The bounty hunter’s name is Wolf, and he looks like Dog the Bounty Hunter. Great work, guys.
– Gloria returns again, now pregnant with Snake’s child. Does the staff really love Julia Louis-Dreyfuss or something? Why does this character keep coming back?
– So Homer chases Snake down an alleyway, and Snake shoots at him. The bullet races towards his brain… bounces back and nabs him in the arm. What stopped it? Flanders, holding a big piece of bullet proof glass he was buying for the Leftorium. There’s an giant empty opening on the side of the building facing the alley he just happened to be in. And the glass he’s holding is nowhere near big enough to fill his store window. What a load of fucking shit.
– Homer’s obsession with his tazer reminds me of better times of him using mace on his eggs (“Mmmm… incapacitating.”)
– Fat Tony appears in this show, being arrested by Homer and Ned, and has no lines, but his grunts and gasps are done by Joe Mantegna. He’s famous for his love for the character, and saying that if Fat Tony so much as sneezes, he wants to do the voice. So, I guess they called his bluff. Couldn’t they have given him just one line though?
– “Marge, do we have any more of your extra long Twinkees?” “Oh no! Those were for Mr. Smithers’ commitment ceremony!” Sigh.
– “You hang onto resentment like a Confederate widow!” “I forgave you for accidentally killing my wife!” “Yeah, but you hold onto the big things!” I don’t know what to think about them actually acknowledging Homer’s hand in Maude’s death. It’s not like it changes anything; Homer brushes it right off. It’s just another example of the writers recognizing shoddy writing, or Homer doing something awful, and just joking around about it to fuck with the fans.
– Homer and Ned fall in wet concrete and are frozen shut in it, despite the fact they were standing on a beam held by an operating crane, so clearly there must be people at the construction site, or anywhere near by, who would have noticed them.
Me Blog Write Good 
No mention of Homer suffocating people with plastic bags all throughout the show? That’s like — him suffocating his father in that dream sequence put to reality. What a fucking psychopath.
Yeah, this episode was dumb, and the cameo from the stupid bounty hunter dude made it even worse.
Why be subtle when you can just beat the audience head’s with it – Al Jean
– Not only do we see that goddamn leprechaun again, now there’s an orange Northern Irish leprechaun for him to play with. And the Hulk and the Thing are there too. Oh wait, in court he says he’s the Mulk. Goddammit.
That Hulk (yes it was green and big so it is the fucking hulk!) and Thing fight and actually the whole St Patrick’s Day parade would’ve worked better on Family Guy.
And about that pizza thing, I hate the fact that they make the characters eat large amounts of food in such short time now! 😡
– There’s a B-story here too where Marge becomes an erotic baker. Okay. She works in the guy’s shop for what seems like a good amount of time, and yet doesn’t realize what’s going on until he comes clean. It’s just more awkward attempts at trying to be racy, but not understanding that saying “penis” on The Simpsons just isn’t funny in and of itself.
You forgot to mention how the erotic cake store had an obvious name… yes Marge’s naive but she’s not a drooling pinhead!
– The bounty hunter’s name is Wolf, and he looks like Dog the Bounty Hunter. Great work, guys.
Once again beat the audience over the head with it…
– Gloria returns again, now pregnant with Snake’s child. Does the staff really love Julia Louis-Dreyfuss or something? Why does this character keep coming back?
Enjoy ZS while it lasts Mike and to be fair she’s been needing the money big time since 1998 ;).
– “You hang onto resentment like a Confederate widow!” “I forgave you for accidentally killing my wife!” “Yeah, but you hold onto the big things!” I don’t know what to think about them actually acknowledging Homer’s hand in Maude’s death. It’s not like it changes anything; Homer brushes it right off. It’s just another example of the writers recognizing shoddy writing, or Homer doing something awful, and just joking around about it to fuck with the fans.
WHY THE FUCKING HELL IS NEARLY EVERY MENTION OF THE LATE MAUDE FLANDERS SO DAMN COLD AND HEARTLESS ARE THEY TRYING TO STICK IT TO HER V.A. OR WHAT! And lastly indirectly would be the word to use not accidently but who cares really…
– Homer and Ned fall in wet concrete and are frozen shut in it, despite the fact they were standing on a beam held by an operating crane, so clearly there must be people at the construction site, or anywhere near by, who would have noticed them.
Also if there was wet cement surely people would have to be on site for it to dry… just be lucky your stopping in 1 season Mike.
I still don’t see how Homer had anything to do with Maude’s death. Yes, he ducked because he saw something on the ground, but that does not make him responsible for her death.
In that episode, he talks about how he parked in the ambulance spot out front at the hospital, preventing any attempts at resuscitation.
IICR he even had the nerve to say it in a joking way which really infuriated me plus it was still indirectly not accidentally
I doubt it matters though. From the height at which she fell it seemed pretty clear she died as soon as her head hit the concrete and couldn’t have been resuscitated.
This is one of a handful of Season 20 episodes I actually watched, in one of my futile efforts to get back into the show and try to glean some entertainment out of it. I can’t even recall how many times I sat there going “Ugh, can this be over?” Case in point: Lisa singing “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ra” goes on for close to an eternity. The way I see it, unless it’s a musical number like “Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart” or something, you shouldn’t have characters singing for longer than five seconds.
How do they get their ideas for shows now? Do they just take darts with the characters’ names on them and throw them at a wall covered in index cards? “Okay, what’s Homer doing this week? *thunk* Becoming a bounty hunter! And how about Marge? *thunk* Erotic baking! Great! Go with it!”
My theory is that they just shove the keyboards up their asses and let their asses do the typing. 😛
Do you ask because you have a problem with The Simpsons randomly coming up with those ideas? These writers can give the characters any plot they want in the new seasons and it will be acceptable as long as the characters are still in character and it isn’t something that would be less unbelievable in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
“Then we finish it off with a big two-minute chase across town in an overly elaborate and choreographed fashion, because parkour is popular and it’s a thing we can do to show we’re still relevant. I thought back to previous instances of over-the-top chases involving these characters. (…) Here, Homer and Ned are agile acrobats doing backflips and jumping across cars on the highway for no particular reason. Anything to pad twenty minutes, I guess.”
Not only that, but precedent has shown us that Homer gets winded from even the simplest movements. Remember “The Springfield Connection”? The guy can’t even run a few steps without falling to his knees in exhaustion. Now he’s running around and doing acrobatics? Maybe in high school when he was an agile gymnast, but now that he’s middle-aged and obese? I don’t think so.
Don’t forget about how Homer disabled himself to avoid the 5 minute workout at the plant and this even contradicts ZS as in Season 16 (yawn!) Homer lied and said he was a professional chinese acrobat yes he got lucky (for a few seconds) but scenes like that show how jarring that OTT chase was. Even Family Guy’s chicken fights made more sense…
Ooh! Erotic cakes.
“You can argue that The Simpsons can do whatever they want in later seasons, but sometimes that really works. There’s no holds barred on pieces like this.”-Phantom Strider
Even if the plot beats feel familiar, it was a pretty creative, off-the-walls episode, and did a lot of interesting things with Homer and Ned’s dynamic. My only criticism is that it could and should have dedicated a lot more time to Homer and Ned being bounty hunters before Homer drove his car onto the subway and they were through. I still really appreciated the joke of Skinner and Chalmers suddenly getting Selma’s erotic ass-cake for dessert and having to eat it before Skinner’s mom came down. The parkour chase was my most favorite part. I agree with Phantom Strider.
Ned having to chase after Homer when he didn’t want to arrest him also created a good personal conflict for them. I will admit the parkour chase was out of nowhere, but at least the animation was lively. Much like Dial N for Nerder, this was a post-movie episode that I thought was good and still think is a good post-movie episode, but both episodes could be better without the disgusting subplot.