The Simpsons #5

4.1-4.2

          Season Three boasts a number of exceptional episodes, the most surprising of which being "Colonel Homer", written by Groening himself (the only epsiode?). I remembered the story well, but not quite how funny it was. It's a slow starter, but once it starts, the gags (mostly Homer related) come thick and fast, and deliver well. The best is a genuine joke ("You bitter?" "Yup. Bit him too") which generated a literal LOL. It's constructed like my most favourite joke ever ("Jamaica?") and I wasn't waiting for it like most great Simpsons jokes, but it's really stuck in my head. Season Three is such a jump from the quality of two, and I'm pretty thrilled with the knowledge that this pace and quality keeps up for some time.

        So on to four, which opens with "Kamp Krusty", a great episode. The trivia is interesting with this one - this is the episode that James L Brooks(?) thought could extend to a feature. I see why he'd pick this one - it's got to be the richest concept they'd tackled so far. You couldn't stretch out a "Homer At The Bat" any further than it went, nor a "Bart The Daredevil". At this point, the supporting characters weren't massively fleshed out. There'd been quite a bit of Burns, and vintage Burns at that, and Krusty himself had made a fair few appearances, but the characters I think the Simpsons really focussed on later (Moe, Flanders) weren't quite solidified yet, and they were yet to really explore Sideshow Bob, whose greatest episodes are yet to come. So conceptually, this episode makes perfect sense. It's a truly great episode, with brilliant pacing and a nice B story that takes up minimal time but breezes by and is very fun. Highlights: "Mr Black", Homer's fireworks. In this season I've still got Monorail and "Lisa needs braces" episodes to look forward to; this is Simpsons at its very best.