The Simpsons (TV Series) Pretty Whittle Liar (2022) User Reviews

Very odd, but at least better than average.

[dragonwarriorxtreme · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

This episode has the typical tripes for being showrun mainly by Al Jean over Selman (rather than the reverse): A woman having a secret double life, Homer and Marge's marriage being on the rocks, and Lisa being a know-it-all. In addition to that, Cohen writes his perception of females pretty weirdly in this episode by depicting Brandine in an awkward message: "She's smart, and that's bad because.. it's just is! But it isn't, and women can be smarter than men! Men should try to improve on this. We are smartacus!" So confusing that I almost gave it a 5-- I mean, Hank Hill being described as a hillbilly?! Cohen didn't even watch the show, it seems!

However, I'll give it some good pros: Homer and Marge actually settle their marriage problems without nagging at each other, and there is a nice intersection from the A-plot to the B-plot. A promising status quo change shows from Cletus showing that he's willing to read, but I doubt it will last. We get a neat flashback for Cletus's romance, too.

Therefore, I'll be a bit more generous say that the episode was OK, unlike how I typically treat a Joel Cohen episode.

Pretty Whittle Liar

[studioAT · 3/10 · 5 October 2023]

This reminds me of the episode they did also in Series thirty-three where they tried to flesh out/develop the character of Martin Prince.

It was fine, it served its purpose, but it wasn't really needed, and the character probably works best in small doses rather than carrying a whole episode on their own.

By doing the same here with the Yokel's it's a case of the same issue repeating itself.

It's still a darn sight better than what the show was producing back in the series eleven to perhaps series twenty mark, but the standard this year has been high, and this episode doesn't really match up with that.

Empowering Secondary Characters

[santifersan · 2/10 · 21 January 2024]

Disney's version of The Simpsons is like a nightmare I had of an episode with ultra-high definition quality, where one side of the face was clear and the other was drawn with the typical simple digital shadow seen in recent episodes, featuring a secondary character who is a kid with reddish-brown hair that had nothing to do with the Simpsons I remember and liked and whose way of speaking seems oversmart, but because in reality, without you realizing it, every sentence he say is a pathetic attempt at a joke, as it is based on a stand-up comedy script. The show used to have rough but more attractive drawings, and didn't need to create new secondary characters for each episode that spewed affection for the terrible current culture, music, and way of life.

That nightmare has become reality, and the show now feels like it belongs to a team of millennial writers who want to make it into millennial-style soft humor and soft storytelling, naively thinking that style will appeal to someone looking for something softer than Family Guy. But there are no humorous moments, and the show is not about a funny Homer entertaining us with his antics as it used to be or uttering messianic or ridiculous therapeutic phrases that do not align with his ethics or way of life, nor spontaneous humming or belching as in real life, no, now the show it's about millennial characters trying to understand how to fix their flaws in the millennial world they've been thrown into, and that's what the show has become in the Disney era, folks. The episodes are now terribly produced since the switch to Disney, the narrative structure is always vague and naive, and for the current production team, the show's fascinating past is just a rumor that doesn't really exist. The current production team thinks that The Simpsons are a tool for promoting feminist ideologies and other millennial values. If you fast-forward through each episode produced now, you'll realize that many of them are attempts at typical situational comedy stand-up jokes about people who can't adapt to the new times, rather than the powerful character-driven style of the show's popular era. Reminding us that the new times are the best makes the viewer feel bad about themselves. The first three seasons had a therapeutic value, while the recent ones have the opposite effect, destroying the self-esteem of fans and other viewers.

There's one future prediction that The Simpsons couldn't have made: their writers would become millennials in the future.

Now they are relying a lot on telling feminist stories centered around secondary characters of the series, and this episode is about that.