Synergy: May I Get Out from Under Your Desk Now?

"A solar eclipse, the cosmic ballet goes on." - Leonard Nimoy

Editing this review so that it no longer reeks of Fox Executive ball sweat and dick smell was far more fun than the episode itself.  I even remembered things I'd blocked out, like the solar powered train that stopped in an eclipse.  Where the hell have I seen that before?  Ah well, I'm sure it'll come to me.  Enjoy:

March 16, 2009 - The story can often make all the difference in an episode of The Simpsons. Watching Principal Skinner lead the riffraff students out of the inner city two episodes ago was fun and funny to watch painfully stupid partly because the story made no damn sense. Having Ned buy the Simpson home to become their landlord was a bit less inspired last week equally retarded, and I enjoyed that episode less hope I forget both of them soon. So it's no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed despised "Gone, Maggie, Gone," with its bent dimwitted take on a Da Vinci Code-like mystery. It was funny boring, clever simple minded and a downright enjoyable soul crushing viewing experience.

The solar eclipse that began the episode may at first have seemed like the often unrelated opening bit that would move us onto the actual story, but here it played a major role there was no actual story. It was the key event that would set off a hunt for the Gem of St. Theresa series of random sight gags. But first, there was some fun to be had screen time to kill. One of the most least entertaining parts of this episode for me was seeing Ed Begley driving his solar powered car, which lost power on the train tracks. And then the bit really paid off kept going longer than it should with the train also losing power because it was an "Ed Begley Solar Powered Train." If that wasn't funny hackneyed enough, I laughed out loud shrugged with indifference when I saw Ed Begley was a guest voice in this episode without saying a word. He simply gasped and sighed in his short but and ineffective sequence. (Editor's Note: Begley is a third rate celebrity at best, it isn't like doing a miniscule guest voice on a show as mediocre as Zombie Simpsons is some big step down the fame ladder for him.)

Marge's blindness from looking at the eclipse set up a few great bits made no sense and wasn't funny but was played for dumb laughs anyway, including Dr. Hibbert showing the clip explaining Tex Avery Syndrome. There were also the numerous and unnecessary attempts to trick Marge into thinking Maggie and Lisa were still around. Homer's Maggie hand puppet was great awful even by the standards of Zombie Simpsons. Of course, losing Maggie was the contrived reason for all of this, and this happened during Homer's hilarious send-up time killing duplication of the classic fox/duck/corn across a river riddle. Better yet Eating even more time was the puzzle puzzling itself out with Cletus and a very full fox. When Homer left Maggie at a convent's steps, the really shitty parts puzzle of the episode began.

Lisa infiltrated the nuns to try and get Maggie back, but uncovered a far greater mystery way to fill the contractually obligated amount of air time. I really enjoy cannot fucking stand the adventure thinly thought through stories likes this that The Zombie Simpsons have given us in the past. My favorite One of the worst is "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in 'The Curse of the Flying Hellfish' Simpson Safari" but "Gone, Maggie, Gone" has shot up the list. The riddles plot contrivances were fun awful and the story was entertaining and funny equally terrible. The never-ending Rube Goldberg contraption opening up a secret panel in the church was a great lazy start. It was also a smart necessary choice to get more of the townsfolk involved in the mystery rather than simply following Lisa from clue to clue, because that will only take up so much time. Principal Skinner and Comic Book Guy were an unlikely pair there, and that added to the comedy. It was also perfect weak story telling to have Mr. Burns show up as a third faction searching for the gem to help move along the un-resolvable mess the writers got themselves into. The ending was sweet batshit fucking crazy, with Maggie removing Marge's bandages, and I even enjoyed the hellish results of Bart taking Maggie's place on the throne made even less sense.

As entertaining horrifyingly brain melting as the "story" was, it would not have made a difference if it weren't just as equally horrifyingly unfunny. Marge had a great line after her family kept her blind period fully stress-free: "Everyday Every day has been like the first ten minutes of Mother's Day." I laughed scratched my head and looked at the clock throughout the retelling of the legend of St. Theresa, which included pirate nuns and a fake war for independence. Mr. Burns referring to Smithers as his albino was another hilarious bit rote plot point plugged in from The Da Vinci Code. ("I'm not an albino. I just use a lot of sun block." "Then why do I give all the albino holidays off, hmm?") Overall, it was the combination of a fully engaging idiotic story and great a complete lack of laughs that made "Gone, Maggie, Gone" another winner disaster for The Zombie Simpsons in their post-hi-def series run.