Simpsons Did It!: “Three Dreams Denied”

So, to be honest, I wasn’t sure what to make of this particular episode.  It seemed a bit…abrupt.  Yeah, abrupt seems like a good word for it.

Plus, this combined with last week’s episode sure seems to be making efforts to put the show’s writers and actors actually into the episodes themselves.  That’s just weird.

So, basically, this episode goes three ways with three different plots and I felt like the show didn’t have enough time to really devote to all three of them and the whole thing suffered as a result.

Regardless, here’s the three:

• Comic Book Guy gets the chance to go to Comic Con…or a reasonably renamed fasimile.
• Lisa meets a cute new boy at school and has to compete with him for first saxophone chair.
• Bart gets a job as a cartoon voiceover artist.

Alright, so here’s the basics.  How did they go down besides in a manner that kept cutting off each plot just as it was going somewhere?

Comic Book Guy gets a chance to go to Comicalooza when Agnes Skinner brings in Seymour’s toy collection (again apparently) to sell, and that includes a rare Radioactive Man still in the box.

Do Agnes and Comic Book Guy remember they used to date?  Should they?  Should I?

Regardless, CBG sells the action figure and goes to the con in what looks like a cheap Doc Ock costume where the arms actually work.  He’s told if he asks a good enough question at the con, he could get a job at Marvel.  But, aside from harassing guest star Paul Rudd with questions, CBG’s own questions don’t go well as the guy in front of him in line gets a Marvel job at some Q&A session for…something.  CBG is offered a job at DC which is somehow even more insulting, but was that corporate rivals to new Simpsons overlord Disney talking, or was it an actual DC slam?  Regardless, CBG goes home depressed.

As for Lisa, the blue-eyed boy Blake (Broadway star Ben Platt) is a dream come true.  They have the same tastes and seem to dig each other.  Sure, eight-year-old Lisa is in love again, but then it turns out Blake is not a sweet, blue-eyed boy but a nasty, red-eyed boy who wears colored contacts and gets first chair, sending Lisa into a depression.

As for Bart, CBG’s replacement running the store is a voiceover actor who gets Bart a job voicing a characters named “Jules”…only for it to turn out to be a fairy princess of some kind.  Yes, to Bart’s dismay, the scullery was not the place where they kept the skulls.  Bullies are picking on Bart (again), and even Lisa’s advice to be proud for breaking barriers doesn’t work when he still identifies with male pronouns.  He’s down too, though that pronoun thing was a somewhat clever joke.

What can cure all this depression?

For Comic Book Guy, it’s Ralph Wiggum making a mess and sending CBG into his usual rage.  Ralph doesn’t mind.

For Bart, it’s an episode where Jules gets on a flying unicorn that starts decapitating people and breathing fire, earning him respect from the bullies and an order not to pick on him anymore.  They’re gonna leave Milhouse alone too because Milhouse likes getting bullied since it means he gets attention.

As for Lisa, she opts to play jazz in the local mall, keeping it from dying and getting a free pretzel, something a much-older Lisa called the best trophy she ever got…even if Homer ate the original one.

As for me…well, that’s that.  Each plot was handled rather abruptly, so I will do the same with my wri-