The Simpsons: 500th episode

This screen capture, seen briefly at the end of The Simpsons' long publicized 500th episode pretty much summed up my thoughts: it did, it fact, suck. Considering all of the promotion Fox did for the 500th episode (including a contest where people tried to outlast the others in a 499 straight episodes viewing of the series), you would think that the writers would have put some effort into things. You'd be wrong.

The premise was intriguing: The Simpson family was being kicked out of Springfield because of Homer's antics, Bart's pranks, and Lisa's constant complaining. They wind up in The Outlands, an edge of society, off the grind type of community. They find that they are much happier there than they were in Springfield. Eventually, the residence of Springfield end up joining them.

However, the premise did not really deliver on the possible hilarity. The jokes (verbal and sight gags) were weak and few and far between. Considering this season has been relatively strong (with several episodes that had be laughing out loud throughout), I had high expectations for this one, and The Simpsons did not come close to living up to them. The one part that I did enjoy was the montage of couch gags at the very beginning. There was also the Outlands theme song, which was mildly entertaining, too. However, those two things were just simply not enough to carry the episode.

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