Rate/Review "A Star is Torn" (GABF13)

How would you rate tonight's episode?

  • Total voters
    235
Mike Scully

Mike Scully

and now i have slapped a king
Joined
Nov 6, 2001
Messages
2,830
Location
Westeros
Lisa participates in a 'Li'l Starmaker' talent competition, but is outperformed by another contestant (voiced by American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino). To get her the win, Homer pens a pro-Springfield song that propels Lisa over her rival. With the win, Homer assumes the role of Lisa's manager and pushes Lisa too far--to the point where she has to fire him.

preview/speculation thread

Episode airs 8/7C.
 
Last edited:
Lame. A few good jokes in the second and third act, but boring overall. 1.5/5.

Edit: I'll end up giving it a second watch and re-rate it.
 
only able to catch the last ten minutes, but what I saw seemed pretty good. gonna have to give this a download tomorrow.
 
I thought the jokes were bland and it was a weak episode, kinda weird to follow up such funny ones with this one.... oh well 3/5
 
Sweater than I expected, but I think that made it better. There were some great jokes throughout and songs were pretty good. I liked that Homer admitted that the song that he wrote was basically plagiarized. Fantasia’s appearance amounted to a cameo which was a relief. A solid episode, but a let down from the previous three never the less. B-
 
Ugh. Another attempt at a touching "Homer and Lisa" episode. The jokes were boring and most ran too long. However, the story idea in general wasn't bad. 2/5.
 
I thought the first act was a little weak, but it deffinately got much better. I'm really glad they didn't over-use Fantasia, something I dreaded they'd do for a long time. It had a lot of hilarious quote lines, and it ended on an emotional note, something not common these days.
4.5/5
"Neither, I'm both"
 
I liked it, I thought it was very funny especially Lenny & Carl who were great throught the entire episode.

4/5 because it was great and funny, but felt a bit rehashed.
 
WOW!! That was the best episode of the season by far. What a cute episode, everything just flowed perfectly. I love it when an episode revolves more around emotion than humor. Also, great vocal work by Yeardley Smith. (A+)
 
I tuned in half-way because of the Pirates' game, so take my review with a grain of salt (by which I mean completely disregard it) and what I saw was very average.
 
Good episode. Lisa's singing was nice and I liked that there was a touching ending.

Who wrote this?
 
3.5/5 It wasn;t as good as Thank God it's Doomsday the problem was it was very bland and uncreative because it was too much like Lisa the Beauty Queen but not as good.
 
Well, it was a typical cheap episode with very few jokes. Also had a very flat plot. The Doomsday episode was much better.
 
Really good episode, only a slight let down from the previous three, but those would have been very hard to top. The episode had the right amount of jokes and emotion to keep me excited for the next act. The very end of Lisa's last song even made me say "awwww" A-
 
This was really good. They made fun of American Idol again, and it turned out much better than last season's "Smart and Smarter".

4/5
 
I liked this one a lot, very funny and touching at the same time, most emotion I've felt in a Lisa episode in a while. The begining was a little slow but it picked up in the second act. The American Idol porody was welll done but the act ended on a bit of a downer but that was in keeping with the story. The last act was good and I liked the use of Maggie thrugh out the show, loved her sucking Homer's nose. Also a funny Ralph joke. Plus a bouns screan on the credits.
 
The better of the two. For a "Lisa The Greek Beauty Queen" hybrid, it was solid. The songs were great (especially the Snowball one), and the "Buzz Cola trapdoor" was a nice touch. 3.5/5.
 
Relativley lame. Not really funny at all, but I can sometimes overlook that if I feel that the episode hits home emotionally. This one just didnt do that.

2/5
 
E-I-E-I-Moe said:
Good episode. Lisa's singing was nice and I liked that there was a touching ending.

Who wrote this?
Click to expand...

Carolyn Omine wrote it.
 
Yes, Carolyn "The Great Money Caper" Omine...but this episode was nothing like that. For one thing, it actually had emotion, believable characterizations, and good humor. I liked this one a lot - it really felt like a classic. Not a rehash of "Lisa the Beauty Queen" in the least, but still a touching look at the tension between Homer and Lisa. I know this kind of episode has been done before, but this is one of the better ones.

5/5
 
Those who called the Omine writing credit, congrats.

This episode was probably my worst of the season. Which speaks wonders about season 16, but ultimately I found this episode to be too bland in the narrative and the humor department. Some of the plot points were very predictable, aside from actually having Lisa win the contest (which we didn't see the aftermath of). Some scenes fell flat, including Lisa's Itchy & Scratchy scene, and many of Homer's angry rants and abuses. But the plot was structured nicely, a couple of the songs were entertaining, and there were some guffaws here and there, albeit far between. Plus, the sappy ending was appreciated over a turn-of-events reversal of the sappy sitcom ending tradition.

3/5
 
I really wanted to like this one, but too much just fell flat to me.

The story was overall fine, if not terribly original. The pacing and such got off to a fairly quick start (after the weird vegetable thing) and each act was separated well. If there's one problem that hardly ever surfaces on the show now, it's relying too long on one plot point (or shoving in a quick, random act 3 like in S10-11). Even so, the episode had a few other problems.

The characterization of Captain Wacky was just over-the-top, I thought. Some of it was funny (a few scattered lines here and there), but he was usually just angry and violent. The reasoning of him "doing it for his daughter" kind of softened the irritation factor a bit, but when he's punching out a guy for not placing the right light setting, or strangling the Squeaky Voiced Teen over a brand of licorice, it's just too much. Otherwise, I did like Lisa's performance (musical or otherwise), and the ending scene makes up for most of Homer's obnoxiousness earlier. It's no Lisa's Substitute, but it was fairly sweet regardless. I was irritated that Homer didn't get any come-uppance...the show practically promoted the idea that being obnoxious and overbearing is the right thing to do (I'm not asking for after-school special type messages here, but when a character is THAT annoying, I'd like to see some sort of punishment).

The gags were hit-or-miss, unfortunately. Some of the better stuff included a lot of Maggie reactions, Lisa's songs (and the mention of Flanders), some of Krusty's lines, Ralph's A-B-C/Twinkle Twinkle bit, Homer's sabotage song, and the tribute to Snowball. I did think a lot of gags fell flat, like the pointer shooting into Krusty's eye, or Homer with the cookies.

Overall, a fairly forgettable episode salvaged by good songs and a nice ending. C+/B-
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top