The Simpsons (TV Series) The Serfsons (2017) User Reviews

Invents a Interesting New World in a Mere 20 Minutes,

[lesleyharris30 · 9/10 · 2 June 2018]

The Serfsons is a terrific Simpsons episode with a very well written plot and tons of very funny moments. It serves as an excellent, off the cuff opening to the twenty ninth season, as we our taken to a fantasy world edition of Springfield. Containing nods to famous pop culture, such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, it was an immensely different episode unlike any other and it certainly sticks out.

The only real issue I had is that the episode can get a little gimmicky at times, tossing aside its plot in favour of showing us cool things they can do and you would not see in a conventional Simpsons. There were certainly movements where I wanted the story to continue a little more.

I think the episode deserves to be applauded for the universe it managed to create and establish to us in such a short space of time. The writers and animators clearly put so much effort in to making this world vastly different to Springfield, and by the end of the short twenty minutes I had a very good idea of how this world worked.

Refreshing and new. A very different, risk taking episode, The Serfsons is a solid opening for the shows twenty ninth season.

In a magical medieval world, Marge's mother is turned into an ice walker, so Homer gets Lisa to use illegal magic to enable him to make a cure.

One of the best episodes of the recent seasons.

[leolinsimp · 10/10 · 7 October 2017]

First of all, I want to emphasize that I am not a fan of the wonderful genre. In fact, I do not even like it. I have never seen Game of Thrones, nor The Lord of the Rings, nor The Chronicles of Narnia, despite the positive reviews they receive, fail to catch my eye. Even so, I am forced to see and reveal whenever I can this episode for the love I feel for The Simpsons.

Honestly, in the preview of this episode, I felt I had enough potential to be one of the worst in the series. However, luckily this was not so. The first seconds were already promising. The plot is truly original (I think this is the first time we have an episode of this style) and the conflict is very interesting. In addition, there are several moments of fun and also of emotion, as in the vast majority of Selman's works. I liked the effort that was put into small details of the story and the animation. I also want to highlight the good use that was given to a character who receives a scarce use, as is the mother of Marge. Not to mention the brilliant use of the guest star, Nikolaj Coaster- Waldau (once I investigated why his character is obscene, I realized that the reference is great)

Terrible.

[gillianlms-213-746673 · 1/10 · 6 October 2017]

Seriously, what happened to this show? This was the worst episode since the Lady Gaga one. If they wanted to parody Game of Thrones' so badly,they should've done so in a 7 minute Treehouse of Horror vignette, not a full episode. Not funny, disconnected "plot"... unwatchable.

The Serfsons - Review.

[lisamartnez · 10/10 · 7 October 2017]

I liked this one. Very good and interesting alternate universe episode and a solid way to start the season (best season premiere the show has had in a while). It's nice to see them doing something different with an entire episode about what just could easily have been an Treehouse of Horror segment and I liked how they expanded the surrealist of a Treehouse segment into a full length episode that wasn't limited to just 5-6 minutes. I'm not a fan of Game Of Thrones (I honestly don't care for it to say the least) and I thought they would pretty much only parody that, but I'm glad they didn't focus only on it too much and made it feel like a general medieval fantasy tale where they parodied other fantasy works too such as Lord of The Rings, The Hobbit, Narnia, Warcraft and Harry Potter as well as more generic fantasy stuff that was sprinkled throughout. I must say it worked better here than in many similar Treehouse stories and even the fantasy sequences in Marge Gamer; they clearly put some effort into this and it showed despite the flaws.

The plot was pretty good, interesting and overall well written (and nice use of Marge's mother Jaqueline whose role here probably is the biggest one yet; they could easily have gone with Grampa instead but I liked that it was Jaqueline instead and it made for a good mother- daughter element), the pacing was overall pretty good (it could have been tighter but I liked the pace they went with, allowing it to feel more natural) and the music was suitable. The alternate character designs for the family and others were pretty good and suitable & I liked how they had some fun (even portraying some of the characters into non-human fantasy creatures) and the animation was probably what I liked the most; the backgrounds were really neat and detailed and some of the animation was really fluid (the first scene with Aslan the lion man stood out but I also really liked Lisa doing her magic and Jaqueline confronting the dragon and walking towards it through it's fire breath, which was surprisingly great- looking and epic).

The humor wasn't the strongest aspect (maybe the weakest one) and the ones at the start were pretty lame (especially Homer kissing the hooves of the horse and the ice walker trying to woo Jaqueline) but it got better and even though the humor never got great there were some some decent-to-good and sometimes fairly kind of inspired jokes in there (the blob monster in the family's house, the slave wheel powering nothing, one of the wizards trapping Homer in a prison made of his extending toenails, "Take a peasant, leave a peasant", Aslan trying to convert people to his religion, the Milhouse goblin horde & Jaqueline's story all come to mind as jokes I liked) and some nice referential gags (such as the spider forest as seen in The Hobbit as the retirement home with the elderly hanging upside down while wrapped in webbing which made me laugh a little). Nothing was great but it had quite a bit of stuff I liked (and I really liked the LOTR & Hobbit styled end credits with the sketches of the characters and the song based on that from the last Hobbit movie; that was pretty neat).

Overall, I can understand those who find it just okay or a meh episode since the writing wasn't really that strong, it was partially kind of obvious and uninspired, a lot of it was just okay and it really could've used better humor (and those who don't like fantasy especially much probably doesn't get as much out of it as I did so I guess that I'm biased as a fantasy fan) but I enjoyed it a lot for being an fairly entertaining and inoffensive special episode without any forced modern references that took me out of it (they were careful with keeping the style and tone within the parameters of the medieval fantasy genre even with the spoof names and sign jokes and all). To be honest, I wouldn't say no if they did a sequel episode set inside this weird alternate universe (or even if they did another alternate universe story) since I found this one good, simple fun and nicely entertaining.

What just happened?

[manpe-75941 · 3/10 · 14 October 2017]

Well I didn't expect this... I know Matt Groening is creating a medieval show but I don't really know if this was promotion for this or the writers just wanted to reference Game of Thrones. Anyway this episode is just all over the place. So the Simpsons are in a medieval fantasy. I'm sorry is this Treehosue of Horror? So the jokes in this episode were only for people who understand Game of Thrones obviously. Marge's mother gets cursed and is about to be frozen to death so it's up to Lisa to save her with her "magical" powers. God, this episode was just unbelievable. This does not belong on the Simpsons. This isnt Adventure Time! I mean really? What a great start to the season.

However, the only thing I like in this episode was the animation. They really put their effort and time into it because it is absolutely brilliant. It was so full of life and very Disney-esque in a sorta way. Other than that this episode was just terrible and so ridiculous.

Just perfect

[fabianfritz · 10/10 · 15 May 2019]

Game of thrones feat. Narnia feat. lord of the rings feat. harry potter =LOVE

Season 29 is off to an already weak and underwhelming start

[nathanjhunt1 · 1/10 · 4 April 2020]

A tired and laugh-less Game Of Thrones parody, confusingly mixed with a mishmash of Middle Earth and Harry Potter. Or what was it exactly..? Goblins, wizards and an anthropomorphic lion? What a headache.

A bizarre and boring plot left me wondering when the episode would finish.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has a sadly underwhelming cameo in the show. I love the guy, but they really could have given him a bigger part, instead of an absurd male version of Marge speaking two barely audible lines.

I'm a fan of (golden age) Simpsons and Game Of Thrones... but this episode appeals to neither of those sides. Awful, awful show.

Different, but not sure why they botherd!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gerardrobertson61 · 4/10 · 6 March 2018]

This was a different spin on The Simpsons and from what I have read could have been a set up of GOT, which I have never seen. For me, this was a bizare episode, it was fairly more graphic than past Simpsons episode and had some rather strange happening, and is some cases didn't really make sense. Lets hope that this is the worse episode of Season 29, and from here on, it's uphill, but I am not holding onto my breathe.

What the dickens is this rubbish?

[superfox_888 · 1/10 · 30 December 2022]

There are references to necrophilia and incest, which is all you need to know about this piece of trash.

It's Simpsons crossed with Game of Thrones with nods to Narnia, Harry Potter and other fantasy series thrown in. It should be a Treehouse of Horror episode but instead it's a season opener.

I skipped to this because it's the last voice appearance of Apu and this is a stark reminder of how much garbage this series has become. Julie Kavner sounds like she has permanent vocal damage from 30+ years of voicing Marge. What passes as a plot is completely nonsensical.

Just like Apu, this should have retired many, many years ago.