Original airdate: April 18, 2010
The premise: Homer bonds with Chief Wiggum during his term of community service, and the two become good friends, but things take a turn when Wiggum takes a near fatal bullet for his new friend in a scuffle with the mob. Meanwhile, Bart becomes obsessed with a new toy craze, only to be misinterpreted by the school staff as him dealing narcotics.
The reaction: Here’s an idea I felt I could go with halfway. I enjoy episodes where we take a closer look at our supporting players, seeing them in a new, semi-serious light. A show about Wiggum feeling unwanted at home and finding a new kinship with Homer could work, and in a few moments here, it kind of did. But like many things nowadays, they push it too far, and comment on it whilst doing it. Vulnerable Wiggum? Sure. Wiggum acting like a giddy teenager in love? Nope, that’s too much. By the time he gets shot, it feels like things have been pushed too far. The relationship hasn’t felt strong enough to justify this dramatic of a turn, and then when Wiggum wakes from his coma and starts taking advantage of Homer, it comes out of nowhere, and their little bit of strife feels forced. But I did enjoy select scenes of their interaction, and as hokey and joke-free as it was, I liked Homer staying by coma Wiggum’s side in the hospital. This is easily the closest I’ve come to liking an episode this season, which is to say I didn’t think it was complete and total trash.
Three items of note:
– Marge trying to figure out the gender of the kid whose birthday it is, Homer’s concealed candy apple mistaken for a gun, the initial bonding scene with Homer and Wiggum… I was surprised how much was working in the first half of the episode. Some of the scenes definitely ran longer than they should have, but I at least enjoyed their set-ups.
– The B story is so lackluster. Apparently the toys are a parody of Bakugan Battle Brawlers, something I’ve never heard of, and the idea of surely came from one of the writers seeing his kids playing with them. Last episode we had the hacky soap opera contrivance of a character overhearing others talking bad about them, but this time it’s even worse with Marge listening in on Bart and Milhouse talking about the toys, but sounding like drugs. Oh, but it’s okay, because Marge lampshades it (“Let me just listen to a little more, out of context.”) The plot “ends” when Marge discovers the toys and thinks they’re cool, ergo Bart thinks they’re uncool. Great job, guys, you basically lifted the ending of South Park‘s “Chinpokomon” episode from over ten years ago.
– In act two, we see Wiggum able to put sugar in his coffee while driving using his tongue. Then in our conclusion, we see him utilize those skills to mess with Fat Tony’s CD changer. At this point, it’s really shocking to see any form of set up/pay off in these episodes, so I was really impressed.
One good line/moment: “Chicken parm, meatball parm, eggplant parm, shiska parm, angel food parm, moo goo gai parm, my wife can parm anything.” Also, I’m really really hungry as I write this.
Me Blog Write Good 
I also thought this one had some very good potential and, while not completely squandering a good premise like the previous episode (Smithers gets to be the boss), it still threw a good chunk of it into the ashcan. I actually forgot more of the latter half than the first half.
The non-forced friendly and humorous interaction between Wiggum and Homer was definitely what I remember most rather that the lame plot contrivances that happened afterwards. Perhaps a better way to reach status quo would have been Wiggum’s role as a cop eventually creating a wedge between them. Like Wiggum being forced to arrest Homer or their friendship making Wiggum an even worse cop than he already is.
I wonder what happened to Chief Wigum in Zombie Simpsons. He was always not exactly the best of cops, and he’d always rather eat than do police work, but at least he was dedicated to what he did and tried.
Seeing him turned into this needy, weerd version was insane. Also, what is it with Zombie Simpsons and friendship? Why is it whenever male characters are friends there is always this insinuation they’re homosexuals?
There is a horrible, horrible later episode about Karl going back to his home in Iceland which goes some way to explaining the mentality, that according to the Simpsons writers, male friends only ever talk about “Guy stuff” ie, football, nudy pictures and beer, but it’s such an insanely sterriotyped view it means that any real chance of portraying actual emotion between male characters that is zero.
i could forgive if this was social commentary or just to be funny, but it’s neither, indeed it’s pretty extreme in terms of being homophobic, no less offensive than if all the dark skinned characters were depicted as crooks or all the female characters were depicted as failing every time they tried to do something outside the home (which actually thinking about it in the case of Marge might be at least partly true).
“Also, what is it with Zombie Simpsons and friendship? Why is it whenever male characters are friends there is always this insinuation they’re homosexuals?”
Exactly, Its really frustrating. I think its simply because of the writers incompetence.. I mean, they really dont know how to create true funny characters and especially funny situations, keeping everything believable and emotional; so -typical for people without writing quality- they have to push everything too far: hey, they are close friends, so they act like gays.. FUNNY!. Its sad to say, but thats really their attept to make a simple situation emotional and funny at the same time, like it was in the Classic Era.
God.. im embarassed everytime i watch these scenes, to the point i really feel pity for them. Its like watching a strongly mentally handicapped kid trying to communicate with other kids.
I hate to say it, but in my experience with straight men, it’s largely true that they “only ever talk about ‘Guy stuff’ ie, football, nudy pictures and beer,” when they’re not talking about their jobs I guess. There’s a SNL skit about being a “straight male friend” that is basically this observation stretched out for seven minutes. All the comments underneath are from men happily relating how they’re known their buddies for years but don’t know their last names or whether they have kids or whatever.
Obviously this doesn’t apply to every straight guy, but it’s something I’ve noticed consistently over the years.