Original airdate: October 24, 2021
The premise: Bart and Lisa gain some extra pounds due to taking medicinal steroids. While Bart finds newfound kinship with the bullies and their secret basement gym at the school, Lisa becomes incredibly self-conscious of her new appearance thanks to Marge offhandedly calling her “chunky.”
The reaction: After last week’s episode, I found myself pondering a question that’s puzzled me for a while: what exactly is The Simpsons now? Like, what is the intended goal of this series? For a show that’s lasted over three decades, I’m certainly not looking for it to be exactly the same as it once was, but there have been certain times over the years writing this blog where I find myself kind of stumped as to how to disseminate what I’m watching in terms of it being a Simpsons episode. Reading the byline of this episode beforehand, I figured it would be an story about body positivity, which it kind of is, but also kind of isn’t. A newly slightly overweight Lisa finds herself traumatized by her mother playfully (from Marge’s perspective at least) calling her “chunky.” The word manifests itself in Lisa’s self-conscious, burrowing down, and she hears the word everywhere she goes, in the first of many, many incredibly overbearing and hamfisted scenes, driving the message down as much as possible. Lisa flips out on Marge, who eventually understands why she was so upset, and the two briefly make amends, before Marge tells her that now that Lisa is done with her medication, soon she’ll be back to “normal” as her “perfect” little girl, leaving Lisa with more loaded words in her head. Ultimately, mother and daughter find themselves at a hypnotherapist, who sends them both into each other’s inner thoughts, which felt like a hybrid of “Make Room For Lisa” and that awful Inception parody the show did way back when. Marge sees how her seemingly innocuous words have created great strife for Lisa, while Lisa sees into Marge’s girlhood memories and her own mother’s harmful words that have plagued her. In the end, they make amends, and talk about how these words can only have power if you let them, or something to that effect. Now, all of this is well and good as a story, though obviously spelled out in a drawn out way as per usual for this show, but I just didn’t know what to make of it in the end. Given Lisa’s weight gain was temporary within the episode itself, as well as in the series in general, since we know she’s going to go back to her usual look next week, it made sense for them to pivot from just being about Lisa’s weight to a larger, related point, but that ultimately made the episode feel more weightless. But more than anything else, the story just wasn’t funny. A social satire like I assume this show still is should be able to tell stories like this in a manner that is enlightening and humorous at the same time, but there just wasn’t any kind of amusing bent to this episode to me. Matt Selman shows of this ilk emphasize the sentimental elements of their stories, sacrificing a lot of the humorous potential in the process. That’s why I find myself confused as to the modus operandi of this series now. Last week’s episode, though an Al Jean-run affair, gave me a similar feeling in its grand conclusion with Moe’s personal demons plaguing him and him proposing to Maya, two premises played almost completely straight. I’ve talked about how this show became more and more a conventional sitcom as time went on, and I guess this is kind of more of that taking effect. I just don’t see what this show has to offer that is unique unto itself anymore. Apologies if this post feels more rambly and inconclusive than normal, but I’m still trying to completely formulate my thoughts on the matter. Some people may like the more emotional direction this show delves into sometimes, but it just doesn’t feel right to me the way it’s handled now.
Three items of note:
– The episode opened with the traditional Simpsons clouds, then going right to the TV with the executive producer credits, which seemed weird, since there’s been plenty of times they’ve gone right into the episode with those credits as lower thirds. Actually, all the episodes this season have done that so far, so it’s kind of strange they didn’t just do that here and gain themselves a couple more seconds of show.
– The B-plot involves a heavier Bar getting in with the bully crowd and their secret gym, which they more or less pretend to actually use in-between fucking around and eating Hot Pockets. Once Bart found himself embraced by his former tormentors, I thought there was going to be a parallel created between him and Lisa, highlighting the different standards boys and girls are held to in regards to their looks. Instead, the two stories were completely separated, with Bart’s just kind of sputtering out in the end. It felt like a potentially rich vein, story and humor-wise, that just went ignored.
– The hypnotherapist Dr. Sage is voiced by Renee Ridgeley, wife of Matt Selman, with the character partially based on her, being a breast cancer survivor with a single mastectomy. I stumbled upon a Twitter post about this new character last week, and at first scoffed about Ridgeley’s casting, but quickly pulled back after reading more about it. I mean, as someone with multiple family members affected by cancer, what kind of monster would I have to be to pissed about this? I found it a bit odd that there was never any mention from Dr. Sage about her medical history, but I guess the point is that there didn’t need to be. She’s just a regular character like anybody else, she’s not defined by her history of cancer. Before the episode aired, I figured it would fit with the body positivity theme, but since that had largely been morphed into the broader “words hurt” theme by the time she appeared, there wasn’t much need for that anymore. I guess the worst I can say about her character, as with the episode itself, is that she wasn’t funny, acting as the amazing therapist who was able to solve Lisa and Marge’s problems. I’m not expecting her to do a stand-up routine, or to be incompetent, or be a greedy shyster, but some kind of humorous quirk to remind me that I’m watching a comedy program would be nice.
Me Blog Write Good 
DAY 5
Feeling kinda lost right now
Trekking through Season 33 may not be the equivalent of Angela Lansbury walking on hot coals like say, Season 28 or 31 but it certainly feels like something just as torturous, more psychedelic. These episodes are just so empty, it feels like I’m trekking through a blank space with no sound, no atmosphere, no light, just an empty void and a generic episode like this is proof why. It’s just characters doing shit for 22 minutes. So the episode is about the Simpson kids gaining weight and that’s it. That’s the episode. If this were Real Simspons the show would be having a field day satirizing body positivity and steroid usage. Unfortunately, this is not the Simpsons. This is just generic sitcom that happens to be a cartoon. Oh, and once again how many episodes have we had within the past six years with Marge being an absolute bitch to her daughter followed by a forced reconciliation just to restore the status quo? It’s getting old! We just saw it in that dreadful future episode back in May! Whatever, I still gotta remain strong as I trek through this vacant desert. It’s been five days so far; I’m hoping I can at least make it through without breaking down and going bananas. Actually, I’m worried I might be losing my sanity right now… Oh fuck, next episode will be a two-parter just like that deadweight Pete Holmes saga two seasons ago. Yep, definitely gonna lose my sanity.
Really, I have no idea what the Simpsons is now either. A marketing behemoth? No, because there’s no real merchandise around anymore bar Springfield in Universal Studios. A science experiment? No, the later seasons of Futurama was a science experiment…an arthouse thing? Yeah, maybe.
At this point, an episode like this, much like that lacrosse episode a few years back, is pretty much the antithesis of what the show started as. The show in it’s prime would’ve ripped such a faux-sentimental, weepy plot to fucking shreds, and yet at this point, they’ve ran out of ideas so clearly (and after 710 episodes, that’s somewhat understandable) that they’ve resorted to playing the plots they used to mock so viciously and instead gum the issue like they had all their teeth removed.
And quite frankly, even if the show was progressive enough to have a character who had a mastectomy, this rings completely hollow because I KNOW she won’t come back until, like 2056 or something. If this show REALLY wanted to be progressive, they should have the balls to at least make them more recurring- and until I’m proven wrong, that’s where I stand.
Frankly, it seems more and more obvious that the Simpsons are being set up more and more as merely a mascot- one that can be shown off by their owners (just look at Disney+) and will consistently be screwed up because whoever handles them doesn’t know the first thing about what made the show popular to begin with.
People keep mentioning how this will be the first season that’s mostly ran by Selman either do or solo and how that’s a great thing. But episodes like this prove why I’m not so optimistic as the episode felt even more like an ABC Afterschool Special than Bart’s in Jail! which isn’t surprising considering Selman’s tendency to make the show feel sitcomy but with none of the classic era wit or subversion (or at least subversion that works as there’s an attempt at such here though it fails).
It’s a shame that the stuff at the water park inspired by Action Park was only to setup the actual main plot as that was the point where the episode stopped being interesting and I just checked out entirely after the clothes scene and kept checking the duration bar afterwards to see how much time was left.
That whole spiel by Marge at the end about how harmful words/comments one might receive from their own mother take a very long time to heal (if at all) was the only part of the episode that was actually relatable (specifically the “If at all” part) even though it felt like it came out of nowhere.
Also as is usual for a Selman episode the jokes are either non-existent or ruined. Age of Who Gives a Crap? was funny at first but they ruined it by making it go on 30 seconds longer than it needed to. There was also something about the “Jokes” regarding Milhouse with him wearing a diaper and saying he still baths with his mother that made him come across like a mini-Kirk.
Subplot felt like it was there only because the episode was short and they decided to spare us from dragging the song parody out even more than it already was as an easy solution. It was the “Better” of the two plot’s though not by much.
Overall, this was another episode that I’ll be adding to the collection of ones where it wouldn’t have been any different if it was a Jean episode, other than having a couch gag and not being as overrated as it’s already become. Definite contender for worst Simpsons of the year so far along with The Last Barfighter.
Well….this was an interesting…thing…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Simpsons is just animated Marmaduke at this point. It holds no cultural relevance, it isn’t particularly funny or entertaining, and its audience is ever-shrinking and aging. It continues to exist because it’s comfortable and familiar and a relatively viable media property. It keeps going because it’s tradition at this point, beholden to nobody in particular and seemingly allergic to taking any sort of creative risk.
Hold up a minute, why are they still showing new episodes BEFORE Halloween but AFTER the Halloween special?????????????????????????
Huh, you know what’s funny? I expected that this episode will make Lisa so proud of being fat because she would see it as a “female empowerment”.
There is nothing wrong, really, but when it comes to Lisa, they always approach everything with her as a feminist move.
I’m impressed not going to lie.
So, zombi Simpsons explores Lisa’s issues with gaining weight with a therapist and schmultzy dialogue, classic Simpsons used Nelson, a scunk and a good bit of karmic repercussion! and that wasn’t even the main plot for the episode!
I know which is funnier, and honestly this just confirms why the only contact I have with Modern simpsons these days is reading this blog.