Original airdate: May 1, 2022
The premise: When Lisa is called in to sub for the high school band, she forms an unlikely bond with Shauna over their shared musical interest. Meanwhile, Homer discovers Chalmers brews his own beer.
The reaction: Are there any Shauna fans in the audience? I really haven’t a clue, but I can’t imagine there are many. She’s a total flatline of a character to me. The most interesting thing they ever did with her was reveal her to be Superintendent Chalmers’ daughter, which has lent to two or three somewhat humorous scenes depicting him as an exasperated father. But Shauna herself has always been a boring stock character of a disaffected teen, with this episode doing very little to flesh her out any further than that. Lisa starts going to high school band practice after school when she is requested to step in for an absent musician (why they didn’t call anyone from Springfield Middle School is unclear). There, she is surprised to see Shauna on drums, who she is eager to build a rapport with (we learn that she is the Simpson babysitter, so that’s how she knows her). Eventually, Shauna’s wall of teenage snark and detachment weakens and the two start to hang out, with her falling into a big sister role to Lisa. Through all of this, we don’t learn anything new about Shauna though. I understand that teenage angst is usually not rooted in anything specific, but we never get anything about her damages, or why she hates her dad. Her father is the superintendent, they could have easily thrown some kind of line about that in there. Also nothing about why she loves the drums, or why she’s hesitant to try out for first chair. Does she think they’d never accept her because she’s a “bad” kid? Or she doesn’t want to put in the work even though she’s insanely gifted? Anything? As a result of this, Shauna and Lisa’s bonding was superficially charming at times, but it never felt like there was any substance to it. This all leads to our final act, where they go to a high school party that gets flooded with alcohol, leaving Lisa out of her element. She’s left alone from Shauna, who wandered off to make out with the quarterback who invited her. Again, if Shauna had actually wanted the acceptance of other people, or it was established she had a crush on him, she might actually have conflicting motivations that would lead her to let Lisa down, but she remains as one note as ever (“Where were you?” “I was with Trevor, getting some.” “Some what?” “Some smooches! Duh!” This is how teenagers talk). I’m no fan of Shauna, but even a character as flat as her could turn into someone of interest, but this was a very barebones attempt.
Three items of note:
– As with the bully characters, Shauna’s age has always been rather nebulous. We’ve seen her work in retail and service jobs before, so she must be at least 16, which checks out with her being a high schooler. Meanwhile, Dolph, Kearney, and Shauna’s ex Jimbo are stuck at Springfield Elementary, which must have been pretty awkward for her when they dated. But had we not seen Shauna at Springfield Elementary before this point? I feel like we must have, but I don’t remember. It just made it all the more awkward when the show had done semi-sexualizing jokes with her, like when she flashed Bart her breasts, or when she made out with Gil at one point.
– The Homer/Chalmers B-plot is kind of nice, but I didn’t get a ton of out of. I kind of like the little glimpses we’ve gotten into Gary Chalmers’ personal life over the years, even if they haven’t lent themselves to successful episodes. His love of history and his marital history in “Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts,” his vulnerability and growing respect for Skinner in “The Road to Cincinnati,” and here, with his beer brewing acting as an escape from his detachment from his daughter (“You’re there when it enters the world, so full of promise, and you know that if you pour your heart and hard work into it, it won’t tell you it’s pregnant just to mess with you.”) How does Chalmers have greater and more satisfying character motivation in the B-plot than Shauna in the main story?
– The ending reveal that the teens at the party are not actually drunk at all because Homer forgot to add the yeast to their brew is actually clever in concept, but all it did was remind me of the pilot of the wonderful Clone High, where Abe gets an invite to the cool kid’s party, but only if he can bring the beer. Unable to get any, he brings a non-alcoholic keg which the kids drink up anyway and act like maniacs, regardless of their non-inebriated state. Abe finally admits what he did, and that he only wanted to be accepted by his peers, a moment undercut by a police sheriff calling him a loser and everyone laughing. Meanwhile, Wiggum gives a speech to sermonize to the teens about the consequences of their actions and to have compassion for their fellow students in a bit that’s supposed to be funny, I guess, but it feels more like the older writers openly venting about not understanding their teenage children. Give me the Andy Dick sheriff any day (“Son, if we don’t enforce the drinking age, the excitement of sneaking around to get wasted might disappear forever. You want that on your shoulders, pal?”) Man, Clone High was so damn funny.
Me Blog Write Good 
This is the sort of “worst episode premise” I’d joke about, and they actually did it. Flat, unlikeable secondary character focus + “Lisa bonds with someone, apropos of nothing” stock ZS plot + writers as old men yelling at and failing to write for younger generations. Plus, as always, dearth of humor, emotion, narrative momentum etc. All this needed was some Jerkass Homer and a marriage crisis — then we’d have the perfect Zombie Simpsons anti-classic.
Also, fuck Beware My Cheating Bart even more if Shauna was the Simpsons babysitter. That’s all kinds of wrong. I miss Laura Powers.
“Are there any Shauna fans in the audience? I really haven’t a clue, but I can’t imagine there are many.”
Count me as someone who doesn’t like her character. But she’s got to have fans somewhere*, otherwise she wouldn’t be appearing as much as she does.
I also don’t get the whole “Lisa still sucks at saxophone” gag they keep trying to do. Like what’s the point of this tired gag when everyone hates her playing when before, it was just Bart, Homer and Mr. Largo?
*by this, either there are people watching the show who like her, or someone on the production staff is that much of an advocate of the character that they keep forcing the staff to keep giving her appearances.
Mike, you know Springfield Middle School doesn’t exist, and you know it. The only time a mention of the transition gap between Elementary and High school in the education system in that town ever was brought up was all the way back in Season 3 in the episode Flaming Moe’s, and by now, they are sure as hell ain’t going to bother exploring the 12- to 14-year-old kids that hypothetically exist in town.
As for Shauna, she’s regularly brought up on the blog, but mostly so people complain, so no… she ain’t popular. I didn’t bother with the episode, but I know Twitter got pretty heated up when someone cited a preview line where Shauna and Lisa were discussing how supportive their fathers are, and Lisa cites how in spite of everything… Homer still doesn’t even try.
It’s a far cry from the early days where Homer, in spite of despising the sax-amo-phone, would make an effort to appreciate her art or at least let her practice. The series has long settled into the bit that Homer is an all-around terrible parent, which makes one wonder why on Earth the writers are okay with that, especially Al Jean given he wrote and even oversaw those early shows?
DAY 19
Feeling a bit relieved that the episode wasn’t as ghastly as I was expecting it to be
But that doesn’t mean it gets a pass from me. I still don’t like Shauna Chalmers one bit. Thank the lord this didn’t turn out to be a second “Beware, My Cheating Bart” which is pretty much the Simpsons equivalent to the Goosebumps book “Chicken Chicken” but man does it feel vapid and empty like… pretty much everything about this show since the HD era started! I really wish this was Shauna’s introductory episode instead of the aforementioned spawn of Satan. It probably would’ve made me hate her a bit less and see her more than just “lol shes a teen skank” or something. Whatevs, like last episode, this feels straight out of a low-rent teen movie invoking teen cliches and all that but at least its not offensive to look at like… y’know… For an episode about a Creator’s Pet character that was introduced in one of the most vile episodes in the entire show, I’m pleasantly surprised by the bland results because this episode could’ve been way, way, WAY worse.
P.S. I’ve never actually watched Clone High. Perhaps I should change that.
Clone High is coming back, you know.
“Are there any Shauna fans in the audience? I really haven’t a clue, but I can’t imagine there are many.”
Hi, one of only maybe five people who actually likes Shauna here. Might be an unpopular opinion but making her a recurring character was one of the better decisions made in the HD era as I feel like she gives the show a little bit of new blood.
That said, even I can admit that she’s a flawed character at times. Her flashing Bart in Beware My Cheating Bart as fucked up even though I consider that episode a highlight for Season 23. I couldn’t feel anything for her in Livin La Pura Vida because she came off as a hypocrite. And she was awful in Bart the Cool Kid but I blame that more on that entire scene just being terrible. And like most I don’t really like the idea of her being Chalmers’ daughter.
I went into this as someone trying to stay neutral without any biases whether they be pro-Shauna, pro-Selman (who becomes more overrated as a showrunner each time an episode is released and he’s the one mostly attributed for it’s “Success”) or anti-Shauna. And at the end of the day, in spite of what the majority might think the episode at best is simply average.
I was enjoying it for the most part up until the point where the guys came and got the beer for the party. After that, the episode began to slide when the dialogue shifted towards the more hokey and over-explaining crap reminiscent of something from Family Guy that appears to be the norm for an episode helmed by Selman. I mean, the entire bit with the parents talking before leaving for the escape room is literally structured the same way it would be if it was in an episode of Family Guy!
The subplot didn’t really do anything for me, but I’ll give it credit for actually attempting to reinvent the wheel with Chalmers’ character to not make him feel as one-note as he normally is. Something that Road to Cincinnati failed to do.
Like I said, at best the episode is only average. Though I consider it a top-tier episode for this season but only because to me most of this season hasn’t been very good much like the last. At best, I’d say it’s only 5% better but only because so far there’s only two episodes I’d consider rewatching sometime versus last season which only had one.
Pretty sad that this is now the second week in a row where I can say with a straight face that Beware My Cheating Bart was the better episode in spite of it’s potentially Unfortunate Implications when compared to what this episode has in common (Bart crushing on an older woman for last week and an episode with Shauna playing a central role this week).
Honestly, I actually didn’t hate this episode that much. Like Lisa’s Belly or Portrait of a Lackey on Fire.
Hey man I just wanted to say you’re a much stronger person than I, I couldn’t bring myself to review any show let alone the Simpsons for any length of time. Good on you!
Also I’m always glad to see more Clone High love. If you like it you might also like Cartoon Network’s Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, it shares a few of the same writers.
Foster’s is great, I’m a huge Craig McCracken fan. I wasn’t aware that it and Clone High shared writers though.