Original airdate: April 13, 2025
The premise: Marge reveals that she’s managed to keep her saintly sweet disposition thanks to a coping mechanism she’s had since she was a teen: writing scornful letters about the annoying things people do, and stow them away in a secret box. Following a backyard birthday bash, Marge is shocked to find the box missing, and an anonymous caller demanding $5000 for its safe return.
The reaction: The recent announcement of the show’s four-season pick-up has once again got me thinking about the longevity of the series and what it can possibly still do going forward. We’ve almost hit episode #800, a truly unfathomable amount of stories for one show about one family to tell. My main inclination is that the show needs to be taking more big swings, be it full-on fourth wall breaking stuff, as they’ve done with “Lisa the Boy Scout” and “Bart’s Birthday,” or shaking up the foundations of the series, making some big changes to characters and seeing what new material you can mine from that. But instead of any of that, I foresee we’ll most likely just get more episodes like this or “The Flanshees of Innersimpson.” In the latter, we got an examination of a long-standing relationship between two characters, except the explanation is literally something any fan of the show knows, and it ends with absolutely no introspection or change made, because it fundamentally can’t because nothing can ever change on this show. In the case of this episode, it’s seemingly a character centerpiece episode, except we’re not really learning anything super important. Marge is the endlessly caring glue holding the Simpson family together, a friendly face known the entire town over. But everybody gets upset at others every now and again. How does Marge cope? In this episode, we find out: inspired by a magazine article she read as a teenager, anytime someone would irritate her, she would write a vicious letter about them as a means of venting her feelings, but never send it. When the box of letters turns up missing, being held ransom by a mysterious phone caller, Marge is fret with worry that her innermost negative thoughts about everyone in town will be revealed. Who is this devious blackmailer? Turns out it’s everybody’s “favorite” disaffected teen Shauna, ticked off at having to babysit dozens of kids at Marge’s birthday party, looking to get a fat pay-out so she and Jimbo can run off together. Does it even matter that it’s Shauna? Does she act as any sort of meaningful foil or inverse image to Marge? Not really. As much as I don’t care for the character, I think there’s a way they could work to humanize Shauna and give her some character shades to make her interesting, but they just haven’t put the work into it. After over a decade of her being a joke character, they did that episode where her and Lisa become unlikely friends, but I don’t even remember what we learned about her there. Now we see her in a major plot role here, and it just feels completely meaningless. She was amused by Marge’s letters, but then felt hurt by how raw the one she wrote about her was. That’s all well and good, but who cares though? I don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be. The letters accidentally get released and read by everyone, and Marge makes a big apology, acknowledging that keeping her true feelings about everyone secret isn’t healthy and she’ll be more open from now on. Sure, okay, but I really find it so difficult to be affected by any of this. Again, we are almost at episode EIGHT HUNDRED, I feel like I’ve seen this type of story done so many times at this point. I have no doubt there’s plenty of people who still love this show and the slightly newer direction its taken in recent years, but I’m just completely unmoved by stuff like this. I don’t need every episode to be format-busting like a “Bart’s Birthday,” but I’d like to see these characters I love be taken to new places and have to confront new things, that’s how you keep a show like this fresh after so long. Give me an honest to goodness Shauna episode that deeply humanizes her. Have Marge directly confront her negative emotions with specificity and how it psychologically affects her. Instead, they just throw in an on-the-nose moral speech and everyone just instantly forgives Marge because the episode is over. I just don’t find it interesting.
Two items of note:
– It was announced earlier this week that following Pamela Hayden’s retirement, they officially recast the role of Jimbo Jones with Mo Collins of MadTV and Parks and Recreation fame. We get a fair amount of Jimbo in this episode with him and Shauna, and Collins does a decent job as a voice match. It’s certainly noticeably different than Hayden, but I’m hoping that in a similar way that Grey Griffin was able to hone her Martin voice over the first couple of appearances, Mo Collins will only get stronger the more performances she has under her belt. We’ll probably get an appearance by Milhouse before the end of the season, so I assume they have someone in mind to voice him at this point. But the more and more characters who get replacement performers, the more this show truly feels like it’s on life support. Even though Hayden’s retirement opened up a possibility for leaving the show I had never considered, I feel like there’s zero chance one of the core six voice actors leaves the show in a similar fashion. But with the show confirmed for four more years, it does beg that unanswerable question, if something happens to one of the actors in that time, what do they do? I certainly don’t wish for any misfortune to befall anyone, but surely it’s a question that has to have been considered by the producers at this point, given the increasing age of the cast. It’s just life.
– We get to see teenage Marge in flashback on the precipice of writing her first angry letter, furious about Tim Meadows leaving Saturday Night Live, which happened in 2000. It’s pretty frightening thinking about Homer and Marge being elder millennials at this point in the floating timeline. We just had this semi-confirmed a few seasons about in “The Star of the Backstage” with the revival of Marge’s high school production about the Y2K scare, so it tracks that the almost-40 Marge would have been a teen around the turn of the millennium. Of course, it’s still very weird seeing her reading a magazine with Gwen Stefani on it while still wearing her 70s-era clothes, as that’s been the design pack for young Marge since 1990. Although I guess at this point, it could be viewed that teen Marge liked dressing in vintage clothing, but it still makes my brain throb just a bit
Me Blog Write Good 
Jeez, yet another episode where describing it, you can see the germ of an interesting idea (look at the unhealthy coping mechanisms Marge learned as a child or teen and put that in the hands of a present-day teen) and yet the show seems to go out of its way to present the dullest, emptiest possible version of that.
This concept already has some floating timeline issues, what with Marge’s psyche mainly reflecting the mental health problems lots of baby boomers had, but that shouldn’t even matter, because she’s an interesting character. But they don’t really explore these concepts from the standpoint of “let’s learn something new about these characters”, do they? It just feels like one writer had an interesting character idea and it just got buried under everyone else’s mush.
I don’t get this mindset at all. Surely The Simpsons has survived so long because of the things that are unique to it, like its beloved cast of characters. (Since we got over a decade of HD Jean episodes, it unfortunately can’t be the joke writing.) So don’t you want everything in a character study episode to support a look at that specific character? Isn’t that more interesting than vague, generic tropes? I just don’t get it.
But it doesn’t really matter. As always, there will be fans who watch this episode and appreciate it… maybe even like it! They’ll see this episode for its original pure intention of saying something new about Marge, and write surprisingly compelling thoughts about it, and in a way that almost redeems the whole thing. This site and No Homer’s have lots of awesome fans like that, and they’re why I keep coming back. The Simpsons fanbase has a life of its own, and neat, funny, intelligent perspectives about this series always rise out of it someplace, even when the show itself seems determined to say jack shit.
‘It just feels like one writer had an interesting character idea and it just got buried under everyone else’s mush’
This pretty much sums up Shauna’s segment from the Women in Shorts episode earlier this season. An interesting idea for what could’ve been it’s own episode (her showing signs of a more girly side that she keeps secret), but ultimately wasted in a lame Barbie parody that supposedly misses the point (haven’t seen the movie).
There was once a time – a very long time ago – when Marge was as interesting and compelling a character as Homer, Bart and Lisa. She peaked early in season two, during which we discovered that beneath her ostensibly quiet domestic facade was a flair for artistry (Brush with Greatness) and activism (Marge vs. Itchy & Scratchy) with hints of deviousness and cunning (Two Cars in Every Garage) underpinned by a strong moral centre. There was a depth to Marge and an edge that the show only sporadically revisited thereafter (Marge on the Lam, Marge vs. the Monorail, $pringfield and Scenes from a Class Struggle) as it otherwise relegated her to the background and softened her to the point that she eventually became a lonely and amenable housewife devoid of friendships, interests, passions and ambitions while enabling Homer’s wacky antics.
Can you remember what Marge episodes were like a decade ago? “Marge makes sandwiches”. “Marge becomes a cab driver”. “Marge stalks Bart”.
How times change.
Since Selman took on more showrunning duties around season 32, Marge has flourished. Not since season 2 has she been this captivating, this nuanced, this entertaining. I dare say she eclipses the rest of the family and, indeed, the entire cast. Uncut Femmes, The Star of the Backstage, Lisa’s Belly, Marge the Meanie, The Pookadook, A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream, Iron Marge, Clan of the Cave Mom and Night of the Living Wage are among her biggest highlights in the last four years and that’s not including smaller but no less meaningful roles in episodes such as Bart’s in Jail!, Do the Wrong Thing, Homer and Her Sisters and more.
Now we can add P.S. I Hate You to that quickly growing list and it’s among the best of the lot. An impressive debut as co-runner for Cesar Mazariegos, this episode is the snappiest and funniest The Simpsons has been in a good long while. Perhaps not since Livin’ la Pura Vida have I laughed out loud this much at a new episode. It’s almost vintage Simpsons in the way it balances a character-driven story with a surprisingly high hit-rate of decent lines and gags. Even the way the episode uses so many of the townspeople has a vaguely Mirkin-era quality to it. The cherry on top, of course, is Marge whose repressive tendencies are wonderfully examined. No one is better than Marge at bottling things up – at pretending everything is ok when it isn’t – and the episode remembers that beneath all of that is a fierce woman with bite waiting to be unleashed.
The best episode of an otherwise shitty season.
I wish I shared your enjoyment of modern Simpsons. I don’t usually agree with your assessment of new episodes, but your comments are usually thought-provoking regardless.
Selman didn’t take over until season 33, though there were some in 32 that were done by him.
Selman’s been showrunning sporadically since Season 23 before fully taking over in 33.
I will give a theory on why a sitcom has lasted for so long which is also pissing people off. It might end up as a disappointment because its kids. We know it’s more like adult or family, whatever you want to call it cartoon. Kids don’t understand the adult jokes.
Kids love The Simpsons.
It’s really always been a Family show with humor that appeals to all ages.
The word “Bitch” is said rarely, and it’s the strongest cuss word used in the series. It’s obvious why the characters gasp whenever it’s spoken—being a PG-rated show, that’s pretty much the most intense language they can get away with, and plus the show’s point is not shock humor. Think of it as in a PG-13 rated film, the word “Fuck” can only be said once, for PG, I believe the word “Shit” can only be said one time, as evident in the Speed Racer movie from 2008, which iirc originally got a PG-13 rating, but something was cut that let it get a PG rating. But of course, the rules are different for the MPAA and TCRS.
It’s jarring, and almost surprising, especially coming from someone like Helen Lovejoy. You can tell even she didn’t want to say it, if that makes sense.
You’re absolutely right about the show now being geared more towards kids, instead of all ages, and that’s clear in how it tries to appeal to tweens, teens, and even to an extent, young adults—especially with all the TikTok references and current trends of this generation they throw in.
I’m 33, and honestly, a lot of what they’re doing is pretty cringy. I just don’t find what’s so “good” with the show now just besides a different Showrunner that wants to change everything in the show, and make it to where nothing is supposed to matter and you aren’t supposed to invest in these characters. If anything, that makes it worse, as it erases the very key reasons on what made the show work. As I said in the previous blog post comment section, today’s younger people, tend to prefer shallow, flashy content over meaningful, heartfelt storytelling, and that’s what they are appealing to, and it sucks.
They must be doing something right as I think half the people who say the show has been undergoing a ‘renaissance’ over the last few years are probably as old as we are (I’m 30 by the way) if not older.
For someone of a considerable age, I’m sure all your posts are filled with resentment toward younger people for some reason, lol. Dude, that’s so miserable.
I don’t think younger people have anything to do with it. I’m about a decade younger than you and no one my age cares about modern Simpsons.
I’m the only person I know in real life who’s watched it and only as because I find it an interesting writing case study / extension of this blog, not because I think most episodes are any good. The people I know who have watched The Simpsons stick to the classic era, because why wouldn’t they? That’s the only part that’s great. In fact, I think most people my age haven’t watched the show at all, because current episodes have been bad their whole lives and they need to learn how good the golden age was to even want to see it. (Thank you, Dead Homer Society, for tipping me off!)
The people I’ve seen praising modern Simpsons are all on the Internet, and from what I observe it’s mainly 30-somethings who grew up with this show when the classic or Scully seasons aired. The average young person isn’t into The Simpsons. They’re into the animes and the streaming dramas and whatever else is currently popular on their pirate site of choice.
The ultimate fate of The Simpsons franchise isn’t infamy. It’s irrelevance.
I guess I should be glad that I spoiled myself on Shauna’s involvement with the episode beforehand as it made it slightly more noteworthy besides the cameos of Lurleen & Artie Ziff which were essentially just for click bait.
But as I kept waiting for the episode to become available I began thinking ‘do I really want to watch this whole episode because of this character that I’m one of only five people on the whole planet who actually likes her?’. And by the time it did, I ultimately decided ‘no!’ and only watched her scenes as well as the aforementioned cameos.
Likely made the right call as what I’ve heard makes this sound like the typical Selman trap of the character we’re supposed to sympathize with (Marge) ultimately screwing herself over similar to Ned in the last episode I saw complete with a hoaky faux-Full House ending that also tries (but fails) to be a little subversive. So it’s a case where I liked a small part of it, but probably would’ve disliked the whole package.
Speaking of Marge, I’m just gonna say it. I keep the letters because they bring me peace? You’re a fucking dumbass! I’d get just as much if not more peace by setting a match to the damn letters afterwards!
I also can’t help but wonder what she had to say about Laura considering she’s shown with a letter and everyone else conveniently got the ones about themselves.