Original airdate: December 14, 2025
The premise: Four years in the future, a 43-year-old Marge is distressed when she starts to go through perimenopause, fretting over her aging looks while also having her hands full with a teenage Bart and Lisa.
The reaction: In recent years, some fans have rejoiced that we are living in a new renaissance for the show, in large part thanks to a growing group of episodes focusing on real, emotional story lines where characters are going through relatable arcs. “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream” from a few years ago was one such celebrated episode, featuring Marge’s growing dismay that her children are growing up whether she likes it or not, and what it means for her life and relationship with them. Now, the show at its very best was rightfully applauded for making these jaundiced bug-eyed freaky doodles paradoxically incredibly human, especially the female characters, as Marge, Lisa, and Patty & Selma got their fair share of stories that really dug deep into them as people and how they get along in such a harsh world. Their struggles were very relatable, but also true to who they were as characters. And most importantly of all, the show remained funny as fuck, blending humor with the true sentiment, never skipping a comedic beat. My main issue with episodes like these nowadays is that the comedy content is smirk worthy at best, as the scripts are fully focused on character melodrama and syrupy sweet resolutions. “Dream” is what this episode reminded me most of, as Marge is broken up being faced with the horrors of aging, and must learn to make her way through it. We immediately start in a four-year time jump, where Marge’s home life is more stressful than ever thanks to her teenage children, as well as some recent stress and restlessness, eventually discovering that she’s pre-menopausal. She succumbs to peer pressure from her gal pals to do cosmetic treatments, which infuriates a twelve-year-old Lisa, seeing her mom as a hypocrite after waxing on about the beauty of womanhood to the acne-ridden teen. Shockingly, Homer pulls his weight to help Marge and the family, but aging rears its head on him in the form of erectile dysfunction, prompting an immediate emergency response and all the resources he could ever want to save a man’s penis. This follows Marge’s trip to the doctor and their less-than-helpful treatment for her (“I’m sorry, there’s just not much research into health issues that only affect women. My med school professor called ‘menopause’ an ‘esoteric mystery.'”) Yes, we’ve poured an endless amount of money into Viagra and other similar medications because of course that’s seen as a priority to the old men in charge of the levers of power, and it’s a humorous observation, but not one that feels very novel. Most of the runtime is mired in Marge’s turmoil, and like other episodes of this ilk, I just didn’t find it the most compelling, and there’s basically no great jokes propping things up. A moment like Marge being hurt that Lisa didn’t tell her she got her first period I love in concept, and I almost wish this had been focused directly on the Marge-Lisa relationship, but it all gets thrown into the family chaos stew with the Homer stuff and a runner with Bart being a typical teenage pervert, while Marge is going off the deep end afraid he’ll become an incel? The schmaltz dial gets cranked to eleven when Lisa performs “The Pina Coloda Song” at Ned Flanders’s wedding, as it had been previously fondly remembered by Marge as “their” song, to Lisa’s scoff. We cut to credits before we get to the “making love at midnight” part, which felt like a cop-out, joke-wise. Arrested Development‘s “Afternoon Delight,” this ain’t. I find it difficult to talk about these types of episodes (“Iron Marge” is another recent example), where they’re very different types of stories that a lot of people are connecting with, and I admire the effort, and elements about them, but for me, they just don’t work. I feel like an old man (yelling at cloud) thinking back to how subversive and back-handed this show used to be, but in that same period, they also produced some of the most genuinely touching moments ever on television. Here, we get Ned’s beautiful wedding, Homer giving an authentic best man speech thanks to some estrogen cream, Bart awkwardly talking to a girl to Marge’s relief, then Marge and Lisa’s reconciliation and the song all back to back to back and it just felt like someone dumped an entire bag of sugar into my mouth. And I love schmaltz! I’m an easy mark for this type of shit in movies and TV shows! Maybe it’s just my general tired feelings about this show, but I’m just not affected. I’m glad for those who are, though.
Two items of note:
– In every single future-set episode, they always have to do the fucking joke where Maggie is either absent or there’s some labored explanation as to why she doesn’t speak. The much-beloved “Holidays of Future Passed” had that awful bit where rock star Maggie is about to give birth, and is barred from speaking because it might hurt the baby or something stupid like that. But, thankfully, this episode cut the bullshit and finally let five-year-old Maggie speak, and they got Lindsay Lohan to do her voice. And she did a great job! I was surprised how much I liked her performance for a little kid character. She’s only done a few small voice roles, so I was impressed. I didn’t love this year’s Freakier Friday, but you can tell Lohan was as game as ever to do it. I wouldn’t mind bringing Lohan back to do a spiritual sequel to “Barthood” and “Mr. Lisa’s Opus” but have it follow Maggie growing up. Yes, it’s basically working with a blank slate of a character, but that could kind of be fun to explore a hypothetical personality for this baby we’ve known for almost four decades.
– For some reason, Sarah Wiggum is voiced by Dawnn Lewis for her one scene, who also voices Bernice Hibbert. Lewis is a more recurring guest on the show, so maybe they couldn’t get Megan Mullally on the horn so they just asked Lewis to do it. But she doesn’t sound anything like Mullally; I bet Tress MacNeille could get closer to that range than Lewis can. Yes, I’m quibbling over literally one line, but I knew if they wanted to commit to the recasting with Mullally, there’d be a period where they might have issues getting her back.
Me Blog Write Good 
I thought Sarah sounded different but I couldn’t put my finger on it as to why. What’s even weirder is that Megan is still credited despite it not being her so maybe the line was originally different which she recorded but she wasn’t available to deliver the rewritten one.
Anyways I was somewhat with this one up until the point where Homer began going through his erectile dysfunction as that’s when the episode kinda fell off and never recovered. So kind of a disappointing note as this is the last episode I plan to watch this year (that Bumblebee Man one sounds about as ‘good’ as the other attempts to focus on the secondaries this season). Though I guess it could’ve been worse as last week’s could’ve been my last episode of the year and that was a piece of shit!
Surprised they’re going to bother with Bumblebee Man of all people. He’s a nothing character.
Well, they also tried (key word: Tried) with both Chalmers & Frink earlier this season despite them both being equally nothing characters.
That erectile dysfunction emergency sequence, counterpoised against the lack of help available to Marge earlier, is the funniest thing the show has done in many years.
Easily the best episode of the season and the best flashfoward since Lisa’s Wedding.
I’m surprised it was actually said out loud.
Agreed 100%, that sequence was truly funny. I wish the show had more jokes like this that really landed, but as Mike mentioned, humor has taken a backseat to emotion for many years now. The show needs to remember that it can do both.
This blog is actually just an L after another one right now lmaooooo #cooked
Seriously, I can’t believe how much I’ve fell off.
I don’t know why they bother doing these future shows, it’s not like they’re canon.
Regular episodes aren’t really “canon” either. There’s no real continuity unless they think contradicting a big episode (ie. Maude’s death) would confuse people.
Really liked how this felt like an actual, plausible look into the future without being bogged down with weird crazy gimmicks. Not a perfect episode, but it’s the most I’ve been invested in these characters in a while.
I hadn’t checked in on this site or the show at that matter for a while. We welcomed our son some time back, and I’ve been working a lot of overtime, but I finally managed to get a bit of time off. I happened to have Fox on all day when I was out and about with the Wife and our new child, and we got home right around the time the episode started, and I figured I might as well sit through it and see what kind of nonsense they were doing this time.
The episode itself felt very much like those mid to late teen seasons, when the show tried to be edgier and more “mature” very much like Family Guy, despite mostly coming across as extremely crass with constant sex jokes and innuendos―almost like something a bunch of horny 12 year old’s would write and also laugh at. That kind of energy really seemed present here, and if you ask me, it was distracting from everything else it might have had going for it. It’s almost like just referencing and saying “erectile dysfunction”, “periods”, as well as “heroin” are supposed to be the punch lines, since the show doesn’t usually resort to humor like that just because, so its almost like supposed to be shocking and “in your face”. Idk, maybe it’s just me.
The other thing that a lot of people are talking about is the whole Sarah situation, and my take is pretty simple, they should have someone who’s already on the show voice her―someone like Nancy Cartwright or Tress MacNeil would honestly be the best match to Pamela. Given that Nancy she already voices Ralph, it just makes sense. Even Database has always felt a bit like Ralph anyway, just older and more nasally.
Sarah was originally nasally and Southern-sounding, which added a lot of charm to both her character and the Wiggum family dynamic. So maybe Nancy could do a Database style impression, pitch it up closer to Ralph’s range, and add a touch of Southern flair. At that point, you’ve basically got Sarah.
From a production standpoint, it feels ridiculous to bring in an outsider for a role that’s essentially been reverted back to its original form. Since they’ve written her back as her quirky old self, and Pamela has retired, they should let someone already on the cast someone who can genuinely nail that original voice take over the role. That alone could open the door to some genuinely interesting as well as wholesome Wiggum dynamics, especially when it comes to Ralph and Sarah’s relationship and bond, or the entire family with Sarah getting most of the focus. Instead, its like they want to harp on this stupid and pointless “Its Megan Mullaly on a character that acts or sounds nothing like her!” trope, and only gets any voice presence when they drag her in and is limited to that. The Dawn Lewis voice though was especially incredibly weird and just off.
The erectile dysfunction bit had an element of shock humor to it, but I didn’t see it as a crash, vulgar punchline, as it was highlighting the difference between men’s and women’s healthcare. And the period stuff was treated very frankly, not sure why there should be a stigma about that.
The show had gotten Megan Mullally in for single lines for Sarah in episodes, it would be surprising if this signaled them just giving up on the re-cast. It’s dumb, but she’s such a minor character I can’t bring myself to care that much. It was just surprising hearing Dawn Lewis’s voice come out of her.
Congrats on your new kid, btw.
I’m not saying there’s a stigma, per say, but it really gave off that same feeling as the awful “edgy, wannabe Family Guy” stretch from around Seasons 14–18. The Simpsons has never really gone that deep into subjects like this, nor has it typically relied on that kind of humor for jokes or punch lines the way Family Guy and other much more adult oriented shows do.
That said, it’s just very strange to put any real effort into bringing in an outsider for a role that an existing cast member could easily handle—and actually sound like the character—rather than just using a standard, normal voice. That kind of choice pretty much defeats the purpose of voice acting unless the person is literally playing themselves in animated form. They should have Nancy or Tress dub it, assuming that’s even possible on a completed episode.
Thank you!
Since when periods is inherently something sexual and not like, a natural thing that every woman gets through her life. That’s such a weird view on the subject like that, especially when this series was doing episodes about cheating, respecting women, scandals, bullyng and all of that in season 1.
*sees it’s the same guy who had a weird abt tattoed women here once* oh…. It makes sense, ofc it’s coming from someone of that mindset.
I think just about everyone on the planet understands that it’s a natural phenomenon. The issue isn’t what it is, but how it’s presented. It comes across as somewhat “in your face”, like it’s trying to be humorously shocking—almost as if the show is saying, “See? We mentioned periods on The Simpsons! A PG rated show that rarely goes this far into sexual territory, but we did it, and we want to make sure you noticed!”
Also, what does your other statement even have to do with this? It’s strange that you’re keeping track of something that was probably said years ago.
It’s kind of weird how last season Ned was shown to be born in 1959, now 4 years in the future Ned should be about 70, yet he’s marrying someone young enough to have a teenage sister? Ned doesn’t seem like the type to have a trophy wife.
The writers don’t give a damn about this show’s lore or continuity and they haven’t in almost 30 years.
Wasn’t one of the (supposedly) 22 Short Films About Springfield about him?