An episode-by-episode retrospective of a truly cromulent show
Original airdate: November 13, 2022
The premise: When Duffman is in danger of being replaced as Duff’s mascot, Homer springs into action to help. But secretly, Duffman yearns to reconnect with his estranged daughter, and believing Homer to be a good father to Lisa, he convinces the two to accompany him on a long-overdue visit to his child. Continue reading “735. From Beer to Paternity”
Original airdate: October 30, 2022
The premise: “The Pookadook” is a Babadook parody. “Death Thome” is a Death Note parody. “Simpsonsworld” is a Westworld parody. Continue reading “734. Treehouse of Horror XXXIII”
Original airdate: October 23, 2022
The premise: It’s It. It’s an It parody. It’s a full length Treehouse of Horror episode, and they’re doing It. Continue reading “733. Not It”
Original airdate: October 16, 2022
The premise: Krusty is convinced to host his own daytime talk show, a high-paying gig with minimal effort on his part. While focusing testing the show, executive producer Lindsey Naegle is impressed by Marge’s perfect “nice” segment ideas that she hires her on as a segment producer. Marge is thrilled at first, but quickly finds herself being stressed and worn down by the nightmarish world of daytime TV.
The reaction: I can’t remember the last time I saw one minute of any daytime TV show, so to devote an entire episode on satirizing this genre of television isn’t doing much for me at the jump. All of the targets of satire are pretty easy to discern though, as they’re things that basically anyone with even a cursory knowledge of these types of shows could figure out: a dancing host who caters to easily excitable moms and gay guys, overly cutesy, saccharine heart-string-tugging segments, product giveaways, and an overly phony atmosphere. I know daytime TV overall must still get pretty good ratings, otherwise there wouldn’t be any drive to make new shows, but as a subject of parody, this feels like such a moldy topic. Continue reading “732. The King of Nice”
Original airdate: October 9, 2022
The premise: A “Bart and Lisa in the scouts” plot is quickly interrupted by two cyber terrorists, who proceed to screen a montage of unreleased show footage, featuring story lines that were cut for being too outlandish, vowing only to stop if Disney pays them a hefty ransom.
The reaction: Well, I can certainly say this is the first time the show has genuinely surprised me in a long time. A minute into an impending story line about Bart and Lisa feuding in the scouts, the “transmission” is disrupted by two hackers, threatening to tank the value of The Simpsons by airing the most nonsensical unaired footage in show history unless Disney buckles to their demands. I’ve long talked about how a show that’s run this long should take more opportunities to just do weird shit for the hell of it, and this is definitely in line with that. It’s basically a fake clip show, something that Community and Clerks: The Animated Series have done brilliant episodes of. It’s an episode full of scattershot ideas, so it’s kind of hard to discuss on the whole. Continue reading “731. Lisa the Boy Scout”
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