Notes:
-Dog humor in general is pretty played out, but I did think "Fox News" was cute.
-Weird time of year to have a Mother's Day episode.
-I laughed at Lisa and Bart's terrible mugs.
-"I just don't know if we can afford more mental health" Excellent line.
-I'm going to talk more about the continuity issues in my wrap-up, but yeah, the idea that Homer discovered Mona was alive during his childhood and not during his adulthood doesn't work for me.
-I don't remember seeing inside Lard Lad before, now twice in one season.
-Lot of sight gags in this episode. "Lonely Man Chili", "What to Expect When You're Expecting Nothing".
-To me, Grampa is mostly in character in this flashback. Yes, he's mellowed out over the years, but at least they showed him as an unpleasant drunk up to the point that he and Homer begin looking for Mona.
-Baby Bart is adorable.
-That "closure" disclaimer.
-This black and white scene must be a reference to something, but I don't know what.
So...let's talk about continuity:
It isn't that "continuity" matters per se in a show with a floating timeline. I really don't care if Homer grew up in the 90s in one episode and the 70s in another or that Grampa will always be a WWII veteran, no matter what else changes. A show with a floating timeline has some freedom to play with the timeline like this and it does not need to keep one consistent "canon". That said, my biggest problem with this episode isn't just that it acts like a major series of plots never happened, it's that this is just a re-tread of something that's already been done. So in this episode we find out for the first time the story of Homer's mother and how Homer actually found her but then lost her again despite the fact that this is literally the plot of
Mother Simpson? It would be one thing if they simply ignored the canon and revealed that Homer discovered that Mona was alive as a teenager, but to actually re-do the plot of Mother Simpson is just absurd. Why not do an episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian again then? "Continuity" becomes an issue when an episode tries to make me feel emotional about a situation that's already been done and doesn't fit with what we've learned about a character.
3/5