Season 14
Part 1
This final season for the SD era of
The Simpsons doesn’t really have a theme, but includes a higher concentration of experimental and conceptually ambitious episodes. My goal is to create the impression that the show is trying new things and tying up some loose ends before winding down and going on a temporary hiatus ahead of the transition to HD. This season consists of six episodes from season 15, three from season 16, three from season 17, two from season 18, seven from season 19, and one from season 20 plus a Halloween special.
1. The Seemingly Never-Ending Story
Original Season: Season 17
Director: Raymond S. Persi
Writer: Ian Maxtone-Graham
IMDB Score: 7.7/10
Personal Score: 5/5
Comments: We kick things off with a highly inventive episode.
The Seemingly Never-Ending Story is unabashedly confident, meticulously constructed, and immensely entertaining. The nested storytelling approach is reminiscent of the similarly experimental
Trilogy of Error but even more conceptually ambitious, weaving together multiple narrative vignettes to create a compelling tapestry full of neat little twists, details and moments. There are a few contrivances and absurdities along the way (indeed, some of the details may not stand up to scrutiny upon very close inspection), but the overall strength of the plotting, character work and humour offsets most if not all of these minor niggles.
The episode gets things rolling immediately, wasting no time before delving into the first of several tangents which is an excellent change of pace from the meandering first acts that many other contemporary episodes are guilty of. The rest of the story unfolds at an equally brisk pace, never spending too much time on any one embedded story before moving onto the next and gradually revealing how each forms one part of a bigger picture. This could have turned into a hot mess, but the writing holds up well and things make sense for the most part because some degree of planning has been applied for once. The competency and fluency is quite rare for the post-classic era and the episode is enhanced even further by the assortment of secondary characters that are used.
Edna and Snake are the biggest beneficiaries, both of whom receive some belated backstory that shows how they became who they are. The young Edna is a fresh, positive and idealistic woman who still has a passion for teaching and hasn’t yet been weighed down by the disappointments and defeats that life has continually thrown at her. We get to see how dating Moe (a neat pairing, by the way) and being hoodwinked by Bart on her first day of teaching are formative experiences, seeding the bitterness and apathy that we know so well. It’s nothing revelatory, but it’s insightful and adds dimensions to the character which is exactly what a flashback should be doing at the bare minimum.
The same is true for Snake who is revealed to have been a fledgling archaeologist before his hopes were crushed and his ideals corrupted by the cruelties of the universe in which Springfield exists. This is an unexpected yet inspired touch, humorously explaining why a ruthless criminal displays a touch of geniality from time to time. The Indiana Jones parallels are also insightful, serving as a metaphor for his resourcefulness and aptitude for felonious escapades. Not to mention the genesis of his recidivism links back to his
“goodbye student loan payments” line from
22 Short Films About Springfield, a similarly unconventional classic episode. There’s an undercurrent of sadness to the fates of Edna and Snake, both of whom become trapped in a cycle from which they never break free.
We also get good use of Mr. Burns. There have been many attempts to humanise Burns over the years, some more successful than others. The best (
Rosebud) never lose sight of who Burns really is even when making him sympathetic or pitiable – a vain, vindictive and vulnerable old man driven be a ceaseless pursuit of self-aggrandisement that is underpinned by a powerful contempt for the common man. The worst (
Monty Can’t Buy Me Love and others) violate one or more of these basic tenets, neutering the character in the process. This doesn’t rank among the best (or come close), but it does a slightly better job than other post-classic episodes at tapping into his latent humanity.
Burns’ uncharacteristic altruism occurs at the precise moment he resigns himself to the fact that his power is irretrievable. He realises that no amount of grovelling, conniving, manipulating or terrorising will help him get a photo with a smiling child to reclaim ownership of the Power Plant. A lifetime of cruelty and scorn has rendered so simple a task impossible. I find this mildly interesting and affecting because a Burns who tacitly accepts that he’ll never be able to harness or exert power over others with disdain is a Burns who has a sudden capacity for goodness. That feels earned, believable and consistent to me without compromising any of the character’s fundamental attitudes or attributes.
However, this breakthrough is fleeting. Lisa expresses her gratitude for his heroism by giving him the photo he needs which is ironic because Burns can now get everything back, effectively extinguishing that spark of decency. This is still a Burns who seeks greater wealth at every opportunity, who still wants to be feared and to succeed at the expense of everyone else, and who isn’t concerned with being liked or finding someone to love. Rather than reward and reinforce his better nature, Lisa’s act allows his callousness to reassert itself. Like Edna, Snake and everyone else in the static world of Springfield, Burns cannot escape his fate. The need to maintain the status quo forces everything to snap back into original place, precluding lasting change or development.
The insights gleaned from the stories and pairings in this episode is very much in the spirit of the revelatory character studies from the Oakley and Weinstein era of the show. Of course, this episode falls well short of their venerated work, but the effort to do something –
anything – new with these characters does not go unnoticed or unappreciated as far as I’m concerned. I should also mention that there are some great gags sprinkled throughout including Moe continually throwing Barney out of the bar which ranks among the best drunk Barney gags of the series for me (and one of the few Jean-era gags to become a popular source for memes).
Plaudits aside, I think the episode missed a trick with the coda. We’re briefly led to believe that Bart has made up the story as an elaborate excuse for failing to study for a test (which could explain the various absurdities in the story such as how everyone knows where the gold has been stashed and what the chances are they all arrive to retrieve it at the exact same time). That would have been the perfect capstone, ending on a note of ambiguity about whether the whole thing actually happened. Unfortunately, it doubles down on the veracity of the tale by showing Edna with Moe and the Rich Texan. Even the best of post-classic
Simpsons can rarely leave well enough alone.
Suffice to say, after writing more than 1,000 words, this is a tremendous outing. It would be in the running for my all-time favourite post-classic episodes.
2. The President Wore Pearls
Original Season: Season 15
Director: Mike B. Anderson
Writer: Dana Gould
IMDB Score: 6.9/10
Personal Score: 5/5
Comments: Our very own
@Brad Lascelle deems
The President Wore Pearls the best musical
The Simpsons has ever produced (well, up until
The Star of Backstage at least) and I can certainly see why. Personally, my favourite remains the Sherry Bobbins episode, but this episode has several things that go in its favour. Firstly, Yeardley Smith gives a truly stunning performance – one of her very best, I dare say. Secondly, the
Don’t Cry for Me spoofs are absolutely terrific and the original songs are also top notch. This is a substantive episode that tells an excellent character story, all the elements of which cohere into a fantastic package. I still think it’s the show’s best post-classic musical episode.
3. The Debarted
Original Season: Season 19
Director: Matthew Nastuk
Writer: Joel H. Cohen
IMDB Score: 7.7/10
Personal Score: 3.5/5
Comments: The Debarted is a fascinating episode. I enjoy it quite a bit on the surface, but I’m not sure it’s actually all that good. The broad strokes (Bart discovering that one of his friends is a rat secretly feeding information to Skinner and sabotaging his pranks) are solid, but I’m less convinced by or enamoured with the finer details. My issues are principally with the parody of
The Departed which has always rubbed me the wrong way. Admittedly, I haven’t watched the film so I’m lacking context and can’t comment on the quality of the pastiche, but something is off about it and I’m starting to understand why.
This episode aired in March 2008 so it would have been written and produced in early to mid-2007, mere months after the release of
The Departed. Immediately I sense that someone saw or heard about the film and said “let’s capitalise on the success of this film and base an entire episode on it”. This topical approach to conceptualising new episodes doesn’t sit well with me, screaming of a show that’s desperate to stay relevant. I mean, the film hadn’t found its place in the pantheon of other mob films yet let alone been out long enough to gestate in the collective consciousness. How do you even start evaluating or subverting it properly without the perspective that only the passage of time provides? Back in the day,
The Simpsons retrofitted clever and carefully considered parodies into an episode rather than just lift story ideas wholesale from the most recent and popular sources.
Look, I’ll give Joel H. Cohen credit for not going down the most obvious route. Can you imagine if he just threw together a vapid story about Homer infiltrating Fat Tony’s organisation to spy on him for the feds? Oh wait, I’m three seasons too early. Anyway, the choice to focus on Bart and Springfield Elementary is good for the same reason (well, one of many reasons)
24 Minutes was enormously successful - it underplays and trivialises the serious life-or-death drama of the source material which is...
something. Yet, despite taking such a huge liberty in translating the film, Cohen still plays the parody too straight especially with regards to Donny with whom I have problems. For one, he sounds absolutely nothing like a ten year old and has little characterisation. Worse, it’s impossible to overlook the glaringly obvious inspiration of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Billy Costigan. It’s so unsubtle you can positively hear the shrieks of
“hey, did you realise we’re parodying The Departed because we’re totally parodying The Departed”. The episode would have been better off without having such a transparent link to the source material. The rat could have been an existing character like Milhouse or Nelson or, hell, even Martin. That could have given the story some actual weight
and Bart wouldn’t come across as such a dumbass.
I realise I’m criticising this episode a lot for what it
isn’t and what it
doesn’t do which isn’t necessarily useful analysis about what it
is and what it
does. I just can’t shake the impression that it was throttled by the decision to more or less transpose a character directly from the film into the show. I
do like this more than my drawn out criticisms would indicate, but yeah, th-th-th-that's all folks.
4. Treehouse of Horror XIII
Original Season: Season 17 / 20 / 18
Director: David Silverman / Bob Anderson / David Silverman & Matthew Faughnan
Writer: Marc Wilmore / Matt Warburton / Peter Gaffney
Personal Score: 2.5/5
Comments: I’ve just about exhausted the supply of semi-decent SD Jean era
Treehouse of Horror segments, but we have one Halloween special left to compile so let’s select three more. We start with
Survival of the Fattest which is virtually bereft of substance, but the concept is an appropriate one so why not. I like how it manages to squeeze in
so many secondary characters to kill, but the dispassionate way it goes about doing that makes it impossible for me to care let alone respond to the deaths. Burns is suitably evil, but he never feels threatening (everyone gets hunted down due to their stupidity more than anything else) and his motivations are too ill-defined. It would have been nice to have some actual tension build as Burns picked everyone off, but I suppose fat Homer jokes are easier to write.
We move on to
How to Get Ahead in Dead-Vertising. The plot for this segment veers dangerously close to ‘Homer gets a job’ shenanigans, but I like the grotesqueness along with the anti-celebrity and anti-capitalist sentiment. We finish with
The Day the Earth Looked Stupid which is one of the more memorable and inspired SD Jean era Halloween segments. It’s relatively effortful in places from the Maurice LaMarche voice overs to the general aesthetic and atmospheric elements that successfully evocate the time period. The final shot of a blasted Springfield is especially haunting (love the use of
I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire by The Ink Spots). It has its issues though including the clumsy execution of the alien invasion and the heavy-handed Iraq War allegory.
5. The Way We Weren't
Original Season: Season 15
Director: Mike B. Anderson
Writer: J. Stewart Burns
IMDB Score: 7.3/10
Personal Score: 5/5
Comments: We all know and accept that
Simpsons continuity is mutable, but there are certain inviolable details that transcend the show’s floating timeline – including backstories and other elements that should never be tampered with. The story of how Homer and Marge fell in love is perhaps the most sacred of them all. Astonishingly, it was over 30 years ago when
The Way We Was took us back to the age of disco and revealed how a brash and boorish yet unpretentious and lovable Homer won Marge’s heart at their high school prom – an episode brimming with iconic moments that are seared onto our hearts and into our memories. These aren’t easily displaced which is why episodes that modify one or more aspects of their history such as
That 90’s Show,
Dangerous Curves,
The Clown Stays in the Picture, and
3 Scenes Plus a Tag from a Marriage just feel false and superfluous.
The Way We Weren’t is different. It remembers and respects its progenitor by ensuring that nothing is contradicted or invalidated. We learn that Homer and Marge met as kids at camp, but the episode avoids the obvious problems of such a ret-con by giving them an excuse to change their appearance and use fake names. The new information we learn doesn’t strictly
change what we know – it simply
adds to it. One could therefore criticise the episode for being redundant and incidental, preventing it from reaching the same heights as its classic-era counterparts. That would be true, but I’d argue that it isn’t necessary and I think
The Way We Weren’t functions fine as a sweet, low-key character story that supplements established canon. I also like that the episode doesn’t explicitly date itself (Homer makes a cheeky reference to this at the start) so the flashbacks are free of jarring anachronisms.
The big contrivance of the episode is that numerous secondary characters show up in the one place at the same time and seem to know each other. I can understand why this stretches suspension of disbelief for some viewers and makes the world feel smaller, but I confess it has never bothered me (I personally find
Springfield Up more egregious in this regard). I really like how Homer and Marge come across as genuine ten year old versions of their adult selves along with the idea (no matter how hokey) that they were fated to fall in love. The episode is sprinkled with some lovely character moments and I even sympathise with the disappointment Marge feels at the end which rings true and isn’t too overplayed.
The Way We Weren’t is my favourite post-classic flashback episode by a significant margin and it works nicely as a retrospective in the context of this final SD season.
6. The Girl Who Slept Too Little
Original Season: Season 17
Director: Raymond S. Persi
Writer: John Frink
IMDB Score: 6.9/10
Personal Score: 3/5
Comments: I have mixed feelings about
The Girl Who Slept Too Little. The fundamental idea of Lisa confronting and conquering her fears is solid, but the episode is *ahem*
afraid to commit to its story and even undermines it at almost every opportunity. Lisa is scared silly by the graveyard that has been moved next door to the house and can’t reconcile her precocious logic and intellect with the irrational fears and overactive imaginations typical of all children her age. We later discover she wasn’t nurtured enough as a baby and had to fend for herself as a result of her dysfunctional home environment. As a result, she never resolved these developmental issues and has no choice but to face them now.
This is a strong platform for an excellent story and character study so why does writer John Frink sabotage it every chance he gets? Firstly, we get the protracted and superfluous sequence at the Stamp Museum which disrupts the flow of the story. Not to mention various other detours and distractions that eat up precious time (the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, the Bonanza skit, and the cops searching the graveyard). The episode also lacks polish at times including when Bart disappears immediately after Lisa enters and gets trapped inside the graveyard. Rather than feeling the tension and anxiety of her scary situation, I’m just bemused by the shoddy editing.
The most egregious blunder the episode makes is the appearance of Gravedigger Billy. I thought the idea was that Lisa has been exaggerating or manufacturing dangers that don’t actually exist. Indeed, isn’t that the point of the dream she has at the end? The creatures help her resolve the internal struggle between her rational and irrational selves. It’s normal and okay to be afraid, but there's nothing to fear from a graveyard. Except, well, there is because there a homicidal maniac is on the loose. Lisa has every reason to be terrified of what she sees which
wasn’t a product of her imagination. Yet she refuses to tell anyone and chooses to spend a night there alone? WTF!?
It’s so stupid and incoherent, obfuscating Lisa’s arc and making her look more than a little bit foolish. I realise I’m being hard on this episode, but it’s frustrating to see promising episodes shoot kneecap themselves again and again. I think this is worthwhile for some of the insight into Lisa’s psyche, but I won’t deny it has serious problems. Disappointing, but at least we’ve got
Halloween of Horror.
7. Don't Fear the Roofer
Original Season: Season 16
Director: Mark Kirkland
Writer: Kevin Curran
IMDB Score: 7.5/10
Personal Score: 4/5
Comments: Man, Homer gets treated like shit in
Don’t Fear the Roofer and it’s kinda uncomfortable to watch at first, but it’s easy to forget and important to remember that we only see things from his perspective. Everyone around him across as harsh and unreasonable, but that’s only because we see the forest for the trees whereas they’re just getting snippets. I sympathise with Homer in this episode, but he doesn’t do himself any favours. I can’t blame Marge for being fed up when he’s done next to nothing to keep their house from falling on top of them (it’s hilarious how much effort he applies to set up the elaborate hot wheels track around the house when it would have been easier to just fix the dang roof) and that’s
before he starts concocting imaginary friends out of thin air.
I have to credit the episode for making Homer’s ostensible psychosis seem convincing on a first time viewing. The testimony from eyewitnesses successfully lulled me into questioning his sanity and that fake-out remains an effective story device even knowing the explanations during repeat viewings. The electro-shock therapy scenes are definitely the most alarming of the episode, no doubt about it. Homer has to endure a lot of abuse because everyone around him is unreliable and unobservant (Ray chief among them). Dan Castellaneta does some fantastic voice work though, giving what might otherwise be a disturbing and distressing sequence some levity. Of course, it all turns out to be a huge misunderstanding and Ray turns out to be real which leads to the funniest part of the episode.
The explanations make no goddamn sense, but I love how completely and utterly insane they are. Stephen Hawking’s explanation of the localised black hole in particular is just bonkers, but it’s the perfect punchline to a series of increasingly absurd…absurdities. The ending doesn’t pretend that any of it should add up which, I gotta say, makes me laugh and the episode wouldn’t have been anywhere near as memorable or successful without them. Ray Romano also does a great job as Ray Magini (nice anagram, by the way) and probably in my list of top 10 post-classic celebrity guest stars.
8. Lisa the Drama Queen
Original Season: Season 20
Director: Matthew Nastuk
Writer: Brian Kelley
IMDB Score: 6.0/10
Personal Score: 4.5/5
Comments: I only recently learned that
Lisa the Drama Queen was inspired by the 1994 film
Heavenly Creatures starring Kate Winslet which was based on a 1954 matricide in New Zealand. Suffice to say, that piece of trivia places the episode in a very different and decidedly more unsettling context. However, I’ve never picked up on anything overtly disturbing during previous viewings. Even now, I think that the connections to both the source material and the actual historical event are loose enough that the story and the characters need not be tainted by them. As a matter of fact, I reckon this is a really good episode and an absorbing iteration of the ‘Lisa gets a friend’ trope.
Emily Blunt steals the show as Juliet Hobbes. Unlike other celebrity guests who have voiced one-time characters, Blunt actually makes an effort to approximate the voice of an 8-year old girl and I cannot overstate how refreshing that is. Her performance finely balances innocent charm and whimsy with a more obsessive and neurotic edge that isn’t too over-the-top. Juliet is also well-sketched for a one-time post-classic
Simpsons character. The scenes at her house with her family are good at exploring her motivations and revealing what prompts her to escape from the mundanity of her everyday life. She also isn’t a new or previously unseen character at Springfield Elementary, giving us a glimpse of a larger world beyond the purview of the Simpsons. Juliet feels real in a way few others do.
Lisa and Juliet bond over their precocious passion for art, but their connection goes far deeper than that. Both of them feel alienated from their peers, misunderstood by their mentors, and dissatisfied with their families. They also share similar addictive and obsessive tendencies which stem from deep anxieties they wish to repress or escape from. However, there are crucial differences between them that make the prospect of a long-term friendship unlikely from the outset. Unlike Lisa, Juliet is a little fish in a big pond whose home life is stable and sophisticated but completely devoid of imagination and inspiration. She compensates for this by concocting and losing herself in elaborate fantasies and make-believe worlds which attracts Lisa initially, but fails to satisfy her.
Juliet is an interesting counterpoint to her more grounded and rational temperament. Lisa possesses tangible aspirations in the physical world and recognises that her forays into Equalia, as tempting as they are, are unhealthy and unproductive (not to mention dangerous). Her choice to step away from that utopian world and effectively end her friendship with Juliet is a great character moment. Lisa, who has always struggled to make friends, willingly walks away from a kindred spirit despite the joy they gave each other. It’s a very mature and level-headed decision that I respect immensely because it shows remarkable wisdom and awareness of her boundaries. There are many pleasurable things in the world, but they can be harmful when they consume you and distract you from what’s real. Juliet is wrong when she says the real world is only for people who can’t imagine anything better. Lisa can and
does imagine better – she just wants to make her fantasies of a more just world a reality.
Some final comments regarding Marge: she’s brilliant in this episode. I love how enthusiastic she is about Lisa making a friend which makes it all the more devastating when she gets rejected. There’s something true-to-life about the way people create insular bubbles and react cruelly or insensitively when that gets disrupted. Lisa absolutely crosses the line here – she doesn’t realise or appreciate how her words and actions affect the world around her because she’s captivated by her fantasies with Juliet, signalling that the friendship has become noxious. Even her school grades suffer which is when Marge decides to interfere. Perhaps cutting Lisa off from Juliet so quickly and completely is an over-reaction, but that too is very true-to-life and I can understand why Marge is so concerned.
I’ve written more about this episode than I expected to, but it’s an unsung success and one of Brian Kelley’s many underrated contributions to the show.
9. Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Original Season: Season 15
Director: Matthew Nastuk
Writer: Julie Chambers & David Chambers
IMDB Score: 7.2/10
Personal Score: 5/5
Comments: There have been many episodes involving Bart and Lisa squabbling with, competing against and working alongside each other. Some are among the best the show has produced, gifting us priceless moments both hilarious and heart-warming. Usually, Bart and Lisa bonding comes with a caveat – sibling rivalries to overcome, interpersonal dramas to resolve, and mysteries to unravel. I can’t think of any episode in which they just hang out with each other for an extended period of time except, well, this one.
Milhouse Doesn’t Live Here Anymore stands out for precisely this reason and I’m
very fond of it despite some excess mawkishness and a throwaway subplot.
There’s very little story in this episode and so the character work does a lot of the heavy lifting. There are plenty of lovely scenes, sweet moments, funny lines and creative flourishes. I particularly love seeing Bart and Lisa hosing down Ned in the front yard while Marge watches from the window, Groundskeeper Willie’s tirade from the school window (a rare source of memes in the post-classic era), and especially that graceful pan through the house hearing everyone’s internal dialogue. There’s a naturalistic and understated ‘slice of life’ quality to the episode which, as I’ve said in the past, is when I think post-classic
Simpsons is generally at its best.
The ending is…look, it’s undeniably sappy, but I totally dig it. Lisa was there when Bart needed a friend and the time they spent together felt genuine. The gratitude and kindness he returns feels just as real and earned. I think it’s among the nicest things that Bart has ever done – an act of love that makes an episode like
On a Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister just a season later not only impossible, but fundamentally fraudulent. It’s a beautiful moment and it didn’t need something funny to offset the sentiment – a shame the Sandford coda had to go and spoil it by doing just that. That said, it’s still one of the best episodes of season 15.
10. 'Tis the Fifteenth Season
Original Season: Season 15
Director: Steven Dean Moore
Writer: Michael Price
IMDB Score: 7.1/10
Personal Score: 4/5
Comments: ‘Tis the Fifteenth Season is superb for the first 13 minutes. Homer, rebuked by his friends and family for his selfish behaviour, watches a hysterical adaptation of
A Christmas Carol and realises the error of his ways, endeavouring to be more generous. There are a few things I really like about how this plays out (to begin with at least). Firstly, Jerkass Homer so often answers to no one and suffers no karmic retribution or remorse for the consequences of his actions. This time though, Lenny and the family don’t let him off the hook and the viewer isn’t expected to root for or sympathise with him for being shunned. He gets what he deserves and that’s refreshing. Secondly, the effort he makes to change doesn’t feel disingenuous. His apology to Lenny is genuinely sincere and thoughtful as is his gesture to Marge at the dinner table (love her over-the-top reaction, btw). For a few minutes, Homer is a better person and it all ties in nicely with the festive spirit permeating the episode.
Unfortunately, it pretty much runs out of story at this point and tacks on a new conflict to sustain the remaining runtime at which points things take a bad turn. I don’t have an issue with Ned being jealous of Homer (in fact, that’s an interesting inversion of their usual dynamic), but Homer reverts to a crazy asshole again to make Ned sympathetic. Homer’s subsequent good deeds (such as the Church collection plate) are over-the-top and reek of smugness which undermines his previous sincerity and that’s
before he decides to become the Grinch and steal everyone’s presents in a psychotic attempt to make everyone happy. Guess what? Homer isn’t punished or repentant for his crimes. He gets away with breaking into houses, stealing gifts, and chloroforming kids and we’re right back where we started. Can I also point out that turning a straightforward Christmas-themed character story into a commentary on materialism comes out of left field? Alas…
This is a 5/5 up until Ned gets involved after which it barely scrapes a 2. I guess that rounds out to a 3.5, but the strength of the first two’ish acts earn it a solid 4.
11. The Italian Bob
Original Season: Season 17
Director: Mark Kirkland
Writer: John Frink
IMDB Score: 7.1/10
Personal Score: 1.5/5
Comments: Sideshow Bob episodes are an event. In 32+ seasons and over 700 episodes, the character whom Kelsey Grammer has brought to life with such idiosyncratic flair has only had 14 major appearances (15 if you count
Treehouse of Horror XXVI), nearly half of which are from the first eight seasons. The others are spread out across the subsequent seasons, equating to once every three seasons or 66 episodes on average since season nine. It’s easy to see why they generate more buzz and feel more memorable than a typical episode (especially in the homogenised HD era) – they’re deviations from the usual scheduled programming, shaking up the format and ratcheting up the action. They’re also unique in the context of the show in that they have a mostly firm and linear continuity.
The Italian Bob certainly ticks all the boxes, but drops the ball in terms of execution. Indeed, it’s one of only three or four Sideshow Bob episodes I’d classify as outright poor. I have almost nothing nice to say about it, which begs the obvious question of why include it? Well, as I said, Bob episodes are noteworthy and they’re hard to exclude for this reason alone. More importantly, I’ve added
Funeral for a Fiend to this season which is a direct sequel to this one. Some elements of that follow-up (like the slideshow recap, the presence of his wife and son, and the reason for his initial vendetta against the whole Simpson family) wouldn’t make much sense without it. So what are my problems with this episode beyond generalisations like shoddy craftsmanship, awful jokes, and lazy writing?
Well, for starters, it doubles as a vacation episode with all the banality and cheapness that tends to come with them. The viewer is bombarded with a cacophony of the most tedious gags and cultural stereotypes as the family visits multiple major landmarks in quick succession. The writers are more interested in ticking off an itinerary than telling an actual story with something genuinely funny or interesting to say. The history and richness of a place of like Italy could be used to mock how the Simpson family (sans Lisa) and, by extension, American society is bereft of culture except insofar as they can easily consume and co-opt it. Exotic foods, sophisticated art, esoteric theatre, and excitable people – it’s antithetical to the mundanity and “
simple values” of the Simpsons. That juxtaposition is ripe with comedic and satirical potential, but it’s completely ignored save one or two indolent lines.
In addition, the story takes
far too many shortcuts and contrivances. Why does Mr. Burns choose to send Homer to Italy rather than Smithers or, I dunno,
anyone else? How far and how long was the family pushing the wrecked car before getting to Salsiccia? Why is Bob still wearing his goddamn prison uniform? That last one
really grinds my – someone obviously thought this was funny, but it’s just fucking stupid. Also, why is Krusty shoe-horned into this episode? Wouldn’t it have made more sense for Mr. Burns to intervene given that he had a vested interested in what was going on and had tried contacting the family earlier on? That would have been far less convoluted
and tied things back to the start, wrapping up loose ends and without having to change the Colosseum showdown.
The episode
also ignores its few interesting ideas and goes down the most insipid route possible. We get reacquainted with a tamer Bob who has given up his felonious ways and settled down to raise a family. The story of how he arrived in and became mayor of the town is actually pretty good and I like the idea of him finding peace and acceptance in a place that aligns with his cultured sensibilities. Unfortunately, writer John Frink is wholly indifferent to this and insists on making him a vengeful psychopath again at the earliest opportunity which feels like a waste. Furthermore, Francesca is too thinly sketched as Bob’s wife. How did they meet and fall in love? Why is she so willing to leave her life behind for a man who obviously deceived her? She’s not a character and has almost no agency.
I think some of these issues could have been avoided or at least mitigated if the episode was more interested in doing something fresh and less obsessed with cramming in as many gratuitous travel gags as possible. In the end, they complete with and distract from the real story which is thoroughly squandered. If the writers wanted to have their cake and eat it too, maybe this could have worked better as a two-part episode? As it stands, this might be the worst Sideshow Bob episode of the lot and I’m not happy about including it, but it serves a function as a mid-season finale and a precursor to
Funeral for a Fiend (which is better but not by a huge margin). The final shot of Bob and his family walking out of the Colosseum with the promise of more to come is a decent one to end on.
Addendum (21/10/21): The following changes have been made:
- Modified the sequence of episodes:
- 'The President Wore Pearls', 'The Debarted', and 'The Girl Who Slept Too Little' were held back from the previous two seasons and have been re-inserted into this one.
- 'Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore' was originally slated for the second half of the season, but has been pushed forward.
- 'Any Given Sundance', 'Home Away from Homer' and 'Dial 'N' for Nerder' has been pushed back to the second half of the season.
- Modified the Treehouse of Horror:
- Swapped 'E.T. Go Home' with 'Survival of the Fattest'.
- Swapped 'I've Grown a Costume on Your Face' with 'The Day the Earth Looked Stupid'.
- Lowered the score of 'The Debarted' from a 4 to a 3.5.
- Minor and major edits and fixes to the comments for every pre-existing episode.