Rate & Review: "A Made Maggie" (UABF03)

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Brad Lascelle

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Season 33, Episode 10
Original Airdate
: December 19, 2021

Writer: Elisabeth Kiernan Averick
Showrunner: Al Jean
Director: Timothy Bailey

Synopsis: Fat Tony becomes Godfather to Maggie Simpson.

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R&R Poll Average Score: 2.85 / 5 (as of September 24, 2022 / 33 votes)
IMDb User Rating: 6.9 / 10
 
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Not bad, except for the part in the Itchy & Scratchy Christmas on Ice scene where the head of the Scratchy costume was popped right OUT. And to be fair, I'm a bit shocked that Matt Selman's credited as Executive Producer in the end credits only, despite that Al Jean's the showrunnrer for this episode. 3/5
 
This was decent, albeit not all that funny. It definitely felt like Moe Baby Blues (and Moe being the godfather would have been a great callback and possibly a decent sequel), but Tony was shown as more of a bad influence on Maggie in her behavior than Moe ever was, and the connection between Tony and Maggie, while there, wasn’t as emphasized as that between Moe and Maggie.

I thought Marge being really worried about Maggie not being baptized was interesting. I can’t call it out of character, but the show (and American society in general) has become a lot less religion-focused when it comes to what drives characters to do things (with the glaring exception of Ned). For that reason, it felt odd that Marge would suddenly be that gung ho about baptism.

I liked Fat Tony in this; I thought he was characterized well, and I liked his genuine attempt to leave the life of crime behind and devote time to Maggie. I feel like the episode could have done a little more to show Maggie demonstrating more aggressive behavior and really showing that Tony wasn’t a good influence on her, but the episode mostly seemed to focus on Tony’s intimidating presence to be the main factor in the family’s reluctance to let him be the godfather. He seemed very well-meaning in most of the episode, and I felt kind of bad for him when the family members said they didn’t want him to take care of Maggie, so I don’t think it achieved quite what it set out to do.

It wasn’t a bad episode, but I think it misfired on some fronts. I’ll give it a 3/5.
 
Like many Jean episodes, this had potential. So did the recent The Wayz We Were and Mothers and Others Strangers, but it's always the execution that screws his stories up. Here we spend too long at the Harry Potter World Ripoff in the beginning, when we could've just gone straight to Maggie needing to be baptized. It's fine to have an Act 1 that's meaningless, but it's just constant Harry Potter jokes that seem like cheap and small jabs. When we finally get to the Maggie baptized stuff, it feels rushed, like they thought they could just throw in a Flander's joke and move on to the next task of having Homer find a godfather. Just a note, but the animation was great this episode. Loved some of the visuals in Marge's dream, like the way the devil grabbed Maggie or when Bart was steering Homer around at the Harry Potter ride. Anyway, I thought Homer finding godfathers was cute with him immadetialy ruling out everyone in the bar within a couple of seconds, but when we finally get to the Fat Tony stuff it's all just very boring. Marge and Homer wanting Fat Tony to not be Maggie's godfather never did anything unique to progress the story. They just constantly kept telling him, no, and he just kept creeping back in as Maggie's godfather. There was no progression to that story and just felt like nothing. If I remember correctly was there even a reason Fat Tony wanted to be Maggie's godfather, cause I don't remember one. Anyway, I was thinking to myself how much of a b*tch Marge was being to Fat Tony, and it seemed very out of character for her. I know Marge can sometimes get pissed off like at the other Springfield Housewives, but I feel Marge would've let Fat Tony off the hook more quietly and subtly. The side plot with Fat Tony's fellow mob members also was just nothing. Like it felt like it was building up to something cool, and then Johnny Tightlips was then just betrayed by Legs and Louie. It just wrapped up too quickly, like it was checking off boxes. Did Marge tell Tony off? Did the plan to kill Tony go bad? Did Tony stop building his store? Did Tony stop being Maggie's godfather? I'm sorry if you liked this one, but I absolutely dreaded it. The only things I liked were the animation (which I mentioned above) and some of the interactions between Fat Tony and Maggie were very cute. 2/5
 
Well, that was rather boring.

I felt a little conflicted when the plot started to move towards baptism. I couldn't help but remember "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily", if only for a few moments, I moved on quickly. There's nothing horrible wrong with this episode... it was just so boring to me, the only part I enjoyed was when they "disposed" of the diaper. Also Johnny Tightlips had way too many lines.

3/5
 
A worse Moe Baby Blues.

“Finally have an angel in my life.” Guess your son doesn’t count..
1/5

Did Fat Tonys theme not play this episode? Was half paying attention to this in the background, but don’t recall it playing.
 
Interesting that this aired in the second half of December. I don't think that's happened in at least a decade and a half.

And that's all I have to say about this one. It started, stuff happened, and then it ended. Cartoon Velveeta.
 
I'll watch the episode later today; hoping this is the final episode Al Jean showruns for this season given he said he'll showrun at least 4.
 
“Finally have an angel in my life.” Guess your son doesn’t count..
1/5

Did Fat Tonys theme not play this episode? Was half paying attention to this in the background, but don’t recall it playing.
Michael? Well, to be fair, Michael isn't his son. They killed that Fat Tony off and now its Fit-Fat Tony. I mean, not that that one shoulda happened to begin with but still. I think there was another kid with a different design in The Man Who Came To Be Dinner but I don't know if any of that was canon.

Annnnd I think so, it didn't sound exactly the same but I did recognize it near the end.
 
I don't know how to rate this one. On one hand, it's always nice to see Fat Tony in a prominent role, but I felt like he was poorly used here. This episode is really just a bad mixture of Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily & Moe Baby Blues with good jokes and another rushed to the bone execution. Al Jean needs to stop. If he really cares about the reputation, he would rescind and let Selman take over full time. 5/10, just have no idea whether to give it a 2/5 or 3/5 in the poll. I'd rather we instead have polls out of 10 just like iMDB has instead of 5.
 
Oh yeah, definitely better. At least with Fat Tony because he's always fun to have around.
 
Continuity nerds will certainly take issue with:
- Homer and Marge were vehemently against baptizing the kids in "Home Sweet Home Dum-Diddily-Doodily." It did feel strange how concerned Marge was about Maggie being baptized given neither Bart nor Lisa were.
- Fat Tony seemingly forgetting that he has a son. This was a strange one to me, because his son has been referenced multiple times throughout the series (exclusively among Jean episodes too).
 
- Fat Tony seemingly forgetting that he has a son. This was a strange one to me, because his son has been referenced multiple times throughout the series (exclusively among Jean episodes too).

At first I thought so too, but then I was reminded that this is the second Fat Tony (as the original died in 'Donnie Fatso' and was replaced with his brother Fit Tony, who took over, developed a bad eating habit & morphed into a Fat Tony in the end) so Michael isn't his son.
 
I'll watch the episode later today; hoping this is the final episode Al Jean showruns for this season given he said he'll showrun at least 4.
But first we'll have to deal with a few upcoming Selman-showrun episodes, before whenever can get an upcoming episode where Jean will be the showrunner again
 
Continuity nerds will certainly take issue with:
- Homer and Marge were vehemently against baptizing the kids in "Home Sweet Home Dum-Diddily-Doodily." It did feel strange how concerned Marge was about Maggie being baptized given neither Bart nor Lisa were.
I believe that's "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily".
 
Yeah, this is Fit-Fat Tony.
At first I thought so too, but then I was reminded that this is the second Fat Tony (as the original died in 'Donnie Fatso' and was replaced with his brother Fit Tony, who took over, developed a bad eating habit & morphed into a Fat Tony in the end) so Michael isn't his son.
 
I don't know how to rate this one. On one hand, it's always nice to see Fat Tony in a prominent role, but I felt like he was poorly used here. This episode is really just a bad mixture of Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily & Moe Baby Blues with good jokes and another rushed to the bone execution. Al Jean needs to stop. If he really cares about the reputation, he would rescind and let Selman take over full time. 5/10, just have no idea whether to give it a 2/5 or 3/5 in the poll. I'd rather we instead have polls out of 10 just like iMDB has instead of 5.
A 5/10 would correspond to a 2.5-3.
 
I don't know how to rate this one. On one hand, it's always nice to see Fat Tony in a prominent role, but I felt like he was poorly used here. This episode is really just a bad mixture of Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily & Moe Baby Blues with good jokes and another rushed to the bone execution. Al Jean needs to stop. If he really cares about the reputation, he would rescind and let Selman take over full time. 5/10, just have no idea whether to give it a 2/5 or 3/5 in the poll. I'd rather we instead have polls out of 10 just like iMDB has instead of 5.
Agreed. I just hope Selman gives a little respect to the continuity of this show, and does not include multiple sex, racial and edgy jokes every minute.
 
Found this episode very silly. They could have bring Moe Back, instead of Fat Tony as Godfather. Also, baptize question was on the lipps regarding Bart and Lisa, and the Laurel Hardy scene was useless.
 
Grandpa's joke about anti rambling medication actually gave me a big laugh. The rest was fine. I also liked that he was actually a good godfather outside how Maggie's personality was changing. Going to point out that the animated characters spinning on the teacups in the background was pretty good animation. 3/5.
 
It seems i have a kind of prediction for this episode as well as double part episode and the 33.04 (see also, my own personal ideas ^^)
 
Oh goodie, some worn out Harry Potter / amusement parks jokes. Well thank goodness, it doesn't last long.

I thought this episode was a weaker and more cartoonish version of Moe Baby Blues, too bad because a number of ideas aren't that similar to the aforementioned episode, but I don't think they go too far with them. I like the idea of Maggie getting tougher and Tony going the other way around, although the episode feels overstuffed and it ultimately leads to a very disappointing climax that doesn't act as a satisfying conclusion as far as I'm concerned, and not because it has to preserve the status quo. Also, it's rather light in good jokes, a number of them suffer from the usual HD era problems.

I'm kinda disappointed because I appreciate what they were trying to go for with Tony and his characterization but the result feels undercooked. 3/5 rounded up from a 2.5.
 
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