I admit that I liked this episode. The premise itself (that of it turning out that Marge had been a bit of a prankster during her school days & bonding with the enthused Bart) really had my interest from when I heard of it & I was skeptical and vary of how they were gonna pull it off in at least an satisfyingly decent manner (mostly due to this being a Jean episode, which often tend to leave the window open for a lot of interferring issues), but it turns out that my worries were mostly unfounded. This, to me, was a pretty nice episode with an enjoyable and often funny Marge & Bart bonding plot but also a nice subplot with Homer trying to bond some with Lisa over their collective love of food (albeit about Lisa's vegan/vegetarian foods) & some nice emotional moments. There were some issues with it that held it back from being anything great, but as a whole, I was entertained and found it generally likeable.
I liked the opening/lead-in with Grampa and his fellow Retirement Castle denizens against their rivals from the snooty high-class retirement home in a game of shuffleboard: It had its amusing moments and gags (such as the orderlies not really caring & Jasper having an odd incident), not to mention I really liked them actually winning. Solid set-up with this old woman keeping staring at Marge & when confronted by the latter, we find out Marge was a troublemaker in school and ruined the woman's life (being Marge's old principal). Bart being excited abut it was hilarious ("We're the same!"), Patty & Selma got an amusing cameo & the flashback was well told (Young marge having to switch schools to a shoddy, run-down one & her mean principal slipping and falling by accident being attributed to her, starting to pull pranks on the principal to fit in and not be bullied) & got the episode off to an entertaining start.
Marge being revealed to have had a bad kid streak during her school years (at least during a period) and having earned the moniker "Marge The Meanie" by her principal (who seemed to have deserved what came to her) was a concept that didn't feel out of place (as Marge has had her naughty moments and not always been so above it all) and spinning this into a plot where she uses the fact as a way to bond with her son was great. The two spending time and prank mean people gave entertaining and funny moments: The Comic Book Guy pranking scene was fun (I also liked the
Spider-Man comic homage) & Helen Lovejoy being an asshole to Marge one again was even better (that shopping prank was clever & cathartic: Seeing Helen suffer from shame was so good. I also liked the very topical joke about the rampant grocery prices that keep increasing by the second. That one was on point).
I liked how it wasn't all just fun & games, with Marge having a bedtime chat with Homer about feeling bad after doing her silly childish pranks with her son (even though the people they do it to really deserve it, which differs from Bart. I actually think the victims being bad people made it easy for her, as I cannot see her pranking innocents) and only doing it to get closer to Bart as a mother, finding it very hard to stop because of it: This scene also had some nice jokes (the Avatar sequel discussion felt so awkward I kinda liked it & Homer banging his fist at Bart onto the wall and Bart doing the same back at him was funny). The prank on Mr. Burns (who's again up to no good) was a really cartoonish scene (with him ping-ponging between cars and electrocuted) and went on for too long but still made me chuckle (as did even Bart finding Marge went too far: him quickly vacating the premises was pretty funny).
The scene with Marge at the therapist's office allowed the story to slow down and while this signalled where the episode lost some of its energy and became less interesting, I still liked the way it was done with Marge having to come to terms with her pranking side and do something about her old principal (forgiving her and move on), plus the dry jokes with the therapist were decent (albeit the extra cutaway scene to Burns having had an awakening due to his accident before having another accident was pointless. We just had a long gag scene with him so this just felt very meh). Marge deciding to quit but swayed by a crushed Bart to do one more prank was a nice scene between the two (I seriously think this was one of the most fun Marge-Bart dynamics in the recent seasons).
The last prank with the principal blasted in the face with ink from a flower boquet, causing her apparent death, was an interesting one (I hadn't expected that twist of the prank actually being on Bart so that got me. Kudos for not making it predictable) plus the joke with Chief Wiggum being so dense in regards to not understanding the principal only having faked being dead was pretty good (if a little dragged out). The ending was a neat one, with Marge & Bart making up in a bit of an emotional capper, Marge deciding to leave the pranking and Bart to stop it as well (but we'll see how long that lasts), so as a whole, it was an entertaining and fun story that while not the most organically told (due to the showrunning), had enough positives for me to like how it turned out.
As for the subplot about Homer being sad and downbeat about how not only Bart but Lisa & Maggie as well takes after Marge instead of him and deciding to do something about it by trying connecting with Lisa over food was also a really good one. Surprising they haven't done this plot before but it was handled well, ranging from his quiet disappointment at the dinner table to his increasingly angry conversation with the guys at Moe's to finally hanging around Lisa and trying his best to enjoy the same green foods that she likes (interesting to see Lisa being into cooking: Maybe a future Lisa plot?). Anyhow, a nice dad-daughter bonding, some good jokes & I enjoyed the end twist (it turning out they are both allergic to something in the vegetable soup and Lisa still appreciating Homer's kindness) though the dull allergy list joke was pretty bad & was the "treacle" bit (the doctor was kinda obnoxious).
The episode had some of those troublesome Jean-isms of the modern era (such at at times coming off as kinda awkward and stiff, such as the at time ridgid cutting instead of the smoother approach that Selman tends to go for, but also another goddamn list joke and some weird cutaways), but they weren't as intrusive as they could have been and despite the episode coming off as a little too straightforward and simple (I understand those like
@B-Boy who thought they could've done more with the concept & had more of a deep dive into the workings of how Marge was thinking and reasoning), but I didn't mind that and actually liked it for being relatively simple (and some depth was still there) so the positives outweigh the negatives for me (surprising for a Jean episode).
So yeah, this was a good one that felt like a worthwhile 22 mintues. Not excellent in any way but still a fair and above average episode with a couple of fun and interesting stories to tell (and with kind of an energetic Scully-like energy at times, which kept it from being boring). I get those who weren't impressed in any way or just didn't like it (as yeah, there were some definite issues that comes with it being a Jean episode and not a Selman episode) but it kept me invested and entertained and sometimes that's all what's needed (or maybe I was just in a good mood and easily entertained this time, I dunno). Still a pretty decent one.
4/5
). Marge and Bart's connection was pictured ok (actually I waited for worse) and I liked the learnt lessons about pranks to Marge and Bart. It's not so often thing in modern Simpsons.
! Now I understood the humour and the closed credit reverse and chalkboard gag ("I will not violate the law of entropy")
simpsons.fandom.com
www.denofgeek.com
(funny, not?) according to Screen Rant article, which Al Jean shared
