Alright, I'll stop dancing around this one.
Let's make one thing clear: if you're expecting some rare fawning 5/5 sorta review from me here, I would temper that. In fact, let's get my main grievances out of the way, as I do love complaining. First a nitpick, Lisa being the catalyst for this story doesn't work for me, sure she is a child prone to fanciful ideas as any child but she's also written with a streak of feminist or generally progressive perspective on things as basic as gender roles and the like and to me at least, that expands into perceptions of how expression of love is not so rigidly definable, I'd sooner expect Lisa to eyeroll at the heteronormativty of the Hollywood classic pastiche she's watching than pine for it, I don't really buy that she would be actively fearful that Homer and Marge aren't super romantic as long as they're happy, but I also don't really think this matters a ton and we get some good jokes out of it which I'll get to in a moment. The bigger and most pressing issue for me is one that sent me through a full rewatch of this episode to clarify and even then I'm not fully able to articulate it, but to me, this episode is most lacking in Homer and Marge's individual personalities. I understand that is a story illustrating the fortitude of their bond, how synchronized they have become in every way, but their own separate quirks feel missing, Homer is a bit dopey as usual and Marge exhibits some typical attributes like of course her worry as a mother and coyness to her lovey dovey language and such, but in an episode about the love between the two I think the greatest missed opportunity in the writing is that all of the displays of love and protection are very general, this could theoretically be any husband and wife duo and you'd have to change very little in the dialogue. If you transcripted this and said it was a Bob's Burgers ep I would never question you. For my own personal standards, an ultimate Homer-Marge relationship episode needs to exhibit those quirks, the little personal things that quietly reflect on why they fell for each other alongside the bigger gestures of care and trust forged long term, but on the other hand, I do struggle a bit to envision the exact right way to do that given that for what I think is the first time ever, this isn't just an episode vaguely floating in the timeline in terms of their marriage, this is explicitly about the nature of an aged relationship, of aged and time-tested love. And that alone is worth investigating.
First of all this is such a refreshing wholesale rejection of the marriage crisis concept that it's no wonder it hit like it did, these days it's usually impossible to get a real read on their relationship except when an episode decides it has to be rescued from imminent destruction, it's a cheap device more than anything with meaning, so regardless of results yes please more episodes that appeal not to sensationalism but to the simple affections between these two. It's also a clever concept that both illustrates the internal relationship at such an evolved stage and pokes general fun at such creature comforts, even if Lisa being the catalyst here makes no sense to me, I can opt to generalize and understand this idea, that love has a very different face, different associative images and expression at different stages. The film pastiche at the beginning is adorned with all the traditionalist imagery taken to its filmic romance extreme, man in suit and top hat and woman in white dress, sharing drinks and heading off to an old restaurant where he proposed, complete with shiny bauble. All the extraneous Hallmark romanticism and gestures that diamond commercials can buy, not that such gestures are bad, just not mandatory against penalty of relationship collapse. Parallel this with a Homer and Marge illustrated as ten years deep into their rigamarole, either encased in a cocoon of blankets while sharing a bag of cheese puffs, or doing various household chores with handy-dandy waistbasket for taco drippings and discarded diapers. Ew! Now I actually think this is how love should be, ultimate comfort on a grounded level, I love me a Disney movie but I've never had many delusions about fairytale romanticism as the ideal considering most of those dudes just fuckin' met the princess do you even know her name STOP KISSING HER SHES ASLEEP DUDE! It looks nice but it has no fortitude, but from Disney onward that is what we are sold, so of course on the outside a marriage looks mundane and joyless if depicted through rituals of TV and uh Diaper flinging. Yet Homer and Marge are in sync, Marge catches Homer's wayward cheese puff dust on sight, watching that diaper fly through the air is horrifying but you get a sense they've practiced that shit, great throw and great catch, they work together, and they have good rhythms, they have that fortitude, but it all looks like a rut from the outside so off we go into the wild!
From here the episode makes a smart decision that "Boyz N the Highlands" failed to (two of these in a row...weird), by wasting no real estate on B-plot, focusing and immersing the viewer into the wilderness, leaving you as alienated from the show's familiar spaces as Homer and Marge, and giving ample time to really chill the fuck out for once and let the story breath. I may not feel like either of them exhibit much personality here but at least in regards to serving the story there is a surprising amount of attention to detail. For one, while I'd have liked juuuust a smidge more of it to emphasize their survival in a cutesy ironic way, I do like how their slobbish reality tv rituals inform their only real knowledge to maintain survival, it's all the defense they have and following those spare tactics it comes down to multiple close calls. When they finally catch a fish, they huddle and Homer begins hysterically sobbing, when Homer has to rescue Marge from a wolverine he has to do the unthinkable, you do feel the danger. There are certainly degrees to which their know-how feels a bit exaggerated like the absurdity of their well built love nest, but Selman episodes often do this, things are a bit heightened but often for the sake of the conceptualization, the moments of quicker resolve sometimes seem too quick but they and the shack itself are also there to literally illustrate how well they work together and what they can create out of rubbish. Highlands got this right too, its own distinct sense of cinematography with specific images and ideas to reinforce it. Part of the efficacy lies also in the comic irony of the backstory of where their situation has led them, in desire to avoid some fancy schmancy couples resort they've landed at the ruins of another, heightened but conceptually logical, literally reassembling their lives and clothing themselves in the remnants, reforming it, it provides some nice makeshift prop and costume design but also operates as expression of Homer and Marge needing no help, no magical resort nor any rescuer, to survive with one another.
There are also the smaller details, the emotional nuances. As soon as Marge finally eats she immediately jolts in panic at never being able to see the kids again, so Homer comforts her and sings in her ear as they dance. When Marge loses a shoe running from the wolverine, Homer rampantly goes to retrieve it and tie it back on, shot to see Marge's face looking on lovingly as he does. These moments get to breathe, to take in the feeling, a feeling made both of authentic fear and authentic love, it does a really good job of never feeling tooo sitcommy, it's a character story with the patience to let itself be one (despite plenty of jokes that are...y'know. Fine. Selman eps be many things but they don't really be funny). On my first viewing I was a little perplexed at the lack of character conflict of any sort, it made sense to me that we would begin with some situation that the survival scenario would mend as they rekindle their affection and understand each other, as said in my Highlands review, to thrust two characters into a setting like this usually works best when the survival story is tied together with a pairing that struggles to work together, so the triumph becomes twofold. In most situations I would probably still feel this way, but maybe with Homer and Marge I can make an exception, because I'm a bit terrified of what they make of such conflicts by now. There's a moment near the end where it really seems like its gonna fumble and become some sitcom drama fodder where it seems like Homer is gonna withhold having almost found rescue for the sake of his love-in, followed by yelling and drama yadda yadda, but his momentary glance is quickly interrupted by him sincerely trying to alert the ranger and he instantly fesses up to Marge. It's a fascinating bit of anti-climax done right, it avoids sensationalist cliche and maintains the genuine feel the episode has built. This also factors into the ultimate lesson or lack thereof of the episode, where they don't learn to rekindle or change their romance, it's good the way it is, again, anti-climax done right.
Look I certainly have issues with this episode, I find it fully good-hearted and sweet and cute but there are moments that come off cloying and even a little flat, there are degrees of dissatisfaction for me in how Homer and Marge are so matter-of-factly interlinked that I don't get a sense of their personalities beyond the lovey doveys and some jokes, the Naked and Afraid stuff is brief but feels too silly for the episode overall, and the wolverine didn't need two foreshadows of the exact same kind. Even so, this is painting a very specific picture and it doesn't ever betray it with the story beats, it runs the emotions high in believable ways, ping ponging between moments of peace and panic that mostly feel earned, and it treats Homer and Marge's relationship as something real, something with time and experience behind it, where small gestures imply way more because nothing feels like its in a vacuum, I really do love that bit where Homer gets Marge's shoe back for her, the way its shot, the way we just settle on it and take in the feeling, watching from the ground but feeling Marge's perspective, in zero words that says more about how Homer feels than anything the show can muster in half-hearted sentiments that mend marriage crisis after marriage crisis. And well, I'm not made of stone, that final walk taking in all the scenery did get me a wee bit misty eyed. Gosh they're better at writing the characters when they aren't talking. Figures. No but honestly, that scene in most episodes wouldn't even exist, opting for convenient jump cut and establishing sting, but here the episode commits to patience, as we get one last romantic sightseeing tour, recontextualizing the dangerous wild into the beauty it always held now that they have a direction to home, and it really is sweet and gorgeously directed. To me, the slower pace is the episode's strongest asset, to show a relationship that has indeed settled, but settled isn't acceptance of mediocrity nor is it absence of romance, its finding a cozy comfort zone, able to indulge in every second as it happens, cuz Pixelated and Afraid is less a story itself and more a snapshot of a much bigger one. It may not be THE Homer and Marge story to me, but it's a very unique one that could only really impact knowing them as long as I have, to me they feel so much older than whatever age they internally are now, and it's interesting to see the show for once inhabit that sense of age, that these aren't two cartoon characters floating around performing roles as husband and wife, they get to be people. I'm going to choose to appreciate that.
3.5/5. Please do not badger me about the score.
. Homer was Homer, Marge was Marge, but with the same they were survivalists. Gradually, their happiness moved from 9 plaids to "the tastiest fish from the river"; from routine to the new favorite show - sunset. The moment they cry at it and their hugging near the end are gorgeous and SO cute.
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). I assume you struggle some speaking English (as opposed to you being comfortable in writing in the language, it would seem) and therefore do reviews in your native language, which I don't blame you or anyone else for one bit. Each and everyone should do it the way they feel the most comfortable with or it can/will turn out really wonky).
