After watching Bart in a simulation handled by the CEOs of Marble, after watching John Frink becoming a billionaire, after watching Bart and Lisa battling against an algorithm (and Homer against a soda machine), after watching Artie Ziff getting married with a robot, it is the turn of an episode to calm us down, staring by the Simpson family, affronting a likely situation, as in the earliest years (or at least that is what we expected).
A family-centric episode with Maggie moments. That's nice!
The biggest achievement of Screenless is that it found a decent function to every member of the Simpsons family. Watching Homer unscrambling riddles was quite a bit interesting. It reminded me of the subplot of Hardly Kirk-ing. In both cases, Homer affronts an intellectual challenge, learns them quickly and resolves them without major difficulty. I chuckled when he discovered he can solve words he doesn't even know. The kids, for their parts, took air fresh returned their activities of twenty-five years ago. In that sense, it was actually a down-to-heart, as we speculated in the preview. Bart used his imagination to play with a toy in an environment polluted by phones. I enjoyed those short moments he shared with Jimbo and Dolph, playing like kids, building a ship with paperboard and teasing Martin. At first instance, I thought the bullies would annoy Bart, but this scenario was better for me. Meanwhile, Lisa comes back to a forgotten era where the books were interesting. Her intromission to the library basement has a well-done atmosphere. I liked her gag enjoying bending a book cover. Maggie was my absolute favorite element of the episode (when not?). Her scenes keep the tenderness she always has. And we have a high quantity of them. It feels a bit desperate when she tries to talk but the family doesn't hear her. I would never expect he was trying to help Hans Moleman. The family tries to teach her the sign language, allowing a recurrent joke throughout the episode. The "More or all Done" teaching was way too long, but almost saved thanks to Maggie cuteness. The baby playing blackjack with Bart was absolutely nice. I hope another plot that evolves both of them in the future.
The montage of Homer celebrating was funny too.
Even the peripheral characters of the family have got brief moments. Abe appears to play blackjack with Bart and to let enter savage animals into the house, while Patty & Selma are smoking in their apartment. I disliked how Maggie was involved in that scene, but I am glad that the clampdown from Disney mentioned in Frinkcoin was just a joke. But the most important protagonist was Marge. It is funny how evident is her hypocrisy when it is implied the violence contained in Hansel and Gretel and the double-standard of what is wrong and what is right. And then the formula is repeated when she turns out being addicted to phones, notebooks, and the internet. I laughed out loud when she hides all the phones and we hear some sounds, each one stranger than the previous. I actually can relate to her addiction, that blows up when she searches for a recipe. There are some jokes about it, with some chuckle-worthy title of books and that hilarious call to find out the recipe that Marge did to Luigi, who reacts negatively to her question. That scene when the family finds her locked in the closet with the phone and the notebook was a bit perturbing and represents perfectly the level of obsession she reaches. And how Marge decides to curate herself? Condemning his whole family to a rehab center. Why? If the problem is about Marge, is Marge the one who should be helped. Maybe it could be better if the rest of the family continue their utopia without technology and discovering that life is better/easier with it, while Marge goes to rehab alone. But well, the entire family went there.
Marge is literally me trying to watch an episode of the Simpsons with audio and subtitles in English.
So, the second half of the story is about the family in that rehab center, handled by Werner Herzog's character, Dr. Lund. I never cared for his other character, Walter Hotenhoffer, but this one was fine. He has some amusing lines. The explanation about why everything is free is a bit absurd, but it actually was an excuse since it was not the real way it was sustained. The description of the rehab center was a bit overlooked; I think it could be deeper but what we got was fine. The jokes about his accent were kinda funny and they didn't overstep the limit to make it unfunny. He also had a tolerable dynamic with the Simpsons family. He observes the destructive-spirit in Bart. I really, really liked the scene where Homer puts him to play a solitary although that was a work Homer should have done. I would never guess that Dr. Pung was going to be the antagonist, not after that extensive Homer's speech about technology and about the behavior of American families. It seems like if the conflict was already solved and the character could maintain his characteristics. He just doesn't have the essence of an antagonist to me. But he finished arrested by Wiggum. By the way, the fourth act, when Wiggum talks about the semen of the convict, completely unnecessary and uncomfortable. I would rather a capturing scene with the family being addicted again instead. The other guest stars obtained forgettable cameos. Dr. Drew appears in an unreal scene, becoming in something similar to Incredible Hulk, while there's a cameo of that guy who wrote the incredible Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge. I don't care for his voice acting, but I hope he decides to come back to the show, if possible.
It is always funny when Homer brings up the worst of aby character.
While the obligatory appearance of guest stars forced an eccentric conflict and avoid what could have been a totally familiar story, I think it worked pretty fine thanks not only because Dr. Lund was likable, also –and principally– because the family kept the focus on them. Their funny interventions were not limited to the establishment of the conflict. Instead, they followed up until the end. The satirical comment about those centers was clever: if someone is talking to you about don't do something, you will want to do it, whatever it be The conclusion was kinda satisfying. Not because the problem they are involved in was catching (as I said, the plot-twist about Lund using Marge's accounts to spam was lazy). It is because the family escape from the center as a family in a really agreeable sequence, where Marge realized everyone must take their shoes off to don't make noise, Homer invents an anagram, changing the meaning of Garden to Danger, Maggie discovers how to make invisible lasers to visible one, Lisa spreads the talc, and Bart is benefited by the bullies, who were conveniently expecting in the outside with the Jupiter One ship. The episode does a ton of references to videogames and social networks. Homer playing a parody of Tapped Out (yeah, a parody of their own product), The Detonator playing a parody of Fortnite. Marge mentions Instagram and Facebook, and she also uses Pinterest. Homer says that the truth is in Google, TikTok or Reddit. Dr. Mumg adverts he is able to hack Spotify. And, my personal favorite, Bart being desperate because he needs to use Twitter to retweet Krusty. Any resemblance to reality is purely coincidence.
A familiar episode must contain a familiar resolution.
Screenless was a pleasant episode. A necessary cutting to a season that suddenly changed the style of the show. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie trying to change a little to also a special aspect of their lives and finding out new-old things to do, which could be ruined by the guest stars but instead it remembered us what this show is nowadays.
4/5
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