Rate & Review: "The Way of the Dog" (ZABF16)

How would you rate this episode?


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Brad Lascelle

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Season 31, Episode 22
Original Airdate
: May 17, 2020
Writer: Carolyn Omine
Director: Matthew Faughnan
Showrunner: Al Jean
Synopsis: After the Simpsons' dog bites Marge, the family explores the tragic past of Santa's Little Helper.

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Users Who Have Voted & Their Score for the Episode (votes will not be cited below if the user has voted in the thread poll above)
714MatchesFound {5} / B-Boy {4} / BloodySimpsonChibi {5} / Financial Panther {4} / Frankbags {5}
Homer Samson {4} / John95 {4} / Kaine {4} / orangemo {5} / Sandurt {4} / Scrooge McDuck {5} / simplysimpsons {5}
StarfishHair {5} / That Don Guy {3} / The Abominable Dr. Lenny {5} / Trab Pu Kcip {5}​

R&R Poll Average Score: 4.43 / 5 (as of September 23, 2023 / 28 votes)
IMDb User Rating: 7.5 / 10
 
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This was a unique and solid season finale. It still had a few issues, the biggest being the completely unnecessary man trying to woo the dog trainer and her rejecting him. He didn’t need to appear once, let alone twice. It had a couple of odd moments with the family as well, such as when they all went to the room to pray. I know the family needs to have a big part in the episode, but it felt as though the family was crammed into places it didn’t need to be.

But the rest of the episode was very enjoyable. I especially liked Santa’s Little Helper and the therapist trying to uncover his trauma, and I wouldn’t have minded more scenes with them while giving the Simposn family more of a background role. I was a sucker for the heartwarming stuff at the end when SLH saw him mother again, too. It wasn’t the funniest episode, but the story carried this one, and it did it pretty well. 4/5
 
I was curious how they would do another Bad Dog episode. I even got a little teary eyed and choked up at the end. I think I have to give this a 5/5 because I've not felt this much from a simpsons episode in a while and I laughed a few times too.

It's not perfect, as pointed above the side story with the dog therapist was a little half baked and cliché but I think it deserves a 5
 
3/5 - it was good, but it didn't seem to go anywhere.

This isn't the first time SLH's previous owner has appeared; remember when Homer disowned the dog?

Also, it doesn't make much sense to have a callback to the Christmas Special if it took place at least a year ago, yet everybody is the same age.
 
Also, it doesn't make much sense to have a callback to the Christmas Special if it took place at least a year ago, yet everybody is the same age.

It's completely pointless and annoyingly pedantic to get hung up on these details.
 
For those of you who have yet to scope out Carolyn Omine's Twitter timeline, she did an immaculate job pre/live/post-tweeting about this episode sharing all sorts of factoids, references, mindsets and observations about the care and effort that went into crafting tonight's season finale.

If you have any questions about The Way of the Dog, odds are an answer has already been provided over there.
 
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For those of you who have yet to scope out Carolyn Omine's Twitter timeline, she did an immaculate job pre/live/post-tweeting about this episode sharing all sorts of factoids, references, mindsets and observations about the care and effort that went into crafting tonight's season finale episode.

If you have any questions about The Way of the Dog, odds are an answer has already been provided over there.

I agree she put a lot of effort into this episode. I’ll post my review later after watching the rest of ANIDOM.
 
Christmas in May? Who knew?

Though I would have like to have seen Bart lead this episode from the beginning as this has always been his dog, but I actually really liked this episode and it probably my favorite of the year. As a dog lover I like the family coming together to find out what was wrong with Santa's Little Helper. Finding out that the dog was stripped away from his mom and the hat was a cause of his nightmares and him needing closure was sweet. It was another reminder that greyhounds racing is cruel and greyhounds need adapting. The gilted lover was a bit much. Homer sniffing his candy because he just brushed his teeth was funny. The cat telling the fish it's dead was weird. Homer kissing the dog goodbye, now that's love.

5/5

P.S. Question: Did the Simpsons get another dog?
 
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Wow! I'm impressed. Carolyn Omine never disappoints as Highway to Well has been an episode that grows on me and Werking Mom was just fantastic. She's really the show's best current writer. This is something the show needs, more wholesome moments, more original stories, guest stars who actually serve a purpose, and ones with unpredictable endings. I was laughing the whole way through and I was hooked the whole way too. The part with SNL reuiniting with his mom was pretty sweet too. It got me emotional too which is a good sign. SNL barely gets any screentime so it's nice to see his sort of backstory and it actually ties back into the premiere episode as well. I can't believe this was actually an idea. I like wholesome shows like Bob's Burgers a lot, and it's something many adult cartoons lack. This was a great finale!

I actually lost faith in this show after season 30 because Woohoo dunnit and Bart vs Itchy and Scratchy were the only great episodes of season 30s second half, and as 31 comes to a close, I have now gained my faith in this show again, and I leave off saying I can't wait for season 32. Simpsons, Bless the Harts, and Bob's Burgers will complete my Fox animation lineup next fall!

I'm going to give this an A- or an A because it really surprised me. So for the poll 5/5!
 
I can't help but feel real good about these last few episodes. This was a amazing season finale and I love how SLH' mother was still alive at the end. 10/10
 
It was yet another one of those that didn't seem like much with that plot description but yet it turned out to be a well-written and well-directed one with a good plot (centered around the family dog Santa's Little Helper and the discovery that he has some sort of hidden trauma spurned from a Santa hat that causes him to range from between nervous, unruly to almost apathetic which inspires Lisa to make the family go to get help from famed dog therapist Dr. Elaine Wolfe who maybe can get to the bottom of Santa's Little Helper's (SLH's) issues and find out a way to make him better before he gets any worse, exemplified by him biting Marge on the hand). It surprisingly worked, not just the mystery plot but the more dramatic moments, the good emotional stuff that felt very humanly written and genuine (with many great family interactions), a lot of jokes & an good guest star performance that felt well integrated into the story, so it came together really well, something that I had not expected as SLH episodes usually don't turn out so this well, but my worry for this proved wrong and I ended up enjoying this one. It really grabbed my interest.

The beginning of the story, with the family preparing for Christmas, by setting up all the decorations was a decent one, though when Marge decided to forcibly put the Santa hat on Santa's Little Helper so that Lisa could take a picture of it on the phone I felt uneasy as I felt Marge was going too far and obviously blind to the dog's discomfort and dislike of the hat, but it was intentional, a good setup for the story & it wasn't the first time Marge has acted oddly forceful around Christmas time (seems to be a recurring theme). Going from that to them taking the obviously troubled dog to the therapist Wolff had some good stuff too, such as them coming home from Christmas shopping and finding SLH destroyed the couch and sits staring at an odd grease stain in the kitchen, Homer complaining about missing the UFC match he had paid 70 bucks for if he goes to the dog therapy lecture with the family & especially the scene of Lisa convincing Homer to take them there by telegraphing her "Let's help SLH" speech via Bart (while she mimes it) as Homer listens to him more easily & ending with her getting praised by her father and getting an "Homer hug" (which was a sweet moment).

The introduction of Wolff, who holds a lecture to the dog owners of Springfield, was certainly a good one, perfectly getting the character across and setting up what to come. I really liked how she was portrayed as this misanthrophe who loves dogs but hates humans and doesn't seem to give a lot of great advice (and has trouble with this English man Clayton who keeps bothering her by calling and wanting to get together with her and marry her as they knew eachother from childhood and he had a crush on her since then), yet as we see when the Simpsons confronts her afterwards & lets her meet SLH, she is not so bad, has a heart and is at least a decent person (albeit she feels she cannot help SLH despite seeing that he really needs it & him taking a liking to her, as she doesn't want to get attached). This was a really good scene, it got the main points about SLH's dilemma across (and I liked Lisa being so defensive of the dog; I think this episode had the most we've had of Lisa standing up for the dog) & Wolff giving some advice and explaining about how a dog sees a lamp post with everyone who's ever been to it was nicely executed (and the last bit with her driving away and seeing the dog running after the car in the mirror was properly sad, yet promising her return).

Then SLH biting Marge at home out of protective stress due to the Santa hat & Homer chains the dog outside (though Bart gets to sleep outside with his pet & friend): I definitely liked the choice of this not being the whole catalyst of the plot (which the plot description made it sound like for some reason) but instead making this be what kicks the episode into full gear prompts the latter part of the conflict, with them taking the dog to whatever veterinarian they can find and it's this insensitive Dr. Callas who wants to put him down due to being a "biter" (that overreaction definitely feels like something that happens in real life), so they protect SLH and Chief Wiggum comes to tell them the vet reported the dog and the animal control are coming for him, not long before Wolff shows up to save the day by taking care of SLH. The scene had good part for Wiggum, the family protecting SLH was great & the family saying goodbye to their dog was a touching scene (especially Homer lovingly kissing him goodbye; funny and sweet). I also really liked the family all gathering in Bart's room at night to pray for their dog, which was a great scene with them all gathering together for a common goal (speaking of the family and their portrayal here as a unit and their attitudes toward the dog was quite strong).

The stuff with SLH at the dog therapy institute was also good, with Wolff taking care of him, studying him and trying to understand why he is troubled. The dream & flashback scenes of SLH were great and they ranged from touching to emotional (even the one where Wolff finds out that Marge means comfort to SLH, not something negative that the episode led us to believe, though my favorite was probably the one with SLH as a puppy in the litter nursed by their mother and helping one of his siblings find a teat, looking lovingly at his mother before taken away; that one choked me up a little & I liked the hint to it earlier with the grease stain). While it progressed well, the Clayton guy showing up before Wolff to ask her to marry him (with a creepy story about having dug up his mother's corpse to get the ring) was completely unnecessary and took me out of it; his first scene was long enough but then they had him come back and have Wolff choose between him and helping SLH (thankfully going with the latter and letting Clay walk out of her life); it added nothing to the story and was just padding, but it wasn't terrible or anything.

Wolff finding the Santa hat in SLH's pillowcase in his sleeping basket, going to the family and finding out that it was the same Santa hat that Bart wore when they first got him at the greyhound racing track took the episode into its last part with some nice mystery unraveling, with Wolff's newfound knowledge of SLH having been an racing dog and suffering from PTSD sending them to confront SLH's former owner . They leave home (in the middle of a Christmas brunch that even Marge puts on hold) and goes with Wolff to the kennel run by SLH's former owner, the mean Les Moore (I think this was the first time we heard his name on the show), and makes him tell the story of SLH and the dog's mother Shebiscuit whom he loved but was taken away at a young age. This was a very good climax with an an very touching reunion of SLH and Shebiscuit, whom ends up in the Simpsons' care in the end now that SLH's issue has been solved (the thing between Snowball II & the fish was silly but a good stinger). Also, I'm glad they didn't go the route I was thinking they were setting up (that what SLH saw at the kennel was his mother's grave) and had her be alive and well.

The jokes and the gags in this one were maybe not in abundance, but it still had a lot of good ones in there: A few that comes to mind are the mishap with the vaccum cleaner that "eats" Bart's shorts ("It ate my shorts!"), Lisa telegraphing her speech via Bart, Homer eating the crushed candy by sucking it up with his nose because he had already brushed his teeth (Lisa's "Oh..." reaction sold it), Lisa challenging Wolff to fisticuffs ("Hold my pearls"), the first aid kit, Bart having paid Mr. Burns to order Homer to let Bart sleep outside with SLH & the family members slapping Les Moore in succession. The animation was good with a lot of neat shots & the characterizations were on point, with the family coming as very well portrayed (I was at first skeptical to Marge with her obsessive intent on putting the Santa hat on SLH and not really caring about his depression, but the more I thought of it it worked worked, felt like how she would act and she got better; plus it being a red herring for SLH's issues I liked, even if it was predictable it was something else). Cate Blanchett as Wolff did a good job and made her a threedimensional character & even though I disliked the plot thread and found the character pointless, Michael York did fairly well as Clayton.

So yeah, a really good episode where almost everything came together in a good fashion and worked out to me. It had a very good and focused plot centered around the dog (no subplots aside from the Clayton stuff), good drama and emotional content (that emotional content gave it an effective, touching core with the family and their relationship with SLH, whom they are very protective of) & a lot of good humor. Both the story and the animation were staged and directed well and most of the elements clicked into place all well and naturally, together with some solid pacing, having enough screentime for both the family and Wolff. I really only felt that it was the scenes with Michael York's Clayton feeling like a waste and very ill-fitting that was an proper issue (those minutes should have been put to better use when it came to developing Wolff) and the other negatives were just minor nitpicks. I really didn't think they would pull off an modern era "SLH behaves badly" episode this well.

I'll give this last entry in the season a well-deserved 5/5. It started off just decently good but quickly became very enjoyable and substantial, having a really solid and strong plot with a good conflict heart, solid humor, emotional content without getting manipulative. I liked it a lot, one of the best of the season and maybe the best season finale in a while. Carolyn Omine has had a bit of an uneven output but she has delivered some quality episodes and this was on par with 'Halloween Of Horror' (it was obvious she cared a lot for this one) & the direction by Matthew Faughnan was quite good. A great last note for the season.
 
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I guess I was in the right mood while watching this as I was digging this the whole time, or at the very least I could see why everyone else says this was one of the season's best when compared to Thanksgiving of Horror or last week's episode (which was nowhere near as bad as the former, but comes off as overrated for an episode that for me felt very run-of-the-mill from the HD era).

And looking over some of the other finales from at least the past 10 years, I'd say that this was easily their best one in that timeframe as I'll probably still remember most of what happened here in a good way by this time next year whereas the only thing I still remember about last year's finale off the top of my head was how they decided to make Ned being Bart's teacher permanent, and most of what I remember about Flanders' Ladder are reasons for why I find that to be a worse finale than Lisa Goes Gaga.

4/5 At least one of the two FOX shows that I watch was able to cap off their season on a good note.

3/5This isn't the first time SLH's previous owner has appeared; remember when Homer disowned the dog?
I had the same thought as well, but then I remembered that I don't like that episode (or at least what I remember about it, haven't seen it since getting the DVD set of the season it's on) so I just rolled with it as this was a better reappearance for him. That said, have his teeth always stood out like that even with his mouth closed?
 
I thought that after HMITBITW, SLH shouldn't get his own episodes anymore, but this was actually pretty good. This kind of plot was very well written and they did a good job expanding the canon of the first episode. When it comes to SLH episodes I legitimately think this is better than Bart's Dog Gets an F even though that one was a classic era episode. 4.5/5 rounded down to a 4.
 
A 0.6 is a nice step up from where they've been trending of late so I'll take that. Hopefully it doesn't get adjusted down.
That said, this episode would have easily commanded a significantly larger audience had it aired during the traditional December post-NFL holdover time slot.
 
Season finales of big name shows tend to garner pretty high ratings overall, if I'm not completely mistaken?

Also, I must say the episode definitely felt like an postponed December-January release with the Christmas setting and related aspects, topped with the tie-in with 'Simpsons Roasting On An Opening Fire' (in which sense this could have worked as a series finale).
 
Season finales of big name shows tend to garner pretty high ratings overall, if I'm not completely mistaken?

Also, I must say the episode definitely felt like an postponed December-January release with the Christmas setting and related aspects, topped with the tie-in with 'Simpsons Roasting On An Opening Fire' (in which sense this could have worked as a series finale).

1.68

https://www.tvinsider.com/923954/60-minutes-american-idol-tv-ratings-sunday-march-15-2020/
 
If any of you want to chime in with a user score contribution and/or review impressions over on The Way of the Dog's IMDB page, you can do so by going here. It's presently sitting at a favourable score of 7.6/10... which puts it below like every episode of Rick & Morty ever (even the terrible ones), but is pretty damn good for The Simpsons.

Feel free to chip in with user scores for the rest of Season 31 while you're there. I don't get to add new episodes to my consensus post-Classic rankings list without an IMDB backup no matter how much we may wish to discount the input of fans less dedicated than those of us here. It already eats at my craw that Livin' La Pura Vida is already a write-off as far as that elite group is concerned.

And speaking of people whose opinions probably should be discounted...

So 2 points lower than The Winter of Our Monetized Content then? Gotcha.
 
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I think Me Blog Write Good should be discounted too. Don't get why that guy is so well liked. He's your typical bitter, cynical & angry modern Simpsons hater who goes into every single modern episode expecting to be disappointed and dislike it, refuses to try and judge the episodes on their own instead of comparing everything to the classic era, hates on numerous well-recieved episodes and repeats himself way too much. I don't get why he keeps on watching when he despises "Zombie Simpsons" that much.
 
I think Me Blog Write Good should be discounted too. Don't get why that guy is so well liked. He's your typical bitter, cynical & angry modern Simpsons hater who goes into every single modern episode expecting to be disappointed and dislike it, refuses to try and judge the episodes on their own instead of comparing everything to the classic era, hates on numerous well-recieved episodes and repeats himself way too much. I don't get why he keeps on watching when he despises "Zombie Simpsons" that much.

Idk who that is.
 
I think Me Blog Write Good should be discounted too. Don't get why that guy is so well liked. He's your typical bitter, cynical & angry modern Simpsons hater who goes into every single modern episode expecting to be disappointed and dislike it, refuses to try and judge the episodes on their own instead of comparing everything to the classic era, hates on numerous well-recieved episodes and repeats himself way too much. I don't get why he keeps on watching when he despises "Zombie Simpsons" that much.
At least he watches the episodes before trashing them. That's still better than like 95% of critics of the current show.
And he enjoyed Thanksgiving of Horror. So he didn't consider Season 31 to be a complete write-off.
 
Not to sound like the Comic Book Guy but....c'mon! SLH's mom is still alive?

I just Googled greyhounds and they live 10-14 years!

My former boss owned a greyhound and Spike (his name) didn't live all that long! She got Spike in the mid 1990's and lived to the mid 2000's.
 
Not to sound like the Comic Book Guy but....c'mon! SLH's mom is still alive?

I just Googled greyhounds and they live 10-14 years!

My former boss owned a greyhound and Spike (his name) didn't live all that long! She got Spike in the mid 1990's and lived to the mid 2000's.

Here is an answer:
Carolyn Omine: In the flexible timeline of cartoons, it makes sense. Though we’ve been on the air for 30 years, no one has aged so less than a year went by. She Biscuit is only a few years older that SLH TheSimpsons
Shortly - it's just cartoon, noone aged.:)
 
It's amusing how people instinctively compartmentalize the passage of time and how it should work within the constructs of an elastic universe while the Simpson kids remain the same ages they were over 30 years ago.

Unless you're Mike Scioscia... you're not getting older in this show's canon present day time period.
 
It's amusing how people instinctively compartmentalize the passage of time and how it should work within the constructs of an elastic universe while the Simpson kids remain the same ages they were over 30 years ago.

Unless you're Mike Scioscia... you're not getting older in this show's canon present day time period.

Don't forget, he did have severe radiation poisoning. Technically he should be dead.
 
A nice and sweet episode to end the season with. I don't even really like episodes centered around Santa's Little Helper all that much, but thats mostly because I find him very obnoxious (even for a dog) as he just damages proporties for no reason. Here he is suffering from PTSD and doesn't act out as much, I even expected him to bite Marge a lot harder than that when I read the premise. Bit out of place to have a Christmas episode released around this time, but I guess it was needed to start off SLH's PTSD (though they could just have a Christmas hat lying around out of season).

There were some fun Christmas gags to start off like the rejected Christmas tree decorations being placed behind the back, grampa rambling and Homer's ideas of presents which are just household supplies. The Candy Crush gag was not as funny. SLH reacting to the Christmas hat felt believeable. We get introduced to Elaine Wolff who is a decent character, and we see more of SLH being troubled which leads to one of the better jokes were Bart paid Mr Burns to tell Homer off, and Homer pointing out that one of the Christmas gifts is a first aid kit. Now we have Elaine taking SLH away while we have Wiggum staying around for to long, which was kinda funny though.

A lot of good scenes where SLH stays with Elaine. We see SLH's mother and that he was a good brother to one of his siblings. The sub plot with Elaine's lover gets solved for which I didn't care for. The final act had some good throwbacks to SLH's original owner and it was kidna funny how everyone slapped him. A genuine good ending where SLH reunits with his mother, but the ending makes it look like she's staying with the Simpsons now aswell which I guess will not be the case.

A solid episode overall. It was in-depth with Santa's Little Helper that had a some emotional moments. I found that the Simpson family might have been involved a bit too much and I wanted to see more of just SLH with Elaine. The scene with SLH reuniting with his mother was actually quite emotional. I was surprised that she was still alive though. I also expected SLH's former owner to have done far worse things for SLH to have PTSD, consideirng how he was treated in Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire. The jokes were good for most part. There was a nice Christmas atmosphere despite the season that this episode is aired in. One of the better episodes this season had.

4/5
 
So I hadn't watched the last four episodes and skipped ahead based on the reviews this has been getting. Bloody hell, the mawkishness was off the charts and y'know what? I couldn't care less. This was easily the best Santa's Little Helper episode since, good golly, I dare say The Canine Mutiny. I was genuinely moved by the end and nearly everything about the episode worked for me from the flashbacks and the solidarity of the family through to Elaine Wolff herself. The references to the series premiere were also very affecting. I have minor complaints regarding the stuff with the fiancé which was completely unnecessary filler, preventing the episode from getting a 5 from me. I'll gladly settle with a 4.5 rounded down to a very strong 4.
 
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