20.1 Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes
After an arrest, Homer becomes a bounty hunter and partners with Ned to bring in criminals.
Marge gets a job at a bakery, only to learn it specializes in erotic shaped baked goods.
I always enjoy Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Gloria, Joe Mantegna is reliable as Fat Tony and Marge’s story was amusing, but Homer and Ned working together, falling out, then reconciling is a pretty basic Simpsons trope and doesn’t do anything for me.
20.2 Lost Verizon
Bart is jealous of the other kids in his class having a cell phone, but Marge refuses to buy him one. When Denis Leary throws his away in frustration, Bart commandeers it.
After a talk with Leary, Marge lets Bart keep the phone, but surreptitiously uses it to spy on him; Bart learns of her ruse and uses this against her.
Inexplicably, Lisa leverages the situation to get a trip to Machu Picchu.
Seventeen years later, it’s quaint to have an episode where a preteen kid begs to have a phone; now, kids get tablets on their first birthday.
It’s a hard episode to like, the cell phone story is difficult to relate to and felt passé even in 2008. Marge’s tendency to overprotect is one of her least endearing qualities and Lisa’s manipulation was pathetic.
Denis Leary’s cameo was very funny as was Brian Glazer’s return, but I don’t really care for this.
20.3 Double, Double Boy in Trouble
Bart discovers his look alike is a wealthy brat, Simon Woosterfield, and switches places with him. Bart briefly enjoys his brush with luxury, but Woosterfield’s jealous half-siblings (mistaking Bart for Simon) plot his demise, until he’s rescued by Homer at the last minute.
Identical twins switching places has been done many times, and most of them much better than this.
There are a few laughs and I love Joe Montana so I enjoyed his cameo, but it’s another lackluster episode as the show begins it’s third decade.
20.4 Treehouse of Horror XIX
It’s uncanny how often a season of The Simpsons kicks into gear with the Treehouse episode.
The throw away opening where a machine is rigged to kill anyone who voted for John McCain over Barack Obama is very funny, the first full segment, a parody of Transformers with a Malibu Stacy Doll is solid. The second segment with Homer becoming an assassin for hire who kills celebrities so companies can use their likeness in ads with no consequences is an insightful and ballsy concept and would, by itself, elevate this to a classic Treehouse episode, but the last segment somehow takes it up another notch.
A parody of the classic Peanuts short, The Great Pumpkin, “The Grand Pumpkin” is pure genius. All of the little things add up. They redesigned the characters to be more like The Peanuts gang, Bart says “Good Grief,” Marge talks in “wah wah,” Santa’s Little Helper sleeps on the top of the dog house.
The original special has a dear place in my childhood memory. My dad used to give us presents on Halloween he said were from The Great Pumpkin. It’s an important piece of my formation and seeing it so lovingly and beautifully satirized was a joy.
It’s definitely a highlight of the season and a sign the show was back on track after a rocky start to the season.
20.5 Dangerous Curves
Another “flashback shows Homer and Marge’s marriage isn’t perfect” episode. There’s much better material for the show to satirize and so much the show can do: why do they have to keep circling back to episodes about their past?
I get the joy of the original one which showed their young love, but showing an almost affair from five years ago (from both standpoints), is a disservice to the show and the fans who have invested in their relationship.
The previous episodes homerun is followed by a solid strike out.
20.6 Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words
Lisa becomes a crossword enthusiast and enters a tournament. Meanwhile, after doing Edna’s dirty work and ending her relationship with Skinner, Homer starts a business breaking up relationships. When his business is a success, he inexplicably bets his new found wealth against Lisa in the final of her tournament vs. Gil Gunderson.
An episode about crosswords (with cameos from famed puzzle creators Will Shortz and Merl Reagle) checks a lot of my boxes. I love the crossword element and I’m delighted the NYT created a special puzzle for the occasion. It’s just the kind of esoteric, intellectual exercise I should love.
But I didn’t. Homer’s failures as Lisa’s parent have been played out. Homer’s breakup business was funny on paper, but not in execution, at least partially because I’d rather Skinner and Edna stay together and was bummed they broke up.
20.7 Mypods and Boomsticks
Bart makes a new friend, Bashir (apparently the only Muslim boy in Springfield). Homer and his friends assume all Muslims are terrorists which leads to … hilarity, I guess?
I love Shoreh Agadashloo and her familiar, gravelly voice is a welcome addition to the show, but its treatment of Islam is ham-fisted and feels like a 90s afternoon special.
Meanwhile, Lisa is addicted to her Mypod (am obvious parody of iPods). The Apple stuff is too on the nose and lame.
Overall, this feels like someone’s idea of a parody of the worst of the show’s impulses.
20.8 The Burns and the Bees
Burns buys a basketball team and moves them to Springfield; Lisa discovers the bees in Springfield are dying.
The two stories intersect when Burns’ new arena becomes the new hive / habitat for the dying bees.
I really enjoyed the Mark Cuban and Jeff Bezos cameos. The billionaire club was fun.
The Burns’ storyline had a lot of potential, but Lisa’s story drug it down and the ending was too cute by half.
It’s good enough, but not great.
20.9 Lisa the Drama Queen
Lisa meets a new friend in art class, Juliet (Emily Blunt); together they create an elaborate fantasy land, but Lisa’s obsession with her creation worries Marge.
It’s a nice conceit and I appreciate Blunt as a guest star, but despite a few inspired moments (including Kearney as a dragon), it’s a disappointing final product. Not enough story and not nearly enough gags. The stuff with the bullies’ fantasy avatars was good, but I wanted a lot more.
20.10 Take My Life, Please
Years later, Homer learns he actually won the election for high school class president, but the principal (fearing Homer’s incompetence) had rigged the election against him.
Luigi helps him see what his life would have been like if he had been elected and Homer is depressed at what could have been.
Marge reminds him he wouldn’t have his kids. While Homer doesn’t initially find this sufficient reason to give up his dream, eventually Marge convinces him of the value of his life as it is, not as it could have been.
This straightforward and simple plot (an inverted version of It’s a Wonderful Life is one of the funniest parts of the season. Homer’s vision of his future and his honest debate on the value of his children is very much in character.
It’s a good episode which uses the strong foundations of the characters to push them to natural progressions.
Well done.
20.11 How the Test Was Won
Skinner takes some of the school underachievers on a trip under false pretenses, where he bonds with them and teaches them in spite of themselves.
Meanwhile, Homer forgot to pay his insurance and has to make sure he stays safe for an afternoon (a surprisingly difficult task).
The couch gag, parodying Cheers and referencing Kelsey Grammer’s roles as both Sideshow Bob and Frasier Crane was excellent and Homer’s line “what a week” after recounting numerous ways he’s hurt himself, made me laugh out loud.
The unexpected ending with the Footloose reference is the kind of inspired absurdity the show does well.
Not as great as the previous week, but not a huge step down.
20.12 No Loan Again, Naturally
When Homer’s ineptitude causes the Simpsons to lose their home, Ned generously purchases the house (outbidding Burns) and agrees to be their landlord.
Of course, this leads to unreasonable demands by the Simpsons (particularly Homer) and a falling out between them.
Generally speaking, I really love the Homer / Ned love / hate relationship. Ned’s almost too good and it’s easy to root for him to fail. Homer is an unbearable oaf, but the kind of guy you can root for as long as you’re not on the receiving end of his obnoxiousness.
I enjoy their dynamic so much. It’s one of the all-time great pairings and this is a great showcase for it.
20.13 Gone Maggie Gone
Marge is accidentally blinded during an eclipse. Homer, while caring for Maggie on his own, inexplicably loses her at a convent. Lisa goes undercover as a nun to retrieve her sister and gets pulled into an elaborate hunt for a hidden gem which will allegedly bring peace to the world.
It’s a pitch perfect parody of movies like National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code. All of the jokes land; it’s fun from beginning to end.
20.14 In the Name of the Grandfather
Feeling guilty after neglecting Grandpa again, the Simpsons overcompensate with a trip to Ireland to visit the pub where he spent the best night of his life. Unfortunately, Homer and Grandpa celebrate a little too hard and wake up the next morning to discover they bought the bar in a stupor.
There’s some cool “see the Irish sites” elements, but this is paint by number Simpsons and one of the weaker episodes of the season.
20.15 Wedding for Disaster
Due to a clerical error, Homer and Marge’s wedding is invalidated, so they plan another one. Marge turns into a bridezilla and makes increasingly unreasonable demands. Inexplicably, Homer is kidnapped on the day of the ceremony. All clues point to Simpson arch-nemesis Sideshow Bob, but it turns out it was Patty and Selma who were trying to sabotage the wedding because of their disdain of Homer.
I like the Homer / Patty and Selma rivalry (although I’m always curious where their mother stands on the issue – she’s such an underdeveloped character). And any episode with Bob is welcome.
Those elements elevate the material, but overall there’s not enough comedy. Too much story and not enough laughs.
20.16 Eeny Teeny Maya Moe
Homer’s misadventures in parenting lead to Maggie being bullied at a playground where Homer eventually proves his love for her.
Meanwhile, Moe has an internet date which turns out to be a little person, Maya. Maya cares for Moe, but his rude, boorish behavior about her stature drives her away.
Moe was an asshole, and Homer’s bad parenting being excusable because he has a big heart is too trite in the 20th season.
Moe centric episodes are hit or miss for me, and this one left me feeling no sympathy for him.
20.17 The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly
After a prank gone wrong, Milhouse is punished while Bart’s involvement remains hidden. Their friendship is strained when Bart neglects to visit Milhouse during his subsequent suspension because he’s distracted by a girl who volunteers at the retirement castle, Jenny (Anne Hathaway).
Meanwhile, Lisa is depressed and anxious when given an assignment to talk about Springfield’s future. Her parents medicate her to alleviate her symptoms, which turns disastrous.
I like Anne Hathaway and her obvious excitement to be on the show is charming; I wish she had been given better material.
Attacking Big Pharma is not something you should do half ass, and I didn’t buy the Bart / Milhouse conflict.
20.18 Father Knows Worst
Homer becomes a “helicopter parent” with predictably bad results, while Marge finds a secret sauna in the family basement.
I really enjoyed Homer’s attempt to be more involved (too involved?) in his kids’ lives. I strongly agree with this critique of modern parenting trends so I was predisposed to find it amusing.
I enjoyed the ghosts of Westminster. Any excuse to get a Chaucer reference is going to send my nerd energy through the roof.
Solid premise with solid laughs.
Not a pantheon episode, but a solid hit for a show entering its third decade.
20.19 Waverly Hills, 9-0-2-1-D’oh
When they finally realize the poor quality of the education at Springfield Elementary, Marge and Homer concoct a plan to rent a home in Waverly Hills and enroll their kids in a superior school.
Lisa and Bart are initially enthusiastic about the change in scenery, but find things at the new school less than ideal and want to return to the status quo.
Meanwhile, Homer and Marge have to deal with a difficult inspector determined to prove they don’t live in Waverly.
There’s some great gags: Weezer’s Beverly Hills; attendance at Ralph’s birthday party as a bribe for Wiggum; the more than passing resemblance between the inspector and Anton Chigurh; a tenured Miss Hoover letting Ralph teach.
However, the overall theme (Springfield Elementary is sub optimal) has been done. I know it’s asking a lot for a show in its third decade to be fresh and new, but if the show is just producing variants on familiar themes, they better be amusing variants. This wasn’t enough for me.
20.20 Four Great Women and a Manicure
A Simpsons anthology episode, each one a retelling of a story with a female protagonist: Elizabeth I (Selma Bouvier), Snow White (Lisa), Lady Macbeth (Marge), and Maggie as a reimagined version of Howard Roark from The Fountainhead.
Mildly amusing, but the overall message seemed to be: women don’t need men. Rinse, repeat in five minute intervals.
One of the worst episodes of the season.
20.21 Coming to Homerica
Krusty adds a vegetarian option to the Krusty Burger menu, which, despite its popularity, causes a wave of food poisoning traced to products from the neighboring town of Odgenville. The subsequent publicity destroys the town and many of its residents flee to Springfield, which then snowballs into a cautionary tale about the dangers of xenophobia.
The episode becomes a proxy critique of American politics, which the show doesn’t really excel at doing.
Not the worse episode of the season, but not very good either.
| 1 | Gone Maggie Gone |
| 2 | Take My Life, Please |
| 3 | How the Test Was Won |
| 4 | No Loan Again, Naturally |
| 5 | Treehouse of Horror XIX |
| 6 | Father Knows Worst |
| 7 | Wedding for Disaster |
| 8 | The Burns and the Bees |
| 9 | Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes |
| 10 | Double, Double, Boy in Trouble |
| 11 | Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words |
| 12 | Eeny Teeny Maya Moe |
| 13 | Lisa the Drama Queen |
| 14 | Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh |
| 15 | In the Name of the Grandfather |
| 16 | Coming to Homerica |
| 17 | Lost Verizon |
| 18 | Mypods and Boomsticks |
| 19 | Dangerous Curves |
| 20 | Four Great Women and a Manicure |
| 21 | The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly |