22.1 Elementary School Musical
Krusty is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize only to discover it’s a ruse to try him as a criminal for his abhorrent behavior.
While Homer and Bart accompany Krusty to accept his “award,” Lisa goes to a musical theater camp and feels inspired.
The cameos were fantastic. Stephen Hawking, Ira Glass, Flight of the Conchords, Amber Riley, Corey Monteith, and Lea Michele.
Everything about this tickled me.
I love Flight of the Conchords and having them in The Simpsons is perfection.
What a great way to start the season!
22.2 Loan-a-Lisa
Grampa decides to give the Simpson family their inheritance early and each member of the family spends their meager windfall in an idiosyncratic way. Bart pays for a prank on Gil Gunderson, while Marge accidentally buys a $500 purse and Homer convinces her to use it until the end of the refund period. The pair develop an addiction to buying expensive things on credit and returning them, which lands Homer on To Catch a Credit Whore, (a very clever send up of To Catch a Predator).
Lisa spends her money on a microfunding program inspired by Muhammad Yunnus, helping Nelson start a small business, which briefly prompts him to consider quitting school.
Once again the cameos are excellent. Chris Hanson, Mark Zuckerberg, and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunnus.
The episode is giving top notch angry satire, which I liked a lot.
Another solid hit to start the season.
22.3 MoneyBart
When Lisa manages Bart’s Little League team to pad her resume, her sabermetric approach clashes with Bart’s instincts.
Any chance to bring up the ringers Burns hired to win his baseball league in season 3’s “Homer at the Bat” (Mike Scioscia) is welcome news, but the episode felt like retread material.
I’ve seen this done better.
22.4 Treehouse of Horror XXI
I like The Office parody in the opening. The Jumanji parody in the first segment was decent. The middle segment (a parody of Dead Calm) was barely saved by Hugh Laurie’s appearance. The final segment was a perfunctory Twilight parody, albeit with clever casting of Harry Potter himself (Daniel Radcliffe) as the vampire.
Some funny bits and nice stunt casting, but a pretty ho-hum Treehouse entry.
22.5 Lisa Simpson, This Isn’t Your Life
Lisa discovers Marge was good in school until she met Homer and is determined not to follow in her footsteps, wasting her potential.
Bart briefly becomes the new bully in school (replacing Nelson).
For someone so smart, Lisa is too close-minded to see what a successful life Marge has. She consistently views Marge’s life (and by extension motherhood) as beneath her. To Lisa, her ambition is her ultimate good.
The Bart / Nelson stuff was good, but I hate this side of Lisa and that distaste made it hard for me to like this episode.
22.6 The Fool Monty
After a contrived set up involving vaccines and a poor health diagnosis, Burns briefly has amnesia and is found in the woods by Bart. When Lisa helps him regain his memory, he attempts to put the whole city under a dome (a parody of The Simpsons Movie).
Despite pleas from Lisa and others, Burns rejects a kindler version of himself, arguing his hatred and despicableness has kept him alive.
This is an uninspired, lazy episode. A parody of their own movie? Less than two years after it aired? And another Mr. Burns amnesia, brief change of heart premise?
What a waste.
22.7 How Munched is That Doggie in the Window
The classic sitcom trope: the Simpsons take in a stray, abandoned bird. Surprisingly, Lisa is terrified.
Bart enjoys his time with his new friend, until Santa’s Little Helper accidentally eats the bird.
Bart is furious and refuses to forgive the beloved family pet, and, after a therapy session, the Simpsons reluctantly decide they have to part ways with Santa’s Little Helper.
When Bart is nearly strangled by an ostrich, he has an epiphany and reconciles with his dog.
All ends well.
This has a few moments. Rachel Weisz and Danica Patrick were okay guest stars, but Lisa’s bizarre fear of birds and Bart’s completely unrelentless grudge against his longtime pet is weak. He’s willing to abandon the dog he’s known for years because it killed a bird he met a few days before?
Episodes focused on the family pet have been more miss than hit for me, and I didn’t like this character development from either sibling.
Another weak entry in the season.
22.8 The Fight Before Christmas
I’m not usually a fan of the anthology format making a non-Halloween appearance.
However, this quartet of Christmas inspired vignettes (written by Dan Castellaneta) was good.
Segment one: Bart tries to take out Santa for not giving him a dirt bike.
Segment two: Lisa imagines Marge during WWII and includes a nice Inglorious Basterds reference.
Segment three: Marge dreams about special guest star Martha Stewart; this exactly what you thought a Martha Stewart guest spot on the show would be.
Segment four: A rambunctious live action Katy Perry with the Simpsons as puppets. It’s funny and goes to some risqué spots for the show.
I had low expectations, but this was a decent Christmas episode. Good job.
22.9 Donnie Fatso
After getting in trouble with the law, Homer works for the FBI to investigate Fat Tony. While he’s undercover they bond; when Tony learns of Homer’s betrayal, he has a heart attack and dies.
Fit Tony (Fat Tony’s cousin) takes over the syndicate, and, overeating because of the stress, soon becomes indistinguishable from his cousin.
There were good parts and I enjoyed the Homer / Tony relationship, but I’m not a fan of swerves like OG Fat Tony dying. It feels like a cheat, similar to the big reveal seasons ago about Skinner.
It’s not as offensive as the Skinner swerve because Tony isn’t a central character, but it still feels like a cheap shot.
22.10 Moms I’d Like to Forget
When Bart realizes another boy at school has a similar scar, he investigates and discovers Marge used to be in a Mom’s group and all of the children of the mothers in the group have the same scar.
Marge briefly reforms the group, but it ends (predictably) in disaster.
This wasn’t a bad episode; it was something much worse: boring and forgettable. No impression whatsoever.
Marge trying to make friends is not a new development and being judged by other moms is an old trope.
There was nothing here.
22.11 Flaming Moe
To prove himself to Burns, Smither convinces Moe to turn his bar into a gay bar called Mo. It’s a success, and Moe briefly becomes a gay icon and runs for office, until a jealous Smithers outs him as straight.
Meanwhile Skinner dates substitute teacher Calliope Juniper (Kristen Wiig) and gets Bart to date her daughter, Melody (Alyson Hannigan).
Moe’s briefly foray into gay icon territory was fun, but feels like it’s been done before. There’s a lot of gay themed Simpsons episode and many of them say the same thing.
Meanwhile, the Skinner subplot is a hamfisted way to justify a Kristin Wiig cameo and underserves her talent.
Not one of my favorites.
22.12 Homer the Father
Obsessed with a British TV show, Homer uses it as template to reinvent his parenting style. When this newfound attitude causes Homer to refuse to get Bart a mini-bike, Bart responds by selling Springfield Nuclear Power Plant secrets to China.
The David Mamet cameo (as a writer for the British show) was cool, and I’m always down for a James Lipton appearance, but Bart as a traitor was dumb and ill-advised and Homer offering to take his place when the Chinese get angry doubles down on the stupidity.
Homer (and Bart) do stupid things, but they rarely do brazenly corrupt things. Using treason as a punchline feels too cynical for The Simpsons.
22.13 The Blue and the Gray
Marge is shocked to learn she is going gray, but tries to embrace it. Homer lies, tells her he enjoys the new look, and, to avoid spending time with her, becomes Moe’s wingman in a futile attempt to help Moe get a woman.
The whole episode is just “wouldn’t it be funny if Marge had gray hair?” After twenty minutes, we can definitively say, no it would not.
22.14 Angry Dad: The Movie
In a call back, Bart turns his previous web series Angry Dad into an Academy Award winning short film. Of course, Bart and Homer fight over who gets credit.
It’s a fun insider look at the awards circuit, right in my wheelhouse. I love a good call back and I love the idea of Homer becoming a parody of himself.
The show has allegedly decided not to show Homer as abusive or losing his temper anymore, which I understand, but risks changing the family dynamic.
This is a good episode especially considering the lackluster stuff surrounding it this season.
22.15 The Scorpion’s Tale
Lisa accidentally discovers a silver-tongued flower has a medicinal property which eliminates people’s negative feelings. Desperate, the Simpsons use this on Grandpa who becomes a happier, calmer version of himself. Soon, a number of Springfield’s elderly are using the drug, until a nasty side effect is discovered: it makes the user’s eyes pop out.
Most of the users are willing to risk it, but Grandpa convinces everyone their children still need their lived advice, and the only way to communicate it is through constant nagging.
Werner Herzog is a wonderful guest star, but it was a waste of his distinct voice as a pharmaceutical executive. I would love to see more of the “real” Augustus Gloop and this throw away gag is by far the most interesting thing in this episode.
Grandpa is far too often just cast as an angry bitter old man with no shading; this reinforces a lot of the show’s worst impulses about the elderly and their value.
The Simpsons sees old people as a useless burden (an interesting take now most of its core cast is well into their golden years), and it hates pharmaceutical companies.
I prefer episodes which treat Grandpa as a more rounded character.
22.16 A Midsummer’s Nice Dream
Homer briefly replaces Chong in the comedy duo Cheech and Chong. Marge helps the Crazy Cat Lady stop being a hoarder.
I don’t really care for Cheech and Chong, so this wasn’t for me.
I did enjoy the Crazy Cat Lady parts though.
22.17 Love is a Many Strangled Thing
After Homer’s latest humiliation of Bart, Marge takes them to Dr. Zander (Paul Rudd) who “cures” Homer of his aggressiveness. Unfortunately, coward Homer is an ineffective parent; the family begs Dr. Zander to revert everything to normal.
I like an episode which sees Homer’s parenting as an issue, and I love how it becomes a sort of “mind your own business” response.
Rudd was funny as Dr. Zander.
It’s not a pantheon episode, but by season 22 standards, it was pretty funny for me.
22.18 The Great Simpsina
After a bizarre non-sequitur opening involving peaches, Lisa meets a magician, The Great Raymondo, and becomes his apprentice.
Her brief foray into magic is a rewarding journey. There’s a Harry Houdini reference; a parody of Cris Angel; cameos from Ricky Jay, Davd Copperfield and Penn & Teller. Martin Landau guest stars as the Great Raymondo and the added bonus of a Jack McBrayer cameo.
I love magicians and their world. Ricky Jay was one of the coolest. McBrayer is fantastic.
“Lisa has a new passion project” episodes can be tricky, but they lend themselves to amazing cameos.
Easily the best episode of the season.
22.19 The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
Selma begins a relationship with Fat Tony. Bart has a brief career as a truffle hunter.
Bart / Lisa truffle hunting was inoffensive but made no impact.
However, I love Selma’s desperate attempts to find a man, and I love Fat Tony. Combining them is (in my estimation) a winning formula.
I know the episode was full of Italian stereotype jokes, but I find the premise so funny and amusing, the particulars weren’t important to me.
A solid entry.
22.20 Homer Scissorhands
Homer accidentally falls into a career as a women’s hair stylist, but can’t handle the pressure and tries to pass it off to Julio.
Meanwhile, after watching Finding Nemo, Milhouse decides to embrace life and briefly flirts with an older girl, but his parasocial relationship with Lisa gets in the way.
Kristen Schall was adequate as Milhouse’s older crush, but she’s a very specific flavor and if you’re not in the mood for that flavor, she can be grating.
It’s a slightly below average episode. I like the Lisa / Milhouse dynamic, the Homer stuff was fine, but nothing spectacular.
2.21 500 Keys
The Simpsons discover they have a set of keys to anyplace in town and use this gift in unexpected ways.
Lisa discovers a secret classroom at the elementary school; Homer breaks into Duff Brewery; Marge unleashes a farting wind up doll.
Eventually their paths converge and they discover Chalmers and Skinner concocted a scheme involving mannequins (posing as students) to justify additional funds to cover up for Skinner stupidly losing a giant check.
I love Skinner / Chalmers schemes and I love shaggy dog stories where each family member gets to have a moment to shine.
The twist ending with Otto mistakenly thinking he killed a bus full of students who turned out to be mannequins reminded me of the twists from classics like The Sting or Matchstick Men.
This was a a fun episode
22.22 The Ned-Liest Catch
Edna gets fired; Bart feels guilty and tries to help her. This is a frequent trope of the show with one important wrinkle: Edna inexplicably falls in love with Ned.
I like the idea of Ned and Edna together, and I loved letting fans vote on if they should stay together.
It’s a fun concept, but it’s not enough. It needed a stronger B story.
| 1 | The Great Simpsina |
| 2 | Elementary School Musical |
| 3 | The Real Housewives of Fat Tony |
| 4 | The Fight Before Christmas |
| 5 | 500 Keys |
| 6 | Loan-a Lisa |
| 7 | Donnie Fatso |
| 8 | Love is a Many Strangled Thing |
| 9 | Angry Dad: The Movie |
| 10 | Homer Scissorhands |
| 11 | Lisa Simpson, This Isn’t Your Life |
| 12 | MoneyBart |
| 13 | Treehouse of Horror XXI |
| 14 | The Ned-Liest Catch |
| 15 | A Midsummer’s Nice Dream |
| 16 | The Scorpion’s Tale |
| 17 | Flaming Moe |
| 18 | Homer the Father |
| 19 | How Munched is that Birdie in the Window? |
| 20 | The Fool Monty |
| 21 | The Blue and the Gray |
| 22 | Moms I’d Like to Forget |