13.1 Treehouse of Horror XII
I enjoyed this rendition of the annual tradition because of the second segment: “House of Whacks.” A robot house (Pierce Brosnan) falls in love with Marge and schemes to eliminate Homer from the picture. I love Pierce and I love the parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
“Hex and the City” is solid, playing around with a gypsy curse on Homer. I love the ending punchline where Homer is reluctant to bring Bart back from the dead.
The last segment, “Wiz Kids”, is the weakest of the three, but I always enjoy a Harry Potter themed parody.
Tree House episodes are refreshing because they give the writers creative freedom to play with the expectations of the characters we’ve come to know so well.
13.2 The Parent Rap
Bart gets in trouble and expects a light punishment from Judge Snyder, but his temporary replacement, coldhearted Judge Constance Hamm (Jane Kaczmarek) forces Homer and Bart to tether themselves to each other. This causes them to bond, but drives Marge crazy and she convinces Homer to harass Judge Hamm into reducing the sentence. Luckily when Judge Snyder comes back he (as expected) dismisses the charges.
I appreciate what the show was doing with Hamm (trying to skewer Judge Judy and add more strong female characters), but she falls flat.
It’s just not funny and one of the weaker episodes of the season.
13.3 Homer the Moe
When a depressed Moe reenrolls in bartending school, he’s inspired to reimagine his bar. Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney hate the new vibe and Homer creates a replica of the old bar in his garage. A jealous Moe realizes he was happy the way things were.
REM guest stars in one of my least favorite episodes of the season and the series.
13.4 A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love
Despite my love of Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her character, Gloria (a delightful love interest for Snake), the episode fell flat for me. There’s some good stuff, including a bizarre Woody Allen reference, but Burns in love is not a storyline I need to see again.
13.5 The Blunder Years
A hypnotist helps Homer uncovers a long buried memory of discovering a dead body. His family (alongside Wiggum and Moe) help him find the truth: the body belonged to Smithers father, who worked at the nuclear power plant and sacrificed himself to avert a horrific meltdown.
The mystery element was cool. I loved young Fat Tony. I liked exploring Smither’s backstory.
While I didn’t love Monty’s lie to Smithers (it was too cruel and forgiveness came too quickly); it’s one of the better episodes of a middling season.
13.6 She of Little Faith
A monetary crisis causes First Church of Springfield to collaborate with Burns and Lindsay Neagle to commodify religion. This horrifies Lisa and her spiritual conundrum leads her to Buddhism and, with the help of guest star Richard Gere (with an assist from Lenny and Carl), she begins her own faith journey.
I enjoyed this episode. The critique of the commercialization of faith was insightful and Lisa’s hesitancy is well founded. I love that she has remained Buddhist and appreciated Gere’s admonition to not weaponize faith and let others live as they choose.
A great episode and a great paean to religious tolerance.
13.7 Brawl in the Family
After the cops are called to break up a family fight, the Simpsons are assigned a social worker, Gabriel (Delroy Lindo). He’s briefly successful at teaching them to live more harmoniously, until Amber and Ginger arrive at the Simpson family home, and Amber reminds Homer they were married in Vegas (in the season ten episode “Viva Ned Flanders”). Marge is furious and kicks Homer out. Eventually, the family reconciles and gets rid of Amber by tricking her into marrying Abe.
It’s a lot of plot for twenty two minutes. I liked Lindo’s cameo. I don’t like Judge Hamm. I thought using Abe to marry off Amber was a little much, but the kinetic chaos of the episode saves it.
I really like when the show calls back to previous episodes and rewards long time viewers; a thing it doesn’t do nearly enough for my taste.
13.8 Sweets and Sour Marge
Homer’s effort to break the world record for largest human pyramid inadvertently earns Springfield notoriety as the fattest city. Everyone is proud of the recognition, except Marge who convinces Judge Snyder to ban sugar from the city, drawing the ire of Garth Motherloving (Ben Stiller), the head of the Motherloving Sweets and Sugar Company.
Homer secretly works with Garth to smuggle the now contraband sweets.
It’s just not interesting to me. There’s some funny jokes and Stiller was game, but it was bland and I thought the show’s dig at Butterfinger was crass considering how important Butterfinger was to establishing the show’s place in popular culture.
Marge as a well meaning but tiresome do-gooder is a worn out trope.
It’s not a bad episode, but there’s not much to recommend either.
13.9 Jaws Wired Shut
After an accident, Homer’s jaw is wired shut. Marge initially loves the quiet, contemplative version of her husband, but eventually misses the excitement of his unpredictability and briefly embraces her own wild side to compensate.
While I enjoyed the role reversal for Marge and Homer, the episode was too safe. It was funny, but nothing special and will not likely be mentioned among the shows’ best or worst.
13.10 Half-Decent Proposal
When Marge reaches out to Artie Ziff to congratulate him on his success, he offers one million dollars for a weekend tryst with her. The family reluctantly accepts his offer to pay for a procedure to help Homer’s snoring. Artie, desperate to win Marge’s heart, tricks her into kissing him, which Homer observes. A despondent Homer and Lenny head to West Springfield to work on an oil rig.
After an accident at the rig, Marge asks Artie to rescue them.
Jon Lovitz is perfectly cast as Artie Ziff, I’m happy he made a return, and I really liked the evolution of the relationship between Lenny and Carl.
It’s one of the better episodes of the season.
13.11 The Bart Wants What It Wants
Rainier Wolfcastle’s daughter, Greta (Reese Witherspoon) has a crush on Bart. He enjoys the perks of dating a rich, famous person, but because he doesn’t reciprocate her feelings, she dumps him for Milhouse. After the breakup, he wants her to choose him, so the Simpson family follows her to a film shoot in Toronto.
The episode opens with a funny, topical gag about the Olympic torch. Reese Witherspoon is game, and Rainier is always welcome.
Some great gags, like the authorized look alike answering questions for Wolfcastle, sad sack Milhouse getting a girl, and Bart’s callous response to Lisa’s complaint about his initial treatment of Greta, “I didn’t lead her on. I always played it light and breezy.”
Since the show featured Toronto in the episode, producers tried to get the city to give the fictional family a key to the city, but the city inexplicably took offense.
It’s a middle of the road episode. Some funny stuff, but not enough to warrant a lot of rewatching.
13.12 The Lastest Gun in the West
Bart meets a retired western movie star, Buck McCoy (Dennis Weaver) and convinces him to mount a comeback. When Bucks’s alcoholism gets in the way, the entire family helps him back on his feet.
The meta element of former Gunsmoke actor Weaver playing a forgotten star is fun and makes the episode better than it should have been, but it’s destined to be forgotten.
13.13 The Old Man and the Key
Grandpa renews his driver’s license to impress new resident Zelda (Olympia Dukakis). But when he wrecks Homer’s car, Zelda leaves with another resident to Branson, so Grandpa steals Marge’s car and chases after her.
I like Grandpa centric episodes, I love Olympia Dukakis, but this episode never really takes off. It’s solid, but not spectacular.
13.14 Tales from the Public Domain
The show continued to expand its stable of anthology episodes with one based on great works of literature. In segment one, Homer becomes Odysseus returning from the Trojan War. In the second, Lisa is transformed into Joan of Arc. In the final segment, Bart is Hamlet.
Homer as Odysseus is solid. I especially liked Patty and Selma as the sirens.
The second segment with Lisa is the least interesting; Lisa as a martyr is a little too obvious.
I enjoyed the last segment the most because I’m a sucker for Shakespeare; Moe as Claudius is a delightful choice building off his established crush on Marge, and the title of the segment “Do the Bart Man” is an inspired mashup of bard and the 1990 short “Do the Bartman.”
13.15 Blame it On Lisa
When Lisa can’t reach her Brazilian phone pal, the family travels to Rio to find him.
The careless depiction of Brazil prompted a local outcry and prompted an apology from creator James L. Brooks. Too bad the episode wasn’t worth the hubbub. Full of lazy writing and half cooked jokes, it’s easily the worst episode of the season.
13.16 Weekend at Burnsie’s
After an incident with some crows, Homer is prescribed medicinal marijuana to manage his pain. While high, he finds Burns lame jokes hysterical, endearing him to the old man.
It’s a decent episode and, to the show’s credit, tries to be even handed with a controversial subject. Stoner humor can be funny, but I thought Smithers and Homer operating a temporarily dead Burns as a marionette a little tasteless.
13.17 Gump Roast
Written by cast member Dan Castellaneta, this clip show focuses on Homer’s antics through the show’s first thirteen seasons.
There’s minimum creativity and effort.
13.18 I Am Furious (Yellow)
Inspired by a guest speaker at school, Bart becomes an amateur comic book artist. He’s a failure until Homer’s antics inspire a new comic, Angry Dad. This new effort is a huge success and attracts the attention of an internet start up company.
After becoming internet famous, Homer agrees to restrain his anger. Bart loses his source of inspiration and a repressed Homer has heart issues.
The start up goes bankrupt and Homer falls into a trap laid by Bart and Milhouse to revive his anger.
It’s frequently listed as one of the best episodes of the series and should be. The Stan Lee cameo is top notch, the satire is on point, and Angry Dad is a delight.
Easily the brightest spot of the season.
13.19 The Sweetest Apu
Homer catches Apu cheating on Manjula which cascades into a brief separation for the pair. I’m not a fan of flippantly dismissing infidelity, but it’s a believable result of the stress of raising eight babies.
I enjoyed the James Lipton cameo, the Civil War reenactment, and Homer’s shock after discovering Apu’s infidelity.
One of the better episodes of the season, but average overall.
13.20 Little Girl in the Big Ten
Lisa is mistaken for a college student and leads a brief double life, going to second grade during the day and pretentious readings with former poet laureates at night.
Meanwhile Bart is infected with a immune disorder and forced to live in a bubble.
It’s an okay episode. In the thirteenth season, “Lisa is smart,” is not much of a plot, although I appreciated the Robert Pinsky cameo.
Bart’s plot is even less interesting. “Bubble Boy” was a cliché when Seinfeld did it.
It has some moments and I love Brunella Pomnelhurst, but it’s peak is middle of the road.
13.21 The Frying Game
When a screampillar moves into the Simpson koi pond, Homer is convicted of trying to kill the endangered species and sentenced to community service delivering Meals on Wheels to Mrs. Bellamy (Frances Sternhagen). Bellamy manipulates Homer and Marge into becoming her de facto personal servants, and when she is murdered, Homer and Marge are suspects.
Just as Homer is going to be executed for the crime, the whole plot is revealed as an elaborate ruse for a new reality show, “Frame Up.” Bellamy was actually a fictional character played by Carmen Elektra.
It’s a massively convoluted effort to make a thinly veiled joke about the Endangered Species Act. I like John Swazrtwelder and a lot of his stuff is among my favorite moments on the show. This, however, is not among them. He was nearing the end of his run and maybe he’d lost interest, but it’s clear he’s not as funny as he once was.
13.22 Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge
Homer’s private security firm, SpringShield, briefly replaces the Springfield Police Department until he thwarts Fat Tony and draws his ire.
There are plenty of fun moments, but most Fat Tony episodes run together. I enjoy the character, but I like him in small doses. As a focal point, he’s less interesting than his sidekicks.
- I am Furious (Yellow) (13.18)
- Treehouse of Horror XII (13.1)
- She of Little Faith (13.6)
- Half-Decent Proposal (13.10)
- The Blunder Years (13.5)
- The Sweetest Apu (13.19)
- Jaws Wired Shut (13.9)
- Brawl in the Family (13.7)
- The Lastest Gun in the West (13.12)
- Weekend at Burnsie’s (13.16)
- Tales from the Public Domain (13.14)
- A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love (13.4)
- Sweets and Sour Marge (13.8)
- The Old Man and the Key (13.13)
- Little Girl in the Big Ten (13.20)
- The Bart Wants Want It Wants (13.11)
- Homer the Moe (13.3)
- Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge (13.22)
- The Parent Rap (13.2)
- The Frying Game (13.21)
- Gump Roast (13.17)
- Blame it on Lisa (13.15)