Episode 9 - Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind
4 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Homer comes home after a night of drinking to find no one is at home. He goes to Moe who tells him he gave him a special drink to forget. Thanks to Chief Wiggum and Grandpa, Homer goes to see Professor Frink. He helps Homer travel through his memories and discover most of what happened. But Homer thinks Marge cheated on him with Duff Man and tries to kill himself. But as he falls off a bridge he remembers what really happened and then he lands on a boat below where his surprise birthday party is taking place.
The Good: This is an intriguing story for most of the episode. There are some funny moments, such as Moe not liking any of the paused shots of him on the video tape.
The Bad: Unfortunately the writers are not content with presenting a simple memory loss story. It is pretty obvious that Marge isn’t really cheating on him and that there will be a reasonable explanation for everything. But instead of just telling that story in the normal world the writers have to make reference to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Game and The Fountain. And they are hardly parodying them in a funny way, more just copying their ideas. It seems the writers would rather take from other famous stories than come up with their own material.
The result is a story which doesn’t have any resonance of its own but is just a collection of implausible ideas and silly science fiction that shouldn’t be possible even within The Simpsons universe. When implausible things happen in the show, it makes jokes and stories seem less consequential. For example, Chief Wiggum scoffs at Marge’s excuse that she got her black eye by walking into the door. Wiggum is rightfully suspicious of the excuse, suspecting domestic violence. The real humour comes from him walking into the door. It makes Marge’s excuse plausible meaning that Wiggum should leave even though we know Marge is lying. But instead Wiggum “arrests” the door. Which is of course ridiculous. It ruins a nice joke which would have believably continued the memory loss story. Viewers are more likely to enjoy a mystery tale if it makes sense all the way through. That way they will speculate themselves about what is really going on and it will breed a desire to see the conclusion of the episode. When Homer begins travelling through his own memories talking to his past selves, many viewers will understand that the explanation will be equally implausible and not care anymore. It is much easier than to change the channel.
I know no one but me is likely to care but Patty and Selma should never actually try to kill Homer. They push him off a bridge and they didn’t know he would land safely. Their characters are meant to hate Homer and enjoy seeing him suffer. But to make them attempted murderers crosses a line. It will affect some viewers by telling them not to take anything that happens on The Simpsons seriously. That will disconnect viewer’s loyalty from a show, because they won’t care about a show which has no internal logic or consistency.
Best Joke: Grandpa helps Homer by telling him about Professor Frink. Homer asks how he can ever repay him. Grandpa says he can punch the orderly who drinks his juice. We cut to Homer knocking him out. Grandpa says “No wait that’s the guy who saved my life.”
The Bottom Line: The writers make a clear statement in this episode. You shouldn’t take The Simpsons seriously anymore. We don’t and we would rather make reference to Youtube, Miller High Life and cool movies we have seen than write original material. As far as I am concerned if the writers don’t care anymore, it filters through to the viewers who know not to care either.
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