Episode 6 - Little Orphan Millie
4 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: The Van Houten’s get remarried and Milhouse is finally happy again. But they are lost at sea on their honeymoon and Milhouse is forced to toughen up to cope with the loss. He becomes the coolest kid in school and Bart tries to regain his popularity by contacting Milhouse’s uncle. Meanwhile Marge is shocked that Homer doesn’t know the colour of her eyes and won’t let him see them until he can remember. The Good: The Marge eye colour plot is fine. It’s about as simple as plots go. The Milhouse story seems interesting but ultimately doesn’t go anywhere. The gym teacher who tries to defend rope climbing is a passable joke. The Bad: Milhouse’s story has potential but the writers don’t know what to do with it. It seems like Milhouse will learn how to cope alone and the story will be about how his parents behaviour ultimately made him so dependent. But instead the writers flirt with turning it into a story about Bart losing his popularity. In the end they do neither and spend their time making silly jokes about Danish and Dutch people. For those who don’t understand why I would care about character development in The Simpsons, I would ask you to go watch episode 621 (The PTA Disbands). Milhouse isn’t the main character in that episode but the writers make a clear point about his development within the public school system. I think you will also find that episode a lot funnier than this one. My point is that the writers were once capable of telling interesting stories which make you think at the same time as being funny. The fact that this episode makes no point and isn’t funny says it all about the decline of the show. Best Joke: Sadly I think the best joke is Homer saying “Many happy returns” when the Van Houten’s announce their plan to remarry. The Bottom Line: Once more the show almost has a good idea but doesn’t know what to do with it. The lack of jokes makes this pretty dull to sit through.
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