Episode 10 - Once Upon a Time in Springfield
30 January 2010
Review
Synopsis: Krusty doesn’t appeal to female viewers, so the network bring in Princess Penelope (Anne Hathaway) to be his new costar. Initially hostile, Krusty is amazed to discover she is in love with him. Their love turns away the male audience but Krusty plans to marry her anyway. Meanwhile Mr Burns takes away his employees doughnuts and they are soon wooed by a rival nuclear company.
The Good: Krusty is always a joke magnet being both a serious guy and a buffoon. So there are lots of easy laughs here with him, Mel and Mr Teeny all dressed up as hand maidens for the Princess or Krusty claiming “I work like I drink. Alone! Or with a monkey watching me.” I was even amused by the start of a gag which began “I see we’ve reached a soft timber agreement with Canada…” where was that going exactly? And I certainly don’t begrudge Krusty finding some happiness or a love story not having a sad ending.
The Bad: But I do begrudge it when it looks like it won’t get followed up on. Anne Hathaway isn’t coming back every week so one assumes this relationship will be forgotten about by the next episode. If so it runs contrary to the formula which has worked so well for The Simpsons over the past twenty years. Obviously in a cartoon, where nothing ever changes, it’s a logical and unrealistic fact that each character essentially goes back to their original state at the end of an episode. The writing used to be masters of finding a way to make this plausible and touching. Ultimately Mr Burns is too selfish to be anything but himself, Skinner may be a loser but there is dignity in being a good principal and Krusty for all his faults is a good entertainer. Krusty’s character has always been too irresponsible and selfish to find happiness in love so this ending goes against the logical question: is he now with Princess Penelope. Chances are it will be blown off next time we see him and that is a great shame. There’s nothing touching about this ending because it’s clearly not going to last.
That complaint comes before the story itself which didn’t spend anytime on the Princess’ character or their relationship. The focus of the story was on the network bringing her in against Krusty’s wishes. Again the writers have forgotten the focus they used to give to episodes like this. Really it should have begun with emphasis on Krusty’s loneliness, not his show’s success. So many little touches have squashed what made the show special. Seeing Krusty beg to be kept on the network is treated as a run of the mill event. That’s not a great simulation or satire of reality as the show once specialized in. Instead it’s a very cheap and simple joke which isn’t that funny. Seeing Krusty gripe about the network behind their back would have been funnier and more authentic. Later, in the middle of his own wedding ceremony, Krusty is snorting bowling shoe spray in order to make a joke which was set up two seconds earlier. It’s about as lame an exaggeration as you could think of and if it weren’t his wedding ceremony the joke might have worked.
The power plant storyline was a complete waste of time and didn’t need to be in this episode. Again the details kill it off. Mr Burns never knew or cared about his employees. Yet now when he hears of Lenny, Carl and Homer’s defection he works hard to woo them back. Similarly when other companies have dealt with Homer before they rapidly see his lack of skills, yet here that is ignored and of course the company’s luxurious facilities are a humourless exaggeration.
It’s also worth questioning whether the twentieth anniversary episode shouldn’t have been focused on the Simpsons family themselves.
Best Joke: As part of their seduction by Capital City Nuclear, Homer, Carl and Lenny are getting massages. Lenny says, in all seriousness, “I don’t care what anyone says, massages are relaxing!”
The Bottom Line: I’d like to say I enjoyed seeing Krusty finding love. But because the writers don’t know how to write their own show anymore my mind was elsewhere.
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