Episode 1 - Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes
29 March 2012
Synopsis: St Patrick’s day turns into a violent brawl. As a result Marge becomes an erotic baker and Homer becomes a bounty hunter. Ned Flanders becomes Homer’s partner but they soon fall out.
The Good: We get the beginning of two passable plots and a couple of jokes. In the modern era of The Simpsons that is, sadly, a small victory.
Marge’s exaggerated shock to finding out that she works at an erotic bakery could have been pretty funny. But her moral indignation is short lived and the writers don’t attempt to make a point with it. Similarly Homer and Ned’s bonding looks to be going somewhere when they find common ground over ACDC cover music. But barely a couple of scenes later they are breaking up.
The jokes are pretty tame throughout though there is a creative use of Marvels’ Hulk and Thing in an inter-Irish brawl. As Marge comments “This was such a pleasant St Patrick’s Day until the Irish people showed up.” The bail bondsman commenting on how many people get fired after getting arrested is a nice logical joke and the ever dependable Skinner and Chalmers team are present too.
The Bad: Once more I am forced to ask why we needed two stories? If the show had just been about Homer and Ned we would have had more of a complete story. Instead neither story has any significance and fades into yet another “job of the week” episode with nothing memorable to it.
I am not sure what reference was being made with Homer and Ned’s gravity defying chase scene, but I don’t see the point of it. It’s needless destruction of whatever reality had been created and there isn’t much to laugh at.
Best Joke: Homer acting nonchalant at his $25,000 bail: “Phh, I make that in a year.”
The Bottom Line: A few jokes, not too much of a story. A very skippable episode.
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