Episode 6 - Dead Putting Society
4 June 2010
Synopsis: Homer is outraged when he sees his neighbour Ned Flanders' house. He takes it as a personal affront that everything at the Flanders' including their relationships are better than in the Simpsons household. Flanders tries to make up with Homer but instead of healing the rift Homer enters Bart into a miniature golf tournament just to beat Ned's son Rod. Bart trains with Lisa and Homer ups the stakes by wagering on the result with Ned.
The Good: A terrific story from start to finish. There are so many elements to enjoy here that although it's not the funniest episode it is a pleasure to watch and contains so many memorable ideas and moments.
This is the major introduction of Ned Flanders who turns out to be a wonderful nemesis for Homer. Ned is so unfailingly nice, kind, gentle and Christian that everything Homer hates him for is a reflection of his own inadequacies. It makes for both good comedy and a good character study that the writing leaves you no room to sympathise with Homer.
Ned Flanders is so beautifully written to make the point about Homer's jealousy. Ned is incapable of being rude, he is generous and fair, devout to an exceptional degree and even able to laugh at himself. Homer's bitterness makes for a wonderfully rounded story. No matter what he does he cannot win. He is so determined to humiliate Ned that he puts on Marge's dress and mows the lawn only to be undone by Ned's ability to enjoy the silliness. The message is clear about the pointlessness of negativity, bitterness and jealousy: it will get you nowhere.
The reason for Homer losing the bet is that Rod and Bart refuse to finish the mini-golf tournament which was another fine moment. Neither of them cared enough about winning to wish to play under the intense pressure anymore. They demonstrated their control over the situation by refusing to be pawns anymore.
Like a good sports movie though there was loads of fun to have on the way to that moment. Homer tried to justify his own failings at one hole by claiming that "Jack Nicholson himself couldn't make it!" (confusing the actor with the golfer). Lisa using meditative wisdom and geometry to help Bart at golf was entertaining and a reminder of her uncelebrated intellect. There was a nice gag in their training montage where Bart was using a pool table to practise his putting only for him and Lisa to be snatched from the table by angry pool players. Once the tournament began we had the implausible British commentator whose over dramatic commentary provided a nice exaggerated narrative including the unlikely comparison that the finish was the most gallant gesture "since Mountbatten gave India back to the Punjabs!"
Homer had fun lines throughout (see Best Joke) including the hilarious taunt to Flanders that 'may the best man win' was "the mating call of the loser!" Then later he piles ludicrous and amusing pressure on Bart by shouting out "Remember what Vince Lombardi said 'if you lose you're out of the family'!"
It's worth noting a little more about Lisa's character too. She has been the least developed member of the family so far and here we learn a little more about her zen state. We see her able to name everyone at the library, an indicator of where she spends her time. And her emotionless visage clearly comes from her relationship to Homer of whom she says "its times like this that I'm thankful Dad has little to no interest in almost everything I do." There's real depth being developed there to make the Simpsons world seem real amidst the zaniness.
The Bad: Nothing much, it would have needed more jokes to become an all time classic.
Best Joke: Lisa declines to go play mini-golf instead preferring to work on her entry for the math fair. "If I win I get to bring home a brand new protractor" she adds. To which Homer responds "Too bad we don't live on a farm."
The Bottom Line: An episode which begins to showcase the full range of abilities this show has. It's funny and clever and thought provoking and well characterised and morally positive.
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