Episode 20 - The War of the Simpsons
6 July 2010
Synopsis: The Simpsons finally host a party to payback all the hospitality they have received over the years. Marge makes a big effort but Homer gets drunk and embarrasses everyone. Marge is so angry that the next day at church she signs them up for a marriage retreat. Homer is happier about it when he hears it's being held at Catfish Lake. He promises not to fish but ends up wrestling with the legendary General Sherman. Meanwhile Grandpa is left in charge at home and Bart decides to take full advantage.
The Good: The Grandpa babysitting story is a lot of fun. Bart drags Lisa along on his corrupt ride as he decides to cruelly take advantage of him. This leads to plenty of fun as Grandpa's scepticism only slowly kicks in at the relentless ice cream and cigars Bart wants. The highlight being Grandpa checking whether Bart is really allowed to drink coffee to which an obviously highly caffeinated Bart yells "For the last time yes!" Grandpa has his revenge though which was a nice conclusion to the story as he fakes tears in order to make Bart feel guilty and clear up his mess. It was all plausible enough to be fun and left everyone having learnt a lesson.
Homer meanwhile learns little as his selfishness continually causes problems for his marriage. His drunken antics were well characterised as was his reluctance to get any counselling on the subject. The show has a gift for making small ironic points or managing to express something complicated in a short sketch. So once at the marriage retreat Reverend Lovejoy sees no irony in his claim that "a marriage can't be reconciled in a few hours Homer. It takes a whole weekend to do that!" He then manages to repair one couples marriage simply by asking them to look into one another's eyes at which point their poisonous attitudes melt.
The Bad: Again though the show goes for sentiment and fails to make its point. And again it's Homer who is the focus of it. In the previous episode he apologises to Lisa and suddenly a catalogue of offences are brushed away. Here he does the same trick to Marge (who has an even longer grievance list) and again that is supposed to be the happy ending. It feels unconvincing to wrap things up so quickly and it's happening so often that it's damaging the believability of the storytelling. Part of the problem is that Homer is always the bad guy, with no redeeming qualities. Marge's list of complaints against him takes hours to list and he had nothing bad to say about her. When such a convicning case is made the logical conclusion would be that he doesn't deserve her or that the marriage is fundamentally flawed. But that isn't the story the writers are trying to tell.
Best Joke: Drunk humour can be very hit and miss. Homer was well written here and this believable exchange with Bart brought a smile to my face.
H: "Bart! Do that thing you do that's so cute."
B: "What?"
H: "That thing you know how to do!"
B: "What?"
H: (Long pause) "Go to bed."
The Bottom Line: Very similar to the previous episode, a sentiment heavy 'A' plot which falls flat by blaming all the world's problems on Homer and then instantly forgiving him. But with an entertaining 'B' plot which balanced things nicely.
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