Hell yeah, the first return of Sideshow Bob! After season two, the Sideshow Bob episode would become a beloved tradition, shifting the show’s genre to Murder She Wrote-style mystery. As much as I missed him during season two, this was a … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Twenty-One, “Black Widower”

After having a few breezy episodes in a row, it’s nice to get back to something a bit heavier, and the fact that we’re dealing with Homer’s most sympathetic aspect is the icing on the cake. The overall effect we’re … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Twenty, “Colonel Homer”

“Dog Of Death” feels to me like an example of ‘lesser Simpsons is still better than every other show’; my gut tells me that it lacks the heart of stories like “Lisa’s Substitute” or the specific satire of “Radio Bart”, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Nineteen, “Dog Of Death”

The show has had a minor theme of the demoralising effect of the education system almost since the very beginning, but this is the most sophisticated presentation of it yet, and it’s accomplished because it uses two characters we’ve come … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Eighteen, “Separate Vocations”

Way back in season one, I often complained that episode felt less like coherent stories and more like loose riffing; episodes like “Moaning Lisa” were great for unifying the riffing under a single, compelling theme, but more often than not … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Seventeen, “Homer At The Bat”

Up til now, Mrs Krabappel has been a distant authority figure with hints of a personal life – she’s popped up here and there when the show has needed a woman desperately trying to get laid. This episode, much like … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Sixteen, “Bart The Lover”

It’s common – and I’m fully guilty of this – to forget Marge Simpson. Marge is mainly remembered as the boring nagging square, which a) ignores how funny the show could make her squarishness (“It must be exciting to make … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Fifteen, “Homer Alone”

“Money comes and money goes, but what I have with my daughter could go on for eight more years!” It’s always so frustrating when you write pages and pages of analysis on a TV show and then it goes and … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Fourteen, “Lisa The Greek”

At some point, I suggested that Simpsons episodes can be divided into three groups: pure comedy, heartwarming, and satire. This episode falls under satire, bringing in a mockery of sensationalist news. Not only is this perhaps the most major satirical … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Thirteen, “Radio Bart”

Another sequel episode, this time to “The Way We Was”! I’ve been puzzling over why this season has so many of them. I don’t have the DVDs for season three, so I don’t know if the crew explain it there, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Twelve, “I Married Marge”

In discussions about favourite Simpsons episodes, people tend to separate the purely funny episodes from the heartwarming ones. I would go even further and separate Simpsons episodes into three categories: pure comedy, heartwarming, and satirical – by way of example, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Eleven, “Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk”

It’s probably a good sign we’re deep in Classic territory when multiple iconic moments from the show pop up in the one episode – here, we have “Oh, by the way, I was being sarcastic”, “It can be two things”, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Ten, “Flaming Moe’s”

Immediately after a “Homer is a bumbling dad to Lisa” story, we get a “Homer is a bumbling dad to Bart” one! Structurally, there are a few similarities – Act One is about Homer coming to realise he’s a bad … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Nine, “Saturdays Of Thunder”

Here we are, people, an episode that eclipses almost all that came before it. This is a well-oiled machine of an episode, one that delivers heart, jokes, satire, funny animation, and an exploration of American life in a way that’s … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Eight, “Lisa’s Pony”

Last week, it was noted that this season has a lot of sequel episodes, and this is one of the few more explicit sequels, the very second “Treehouse Of Horror” special. The tradition hasn’t been quite refined yet; it begins … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Seven, “Treehouse Of Horror II”

It’s strange to me how much continuity the show has at this early stage. Most of the time, this involves introducing elements that would go on to become iconic aspects of the series – the retirement home, Homer’s job as … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Six, “Like Father, Like Clown”

In TV criticism, there’s a pretty common cliche – that I myself use all the time – that a mediocre episode of a particular TV show is still better than most television, and this episode is a great demonstration of … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Five, “Homer Defined”

The previous episode found a vein of both comedy and pathos in the limits of Homer’s assholishness; “Bart The Murderer” finds it in Lisa Bart. As he’ll put it a few seasons later, Bart doesn’t want to be a criminal, he wants … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Four, “Bart The Murderer”

One of the major aspects of The Simpsons fall from grace is Jerkass Homer, the name given to the warped version of Homer over the seasons that Mike Scully was showrunner (named after a line where Homer nearly runs over someone, crying … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Three, “When Flanders Failed”

The Simpsons has never really struck me as a cynical show. I think of a cynical story, I think of something like The Shield or a Fincher film, where bad shit simply happens as a matter of course, and there’s no expectation on … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Two, “Mr Lisa Goes To Washington”