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”

Welcome to season three of The Simpsons! Looking forward, I recognise every single one of these episodes (for those coming in now, I was born two days after “Dancin’ Homer” first aired, so there were a lot of season one and … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode One, “Stark Raving Dad”

An undercurrent to The Simpsons that’s been there since the first episode is the conflict between the desire to be a good, hardworking American citizen and the desire to sit around drinking beer, eating like a pig, and watching TV – or … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty-Two, “Blood Feud”

Despite the name, this episode isn’t actually fairly split between Bart, Milhouse, and Martin – it’s a Bart episode, start to finish. We begin with an early example of the show parodying nerd culture when the family visits a comic … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty-One, “Three Men And A Comic Book”

This is yet another “Marge And Homer In Crisis” episode – we’re far enough in that we can say “yet another [x] episode”! – but it finds new nuance, not just in the final emotion of the episode but in … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty, “The War Of The Simpsons”

This is one of those classic episodes I have never actually seen, though I heard so much about it, and when I got to that famous moment I felt my soul leave my body. Holy shit, you guys. And this episode … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Nineteen, “Lisa’s Substitute”

The weird thing about not only revisiting The Simpsons from the start, but having to think about each episode in detail, is discovering how much I actually like Marge and her stories. Marge, at least to me, feels like a forgotten Simpson, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Eighteen, “Brush With Greatness”

Nowhere does The Simpson’s cynicism look more bleak and unhappy than in the prospect of aging. Grampa Simpson has been presented as a bitter, miserable old man who is treated as a nuisance whenever he’s obligated into family affairs and forgotten … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Seventeen, “Old Money”

This isn’t a great episode. Granted, it doesn’t have Lady GaGa in it, but it’s clearly from early in the production schedule, almost a holdover from the first season – in fact, with both the many references to earlier episodes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Sixteen, “Bart’s Dog Gets An F”

The Simpsons presents the eponymous family as the Worst Family In America, and has consistently done so from the very first episode. This is an early example of the family being a corrupting influence, destroying everything in its path. When cantankerous … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Fifteen, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Three firsts at once! This is the first time we focus on characters outside the family, with our title characters almost entirely on the fringes of the story, and thus the first time we focus on Patty, Selma, and Principal … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Fourteen, “Principal Charming”

We’ve discussed what makes something Classic before – if I recall correctly, Ruck made the case that seasons one and two were part of Classic Simpsons because they laid the groundwork for the brilliance that followed, both in terms of … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Thirteen, “Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment”

I confess, as much as I was looking forward to this episode, I was a little wary of it too. Romance stories from the 80’s are notorious for not exactly aging well, with stalking, Nice Guy Syndrome, and other fun … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twelve, “The Way We Was”

Here’s a first for us: the earliest episode I recall with perfect clarity – obviously, I didn’t see this live, seeing as how I was barely a year old when it aired, but it is one of the earliest that … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “One Fish, Two Fish, Blow Fish, Blue Fish”

HELL YEAH PHIL HARTMAN HELL YEAH So, this episode throws in another flavour of meta-gag: after twenty-two episodes where the title was never revealed, the writers decided to show this episode’s title half a second before the eponymous event happens. … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Ten, “Bart Gets Hit By A Car”