A few weeks ago, beloved commentor Ruck Cohlchez observed that the run from “Mr Plow” to “Marge Vs The Monorail” is the best run The Simpsons would ever do; what I love is how we’ve jumped straight from one of … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Four, Episode Ten, “Lisa’s First Word”

Well, here we are, an all-timer episode that has some of the most quoted lines in the show. “Mr Plow” doesn’t reach for any particular satirical or emotional heights, but everything in it snaps together; the underlying plot functional enough … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Four, Episode Nine, “Mr Plow”

Way back in the first season, I suggested that part of the Classic era of the show was giving up the riffing in favour of fast-paced plotting, and I’m going to formally concede that I was as wrong as I … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Four, Episode Eight, “New Kid On The Block”

Sometimes an older episode of a show feels like a subtle dry run for the later, more ambitious episodes, and sometimes an older episode feels like an extremely obvious dry run. As the title implies, “Marge Gets A Job” is … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Four, Episode Seven, “Marge Gets A Job”

Usually, when I think of heartwarming Simpsons relationships, I think of Homer/Lisa, then Homer/Marge, then Bart/Lisa. And usually, my line for Homer and Bart’s relationship is that where Homer and Lisa don’t understand each other, Homer and Bart understand each … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Four, Episode Six, “Itchy And Scratchy: The Movie”