The Simpsons Season 2 Reviewed

Season 2 reviewed

Nothing really much to say here, so let's just get on with it.

(Yes, get on with it. Haha, funny Monty Python reference.)

S2E1 - Bart Gets an F

"In my opinion, this is the saddest scene in the show." - The Nostalgia Critic on when Bart gets a 59 score (barely D- grade) on his test after studying.

Yeah, does kind of feel like a Season 1 type episode where it's a mixture of satire and some sort of moral lesson towards the end about studying. Does kind of capture that sort of alienation that occurs with school where it contrasts Bart not putting any effort into his tests, realising the consequences of that, putting effort into it and thinking he would succeed, only it doesn't play out the way that he expects

Do think the ending of this is pretty good though. It goes from emotionally crushing into something where it kind of cheats its way into a happy ending where Krabappel sees potential in him, notices a piece of hard to get knowledge that Bart got and awards him extra credit, meaning he just barely passed. Bart celebrating getting a D- the way that someone would an exceptional grade is both ironically funny and still in line with the episode's themes. Getting an A isn't the be-all end-all.

S2E2 - Simpson and Delilah

Homer Simpson commits insurance fraud in order to buy some hair growth serum, building up his confidence and also netting him a promotion at work. Winds up unfolding with that sort of tension like the whole position is just too good to be true, especially with the sort of limited, precarious supply of the serum and the implications of fraud resting in the background. Thought this episode was quite funny in terms of how none of Homer's actions don't really intrinsically change but his new found self-esteem somehow allows him to advance through the workplace and just through life in general.

Also notable in terms of how Homer has this giant lock of hair, and how his hairstyle keeps changing from scene to scene like he's experimenting with it. Liked the ending to this as well, felt kind of sweet all things considering.

S2E3 - Treehouse of Horror

"Tonight's show which I totally wash my hands of, is really scary. Maybe tuck your children in tonight instead of writing us angry letters tomorrow." - Marge Simpson's opening disclaimer.

(This Treehouse of Horror takes place in an actual treehouse.)

"I'm not going to live in a house of evil to save a few dollars."

(Ooh, Treehouse of Horror. [Writing this on October 2022 of all things, lol])

First of the Treehouse of Horror anthology episodes, that seems to be a Simpsons spin on stuff like Creepshow, Amicus horror films and Tales from the Crypt. Whole lot more dependent on atmosphere than later episodes, and has an explicit framing of people telling scary stories, rather than just inexplicably introduced.

Brief summaries for each segment

Bad Dream House - Simpsons move into a Haunted House which terrorises them and plays upon their worst emotions and impulses.

Hungry Are the Damned - The Simpsons are kidnapped by a bunch of aliens who show them around their ship and prepare food, but then something nefarious abounds in the background.

The Raven - Edgar Allen Poe parody where Homer is taunted by a Raven that's a stand-in for Bart Simpson, and he can not punish them.

What I did like about each of them is that they are kind of satirical and absurd and also have these pretty funny twist endings applied to them. The Raven one has more of a meta twist ending, and I like the ending of this where it shows the effects that the scary stories have on The Simpsons. Weirdly relatable in conjuring up the appeal of ghost stories.

Lacks the 'scary name' credits of later Treehouse of Horrors.

S2E4 - Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish

Literally just an episode that banks on the pun of fission (nuclear) sounding similar to fishing, but they also take advantage of it by making it into a way too-on-the-nose newspaper headline when the mutated fish is reported on. But also it really seems like an episode about probing into the hypocrisy of Mr. Burns and just how grotesque and conniving he is, just existing as this sort of embodiment of greedy corporatism, and someone you really don't want to annoy. Spends the whole time trying to manipulate Homer and aggrandising him, and snaps when he realises he can't do that.

S2E5 - Dancin' Homer

"GET ON THE BUS, DANCIN' HOMER!"

"SHUT UP, I'M TRYING TO THINK OF A NAME!"

Episode where Homer moves out of Springfield for one of his dreams but then it doesn't take off, but it's also largely about this sort of situation that Homer gets into where it's largely just fame bought on by coincidence and his impulsive behaviour. Thought the humour was quite funny because it is largely about those cynical feelings where you find something you're passionate about and how there's this cycle of encouragement and discouragement that just seems to simultaneously lead you somewhere but also nowhere. Also kind of contextualises that feeling of missed opportunities really well.

S2E6 - Dead Putting Society

"What's the sound of one hand clapping?"

"Easy." [Bart clasps his fingers shut.]

Yeah, for some reason I really remember that one philosophical tangent about questions with no apparent answers and meditation really well, when watching it years ago, but the rest of the episode was pretty fuzzy. Another Flanders vs. Homer episode where the two pit their children at each other through a mini-golf tournament where Bart uncharacteristically has to be super disciplined when golfing, and Homer is mainly motivated with trying to humiliate Flanders. Has a pretty funny resolution.

S2E7 - Bart vs. Thanksgiving

Bart does a prank which destroys a very personal project Lisa made involving a cornucopia, makes such a mess of Thanksgiving that he effectively ruins it. He gets such a scolding to that he decides to just run away and live as a vagrant, where he winds up seeing the desperate situations of street life as being very cool to him, and also exploitative TV reporters who barely pay vague lip service to systemic problems that face homeless people and just twist them out into a moral lesson. Thought the juxtaposition between the two scenarios was effective and how it explores themes of attachment to one's family.

Bart is such an asshole in this episode, but it also interrogates that out into showing how he can have a deeply felt remorse for when he goes too far. 

S2E8 - Bart the Daredevil

Bart gets impressionable after watching daredevil stuff on TV, and Bart tries to replicate stunts by riding a skateboard over Springfield Gorge, which Marge gets really worried about. Sort of episode that explores the sort of allure that kids have towards doing dangerous things, as well as people who freak out about it and start blaming TV for showing kids how to do these things, and why that winds up perpetuating it. Bart gets a supposedly harsh lesson showing hospital patients from various stunts gone wrong, which only increases his temptations to do it with how cool averting danger sounds to him.

Is such a funny episode because of that, just with this idea of all of these moral lessons flying over someone's head or where they understand it but in this completely opposite direction, and how it escalates from there. Slapstick comedy is really good and it has a terrific pay-off with its ending.

S2E9 - Itchy and Scratchy and Marge

Not the first episode to feature Itchy and Scratchy or even to cover it being "too violent", but it is the first to show it as this full on moral panic as opposed to just vague objections. Homer gets whacked on the head by Maggie, in a clear homage to Psycho, Marge winds up connecting it to Itchy & Scratchy. Loved the "children going outside" gag, and wraps around into a it spirally out beyond her intentions.

Marge is kind of moral panicky, studio heads are like "Okay, how would you solve it?" in this sort of sarcastic, self-serving way.

"They want to suppress David's doodle."

"Springfieldians for Nonviolence, Understanding, and Helping"

"Itchy and Scratchy in Porch Pals."

S2E10 - Bart Gets Hit By a Car

"Episode 23 - Bart Gets Hit By a Car" [shows immediately an image of Bart getting hit by Mr. Burns's car.]

Mr. Burns does an Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion routine where he seems to deliberately implicate himself because he knows he has the power and influence to transparently get away with running over Bart. Homer Simpson also winds up using the trial as a way of getting back at Mr. Burns based off of a shady lawyer and a quack doctor, exaggerating the claims out to make it look like Mr. Burns had way more nefarious intentions behind it. The contrast with how Burns does an aggrandising portrait of himself and Simpson depicts him as just being totally evil (which isn't that far off from Burns anyway) is pretty funny. Of course, Burns is way better at being dishonest than Homer is.

First appearance of Phil Hartman as Lionel Hutz, oh and Hank Azaria's Dr. Nick too.

S2E11 -  One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish

Homer eats an apparently unproperly prepared poisonous blowfish, and is told that he was about 24 hours to live, so he runs down a bucket list. Whole thing plays like a comedy of errors with this background of death anxiety, doing drastic things he wouldn't have done if he didn't have this feeling underlying him. Really liked this episode, and I thought the whole way this explores Homer's reckless behaviour but also the sort of loving side to him, was pretty nice. Reveals a lot of emotional honesty with Homer, both in emotional but also funny ways. Homer becomes convinced of it even though he's totally asymptomatic throughout the entirety of the episode.

There's that gag where Homer shaves only for his beard to instantly grow back, where the tissues on his face instantly disappear.

Ends with Homer gaining a new found appreciating of life, where he just eats snack foods while watching TV. Like anyone would, really. Was originally going to end with Homer following through on something he promised to Flanders before being like "Hehe, sucker. I'll be dead by then." 

(Is it really a spoiler to say Homer doesn't die at the end of this episode, lol. HOW DARE YOU SPOIL THIS FOR ME [30 more years of The Simpsons after this featuring Homer Simpson] I THOUGHT HE MIGHT HAVE DIED IN THE END!)

S2E12 - The Way We Was

Has a Siskel & Ebert parody where they review the McBain movie when it's in cinemas. Also shows Homer and Marge in 1974 in high school as an episode that largely takes place during a flashback. Largely a parody of movies like The Way We Were and old 1960s/1970s set high school movie, but I do like how this does explore who Homer was when he was a lot younger. Still kind of a lot of the same personality traits but just from this younger perspective really, and I do like how this plays with 1970s references where it opens up either the perspective of being familiar and nostalgic to it or having no connection to it, from the viewpoints of the parents and the kids.

"You never stop eating and you never gain a pound." "Eh, it's my metabo-bolism. I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones." Barney to Homer

"Springfield's answer to Cheech & Chong" - Referring to tobacco smoking rather than the dreaded reefer, weirdly.

S2E13 - Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment

Starts with juxtaposing Moses reading the 10 commandments with Homer breaking it by stealing cable from some shifty guy. Flanders's moral outrage is seen as an opportunity in Homer's eye, while Lisa becomes totally self-conscious after seeing her family blatantly stealing cable following a Sunday School lesson about the 10 commandments. Is one of those ones where it appears to satirise religion by contrasting it with modern life, but also where it shows Homer becoming so indulgent in stealing stuff from corporations that he sees very little wrong with it.

(It's either about how stealing cable is a very cool thing to do or it isn't. Either or, really.)

S2E14 - Principal Charming

Principal Skinner attempts to be hooked up with Selma Bouvier, only to be hooked up with Patty instead. Liked some of the gags in this, and it has that sort of plotting where Bart does a string of gags that gets him in trouble, and combining these two plots together. Skinner is revealed to be a quite lonely, socially awkward person when he tries to get close to someone, despite having this ostensible authoritarian no-nonsense vibe to him.

First episode to feature Groundskeeper Willie. Bart has to reseed his lawn after his prank destroys his grass. Dan Castellaneta playing shouty characters is always gold.

S2E15 - Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

One where Homer meets up with his way more successful half-brother who works as the head of a car manufacturer, and a lot of humour aimed at showing the contrast between the two and how they influence each other. Some really funny gags in this, notably the circumstances with how the brother is revealed "this is a deep secret I shouldn't tell you.", and also the ending of this which is just so silly but so funny. Really revealing of the sort of bizarre ingenuity behind Homer Simpson, the allure of his lifestyle, and also how it explores why it's impossible/ultimately unsustainable to be Homer Simpson. Homer's 'people car' is a really funny gag.

S2E16 - Bart's Dog Gets an F

Remembering the debut episode of this season and you're like "Bart's Dog Gets an F?" or something. Really just an episode where it's about Santa's Little Helper who won't obey commands, so he goes through a bunch of training programs that just don't work, and everyone besides Bart is fed up with him. Is pretty decent and has some emotionally effective moments. Did like the dog POV shots where it's like "blablabla [keyword]" that I thought was a pretty good visual technique.

"Keep on truckin'? What does that mean?"

"Lise, I didn't know then and I don't know now." - Commenting on R. Crumb's 1968 comic 'Keep on Truckin''

S2E17 - Old Money

Abe Simpson starts dating a woman in his retirement home, who then dies, and he collects about $106k in insurance money from her. Also becomes pretty annoyed at his family for being a bit negligent to him, and initially decides to just go on some sort of random spending spree but feels a bit self-conscious about it. Lot of other people hear wind of the amount of money he has and try to get it themselves and take advantage of him, and a lot of it is about him trying to weight up the morality of what to do with all this money. Do like how this is pretty sympathetic towards Abe in the end, pretty funny episode that also works as a compelling character study.

S2E18 - Brush with Greatness

"Will you take us to Mount Splashmore."

"Forgive us dad, but it takes time to properly sugarcoat a response."

I honestly forgot that most of this episode was about Marge painting and seemed to just remember the Mount Splashmore bits, and Homer attempting to lose weight. But this episode is pretty good in terms of how it shows artistry and people who pick up on talents the abandon them and the sort of feelings that surrounds it, and her obsession with Ringo Starr and how he became a subject of her art but never heard back from letter she sent him.

Marge gets commissioned by Mr. Burns despite being critical of him and essentially seeing him as a pretty nasty person, and it plays with juxtaposition and the subjective nature of art in a pretty funny way. Marge plot plays way more with biting understated satire while the Homer plot feels way more like slapstick comedy, and the juxtaposition there is quite interesting. Really liked the ending to this.

S2E19 - Lisa's Substitute

Dustin Hoffman (credited as Sam Etic) stars as a substitute teacher that Lisa takes a liking to, meanwhile Bart runs for class president and starts a campaign against the snobby Martin Prince, framing himself as this populist candidate against him. Episode tends a bit towards the sentimental side with how it explores this sort of transient but strong attachment children have either towards cool adults or some sort of cool sounding thing. Both plotlines kind of cover that, although Bart's is a bit funnier and is sort of just a political satire set inside a school.

Also probably not one of my favourites, although it is a good episode. This enjoys a lionised reputation as like "one of the most emotionally affecting episodes of The Simpsons." like Bart Gets an F, but it's probably best to enjoy it on it's own terms. Oh, I do love the ending of this where "Homer is on a roll."

Ralph Wiggum's first appearance is in this episode.

S2E20 - The War of the Simpsons

Names itself after The War of the Roses (1989) but only really shares this sort of theme of a strained marriage. Homer is meant to attend marriage counselling but instead just goes on a fishing trip to catch a mythically large catfish instead, while Lisa and Bart start to take advantage of Grampa while he babysits them. Did sort of like how it shows how Homer is just that impulsive, but also with the way the plot with Grampa plays out. Even though this show seems to portray Abe as being this impossibly stereotypical senile old person, it also seems to love this suggestion that a lot of his actions he does simply to just mess with folk.

S2E21 - Three Men and a Comic Book

Is sort of about that sort of obsession people have with old, collectible items and the sort of allure to them. Personally sort of captures that feeling I had being like "I've got to get a cartridge of Conker's Bad Fur Day" after finding out it's so expensive. Also existed before the Internet and piracy, so it was easier to bolster the allure of something. Seems to also capture themes of worker's exploitation and the fact that Bart is made to do all of these humiliating things for just a few quarters, and how money seemed way more valuable to you as a kid, and also just the very precious and delicate way they handle the comic book.

First appearance of Comic Book Guy. See, this show loves introducing these would-be one-shot characters and then they're like "You know what, this is perfect. Let's keep him." Comic Book Guy is the sort of exaggerated, thinks he's better than everyone, person you stare at and are like "Oh god, I hope I don't become him, lol." Oh, and also Bartman.

S2E22 - Blood Feud

Another one where it seems to be about Mr. Burns being involved in The Simpsons's life beyond just Homer working at a nuclear power plant. Like Treehouse of Horror IV, Mr. Burns wants Bart's blood, but in this episode it's because Bart has the rare double O- blood that can save Mr. Burns's life. Has that sort of thing where it's like "You will save someone's life" but then there's also just this barely concealed animosity that they have for him, and that sort of friction between it being opportunistic or if they are just genuinely just doing a kind thing for Mr. Burns. Plays with the tension in a strange way and has an interesting ending.

Overall

Really strange example of the sort of transitional period between Season 1 and Season 3, where they're still sort of establishing new elements and characters and doesn't seem as constrained as Season 1 feels at points. Is better in some respects, and I think it's more notable in terms of how there's more of a consistent animation style in this one. Becomes a bit more over-the-top (like Bart the Daredevil) compared to some of the more realistic, subdued elements of Season 1, which I think is a bit of a welcome change. Also seems to be the season where they start introducing various side characters such as Ralph Wiggum, Dr. Nick, Phil Hartman's Lionel Hutz and so forth, who all feel more well-defined in terms of characteristics. Season 1 Simpsons had that sort of tendency of having characters like Chief Wiggum, who had character but felt a bit more like a generic throwaway cop character at points. You know, some of the Season 1 characters they basically just outright ditched.

Another thread that seems to pop up a bit more "concerned Marge" type episode, where it shows family members doing things that she winds up worrying about or disapproving of, and also some episode where it feels a bit self-conscious in terms of depicting more adult subject matter in them, and about "impressionable children" and what not, and covering themes of moral panic in a sympathetic way. Like it does feel like it's a bit self-conscious in terms of reflecting back the more adult elements to the audience. Character threads in general seem to be a bit more pronounced, like you can get a good sort of feel with what they're going for with each of the characters, and it's never too out there like with some of the later Simpsons episodes. Also, more Homer centric plots where they seem to give him a bit more agency this time around. Does feel like they're trying out new ideas but never stuff that's way too outrageous, and it does overall have some stronger character development.

Also the point in the series where they moved from 13 episodes a season into about 20-25 episodes a season. Season 2 contains 22 episodes in total, and seems to reflect more of an expanded budget/interest in The Simpsons. Also think there's some Life in Hell style satire in this that becomes a bit more prevalent, tending a bit more towards more adult subjects than before. There's something about Season 1 where it does kind of feel a bit more kid centric, but then this season seems to find some sort of even split between the two. Season 2 has some memorable episodes and is a bit better than Season 1 in terms of consistency, and it does seem to jettison out some of the earlier, weirder elements, e.g. Homer's voice sounds drastically different compared to Season 1. Does overall feel like a transitional period where it seemingly goes from children's animation to more adult animation, which makes it a bit interesting.