Simpsons Season 4 Reviewed

Simpsons Season 4 Reviewed

Note: Yeah, this was actually written December 2022 but it was also at a time where I kind of abandoned this project because I was like "OH GOD, REVIEWING ALL THESE EPISODES IS DESTROYING MY BRAIN" but I guess I could come back to it later. When faced with the classic l'ennui, sometimes I'm like "I just need to vibe with some Simpsons episodes" but after a while I kind of did lose my passion for it. Was kind of more to get me in-tune with writing again, so I thought it would be good to at least bring the Season 4 reviews (which were completed) into existence. I do not get how people can systematically review every single episode of a TV show, much less something as long-running as The Simpsons. Managed to only cover the 1989-1993 stretch of the show!

SEE, I DIDN'T LIE. THEY WERE COMING (sort of) SOON!

Anyway, enjoy!

S4E01 - Kamp Krusty

Really good. I like the whole sort of dynamic where Krusty sells himself out yet at the same time he does have a conscience about it, and just the sort of paradox with brand identity. Krusty gets looked down upon by Bart for Kamp Krusty, despite the fact that he had no involvement with it, yet at the same time he did sign away for it to happen. Actually is interesting with the twists and turns this episode takes. Bart and Lisa get so excited for Kamp Krusty, then his parents are just like "Eh, let them go." and they start having this wonderful time that they seem to think translates with their kids, then like it cuts to their kids and they are just having the most horrible time imaginable. Even when they explicitly tell them that it's horrible, they're like "Oh, that's what you think now. But you'll never want to leave it with how much fun you'll eventually have."

Just a whole lot of bad misunderstanding and negligence, with the whole thing culminating in a satiric retelling of Lord of the Flies. Has some pretty dark subject matter but it's quite funny and never too overbearing with it anyway.

S4E02 - A Streetcar Named Marge

"Woah, she's flying."

"I think it's meant to represent her descent into madness."

One of those ones where it's about the allure of dramas and plays and where Marge does something outside of the family, and also how when she plays Blanche in a musical version of A Streetcar named Desire, she starts seeing all of these parallels between the play and her marriage with Homer. Bit of a sentimental slant to this, predictably, but it is a pretty funny send-up of A Streetcar named Desire, and I do like the ending of it where Homer finally watches the play and just sums up quite simply what it's all about. I dunno, but like it kind of does show how approachable media can actually be, and how it relates back into peoples' lives and so forth. Note how Homer starts off fulfilling the Stanley archetype, then he becomes quite sensitive in this actually introspective way towards Marge.

S4E03 - Homer the Heretic

Oh, this episode is probably one of the best of this season, if not the whole show. Largely a satire of religion where Homer just decides to give up on going to church, and decides to just spend his time slacking off at home, seemingly where he gains some benefits to it. Homer is having the time of his life, while the family is just a bit bored at church, but then they go on about the necessity of going to church and spiritual fulfillment and what not. The religious satire is also kind of interesting because it is slightly skeptical towards it, and it does kind of frame it as just being arbitrary in nature. Homer dreams about 'God' visiting him, but then God just winds up agreeing with him that he's actually quite right to slack off, and just how he winds up making all of these bad decisions throughout.

I dunno, but like it can be a toss-up between whether it's just Homer making mistakes or whether there is something truly divine that's trying to teach him something. There's a gag in this towards the end involving Homer bouncing off of a mattress that is perfectly set-up and just so funny. You('ll) know what I mean if you've seen the episode.

S4E04 - Lisa the Beauty Queen

Biggest flaw of this episode is probably just following straight after Homer the Heretic, but this is still pretty good. Like how the satire in this is that Lisa gets this cariacture drawn of her that "exposes her ugliness" and then winds up being entered into a beauty pageant in order to boost her self-estreem again. Only thing is that the pagent is something that causes her to build up these envious attitudes towards other contestants, and also something where it quite clearly shows how these children get so much stuff imposed onto them when they're successful. Lot of Lisa's moralistic stance gets brought up in this when people start imposing some quite morally dubious things onto her and expecting her to play along.

S4E05 - Treehouse of Horror III

"Grandpa, you've led an interesting life."

"That's a lie. But I have seen a lot of movies."

This was slightly better than the last couple of Treehouse of Horror episode, I think it largely just is because it's more into the swing of things. Framing are that the family are gathered around a couch, and a bunch of people pop in, and there are these three stories being told by Lisa, Grampa and Bart respectively about Homer buying a killer Krusty doll from a nefarious salesman who sells cursed objects (Clown Without Pity), Homer as King Kong during the 1930s (King Homer), and one where Bart tries to bring back Lisa's previous cat Snowball I from the dead, only to wind up raising the dead (Dial "Z" for Zombies). 

All of the segments are really funny, with their own subversive spin on the stories. The twist in Clown Without Pity is so funny, but I really love Dial "Z" for Zombies with some of its gags ("he was a zombie?") and also just how it feels sort of like a combo parody of The Evil Dead and Return of the Living Dead. Zombies are especially modelled after the latter because they specifically eat brains, can talk, and demonstrate way more of an ingenuity than like  traditional brain-dead zombies.

S4E06 - Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie

Oh, this taps into a very interesting feeling. Sort of thing where it's of childhood nostalgia over things that you've missed out on, which is definitely solidified by the ending. Does remind me a bit of watching stuff like South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, thinking that it's the greatest thing ever, then not being able to watch it when it's figured out how actually vulgar it is. Except this episode is just about Homer trying to discipline Bart, but then after going way too far, he forbids him from seeing this movie, which sets off this flux of emotions where he starts feeling so envious after being described as to how great this movie actually was etc.

Something that also pops up is how Bart winds up not seeing this movie, despite it possibly eventually being released on home video at some point in the future. I think a large point of it is just how Homer robs him of that excitement to see it during its first run though. 

S4E07 - Marge Gets a Job

There's some good gags in this one for sure with workplace politics, but honestly is one of the first episodes of the show that I just flat-out didn't like. I dunno but like it's where Marge gets a job at the plant and is immediately sexually harassed by Mr. Burns and they try to build up a case against them, meanwhile Bart starts feigning these escalatingly ridiculous string of illnesses to get out of a test, which evolves into this "Boy who cried Wolf" situation. Like yeah, some of the stuff works though. Burns transparently aggrandises Marge because she looks around and all of the workers are just poorly treated, and Krapabbel just seems to catch wind and starts testing Bart over all his fake illnesses.

One of those ones where I think it's just the ending of it doesn't really stick. Feels like it just fizzles out towards the end, honestly. Also yeah, on reflection, not entirely the biggest fan of how this show tackles themes of sexual harassment. Was made at a time during the 1990s when public consciousness surrounding sexual abuse seemed to be raised a lot more, and this one just doesn't really touch on it as incisively as it should. Both plots have a theme of "things nobody believes or deals with when they pop up." that I was a bit ambivalent about.

(There is another episode, you know the one, that I also have mixed feelings about, that I will get to when it pops up. Have a lot to say about it.)

S4E08 - New Kid on the Block

Oh, this has an amazing plot with Homer and a pretty funny one with Bart. Basically is where Homer winds up waging a war against an "all-you-can-eat buffet" that reveals itself as a "blatant case of false advertising", and also where Bart becomes really smittened with a cool teenaged girl who moves into the neighborhood. Both these plots are really funny, although they're only really connected in that they're set up to be disconnected (Homer is too busy doing a lawsuit, therefore there's more focus on the kids doing things on their own.) Watching Homer indulging in his gluttony is like, I don't really know how to sum it up. It's both pretty funny but also kind of grotesque, and also I think just the eating as its depicted on The Simpsons is constantly just "OMM. NOM. NOM. NOM." in your face like.

The way that Bart's plot is handled is pretty funny though. Does revolve around how this girl has this power over boys and is attracted to rebels, but it's handled in a pretty sensitive way. Ending of this is a bit cruel but funny.

S4E09 - Mr. Plow

"Well, if 70 degree days in the middle of winter are the 'price' of car pollution. You'll forgive me if I keep my old Pontiac."

"Don't tell him you were at a bar... But what else is open at night?"

"It's a pornography store. I was buying pornography."

"Hey, heh, heh. I would have never thought of that."

This one is a really funny satire when Homer starts up his own business and is like "Hell yeah, I'm Mr. Plow. I'm a legend around these parts." but then Barney winds up stepping in and resorts to really backstabbing methods to take Homer down, adopting just this slight variation on Homer's idea, and at the same time Homer also does the exact same thing to him in retaliation. Also really just captures this idea of people who become local legends of sorts, especially when Homer is like "We're on TV! It's a lousy channel but The Simpsons are on TV." and just how aggrandising it can all be.

S4E10 - Lisa's First Word

"Can't sleep, clown will eat me."

One where it centres around Maggie trying to get her first word out, then it flashes back to 1984 when Lisa is born and it builds up to her first word. Basically shows the Simpsons about a decade younger, and also shows this thing where Bart develops this sudden sibling rivlarly as soon as attention gets drawn onto her. Actually a 

Oh, an aside but there's a gag where Krusty replicates the infamous 1984 McDonald's Olympics promotion where "If the US wins, then you win." but then it turns out the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympic games so he loses a lot of money handing out free burgers. Homer takes advantage of this, and at the same time it's also just such a funny paradox where like Krusty is just in it for money and promotion, and like he just has this contempt for the U.S. for, uh, winning the Olympic games.

In real life, McDonald's also repeated this promotion during the 1988 and 1996 Olympic games. I dunno but someone on the writing staff thought this was really funny to just expand on that in this sort of way, and uh, they were right.

S4E11 - Homer's Triple Bypass

Mainly a satire of how healthcare works in the US, where Homer suffers a major heart-attack and winds up having to pay a lot of money to pay for a triple bypass. Except they don't have the money, so they wind up going towards the ever-reliable quack doctor Dr. Nick instead, who offers drastically discounted and uh... capricious services. Somehow is funny despite the grotesque nature of it, and I did like the opening bits where it just shows Homer as having this incredibly precarious heart where like a single bad moment seems to send him into these spirals.

S4E12 - Marge vs. the Monorail

Oh, this episode is just so sharp and satirical. I like how this episode presents this "monorail" guy as essentially just being this obivous, aggrandising con-man, yet there's a balance where it's never too overplayed to the point where you just can't buy into him. In fact, it is precisely the fact that he's able to just bank off of everybody's emotions and appear legitimate that just makes this episode so funny and revealing, and it does kind of reveal why people are conned into stuff. Think this episode stands out because it's way more illustrative of more abstract systems rather than being more situational in nature, but the writing and the satire in this is so precise.

Oh, also, the opening of this with Mr. Burns inproperly disposing of nuclear waste also clearly mirrors how this episode escalates, it does seem to have this message about how people don't recognise the wider problems behind stuff like this, so they wind up accepting something else that's like it but just with this disguise attached to it.

S4E13 - Selma's Choice

Follows the development when Patty and Selma's aunt dies and there's this video will where a bunch of belongings and wishes are left behind, and rapidly prompts Selma into seeking out various people in order to have a child. Also the sort of thing where it does kind of exist as an excuse for Bart and Lisa to start hanging around with her, so she takes them to Duff Gardens, and it becomes kind of clear that she doesn't really know them as personally as say, Homer or Marge would, so there's a looser sort of feeling to how she guards them. Lots of "So, what do you kids want to do?" sort of mentality behind it.

The Seven Duffs gags where each of them are various specific states of the disinhibited behaviour resulting from alcohol is quite funny.

S4E14 - Brother from the Same Planet

"We're going to see an R-rated movie. It's called Barton Fink."

That whole gag where Homer is just being constantly reminded to pick up Bart but is just too-empty headed for it to register is so funny, lol. This is one where Bart gets seperated from Homer after feeling abandoned by him, and also where Lisa becomes obsessed with premium 1-900 hotline where she listens to the voice of a teenaged heart-throb saying nice things, essentially where it just seems like a way to get money from folk. This one is quite interesting because it is sort of about attachment that children have towards older figures, and also can be quite devestating in terms of how both of these things develop. Like Lisa becomes absolutely, unhealthily obsessed but still feels compelled to do what she does.

Explicit Ren & Stimpy parody in this where it just satirises the nonsensical grossness of the show. Do sort of like when they do this (including a much later episode parodying South Park).

S4E15 - I Love Lisa

"Yeap, there's nothing like a good porno movie." - Chief Wiggum walking into an X-rated movie which Krusty is also watching... wait a minute...

Actually this episode is quite good but it's a bit weird when this show taps into adult material, at the same time the gag is also about as kid friendly as uh, sleaze, can be depicted. This was a really good episode in terms of balancing its heartfelt elements with humour, and I like how it does kind of show how Lisa is 'kind' to someone, yet at the same time showing the ways in which that expression can be indefensible (e.g. when it's insincere, aggrandsing etc.) and all of that. There is a gag in this which is somehow impossibly funny despite how underlyingly cruel it is, and I think anybody who has seen this episode knows what I'm talking about.

Oh, also Principal Skinner going about on his times in Vietnam but at the same time winds up tripping himself up and it develops into a flashback. Skinner shouts "JOHNNNNNNNNY!" over the intercom and Bart responds "Cool, I broke his brain." That's bit was really funny. For clarity's sake this isn't the "cruel" gag that I was talking about before.

S4E16 - Duffless

Oh, this is one about where Homer gets into a DIU after being snitched on by Barney and is prompted to quit alcohol, and where an impulsive prank performed by Bart ruins Lisa's science project, then she takes revenge by making a new one where she tries to prove Bart's dumber than a hamster. Interesting in terms of how both plots essentially revolve around reckless behaviour from these totally different angles, and the consequences of both of these things. That whole gag with Homer consciously denying all of these "traits of alcoholism" while at the same time blatantly demonstrating them is so funny, as are the whole "conditioning Bart" things that extends into A Clockwork Orange references.

It is largely about agency towards people, either with regards to self-agency or like the ethics with playing with someone like a science experiment. Lisa's kind of evil in this but Bart isn't really any better than her.

S4E17 - Last Exit to Springfield

"Dental plan. Lisa needs braces. Dental plan. Lisa needs braces."

I mean yeah, title drop is obviously a reference to Last Exit to Brooklyn, with the episode largely centring around this greedy management at the power plant and how Mr. Burns is opposed to union efforts. At the same time there's also something a bit self-conscious with a flashback sequence where one of the rebelling workers says "Fair and equitable treatment, and then we'll go too far and get corrupt and shiftless." and so forth. Has some sharp political satire, especially with an "old-fashioned strikebreaker" bit where it shows these people as just the most stubborn people imaginable.

Kind of weird how solidly left-wing this particular episode is, and also the Dr. Seuss parodies that pop up throughout. Mr. Burns is so interesting because he really just has this thing of casting people he doesn't like in these grossly unfair terms, even often to his own detriment when he buys into it as well.

S4E18 - So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show

Oh, opening gag of this with the April Fools' ultra-shaken beer is so funny. Bulk of this episode follows from those opening five minutes where Homer winds up in a coma because of the prank, then like it's just about The Simpsons reminicing on stuff. To its credit, I think this episode does kind of parody the format where it's showing these contrived ways where it's like "Remember when this happened?" and showing montages of previous episodes, and also interlude like a parody of the ending of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and what not.

Still, mostly ambivalent on this episode, because you know. This was cited as "About as good as a clip show can get." but it also was not nearly the last time the show did a clip show.

S4E19 - The Front

"Grampa, we need to know your first name."

"[gasp] YOU'RE MAKING MY TOMBSTONE?"

"No, no, we're just curious."

One where Bart and Lisa write a bunch of Itchy & Scratchy episodes just to watch them on TV when they pop up, but because they're underaged, they wind up getting the episodes credited under Grampa (Abe) Simpson instead, taking inspiration from a bunch of everyday encounters. Oh, also uh, Homer attends a high school reunion but is found to have never actually graduated high school, and takes night school solely to win a bunch of novelty awards. Uh yeah, I did like this one. I think this was just one of those ones where it was about animators showing the animation process, which reminds me a bit about Chuck Jones going on about how he studies "nature" and "real-life" for his cartoons as opposed to just taking it from other cartoons.

This also, I think, was the first episode where they show that Grampa's real name is Abraham Simpson.

S4E20 - Whacking Day

This one is kind of interesting in terms of how it depicts animal rights issues, and how it depicts this holiday predicated on animal cruelty that just is seen as this "tradition" so Lisa and Bart team up to discover the origins of 'Whacking Day'. I really like these episodes where these two collaberate in some measure, and the whole set-up Bart has is how he get expelled from school and then homeschooled after injuring Superindendent Chalmers, during one of Skinner's 'pretending the school is way better than it actually is' moments.

Also a bunch of Nixon parodies. This and Futurama seem to love making fun of him. Does kind of make sense since there is those overarching political cynicism with this episode, especially just with exposing traditions as having this nefarious backstory behind them. Also Barry White cameos in this episode as well.

S4E21 - Marge in Chains

Eh, this episode is a bit of a stretch. Premise is where a bunch of people buy juicers from Osaka, then the 'Osaka flu' spreads to Springfield, Marge takes care of all the Simpsons who are taken ill by it, then she gets exhausted and winds up accidentally shoplifting and sent to jail. As a result, all of these little things start going ary with Marge's absence, that then escalates and so forth. Some of the gags in this are quite funny though and I do like how it shows just how careless a lot of the residents of Springfield can be, although yeah, it does have that sort of thing where the writing is a bit too into coincidence as a thrust.

This episode was said to "predict" COVID-19, except like I think a lot of what this episode reflects is just this generic epidemic like situation really. I dunno, it probably just seemed to resonate with people a lot more.

S4E22 - Krusty Gets Kancelled

Parody of show-business where Krusty gets cancelled after the a marketing campaign saturates everyone with this ventriloquest dummy character named "Gabbo" who winds up superseding him in ratings, and also where the attraction winds up scuttling the rest of his show. Bart and Lisa also hate Gabbo and wind up resorting to drastic methods to try to get Krusty to come back, and the whole thing ends with a bunch of celebrities who apparently have some connection with Krusty. 

That one gag where Krusty shows an Eastern European cartoon to replace Itchy & Scratchy, where nobody gets it, and Krusty is like "What the hell is that?" was pretty funny. I do like it when this show parodies other animation styles, which does seem like a pretty persistent theme with this show.

Julie Kavner also does not voice Marge in this episode because she was (along with Harry Shearer) sick of the amount of celebrity cameos in this episode as well.

(This did not stop The Simpsons from still doing this, obviously. [shudders])

Overall

Yeah, probably about the same as Season 3, honestly. Bit more consistent though in terms of the episode quality. Not really got much more to say than that.

Epilogue: I can feel myself becoming more and more like The Simpsons with each episode that I slam into my eyeballs, consuming the retina of my mind's eye. What is it about The Simpsons that keeps us coming back? I dunno.