[8.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I feel bad rating this one so highly, because it’s an insane episode where Bart gets “hepped up on goofballs” and shoots an MLB spy satellite out of the sky with a stolen tank. But by god, it’s funny!
Bart’s pranks in the first act is amusing. The show finds ways to make his studiousness and new go-getter personality funny. And him slowly but surely losing his marbles is unexpectedly funny as well. At the same time, you get some good material from Homer and Marge as a supporting comedy duo. And there’s some fun involvement from the town, from Skinner’s dismay at Bart’s fireman-related antics, to Krusty’s clown car exeunt, to the drug researchers bantering and doing guinea pig experiments.
It also has a beginning, a middle, an end, and some solid character motivation despite the outsized craziness. We go from showing Bart at his worst, prompting an effort at medicating him. We see Bart then “straightening up and flying” right enough to convince Homer and Marge that they did the right thing with the ADD medicine. Then we see how Bart’s focus shortly turns to conspiratorial lunacy that makes them revisit their early worries about mind-altering medications. You have some emotional throughlines with Marge convincing Bart to take the pills and asking him to get out of the tank. And you even get some setup to the bizarre baseball-centered payoff.
It’s a ridiculous place to take the episode, but there’s a genuine progression there, and a lot of good laughs along the way. Some of the commentary about medicated kids is a bit dated to the late 1990s, but enough of it is still salient to work. While this would be a middling episode during the show’s golden years, it’s an all-star highlight in the middle of Mike Scully’s tenure as showrunner.
Overall, this one has a crazy ending, but a lot of good chuckles and deceptively solid story!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-04-09T22:46:54Z
[8.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I feel bad rating this one so highly, because it’s an insane episode where Bart gets “hepped up on goofballs” and shoots an MLB spy satellite out of the sky with a stolen tank. But by god, it’s funny!
Bart’s pranks in the first act is amusing. The show finds ways to make his studiousness and new go-getter personality funny. And him slowly but surely losing his marbles is unexpectedly funny as well. At the same time, you get some good material from Homer and Marge as a supporting comedy duo. And there’s some fun involvement from the town, from Skinner’s dismay at Bart’s fireman-related antics, to Krusty’s clown car exeunt, to the drug researchers bantering and doing guinea pig experiments.
It also has a beginning, a middle, an end, and some solid character motivation despite the outsized craziness. We go from showing Bart at his worst, prompting an effort at medicating him. We see Bart then “straightening up and flying” right enough to convince Homer and Marge that they did the right thing with the ADD medicine. Then we see how Bart’s focus shortly turns to conspiratorial lunacy that makes them revisit their early worries about mind-altering medications. You have some emotional throughlines with Marge convincing Bart to take the pills and asking him to get out of the tank. And you even get some setup to the bizarre baseball-centered payoff.
It’s a ridiculous place to take the episode, but there’s a genuine progression there, and a lot of good laughs along the way. Some of the commentary about medicated kids is a bit dated to the late 1990s, but enough of it is still salient to work. While this would be a middling episode during the show’s golden years, it’s an all-star highlight in the middle of Mike Scully’s tenure as showrunner.
Overall, this one has a crazy ending, but a lot of good chuckles and deceptively solid story!