[7.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Some decent emotional throughlines here, and a few good gags, but nothing to write home about. It’s striking how it’s only been eight years since this episode, and already some of it hasn’t aged well.
But I think the core of the A-story is solid. The idea of Moe feeling welcome and successful as part of a community that he’s in under false pretenses is fodder for both comedy and drama, and the episode mines it for both. Smithers wanting to show Burns that he can stand on his own two feet, only to put in with Moe for a bar that appeals to “normal-looking” gay men is a good engine for the episode. And the conflict between the two over Moe taking advantage of people’s perceptions while not genuinely representing the community escalates nicely.
It’s just a little slapdash in places. Some of the jokes about Springfield’s gay community are incisive and fun, but others play on stereotypes. (Though I’ll cop to getting a kick out of “Comic Book Gay”.) And the whole bit at the end about Smithers challenging Moe to kiss him to prove his homosexuality is pretty uncomfortable as the subject of the ending.
The B-story was OK, but barely there. Skinner having a Magic Pixie Dream Girl experience is a chance for the show to riff on some tropes and do a pretty uninspired fantasy sequence montage, but not much more. And wasting Allyson Hannigan as a barely-sketched character is a shame.
Overall, the good outweighs the bad here, but it’s pretty squarely a middle of the road episode.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2019-03-25T21:24:33Z
[7.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Some decent emotional throughlines here, and a few good gags, but nothing to write home about. It’s striking how it’s only been eight years since this episode, and already some of it hasn’t aged well.
But I think the core of the A-story is solid. The idea of Moe feeling welcome and successful as part of a community that he’s in under false pretenses is fodder for both comedy and drama, and the episode mines it for both. Smithers wanting to show Burns that he can stand on his own two feet, only to put in with Moe for a bar that appeals to “normal-looking” gay men is a good engine for the episode. And the conflict between the two over Moe taking advantage of people’s perceptions while not genuinely representing the community escalates nicely.
It’s just a little slapdash in places. Some of the jokes about Springfield’s gay community are incisive and fun, but others play on stereotypes. (Though I’ll cop to getting a kick out of “Comic Book Gay”.) And the whole bit at the end about Smithers challenging Moe to kiss him to prove his homosexuality is pretty uncomfortable as the subject of the ending.
The B-story was OK, but barely there. Skinner having a Magic Pixie Dream Girl experience is a chance for the show to riff on some tropes and do a pretty uninspired fantasy sequence montage, but not much more. And wasting Allyson Hannigan as a barely-sketched character is a shame.
Overall, the good outweighs the bad here, but it’s pretty squarely a middle of the road episode.