4.8/10. Look, a show that's been on the air is inevitably going to repeat itself. But we've already had 3 of the 4 main family members go to prison, we've already had the state come in and say the kids aren't being adequately supervised, we've already had Marge feel underappreciated by the family and undersupported by Homer. Blending these stories together to try to make a new one isn't a bad idea necessarily, but the episode just doesn't have any new wrinkles to add to the stories its already told.
The closest it comes is Marge finding herself valued and more fulfilled in prison that she is at home, given the lack of responsibility and general respect. That's fine as an idea, but occasionally makes Marge seem kind of callous, and though it's imagining her children that motivates her to want to come home, her ease at being apart from Bart, Lisa, and Maggie seems out of character for her, especially in light of "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily".
There's also some not-so-subtle social commentary about people overreacting to kids being unsupervised, but it's pretty blunt and not particularly clever or incisive, and it gets lost in a combination tornado/prison break. But really the two biggest problems of the episode are that it's completely scattershot -- it jumps between story segments and moods with little transition or ease, and that the humor is tepid at best. I did not laugh once, which is something of an achievement because usually even the worst Simpsons ep has at least one or two good chuckles in it. There were few jokes that were outright awful, which is why this one is only a hair below "meh" for me, but still, a lack of comedy, a lack of storytelling, a lack of good characterization or anything new, and some reheated schmaltz meant to tie it all together makes this one of the weakest episodes of the year and a poor note to go out on for a season that's otherwise been surprisingly good for post-classic Simpsons.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-06-03T18:01:48Z
4.8/10. Look, a show that's been on the air is inevitably going to repeat itself. But we've already had 3 of the 4 main family members go to prison, we've already had the state come in and say the kids aren't being adequately supervised, we've already had Marge feel underappreciated by the family and undersupported by Homer. Blending these stories together to try to make a new one isn't a bad idea necessarily, but the episode just doesn't have any new wrinkles to add to the stories its already told.
The closest it comes is Marge finding herself valued and more fulfilled in prison that she is at home, given the lack of responsibility and general respect. That's fine as an idea, but occasionally makes Marge seem kind of callous, and though it's imagining her children that motivates her to want to come home, her ease at being apart from Bart, Lisa, and Maggie seems out of character for her, especially in light of "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily".
There's also some not-so-subtle social commentary about people overreacting to kids being unsupervised, but it's pretty blunt and not particularly clever or incisive, and it gets lost in a combination tornado/prison break. But really the two biggest problems of the episode are that it's completely scattershot -- it jumps between story segments and moods with little transition or ease, and that the humor is tepid at best. I did not laugh once, which is something of an achievement because usually even the worst Simpsons ep has at least one or two good chuckles in it. There were few jokes that were outright awful, which is why this one is only a hair below "meh" for me, but still, a lack of comedy, a lack of storytelling, a lack of good characterization or anything new, and some reheated schmaltz meant to tie it all together makes this one of the weakest episodes of the year and a poor note to go out on for a season that's otherwise been surprisingly good for post-classic Simpsons.