4.9/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale. As I've often said about the most recent incarnation of the show, even when it has a not-so-great episode like this one, there's usually the grain of a good idea present. In "The Last Traction Hero," that good idea is Marge and Smithers commiserating together over both being caregivers to men who don't appreciate them as much as they should. The fact that it provides a basis for their bond, and helps them to understand their own situation better, is a canny narrative choice. (And the gag where they imagine the other's "mate," shudder, and then imagine their own and sigh happily is great.)
The problem is that the deftness of that choice last for about one scene before it becomes wrapped in to an odd plot where Marge needs to get emotionally revved up by Smithers in order to want to have sex with Homer. It's a fairly bizarre storyline that doesn't fit with the tone of the show, and gets into some uncomfortable territory to boot. I'm not averse to the show getting a little uncomfortable -- bright, ebullient Marge being tied to a man who only intermittently acknowledges how much she does for him is meaty territory (though there's the risk of breaking the show by making people think about it too hard a la "Homer's Enemy"). But making the lens of that story a sex thing cheapens it, and makes Homer's eventual redemption feel weak.
Even within the story, there's a grain of sweetness to the idea that Homer is willing to forego a big cash settlement for his trapdoor injury in exchange for Burns allowing Marge and Smithers to hang out, but 1. it's still odd (especially coupled with Marge wanting to kiss Smithers) and 2. the whole storyline is rushed and disjointed to where the plot developments happen too fast to be meaningful. Homer making the attempt to really talk to Marge is a step in the right direction, and a nice note to go out on, but it's too little too late and ends with cornball slapstick.
Which was also a problem throughout the episode. Whether it's Homer's initial interminable fall through the trapdoor or he and Marge falling down the courthouse steps, or Burns jumping down to talk to the foreman, there was a lot of sketch-esque humor about nothing in particular that not only served as fodder for underwhelming cartoony gags that felt like too much, but also clogged up the runtime for telling the emotional Marge-Smithers story the episode wanted to tell. The show's no stranger to stretching the limits of physics or reality writ large, but it went too far too often here, with a bevvy of dumb jokes, and that really hurt it.
There's also a massively undercooked B-story about Lisa wanting to stop fights on the bus, being given the responsibility to assign seats, and going mad with power. Again, that's a solid premise, but everything happens in way to abbreviated a fashion. We're never really given a reason why her system -- which seems to initially produce a nice quiet bus -- turns to anarchy only a day later. The idea of tamping down on Lisa's "knowitalism" is solid and using an unruly bus as a testing ground for that works, but the way the show does it (included a pretty bland Apple commercial parody) leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, the episode is watchable, which is more than I can say for some episodes during the show's true nadir. But it feels like three-rounds of edits away from actually being good, which is in some ways, more frustrating. There's episodes that feel like they're doomed out of the gate, and others that feel like the folks behind the scenes really had something and let it get away. This is very much the latter.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-12-06T16:52:00Z
4.9/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale. As I've often said about the most recent incarnation of the show, even when it has a not-so-great episode like this one, there's usually the grain of a good idea present. In "The Last Traction Hero," that good idea is Marge and Smithers commiserating together over both being caregivers to men who don't appreciate them as much as they should. The fact that it provides a basis for their bond, and helps them to understand their own situation better, is a canny narrative choice. (And the gag where they imagine the other's "mate," shudder, and then imagine their own and sigh happily is great.)
The problem is that the deftness of that choice last for about one scene before it becomes wrapped in to an odd plot where Marge needs to get emotionally revved up by Smithers in order to want to have sex with Homer. It's a fairly bizarre storyline that doesn't fit with the tone of the show, and gets into some uncomfortable territory to boot. I'm not averse to the show getting a little uncomfortable -- bright, ebullient Marge being tied to a man who only intermittently acknowledges how much she does for him is meaty territory (though there's the risk of breaking the show by making people think about it too hard a la "Homer's Enemy"). But making the lens of that story a sex thing cheapens it, and makes Homer's eventual redemption feel weak.
Even within the story, there's a grain of sweetness to the idea that Homer is willing to forego a big cash settlement for his trapdoor injury in exchange for Burns allowing Marge and Smithers to hang out, but 1. it's still odd (especially coupled with Marge wanting to kiss Smithers) and 2. the whole storyline is rushed and disjointed to where the plot developments happen too fast to be meaningful. Homer making the attempt to really talk to Marge is a step in the right direction, and a nice note to go out on, but it's too little too late and ends with cornball slapstick.
Which was also a problem throughout the episode. Whether it's Homer's initial interminable fall through the trapdoor or he and Marge falling down the courthouse steps, or Burns jumping down to talk to the foreman, there was a lot of sketch-esque humor about nothing in particular that not only served as fodder for underwhelming cartoony gags that felt like too much, but also clogged up the runtime for telling the emotional Marge-Smithers story the episode wanted to tell. The show's no stranger to stretching the limits of physics or reality writ large, but it went too far too often here, with a bevvy of dumb jokes, and that really hurt it.
There's also a massively undercooked B-story about Lisa wanting to stop fights on the bus, being given the responsibility to assign seats, and going mad with power. Again, that's a solid premise, but everything happens in way to abbreviated a fashion. We're never really given a reason why her system -- which seems to initially produce a nice quiet bus -- turns to anarchy only a day later. The idea of tamping down on Lisa's "knowitalism" is solid and using an unruly bus as a testing ground for that works, but the way the show does it (included a pretty bland Apple commercial parody) leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, the episode is watchable, which is more than I can say for some episodes during the show's true nadir. But it feels like three-rounds of edits away from actually being good, which is in some ways, more frustrating. There's episodes that feel like they're doomed out of the gate, and others that feel like the folks behind the scenes really had something and let it get away. This is very much the latter.