32x22 The Last Barfighter

[7.4/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I don’t quite know what to do with this one. The jokes here are funnier than in your average double-digit Simpsons episode. There’s a good emotional throughline for Moe in the line between being a bartender and being a friend, particularly when it comes to keeping secrets. And there’s even some solid setups and payoffs with his regulars being able to overcome the insecurities they blabbed to him about in drunken moments once they’re able to lay off the sauce.

But this is also an episode where Moe is part of a secret cabal of assassin-like bartenders, and Moe himself has the ability to fend off attackers John Wick-style with his infamous bar rag, and there exists both “anti-booze” and an antidote to “anti-booze” deployed to punish rule-breaking suds-slingers and their customers. It veers too far into ridiculous territory for me, but I have to just try to process this as almost an extended “Treehouse of Horror” segment. I’ll confess, it seems too far off in tone from the show’s usual reality to me, but I’m doing my best not to let that ruin the otherwise good work this one does.

Plus hey! Ian McShane! It’s always a treat to hear his gritty-yet-mellifluous baritone, and I appreciate that his role as the bartender to bartenders here pays tribute to his roles in both John Wick and Deadwood. This episode has a lot of Stonecutters vibe to it, and McShane makes an able successor to Patrick Stewart on that front.

As I said, the jokes make a lot of this one, even if they go a bit off the rails once the assassin theatrics start. The drunk-in-public shtick is particularly low-stakes amusing and full of fun little subversions. (The “You’re worse than a mean drunk -- you’re an honest drunk!” line was especially good.) I was also a fan of how Moe managed to damage and then repair his relationship with his regulars.

I’ll confess that I always end up a little irked when characters are shown to make great progress only to be forced back into the status quo. It’s especially frustrating to see Homer be a better father, husband, and employee only to have that taken away. But such is what the network television gods demand, I suppose.

Overall, the absurdity of the John Wick spoof is a pretty big mark against this episode, but the core of the episode is funnier and more emotionally sound than a lot of episodes this season, so I’m fairly pleased with this one as a closer.

(As an aside, with both characters having more to do, the new voices for Carl and Dr. Hibbert were pretty distracting here. But the new voice for Bumblebee Man didn’t bother me at all. Go figure.)