[7.7/10] Episodes with strong interactions between Bart and Lisa tend to play well with me (see also: “Separate Vocations” and “Summer of 4 ft. 2”), and this was no exception. The throughline is Lisa rising in maturity and esteem through her babysitting, and the running headlong into the hellscape that is babysitting her older brother. It’s a recipe for disaster, and the way the show sets up that scenario, and then plays it out in all its manic, parade of horribles splendor, is masterful as usual.
I like the throwback to Bart as the troublemaker who’d scarred legions of babysitters. The show finds the comedy in his obstinance, while always being on Lisa’s side, or at least feeling sympathetic to her in trying to her best to be a good (if a tad bit supercilious) babysitter while Bart raises all manner of hell. The way poor Lisa is trying her very best, while things keep getting harder and more absurd makes you feel for the poor girl, and yet the show never let's up in the humor of it, with a conga line of sandwich delivery men, T.V. clowns, government agents, hapless cops, and the wheelbarrow-restrained ill in her way.
The episode doesn’t just create a bunch of wacky situations (though the situations do get a little more unbelievably wacky at the end) but roots them all in Lisa having found this small bit of independence and worrying that she’ll never get to have it again.
At the same time, the thin-but-hilarious B-story sees Homer and Marge going out on the town at the revitalized squidport. There’s all sorts of amusing jabs at yuppie life which land particularly well with me, and it features some great opportunities for Homer and Marge to be a comic duo and not just a source of romantic squabbles and makeups.
Overall, a very funny episode that puts Bart and Lisa at odds, but raises the stakes beyond simple sibling rivalry, and makes you feel for Lisa in the process.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-02-14T18:37:58Z
[7.7/10] Episodes with strong interactions between Bart and Lisa tend to play well with me (see also: “Separate Vocations” and “Summer of 4 ft. 2”), and this was no exception. The throughline is Lisa rising in maturity and esteem through her babysitting, and the running headlong into the hellscape that is babysitting her older brother. It’s a recipe for disaster, and the way the show sets up that scenario, and then plays it out in all its manic, parade of horribles splendor, is masterful as usual.
I like the throwback to Bart as the troublemaker who’d scarred legions of babysitters. The show finds the comedy in his obstinance, while always being on Lisa’s side, or at least feeling sympathetic to her in trying to her best to be a good (if a tad bit supercilious) babysitter while Bart raises all manner of hell. The way poor Lisa is trying her very best, while things keep getting harder and more absurd makes you feel for the poor girl, and yet the show never let's up in the humor of it, with a conga line of sandwich delivery men, T.V. clowns, government agents, hapless cops, and the wheelbarrow-restrained ill in her way.
The episode doesn’t just create a bunch of wacky situations (though the situations do get a little more unbelievably wacky at the end) but roots them all in Lisa having found this small bit of independence and worrying that she’ll never get to have it again.
At the same time, the thin-but-hilarious B-story sees Homer and Marge going out on the town at the revitalized squidport. There’s all sorts of amusing jabs at yuppie life which land particularly well with me, and it features some great opportunities for Homer and Marge to be a comic duo and not just a source of romantic squabbles and makeups.
Overall, a very funny episode that puts Bart and Lisa at odds, but raises the stakes beyond simple sibling rivalry, and makes you feel for Lisa in the process.