27x10 The Girl Code

Of course this one was showrun by Matt Selman! So often, I find myself finishing a newer episode of The Simpsons thinking "this was better than the norm for the show at this point" and see his name first in the Exec Producer credit. Wish he would run more episodes.

It wasn't transcendent or anything, but I enjoyed Lisa's story about app development, and it included a lot of timely jabs at various digital brick-a-brack without getting into "Old Man Yells at Cloud"-level criticisms. Kaitlin Olson did a good job selling the eToughness of Lisa's programming teacher, and Stephen Merchant was amusingly sweaty as Conrad in something close to a reprisal of his role as Wheatley in Portal 2. The story hummed along nicely, and while the end conflict was a little forced, it worked, and the idea of watching what you post on social media had a salience to today that this show can't always muster in its old age.

At the same time, Homer's B-story, aside from being the impetus for Lisa's main story, mostly served as an opportunity for the show to riff on Greek culture. But it was affectionate riffing, with lovingly animated dance sequences and silly gag references to Athens and beyond. The resolution of this mini-plot was self consciously contrived, but I can appreciate the odd fourth wall wink now and then.

Overall, there were a good number of laughs here, and even more smiles, for an episode that did a good job balancing its stories and moving each along.