27x07 Lisa with an 'S'

4.5/10 on a Post-Classic Simpsons scale. This was pretty thin broth. There's the germ of a good idea here--Lisa finds a kindred spirit in a washed out star, and Marge worries about the well-being of her daughter in the process--but it's just so poorly set up, and the personalities involved either so repugnant or out of character that very little of it works.

Homer is an obnoxious boor most of the way here; Laney is unpleasant without much of a twist, and Marge's reluctance to let Lisa go makes sense, but is never really motivated in the episode. The pacing is also off tremendously, with story beats being scattered around interspersed with weird side bits and no clear trajectory. The poker game in particular makes sense as a set up for the episode, but takes way too long before we get to the meat of the story.

There's a few amusing gags--Amish Flanders makes zero sense but made me chuckle nonetheless, and the "give me a puff" fake out was cute--but for the most part this was also a pretty laughless half-hour, with Homer's dumb antics lacking any of the character's sweetness despite his idiocy, and Moe made even more of a prick than usual. (Also, what was the point of his relationship with Laney?) The cheap trick of bringing The Simpsons back to New York City, where they'd already run out of amusing commentary by the time it hit "Moonshine River" did nothing to help matters, nor did the return of Chaz Busby, the recurring character no one asked for.

The Simpsons was on a miniature hot streak going into this episode, but this really fell short.