30x19 Girl's in the Band

[7.6/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This one didn’t knock my socks off, but I liked it! The first act bit with Mr. Largo seemed interesting enough to carry its own episode, rather than being setup for another story with only a brief coda over the credits. And the Whiplash homage (replete with frequent Simpsons guest star J.K. Simmons essentially reprising his role from the film), felt a little late. But I like that there was something for every member of the family to do, and an emotional and personal conflict for Lisa at the center of it.

The burden of having a gifted child is an interesting theme for a Simpsons episode. It dovetails nicely with what we’ve already seen of Lisa and her relation to her family, and the push-and-pull between the joy of pursuing her passion (albeit in a tough environment) and the costs (literal and figurative) that it imposes on her family made for good material throughout.

Every Simpson got a bit. Homer’s night shift routine was mostly an excuse for some yuks, but they were solid, and led to a fun dream sequence (replete with another bevy of the show’s obligatory Kubrick homages). Bart dealing with the other untalented kids wasn’t the biggest source of comedy, but his complaining about being dragged along to Lisa’s practices was good for a laugh here and there, and Maggie’s gestures were cute. Marge’s impulse to support her daughter but having the life drained out of her by the logistics and expense felt true to her character. And obviously Lisa’s desire to be great but also to not impose on her family was the backbone of the episode.

Overall, there was the occasional sense of “throw it all into the soup” over cohesion here, but the humor was good, the narrative throughline was strong, and the heart was there in spades. More episodes penned by Nancy Cartwright, I say!