30x09 Daddicus Finch

[6.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This is one of those “three drafts away from being a good one” episodes. The central concept here, that Lisa and Homer develop a better relationship through some transference over To Kill a Mockingbird, Bart feels left out, and eventually the phase ends leaving Homer a little stung is a decent one. But the delivery of it all is so disjointed and weird. The episode jumps from beat to beat without much connective tissue, and the emotional trajectory doesn't add up as well as it should as a result. The episode coasts on heart a little bit, as its sad and sweet to see Homer realizing that Lisa’s admiration won’t last forever but that he still has that to look forward to with Maggie, but it’s a mild salve on a lumpy episode.

The humor is also all over the place. I’m not sure there’s a single laugh in the opening act. But then you have J.K. Simmons as a psychologist-qua-speed dater who brings the laughs and insights in every scene, you have a pretty well-observed set of bat mitzvah jokes with a cameo from series sweetheart Jon Lovitz to boot, and there’s even the occasional silly but fun gag like Marge trying to give Bart a piggyback ride but the exercise proving futile because of her trademark bouffant. There’s a lot of dumb/bad jokes in this one, but also a surprising number of clever ones (like Homer’s nodding off/waking up running gag), that just leave you scratching your head.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that Homer and Lisa’s Atticus Finch fascination is deployed in a really odd way. For one thing, it’s just strange to see the Simpsons watching live action T.V. and it takes you out of that world for long stretches where they just show scenes from the movie. At the same time, there’s not really a natural progression into that fascination, with the episode presenting more of a grab bag of random To Kill a Mockingbird-related bits.

Overall, this episode is all over the place, with enough good stuff to make you wish they’d edited and revised and made it legitimately good, but enough bad stuff to make you wonder if even that would get them there.