33x21 Meat Is Murder

[8.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Full disclosure: I’ve yet to see Succession, so some of the parody elements of this one likely flew over my head. But despite that fact, I really liked the episode, which is a sign of a well-written homage -- the fact that you don’t need to know the homage to appreciate the story or the humor.

The idea of a group of siblings all competing to succeed their patriarch is a universal enough setup that it doesn’t require a ton of build or explanation for the audience to get it. Watching Grampa and Lisa step into the world of a high-powered CEO and his bratty and/or power hungry kids works better and more seamlessly than you might expect.

It’s because the episode anchors itself around easily intuited idea that make the humor and the plot go down smooth. The arrival of billionaire Gus (John Lithgow, who kills it as always) comes with the idea that he used to be a meek, modest guy, until a screw-over by Krusty turned him into the ruthless shark he is today. The notion that Grampa brings him back to those modest, simpler days, only to have the turn that it was all a ruse because the guy can’t unclench from his first, terrible experience in business gives it extra force.

The other side of things comes from the special relationship between Grampa and Lisa. Frankly, we haven’t really seen that before, but I’m still charmed by it. The notion of “Grampsa” is a really sweet one, and helps provide emotional ballast to the story here. Likewise, I like Lisa’s dilemma of wanting to change Gus’ company so that it helps the environment and her favorite causes (with some manipulation from Gus’ daughter, Sheila, a stellar Krysten Ritter), and with her not wanting to violate that special relationship by manipulating Grampa, even if it’s for the greater good.

Her stepping outside the line, but coming clean to Grampa afterwards, only for Abe to use his usual rambling stories and semi-senility to invalidate Gus’ evil plan makes for a heck of a cinch. Despite the concerns about the Simpson curse, it shows them finding something they nevertheless feel fortunate for even if they’ll never have their big break: each other.

Independent of all of the plotting, this one’s pretty darn amusing, especially by post-classic standards! While I’m a little tired of “Krusty is a burnt out hack” jokes at this point, I’m a sucker for all the gags at the expense of McDonalds, right down to a spoof of Mac and Me. While the Succession material largely blew by me, the gags about Gus’ family’s opulent life (including the “Pure Imagination” parody and Sheila's ploys) were all solidly amusing. And god help me, I loved the Angela Merkel humor for some bizarre reason. Her deadpanning, serious responses to the lunacy got a big laugh out of me.

Overall, if this is Matt Selman’s last episode as showrunner for the season, he goes out on a high note, with a nicely-plotted story with a strong emotional undercurrent for Grampa and Lisa, alongside with some of the better yuk-work on the show.