[4.8/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] What was that? I like The Simpsons. I like When Harry Met Sally. But mashing them up like this, with such an indifferent, unfunny hand, is the pits.
My biggest gripe is that for a relationship I’m already semi-invested in thanks to the talents of the show in its golden era, I never really rooted for Lisa and Nelson in this one. The show has them just announce their feelings in hamfisted, writerly ways rather than acting like real people with one another. It’s not clear what they really offer to one another emotionally. There’s a few signs that Nelson really listens to Lisa, but they’re few and far between, and for the most part, they seem like a poor match for one another. The ending just riffs son the closing lines from When Harry Met Sally and calls it a day, without ever really earning their reconciliation all those years later.
And the decoy boyfriends/girlfriends are terrible. Rot is barely a character, and grown-up Hubert Wong is a dumb caricature of both Steve Jobs specifically and bad boyfriends in general.
None of this is helped by the fact that the episode is simply devoid of ugh. With a Futurama writer like Ryan Koh as the credited writer, you’d think more of the future-y gags would land. But cheap bits involving drones and plug-in brains are all dead on arrival. Don’t get me started on the terrible narration gags with Homer. With so many episodes being showrun by Matt Selman, having another Al Jean-run episode in the middle of the run is whatever you’d call the opposite of a breath of fresh air.
The only parts I liked were the dream sequence-type interlude with Lisa and Nelson in their mental space date, which is the closest the episode comes to justifying their emotional connection and the most artistic part of the episode, plus the weird but amusing interlude with Abe Lincoln and Ronaadd Reagan as a couple.
Overall, this is easily one of the real lowlights of the season so far, and a poor squandering of a bond between Lisa and Nelson that diehards have found endearing for (gulp) decades now.
Finally a future-lisa with no future-milhouse
Excruciating. Episodes this bad should have been scrapped long before they made the air.
Shout by FinFanBlockedParent2022-11-28T16:30:05Z
Very personal view but this is exactly the type of episode I don't need.