[5.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] I want to like this episode. For one thing, I like big creative swings. The notion of Homer having an epiphany in slow motion while breaking through his own windshield is a cool concept, and one outside the usual format of the show. Likewise, there’s a germ of something thematically potent here. I like the idea of Homer being hurt that his father-in-law thought he was a loser that Marge should ditch, only to gain the perspective of how he’d feel if the 2020s equivalent of someone like him walked through the door wanting to marry Lisa. It’s the combo of a unique storytelling approach and an emotional story worth telling that I can appreciate.
At the same time, though, the execution is really off. I don’t want to slate the show too much for unreality. The SImpsons has had a loose tether to reality for ages, and you can write all of this off as a coma dream anyway. But a lot of the material of Homer’s slow motion adventures strain credulity on a visceral level even if I can accept them intellectually. Why is Homer talking to his daughter's elf doll not immersion breaking, but him swimming through thin air is? I couldn’t tell you, but it made it hard for me to jibe with.
Maybe it’s just because the jokes here are pretty weak all around. There’s a couple of solid laughs here and there (guest star Bowen Yang is a delight through his delivery alone, and Homer’s interaction with the Crazy Cat Lady is worth a yuk), but much of the humor here is pretty feeble. Homer’s mid-air nonsense barely moves the needle on the humor scale, and the gags in hell deserve polite applause at best.
The episode also feels structurally disjointed. You can kind of chart a progression from Homer being mad at Marge, to revealing the reason why, to revealing that the kids know, to explaining why Marge hid the money, to delving into the whole Clancy Bouvier thing. But the segments never fit together neatly, instead giving the episode a jumbled quality of leaping from one topic to another.
Last, and probably least, it’s worth noting that Lizzo is really annoying here in her guise as Gabby-Woo, Maggie’s Happy Little Elf doll come to life in Homer’s fantasy. Full disclosure, as I’m writing this, the news just came out about Lizzo’s dancers alleging some pretty despicable behavior from her, so maybe that’s coloring my reception. But considering I found her performance in The Mandalorian unobjectionable at worst when everyone was freaking out about it, I don’t think I’m a hater. Her needling dynamic with Homer and whole Elf persona is just irksome, and the “That Was Marge, Bitch” song is one of the laziest Simpsons tunes on record.
At the end of the day, this feels like Matt Selman and company trying to do their own version of “Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind”, another format-bending episode that delves into Homer’s psyche and perspective on his marriage. Ironically, that feels like a proto Selman-run episode, while this one felt like much of the mediocre Jean years -- bolstered by a solid idea but worn down by unfunny gags, garbled storytelling, and unavailing celebrity guest stars. At least the intro, which tried to cram as many familiar characters into the sequence at once, was a creative highlight.
