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| There is a lot of irony here, but I don't even know where to begin. |
During a fire safety fair at school, Bart is able to take a fire hose and flood the gymnasium. This act is the final straw for Principal Skinner. Meeting with Homer and Marge later, an angered Skinner threatens to expel Bart from school unless the parents agree to try out an experimental new drug for Bart. The drug, Focusin, is designed to help kids, well, focus in school, cutting out tomfoolery while increasing study time and such. Homer and Marge agree to go through with it. After Homer unsuccessfully tries to force Bart to take some, Marge reasons with Bart instead and he agrees to start taking the drug.
The drug has immediate affects the next day, when not even a skirmish between two dogs is enough to distract Bart from his studies. Soon, Bart spends his entire free time studying, admitting to Lisa at one point that he's using more of his brain than ever. Homer and Marge take this new opportunity to go out one night, but return to a concerned Lisa. It seems that during the evening Bart has gone full paranoid is making every effort to avoid being spied on by a satellite owned by Major League Baseball.
The family takes Bart to get reevaluated, but when Bart overhears that he might not be able to take more Focusin to combat his enemies, Bart makes a run for it, gobbling more Focusin on the way. On the loose, Bart is easily able to steal a tank, and drives it to the school. As Homer and Marge catch up to Bart, the boy goes into the tank to fire. Not at the school, not at the church, not even at the discount frame store, but up into the sky. It hits its target: a satellite owned and operated by Major League Baseball whose purpose is to collect date on people for merchandising purposes. Just then, Mark McGwire is flown in via helicopter. McGwire, who is still very popular given its 1999, is able to distract everyone with his home run hits while he 'secretly' takes the data the satellite had stored. Bart is taken off Focusin, and is put on more normal drugs, like Ritalin.
Quick Review
There were two things I liked most about this episode: a side bit of Lisa watching Krusty the Klown on TV where Krusty is choking on a spinning tie bit, and the McGwire bit near the end. Bart's tank rampage had its share of laughs as well. The episode wasn't without its negatives, as to be expected with an episode that's haphazardly tackling behavior-adjustment drugs, but overall its a fine episode.
Final Score: 8.0
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