Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Coming to Homerica (S20, E21-441)

So is he part Norwegian or friends with one or did one save his life or what?
Plot Summary
Krusty learns his restaurant's burger is the unhealthiest in the nation, so he decides to roll out a vegetarian option where the burger is made from barley.  It's a raving success across town... until people start getting sick from the burgers.  Its learned that the barley in the burgers are tainted, so Kent Brockman investigates in the now heavily Norwegian Ogdenville, where a farmer admits a rat got caught in the grinders and that this happens all the time, unaware that the interview is being aired live.  Immediately, Ogdenville's barley industry comes to a crashing halt and the entire town goes under.  They leave to find new opportunities, and end up in Springfield where they're willing to do construction and other unsavory jobs for people at a nominal price.

At first, Homer and the other Springfield residents are happy the Ogdenvillians are doing the crap jobs for them, but the sheer quantity of them starts to become a problem.  Hospitals are overrun with Ogdenvillians who are injured from their work.  Moe makes a killing selling them "Aqua Vit", so concentrated in alcohol Homer can't handle a single glass.  Bart injures himself trying to one-up an Ogdenville kid in skateboarding, and Homer gets fired from still being drunk on the Aqua Vit.  With the problem still growing, the town has a meeting where they decide to ban the Ogdenville immigrants.

Of course, this is near impossible to do with just Chief Wiggum and Lou on watch.  A vigilante group is formed to help, but little gets accomplished with them.  Mayor Quimby gets the idea to build a wall to keep them out, but with nobody in Springfield really capable of building a wall, the mayor agrees to let the Ogdenvillians help build the wall designed to keep them out.  During the construction, several Springfieldians take a liking to the Ogdanvillians, so much so that when the wall is complete, everyone in Springfield just stands there, not really knowing what to do.  Fortunately for them, the Ogdanvillians built a door in the wall to allow them back in easily, and both groups become fast friends again, having a big Ogdanville-style party to celebrate their friendship.

Quick Review
This episode just got weirder and weirder as it went along.  An episode featuring a typically lame jab at illegal immigration with a decidedly strange twist to make those immigrants of Norwegian descent.  Its an odd combination, one that rarely worked in this subpar episode that once again eschews comedy for the lame attempt at storytelling.

Final Score: 6.2

No comments:

Post a Comment