How Lisa Got Her Marge Back (S27, E18-592)

She's just jealous the dog's got better beats than her.

Plot Summary
Bart comes to realize that his pranks are no longer effective - everyone knows Bart's behind them, even Ralph.  Discouraged, Bart gives up the prank game for good.  Meanwhile, after a lengthy session of Lisa playing jazz, Marge is left somewhat worn out.  Later in the day, Marge admits to Homer she's never been particularly fond of jazz, and Lisa playing it does no favors for her.  Unfortunately for Marge, Lisa overhears this and confronts Marge over it that night, feeling betrayed that Marge lied to her in regards to Lisa's passion.  The two are left at odds.

In an attempt to reconcile, Marge takes Lisa on a trip to Capital City.  Homer leaves Bart with Maggie for some reason, but Bart comes to realize that Maggie is an excellent ally in pranking, and as such Bart is back in the game.  It doesn't last too long, as after Homer falls victim, he absolutely won't allow a second Bart in the family and tells Bart to leave Maggie be.

Meanwhile, Marge's attempts to gain Lisa's favor fail miserably, and the two are worse off.  The attempts include two tickets to a musical of Bad News Bears, a show Marge loves but Lisa hates.  Afterward, the two meet the 'star' of the show: Andrew Rannells (who is an actual person, not a character the show made up, much to my surprise!).  The three go to dinner together.  As Marge takes her leave for a moment, Lisa rants about Marge to Rannells, who calls Lisa out for her behavior and total disrespect towards Marge and her feelings.  Lisa haphazardly realizes her error and makes up with Marge when the latter returns, and the two enjoy the rest of their trip together.

Quick Review
There were quite a few good jokes and bits in the episode, particularly with Bart and his prank sidestory which I enjoyed.  The main storyline with Marge and Lisa started off okay, and Rannells provided a couple of laughs here and there but the main plot was too reference-heavy for it too be actually funny and most of the Lisa-heavy segments didn't provide any comedy at all.  That prevented the episode from reaching any level of decency, sadly because I did get a few good laughs out of it.

Final Score: 6.8

Jazzy and the Pussycats (S18, E02-380)

If I had understood the reference, I probably would've found this even less funny.

Plot Summary
Homer's Vegas wife has died from an overdose.  At the funeral, Bart interrupts the proceedings over and over again, eventually enraging everyone.  Homer and Marge take Bart to a psychiatrist, who recommends Bart expend his energy with a drum set.  Amazingly, Bart takes a liking to drums, and spends all day and night working on his skills, even while asleep.  To allow Homer and Marge to sleep once in a while, Lisa takes Bart to a Jazz club she frequents.  She invites Bart to join her onstage for a performance, and the two do well.  Lisa sees two other jazz musicians taking an interest, and Lisa believes their interest is for her saxophone playing.  However, afterword, she learns in disgust that the two were actually interested in Bart's drumming abilities, even inviting him to their troupe.

Bart becomes an overnight success, even gaining a jazz nickname ("Tick-Tock").  Lisa, whose jazz nickname is now "Downbeat", can't stand that Bart has become so successful so fast in something Lisa has spend most of her life trying to succeed in.  Marge decides to lift Lisa's spirits by going to a dog pound and getting her a puppy.  Lisa chooses a nice looking puppy over an ailing one, but is haunted by it that same night, claiming that because she didn't pick it its going to get put to sleep soon.  Lisa goes right back to the pound to get that puppy, but is guilt-tripped into adopting several other animals so prevent them from getting killed.  Soon, Lisa has an entire animal troupe with her, that she tries to hide in the attic.  Quickly, she goes back up to keep the troupe quiet, but finds Bart up there with his jazz pals, when suddenly a small tigers accidentally bites Bart in the arm.

Bart's tendons are so torn in the arm, that Bart will be unable to drum again.  There is a surgery that can repair it, so Bart's jazz pals decide to hold a benefit to raise the money.  Meanwhile, Lisa has been forced by police to find someplace to put her animals or animal control will take care of it themselves.  Bart sees this and, upon realizing the chain of events that led to it, decides to take action.  At the jazz benefit, he proclaims that all of the proceeds will not go to fixing his arm, but instead towards building an animal shelter in Lisa's name.  Lisa goes up to thank Bart for his generosity, and Bart's jazz pals may or may not have implied they're going to try another benefit to fix Bart's arm again.

Quick Review
I didn't enjoy this episode.  The White Stripes cameo early on was terrible, the worst part of the episode, and the odd plot the followed it hardly did anything to get the episode back on track.  The two jazz musicians were probably the best the episode had to offer, but they couldn't save this wreck of an episode.

Final Score: 4.9