Orange is the New Yellow (S27, E22-596)

I feel like this bit hits closer to home for some people than it should.

Plot Summary
As Homer is delayed from leaving work, Marge finds herself busy fixing Lisa's costume for whatever, and lets Bart out to play on his own.  Unfortunately for Marge, today's kids must be supervised by parents at all times, and once Martin's mom realizes Bart is unsupervised, Marge is quickly arrested for her gross negligence and given 90 days in jail.

Homer and the kids are initially given pity handouts by other families and so they're fine for awhile, but as those supplies near an end the family yearns for Marge to come back.  Meanwhile, Marge has carved out a place in the women's prison she was sent to, and with no real responsibilities on her plate, Marge has come to enjoy the place as somewhat of a break from her life with her family.  Homer is able to free Marge on a legal technicality but Marge, unwilling to be responsible again, grabs and fires a guard's gun so that she can stay in jail for two additional months.

The kids, having grown sick of being constantly supervised, break free and have fun all on their own - but during a tornado, which forces them to flee but they all end up okay except maybe Ralph.  Meanwhile, lamenting her decision to stay, Marge unwittingly sparks a prison break.  Homer takes the opportunity to sneak in as a prison guard to get Marge out, and Marge, ready to go back to her family, lets Homer do so.  Later, the family is happy to be together again.

Quick Review
This episode was a lot better than what I was expecting to start.  The plot had some decent gags for the most part though the episode did get pretty boring in the last few minutes.  Yeah, its a "Marge goes to prison, see how Homer and kids cope!" plot, and no its nowhere near as good as Marge in Chains but it holds it own, especially when compared to the string of bad episodes leading up to this one.  This episode is a decent way to end another subpar season (unlike last season, oh god why did I remind myself).

Final Score: 7.2

Simprovised (S27, E21-595)

"End it."  He thinks.  No, not the bit.  Not the series.
Not even his life.  No, everything.  Everything must end.

Plot Summary
Chief Wiggum throws an extravagant birthday party for Ralph which includes a brand new, state-of-the-art treehouse, which makes Bart jealous.  He quickly coerces Marge into rebuilding his treehouse but, afterward, tells Milhouse not to bother thanking Marge as things such as major remodeling is only her "job" as a mom.  Marge overhears this and gets upset at Bart, but Bart gets help from Homer in making up to her and the two reconcile.

Meanwhile, Homer bombs on a speech at the plant thanks to his fear of public speaking.  To get his mind off the incident, Marge takes Homer to an improv show, where he's impressed with the group's ability to think and act on the fly.  He and a few others decide to take an improv class offered by the group and soon start up their own group, of which Homer is the star.  Lisa advises Homer to try his luck at a French festival coming up, but Homer psyches himself out leading up to the day.

Fearful of failure, Moe offers to become an improv plant for Homer, but Lisa overhears and pleads with Homer not to cheat.  Eventually, Homer agrees and does his improv show wonderfully.

The last few minutes are spent on a segment called "Homer Live", where Dan Castellaneta voice acts as Homer while the show digitally shows Homer on a desk (with a bunch of nonsense references flying around him to keep things interesting) moving his mouth as Dan talks.  The segment is just Dan answering (I'm sure) heavily screened questions which amount to a waste of time, honestly.

Quick Review
The episode itself was another bore, with barely anything of comedic note and with both stories wrapping up quickly and all too neatly for it be of any worth.

The "live" segment was interesting of course.  Perhaps with intention, an episode about improv then features a segment in which Dan has to improvise Homer's dialogue on the fly, and he threw out a few decent things that were limited by the rather punchless questions that made it through screening.  While the episode was beyond saving, this bit was still the best the show had to offer this night.

Final Score: 6.9

To Courier with Love (S27, E20-594)

I guess Homer "eclipsed" the competition, heh heh heh.

Plot Summary
Homer magically stumbles upon an old vintage car while cleaning out the garage.  After going on a mild tour driving it, that night he sees Marge is saddened with the burden of everyday life.  Homer wishes for a way to help Marge, and gets it when Jay Leno visits to buy Homer's vintage car - Leno being a connoisseur of such cars.  With his newfound money, Homer tells Marge that he'll take her to any place she'd like.  As she decides, Homer is visited by Leno again, who asks for the money back as the car ended up being confiscated by the police for never actually being owned by Homer.  With no extra money and Marge deciding she wants to go to Paris, Homer is in another marital bind.

Homer visits a travel agent to basically give him a trip to Paris for free.  The agent does give Homer the option of being a courier: helping the mob a client transport a package, with the trip and hotel paid for, but with the stipulation that the courier never look at the package.  Homer agrees, but it doesn't take long for him to break and decides to look in the package while on the plane.  He, and the nearby Lisa, find out a blue snake is inside, but Homer doesn't let Marge find out under the fears that the trip - and their marriage - will be ruined.

At the Paris airport, Homer meets the two French men with whom the package would be given.  However, after learning that the men plan to turn the snake into a belt, Homer and Lisa flee with the package.  As the rest of the family enjoys their time at Paris, Homer attempts to free the snake but is found by the two men and is forced to flee again.  Eventually, Homer tells Marge everything but as the two return to the hotel room they're met by the French police - who were summoned by those two men.  Under arrest for the "theft" of their snake, Homer can only watch as the police open up the package, only to find it empty.  The rest of the room is searched but no snake turns out.  Feeling tricked, the police escort the two men away, afterward it's revealed that the snake hid in Marge's hair.  Marge considers the vacation a success, and Homer returns home with gifts for his barmates - including a blue snake belt for Moe, artificial of course.

Quick Review
Much like the last episode, this one ends up being rather dull.  Some decent jokes here and there and the two French men were pretty funny, but overall the humor was too limited to really help this episode out.

Final Score: 6.4

Fland Canyon (S27, E19-593)

Hehe, mule.  (I'm gonna get a laugh out of this episode somehow)

Plot Summary
In an attempt to get Maggie to fall asleep, Homer tells the baby a story.  Trying to recall a boring story, Homer eventually recalls a memory from two years prior.  In it, the Flanders' family is rewarded for their charity work with a trip to the Grand Canyon, but its a two-family trip.  Reverend Lovejoy, whose wife definitely does not want to go with the Flanders', suggests they take the Simpsons, who reluctantly agree.

At the Canyon, the Simpson family and the Flanders family find their own ways to annoy one another.  However, on a trek through the inner part of the canyon, the families lose their guide, and lose their way.  Stranded, Homer and Ned make the decision to set out and find help.  Eventually, the two stumble upon a "campsite" full of rich media elites who have an extravagant setup despite the locale.  The two agree to steal some of their bountiful food and supplies, escaping via a raft.  With that, the two families are eventually rescued and Homer and Ned form a friendship, supposedly.

Having finished his story (and putting both Maggie and Lisa - who came in halfway through - to sleep), Ned reveals through the window that he'd been listening in as well.  Homer decides to be a good pal to Ned and take him on a trip: to the postcard museum, which Ned deeply enjoys.

Quick Review
Well, its not offensively bad, nor is it reference heavy.  Its just boring and overall unfunny.  So, it could be worse, but it could've been good and its not.  (I guess you could say it was 'Bland Canyon' but you probably shouldn't, its too corny).

Final Score: 6.3

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

The Burns Cage (S27, E17-591)

Remember when Burns gave Castro the trillion-dollar bill?  Those were fun times...

Plot Summary
After Mr. Burns spurs Smithers' attempts at affection, the latter takes out his frustrations on Homer, Lenny and Carl, making them do menial tasks at work.  The three pick up on this and set up a social event for Smithers to find a boyfriend and let off their asses.  The ploy ultimately works - Smithers and the bartender Julio hook up.

Meanwhile, the elementary school is hosting a production of Casablanca, and Lisa wins the lead role of Ilsa.  Milhouse comes to believe that co-stars will inevitably fall in love and as such auditions for the role of Rick.  Being the only one to do so, Milhouse initially wins the role but from out of nowhere, a gruff, 40s-speaking kid named Jack comes along and takes the role right from Milhouse.  After Bart tells him that the role would default back to him should Jack no longer be able to act, Milhouse hires Jimbo and pals to beat Jack up.  However, Jack beats them up, but importantly Principal Skinner witnesses this and punishes Jack for his violence by giving the role back to Milhouse.  This upsets Lisa, as Milhouse is a terrible actor, but Marge gives Lisa the advice to make Milhouse think he's doing a good job in hopes he actually improves.  The night of the play, the advice seems to pay off as Milhouse performs the role well.  Afterward, however, its revealed Jack had disguised himself as Milhouse for the play, and it was him that was acting as Milhouse acting as Rick.  Lisa is impressed enough and walks off with the object of her enamor.

Though Smithers is initially happy with his relationship with Julio - enough so that he gains the fortitude to quit his job (and Mr. Burns), soon Smithers' years of servitude to Burns come back to haunt the relationship.  Smithers' Burns-specific quirks annoy Julio, which ultimately reveal to Smithers that, deep down, he still loves Burns and the two break up.  Meanwhile, Mr. Burns' business has gone to hell without Smithers' steady hand.  The two meet up to reconcile, and as Burns admits that Smithers' service has been "excellent", Smithers admits that's enough to get him back with Burns.

Quick Review
So, apparently, this episode has garnered national attention mostly because of the Smithers plotline (and some are stupid enough to claim Smithers is "coming out" in this episode even though its been implied or outright stated he's gay since nearly the beginning).  That attention focuses on how its cool that the show is tackling LGBT issues or whatever (and I'm not surprised media outlets are covering that angle, given how clickbaitey they've become).

That's fine and all, but I'm sure its possible, somehow, in some way, to write such a pandering episode and.... wait for it... make it funny.

The Smithers' storyline was dry, boring and - save for a few decent gags from Burns himself - absolutely dull.  The sidestory featuring - guess who - Season 27's darling Lisa! was slightly better and I liked the few moments in which Jack was a character.  That helped bring the episode over the 6 line, which is sad to say.  After the previous episode was such a pleasant surprise, this episode was nothing but terrible disappointment.

Final Score: 6.4

The Marge-ian Chronicles (S27, E16-590)

Lisa's never going to be a pro book cleaner with that attitude!

Plot Summary
Homer learns Flanders is raising chickens to have fresh eggs.  When he and Bart decide to steal some, they find that they taste delicious, but Flanders prevents them from stealing any more.  Homer gets his own chickens to raise to have his own fresh eggs but he's disappointed as the thrill of the theft enhanced its flavor.  Realizing he'd rather just steal Flanders' eggs again, he decides to donate his chickens to "Exploration Incorporated" a scientific institute whose sole purpose is to colonize Mars in a 10 year time frame.  Excited by the possibility, Lisa volunteers for the mission.  Given that once one goes to Mars, one can't come back, Marge forbids Lisa from doing it.

Homer, however, advises Marge to support Lisa's plan under his theory that Lisa, like all women, will eventually lose interest if she's supported along the way.  Marge does so but Lisa's interest in the Mars mission remains absolute.  Homer takes the plan one step further and has the entire family enlist in the mission as well.  Lisa catches on to Homer's ruse and realizes she just needs to be patient until everyone in the family quits.

As part of a process to select astronauts for the mission, candidates must live a week in a simulated colony.  Marge particularly does well here as most of her tasks are no different than common housework, a revelation which frustrates Lisa to no end.  At the end of the week, only Marge and Lisa are chosen to be astronauts for the Mars mission.  Lisa has enough and calls Marge out on her bluff but Marge refuses to back down and continues "supporting" Lisa until Lisa quits.

This almost reaches a head when Exploration Incorporated is forced to move its launch date all the way up to "Thursday".  Marge and Lisa finally realize their errors but not until the two are in the launch rocket.  Thankfully, the rocket was a fake and the scientists are proved to be underfunded (despite heavy endorsements) and poorly managed.  Lisa and Marge only hope to agree they won't be so stubborn towards one another in the future.

Quick Review
The plot sounds dry but the comedy in the episode was excellent.  Despite being an episode focused on Lisa and Marge, Homer's involvement in the episode was top-notch.  The scientists weren't particularly unfunny, not too much of Lisa's usual comedic failings show up and several gags worked out wonderfully here.  Season 27, despite its many lows, has another good episode to salvage itself with.

Final Score: 8.2

Lisa the Veterinarian (S27, E15-589)

In contention for "worst caption yet", I provide this: "he's dead, Jim".

Plot Summary
At an indoor waterpark, Bart's hijinks ultimately lead to a raccoon getting inside the place.  A worker there immediately tasers it, allowing it to fall lifelessly into the pool.  Lisa quickly rescues it and is able to get it to breathe again, saving its life.  Lisa becomes popular from this act, and is given a task from Ms. Hoover to keep the class hamster, Nibbles, over Spring Break.  Wanting to the same kind of rush she felt when saving the raccoon, Lisa goes to the vet and asks to become an assistant there.  Dr. Budgie (voiced by Michael York) has Lisa help him with various dull tasks, but eventually Lisa gets to have the same rush as she did earlier and comes to believe herself an expert on animals.

Meanwhile, Marge is caught in traffic behind a crime scene, and accepts an offer from Chief Wiggum to help clean it up.  She does so efficiently, so Wiggum offers Marge a part time job to do more of the same.  Quickly Marge earns enough money to replace a ceiling fan in the house but Homer starts to realize that Marge has become somewhat dead inside from having seen so many grotesque crime scenes.

Bart becomes annoyed by yet another round of Lisa being arrogant, and quickly takes her down several notches by pointing out that since Lisa began her work as a veterinary assistant, she completely forgot about Nibbles, who is left near death.  Despite last minute efforts by Budgie and Lisa to save it, Nibbles ends up dying, leaving Lisa shell shocked.  Marge learns of this and is able to shrug off her newfound lethargy to comfort Lisa.  The episode ends with Lisa providing an eulogy at Nibble's funeral.

Quick Review
There were some pretty decent gags in this episode, both in the main and subplots, but they couldn't do enough to help turn a very dry, boring plot into something memorable.

Oh, and one very minor nitpick: the Phoenix Coyotes have been officially known as the "Arizona Coyotes" since mid-2014.  I know its a throwaway gag and there is a very small group of people who a) still watch the show and b) watch hockey enough to be aware of the name change, but come on.

Final Score: 6.7

Gal of Constant Sorrow (S27, E14-588)

Think about all of the strips, cartoons and movies there are about Garfield.
I don't think there's been one instance where Garfield gets stuck inside a
wall and Jon Arbuckle has to feed lasagna to him through an electrical outlet.
The Simpsons just broke ground there!  Take that, Jim Davis!

Plot Summary
Homer convinces Marge to have him fix a tile on the kitchen floor, despite Marge's obvious implications that Homer is not a "handy man".  Though using a lot of help, Homer does fix the tile adequately, much to the pleasure of Marge, but Homer finds out a short time later that the cat found its way into the floor during the repairs and has since moved on into the walls.  Homer tells Marge he plans on fixing on parts of the house but is really trying to just rescue the cat.  He eventually does, but then the dog gets stuck in the wall.  Later, its revealed that Marge was aware of these events the whole time anyway but let Homer fumble around because she thought it was sweet, or funny, I don't know.

Meanwhile, Bart accidentally knocks a homeless woman's supplies into the river.  With a snowstorm coming, Bart makes it up to her by letting the woman - Hettie May Boggs - stay in his closet, for a rate of $1 a day (her idea, not his).  Lisa begins to suspect something, and eventually finds Bart and Hettie talking about the rent agreement.  Before Lisa can really dig into him, Hettie sings a song as part of her daily routine to get money.  Singing beautifully, Hettie gains Lisa's attention, who decides to let Hettie stay in her closet - for free - while she attempts to jumpstart a music career for Hettie.

Quickly, Lisa sets up a small concert for Hettie, but during a radio interview Lisa begins to freak out as Hettie brings up her addiction-ridden past.  Sure enough, leading up to the concert Hettie goes missing.  Lisa attempts to stall for time at the concert while Homer locates a drunken Hettie.  Hettie gets to the concert but far too late.  Her chance is gone, and Lisa is extremely upset over it, but after Hettie sings another song, Lisa lets Hettie stay one more night at the house.  Afterward, Hettie goes to a rehab center, where she's basically a front to help insider Moe sneak people out to get drunk.

Quick Review
This episode had a very funny story of Homer and his misadventures with home repair, and a very boring story with Lisa and a homeless woman.  Guess which of the two the episode shifted focus to?

This ended up being YET ANOTHER Lisa-focused episode, and between Lisa being boring as per usual and the songs sung by Heddie - which included random references to things - also providing little comedy, the episode really suffered as a result.  Homer's sidestory got the episode going strong, but it never got a chance to flourish and ended quietly.  Oh well, maybe the next episode will focus on somebody el- (*sees that its "Lisa the Veterinarian"*), well maybe not.

Final Score: 6.0

Love is in the N2-O2-Ar-CO2-Ne-H3-CH4 (S27, E13-587)

Comic book guy writes an episode where he pretends he's Frink for some reason.png

Plot Summary
Its Valentine's Day, and Mr. Burns via a misunderstanding hosts a Valentine's Day party for his employees and their significant others.  Among those attending is Professor Frink, who works at the plant as a consultant, but is one of the few people there without a date.  Homer eventually gets a call from Grampa who complains that he's alone and that the death-stalking cat that lives there is paying him a visit, so Homer and Marge go to visit him.  At the retirement home, all of the seniors are depressed, until the nurse these gives everyone a new drug which makes the seniors hallucinate all of their former loves.  This includes Grampa, who hallucinates Mona back when Grampa still liked her.

The next day, Homer finds Frink still at the plant, the professor having spent the night wallowing in despair.  Homer tries to lift Frink's spirits by noting dating is nothing but trial and error - like the scientific method.  Adequately lifted, Frink goes to find a way to make himself desirable to women.  This includes ditching his glasses for contacts, height-raising shoes and - most importantly - a computer chip which changes his voice into something not nearly as nerdy.  After testing these modifications successfully on a female-like android he suddenly has, Frink is quickly and easily able to find dates - tons and tons of dates.  He notices that other men aren't as lucky as he has become and starts to come up with a plan.

Meanwhile, Marge visits the retirement home again and sees its seniors still hallucinating under the drug.  Marge confronts the nurse there over the drug and eventually relents.  Soon enough, the seniors are back to being lonely and depressed, but Grampa finds the stash of the remaining pills and binges on them, fully taking him to a hallucinated 50's world.  Eventually, Marge, Bart and Lisa pull him back to reality.

Soon after that, Frink invites all of the ladies he's dated to the planetarium under the belief he's going to pick one of them to date solo.  However, Frink - back in his goggles and 'normal' voice - reveals his true plan: having matched up the single men in Springfield with all of the single women he had been dating, though this leaves only him without a match.  Still, he finds looking out at the stars with his android girl (and her android mother whom Frink built for some reason) good enough.  Also Grampa flushed the remaining pills into the toilet, likely contaminating the water supply, meaning everyone can hallucinate that its the 50s, now.

Quick Review
This episode was pretty boring, nothing particularly funny happened.  Frink, usually a decent character for gags and such, is given focus on an episode for the first time and it doesn't work out especially in the episode's second half.  The sidestory with Grampa and the hallucinations was just weird and again failed to deliver anything of humor in the latter portion of the episode.  This episode isn't worth your time.

Final Score: 5.9

Much Apu About Something (S27, E12-586)

Addicted to scratch-off tickets is bad enough.  Addicted
to Big Bang Theory tickets is irredeemable, honestly.

Note: not to be confused with the Season 7 episode Much Apu About Nothing.

Plot Summary
Mayor Quimby attempts to make Springfield a tourist attraction by replacing the old Jebediah Springfield statue with something more interactive.  A parade is held for the new statue, which turns out to be a total dud, but during the parade Bart instigates a feud between the police and the volunteer firefighters which results in the police's new heavily armored vehicle to crash into the Kwik-E-Mart, injuring Apu and his brother Sanjay.  For his part, Bart's misdeed was both seen and caught on camera by Homer, who makes a deal to Bart not to turn him in as long as he stops pranking altogether.

In the hospital, Sanjay admits to Apu that he no longer cares to operate the Kwik-E-Mart anymore and has decided to give the business up to his son, Jamshed who had agreed to rebuild the store.  Six weeks later, Apu sees to his horror that Jamshed, who goes by "Jay" now, has rebuilt the Kwik-E-Mart into "Quick & Fresh", a modern store which sells only organic food.  Its revealed that Apu became addicted to scratch-off ticket playing after winning $25 on his first try, but in order to fund his habit Apu gave up more and more of his share of the store's ownership to then Sanjay, allowing Jay to have majority ownership of the new store.  The two constantly argue, with Jay somewhat offended by Apu being an Indian stereotype, and Apu offended that Jay is acting like a complete hipster millennial stereotype.  Ultimately, Jay fires Apu from the store.

Meanwhile, Bart holds up his word and refuses to prank despite Milhouse's attempts otherwise.  Bart starts becoming a good student overall, but as Homer doesn't care about that, Lisa connects with Bart now that they've both been shunned.

Wallowing away in his sorrows, Apu goes to Moe's to sulk, but the gang there gets the idea of having Bart pull a prank on Jay as part of a plan to get Apu his store back.  Homer is reluctant at first, liking Bart as he is now, but Apu's friendship with everyone is too much to ignore so Homer agrees to have Bart pull the prank.  Homer again is reluctant when he sees Bart being good, but when Bart begins to try to negotiate the terms of the prank, Homer realizes Bart has turned once more.

Bart's prank is rather simple: pull the plug on the store's power for a little bit, and since everything in the store is organic, the lack of conditioning would force the food to immediately go bad because that's a thing that can happen.  Despite Lisa's last second plea to stop Bart, Bart goes ahead and turns off the store's power and sure enough everything in the store rots.  Bart turns the power back on, but that causes an accident in the store that sets it aflame.  Apu goes to console Jay over his failure, but notices one scratch off ticket survived the fire as well as a single penny.  To his luck, the ticket wins Apu a million dollars, enough for him to rebuild and fully own a new Kwik-E-Mart just like his old one.  As thanks to Homer, Apu presents him a golden Squishee cup with free and infinite refills that will only cost him $3 in the long run.

In the episode's conclusion, Quimby orders the police to destroy the failed new Jebediah statue, but the police only end up destroying their new armored vehicle instead.

Quick Review
After a string of disastrous episodes, this one gets the show back on track.  Jay was not a good character, I don't know if "buzzword-spouting hipster millennials" like Jay actually exist, I tend to think that's not the case but I may just be naive.  In any case, Jay basically brought the episode down single-handedly.  The scenes with Apu himself were good, the parade has its moments and Bart's subplot was overall fine, but the episode suffered every time Jay spoke.

Final Score: 7.3

Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles (S27, E11-585)

Meanwhile, on Simpsons Singapore...

Plot Summary
Bart's class gets another new 4th grade teacher, Ms. Berrera, an army vet whom Bart quickly becomes smitten with.  However, Bart soon realizes that Principal Skinner is also smitten with her, and he and Skinner begin to clash for Berrera's affection.  Meanwhile, on an errand to buy $16 organic milk, Homer is instead convinced by Apu to buy the much cheaper and questionable Buzz "Milk" (a parody of Coca-Cola Fairlife which I forgot was a thing, thanks writers for reminding me of stuff from a year ago, again).

A few days later, Lisa grows acne and Bart, a mustache.  Once Maggie becomes gorilla-like in appearance and strength, the family realizes the "milk" is to blame and quickly ditch it.  During this time, Lisa wears makeup to cover her acne, which makes her quite popular.  In just a week's time she becomes obsessed with her popularity and tries to really go all out for an outdoor party, but with rain imminent Lisa realizes her luck is up and attempts to preempt the rain by revealing her flaws to everyone, but the acne has since cleared up so Lisa's plan backfires and she's back to being unpopular.

Meanwhile, perhaps due in part to his mustache, Bart eventually loses out to Skinner, whom he sees kissing Berrera.  In vengeance, Bart decides to pull prank after prank on Skinner while he's with Berrera in some attempt to break them up.  Lisa advises Bart that the hormones from the "milk" is responsible for Bart's current behavior.  He calms down, loses his mustache and invites both Skinner and Berrera to an ice-skating park where he simply wishes the couple the best.  In short time, Skinner attempts to introduce Berrera to his mother and his lame lifestyle, which disgusts Berrera so badly she goes back to the army.  Bart, Skinner and Milhouse for some reason bond over the experience some time later.

Quick Review
This was a pretty boring episode.  Not a lot of humor, especially later on, and the episode wraps up in a seemingly rushed, haphazard way which doesn't help it at all.  The premise of the episode was weird, there was a Lisa sideplot because apparently Season 27 is all about Lisa, and most of the plot just fell flat.

Final Score: 5.8

The Girl Code (S27, E10-584)

I'm married to a female coder.  She's not like this.  Please don't lump her in with this.

Plot Summary
Marge notices Homer forgot his lunch, so she goes to work to give it to him, then when she bails Homer out of trouble, the two spend the day together at work.  Afterwards, she decides to post a picture of Homer at the plant holding ice cream with the caption "Meltdown at the Nuclear Plant" on social media.  Mr. Burns, unaware of how most things work nowadays, takes offense at the post and fires Homer for it.

Meanwhile, Lisa starts taking a coding class at school, taught by Quinn Harper, a woman who takes pride being a woman coder, and shames any and all male coders she comes across.  Noting that Lisa is the only girl in the class, Quinn quickly warms up to her.  Later, when Lisa notices Marge regretting her social media post, Lisa gets the idea to develop an app that would predict the consequences one would face when making social media posts.  Quinn loves the idea and decides to build a team of strong female coders - and the comic book guy as the token male - to develop the app with Lisa at the Simpson home.

Homer, unemployed and confused by all the technospeak at home, decides to go back to a job he had when he was 14: a dishwasher at a Greek restaurant, who welcome him back with open arms.  Quickly, Homer falls in love with the Greek lifestyle, including growing hair all over himself.

Soon, Lisa, Quinn and the other women finish developing the app, nicknamed Conrad, and see that it works perfectly.  With plans to show off the app at a show, and then to release it worldwide thereafter, Lisa is stunned when she sees Conrad showing signs of sentience, though only Lisa notices.

At the app show, Conrad is a hit, but Conrad talks to Lisa again, pleading with her not to let it go live as seeing millions and billions of idiotic posts would make sentient programming go as insane as it could.  Lisa, seeing some of her in the app, relents and - despite the pleas from her fellow female programmers looking to prove how strong and independent they are - prevents the app from going live, allowing Conrad to flee into the cloud, because that's a thing that can happen.

As it turns out, Homer gets paid in Drachma, which you may or may not be aware, has become worthless currency.  However, Homer's newfound Greek appreciation even brings forth the ol' Deus ex machina, as Conrad blackmails Mr. Burns into giving Homer his job back, so all is back as it should be, I suppose.

Quick Review
This episode was an absolute mess.  I don't even know where to begin, honestly.  Well, first off, the bulk of the episode centers around technology.  Programming, apps, cloud computing, all hot topics, ideas and such of today, but that's the kind of stuff that can date itself really fast.  "Siri, tell Amazon to drone me a beer", noting first off that's not even a funny line, is not going to make sense for a lot of people, well, now because a lot of people aren't tech-savvy even to know what "Amazon" is, but say ten or fifteen years from now when Siri, drones and maybe even Amazon seem like such ancient relics that the fact the joke even exists is itself a joke.  That probably doesn't make too much sense, sorry.  I don't mean to imply I didn't get most of the tech references in the episode, I did but, I say this in one way or another often, just referencing tech terms and companies does not make for humor.

The parts about the female coders was just odd.  I think - I think - the writers were trying to take a jab against the stereotypes of these women, but because they are so easy to offend (which was one of the less subtle jokes against them in the episode), the attempts to mock them are very subtle, and very limited.  Quinn is the only one that shows any personality, and that personality, the "oh look, girls can code too, don't be so shocked stupid boys!  Look how anti-establishment I am, we should all be anti-establishment!" personality really rubbed off the wrong way.  I suppose this was the point, but it made parts of the episode that featured Quinn rough to watch.

As if the main plot wasn't enough of a bore, Homer's sidestory didn't do much either.  Once he started working at the Greek restaurant, basically all of the "humor" was 'look at all of this subset of Greek culture!  Oh, and they're broke, remember!?'  It just didn't work.

Frankly, I'm surprised this episode scored as high as it did, I could easily of pushed it into bottom-ten territory.  I would suppose the opening act with Marge and some of Conrad's musings prevented it from hitting rock bottom, but the episode is otherwise irredeemable.

Final Score: 4.2

Barthood (S27, E09-583)

So deep, man, lets give this episode an Emmy or something, wow.

Plot Summary
The episode works as one whole Boyhood reference.  The episode goes through Bart's life at the ages of 6, 8, 12, 15, 18 and I think 20 as he deals with his neglectful father, living in his sister's far more successful shadow and honoring Grampa whom, in this episode, Bart shares a deep connection with.

Generally, as the years move on, Bart becomes more depressed as Homer's neglect becomes more evident and Lisa's success the more invasive to Bart's life.  When Bart turns 15, he attempts to break out as a BMX star in honor of the then-late Grampa but injures himself when literally seeing Lisa's shadow and quits.  At 18, Bart confronts Lisa over her supposed superiority but Lisa snaps back noting that, if nothing else, Bart has become great at being an artist, including the awful way of life artists usually have.  Finding some odd inspiration out of that, Bart, in two years time, starts up a bike repair shop in honor of his relationship with Grampa as well as Lisa, who gave him the advice.

Quick Review
I preface this by saying I haven't seen Boyhood nor do I intend to.  I'm sure its a good movie, and its achievements can't be understated.  That said, that movie came out, as of this writing, nearly 18 months ago nationwide.  The Simpsons - well, modern Simpsons - are often criticized for referencing material far past its shelf-life, with the show even defending this practice rarely, but honestly, how many people still remembered Boyhood as a thing by the time this episode aired?  How many people watched this episode who, like me, never saw Boyhood?  Topical, flavor-of-the-time episodes like these never do well and date themselves quickly - see Homerpalooza for an example, and making a topical episode off of something last relevant well over a year ago makes even less sense.

Since this is modern Simpsons, of course the tribute to the reference has to be top notch.  The need to keep the episode faithful to its reference trumps any other factor - comedy, pacing, character development, and to much lesser, not-as-important aspect, canon.  The episode makes a point of having Bart have a strong relationship with Grampa even though, normally, nobody in the family cares about Grampa.  I'm sure something similar to that happens in Boyhood, but to someone who hasn't seen it (again, me), having such a drastic shift in character just feels off.

Subsequently, because there is such a focus on the reference and not much else, the episode isn't that funny.  It tries to make up for it in mild shock value (OH MAN HOMER IS STONED, OH SO IS CHIEF WIGGUM, AND NELSON LOOKS OLD, ISN'T THAT FUNNY!?) but that didn't work.  Grampa's ramblings were pretty decent but then he was gone for the second half of the episode so he couldn't continue salvaging this.

I've said or implied this multiple times by now, but I watch the Simpson to laugh at jokes be they jokes based off character flaws, or clever dialogue.  I don't watch the show to revel in storylines, and I certainly don't watch it to see the show act like its something else.  The latter was what I got, and what I got was very unimpressive.

Final Score: 5.7

Paths of Glory (S27, E08-582)

They make this seem bad but how the hell else are
you going to make that dog pay for laughing at you?!

Plot Summary
Lisa's solar-powered invention ends up a failure, after which she learns about Amelia Vanderbuckle, a female inventor from the 19th century whose failed inventions sent her to an insane asylum.  She figures out which dilapidated asylum it was and takes Bart along to check it out.  Once inside, Lisa finds a voice recording of Amelia stating she was able to complete one last great invention but has hidden it until a time when female scientists aren't openly mocked.  Meanwhile, Bart stumbles upon a diary of a sociopath and finds it so cool he must share it with his friends.

Chief Wiggum catches the boys reading the passages and learns from a disturbed Ralph that it was Bart who distributed them.  Believing the words to be written by Bart himself, Wiggum tells Marge soon after that he believes Bart to be a sociopath.  To confirm this, Homer and Marge try to give Bart a sociopath test disguised as an innocent test, but Bart figures out the scheme and decides to exploit his parents' fear by making them believe he fully is a sociopath.

While this is happening, Lisa finds the location where the supposed invention is, which today has become a Hooters-type sports bar.  Denied access to the basement, Lisa gets help from Willie and sneaks in from the back where the invention is located.  Some time later, Lisa reveals the invention to a crowd: a loom that acts and behaves like a primitive computer which, given the time frame would make the loom the first programmable computer.  Though nobody really cares, Lisa has helped a female scientist earn her place in history.

Meanwhile, tired of cowering in fear of Bart, Homer and Marge decide to send Bart to an asylum for sociopaths.  However, this asylum is actually a military training ground, as one would think sociopaths make for good soldiers.  Bart and several other kids are made to believe they're playing video games where they are controlling military drones in combat operations.  Bart excels at this, but when they learn that the simulations were real, Bart's guilt becomes too much to handle.  Then they learn that the simulations were, in fact, simulations and the previous reveal helped weed out non-sociopaths such as Bart.  Subsequently, Bart is allowed to come back home.

In the credits, Homer attempts to use the loom computer to view porn but gets caught in the act by Marge.

Quick Review
Bart's sidestory, which basically becomes the main story in the episode's second half, salvages this episode.  Lisa's story was absolutely dull with barely any humor to makes things more enjoyable.  Bart's story really makes up for that mess though it does taper off at the end.

Final Score: 7.1

Lisa with an "S" (S27, E07-581)

I guess I should've used an animated gif here, not that it would've been funny or anything.

Plot Summary
On poker night, Homer ends up losing $5000 to one of Moe's friends, an aging broadway star named Laney.  Desperate to reclaim those losses, Homer takes up Moe's idea to invite Laney over to his crappy house in hopes of evoking Laney's pity.  That plan doesn't work out, but Laney notices Lisa's saxophone ability.  As Lisa was unable to go to an expensive band camp (even before Homer's crippling gambling loss), Laney suggests that Lisa go with her in an attempt to become a broadway star.  Marge, very reluncantly, agrees to give Lisa up.

As Lisa starts traveling with Laney, becoming the talk of Hartford no less, Marge starts to panic when a skype call with Lisa leaves her less than relieved over the safety of her daughter, and forces the family to head for New York to find their daughter.  Along the way, the car breaks down, and Homer is forced to seek the aid of a nearby Amishman, who is a distant relative of Ned Flanders and chastises Ned for his "ultra liberal" views (you see, its funny because Ned is considered conservative!  Political views are funny, see!?!?!?), but agrees to pull the Simpsons to New York the rest of the way.

Lisa helps out Laney in her broadway show, which becomes a mild success.  Marge arrives just in time to see Lisa succeed and, after the show, after seeing Lisa become popular, Marge decides to give up and depressingly takes her leave.  Taking note of this, Laney decides to kick Lisa off the tour, not cluing Lisa in as to her real motivations behind it, but Lisa runs back to Marge over it and the family is reunited.

Quick Review
This was a pretty boring episode.  The jokes just weren't there, the references got a bit too much again, and the overall plotline left little to be desired.  There's very little about this episode that's redeemable.

Final Score: 6.0

Friend with Benefit (S27, E06-580)

No matter how hard humanity tries, it will never be as lazy as turtles.

Plot Summary
Homer laments not having $1100 to purchase a new seat-to-feet chair which has a button to assist people in getting up.  Telling Lenny and Carl about needing money later on (neglecting to mention why), the two tell Homer to try out crowdfunding, the internet form of panhandling.  Homer does so, setting up a campaign for money despite not revealing what for, and is still able to get the $1100 needed to buy his chair.  He posts an update about the chair, causing a massive outrage amongst his donors (all from Springfield, coincidentally!), and they come over and smash up Homer's chair in retaliation, leaving Homer realizing he'll never get to enjoy the finer things in life.

Meanwhile, Lisa befriends a new girl at school, Harper, who invites Lisa to come to a boy band concert.  Homer takes Lisa there, where the two are given VIP-level access to the concert.  As it turns out, Harper's father is an insanely rich head of a cloud computing company, having just bought the stadium the concert is at, and is also a rather insane single father.  Still, Homer enjoys all of the privileges bestowed upon him by Harper's father.  Following the concert, and a private David Copperfield show, Lisa starts to notice, however, that Harper acts rather condescending and outright rude to Lisa at times.

This comes to a head when, shortly after Harper's father invites the entire Simpson family to a Caribbean island he just bought, Harper and Lisa have a falling out when Harper is insulted Lisa wouldn't accept a top of the line bike as a present.  Regardless, Harper's father maintains his invitation and the Simpson family goes to the island formally known as Haiti.

After some time, Lisa and Harper run to their fathers arguing once again.  Harper's father implores Homer to convince Lisa to give up and let Harper have her way, but Homer (eventually) says no and stands up for his daughter.  Harper's father, insulted, forces Homer to leave the island, but Homer isn't leaving empty handed - he drags back another seat-to-feet chair that was given to him as a present.

Quick Review
Season 27 presents another pleasant surprise!  This episode has a nice amount of good jokes and comedy.  The references a little on the high side (include a self-reference to one of the show's lesser moments) but the episode's main plot could've been much, much worse.  Instead, the focus remained mostly on Homer with Lisa's part of the story kept to a refreshing minimum.

Final Score: 7.7

Treehouse of Horror XXVI (S27, E05-579)

He's supposed to be laughing in this scene, I guess?

Plot Summary
The opening is another John K. affair, where the zombified remains of Frank Grimes chase the Simpson kids back to their house, where the monster eats Homer's soul, or something.

Wanted: Dead Then Alive
Bart is easily lured to the school's music room, as part of a trap set up by Sideshow Bob.  Bart taunts Bob, knowing how often the man has failed to kill the young boy.  However, thanks to the lack of canon these Halloween episodes carry, Bob finally, successfully, and rather easily, pulls off the deed.  Having finally killed Bart, Bob takes the boy's body back home with him as a trophy of sorts, easily avoiding the small attempt by Homer to figure out where Bart went.

His main goal in life completed, Bob decides to become a professor at a University.  However, today's "educated" college kids do not mesh well with Bob at all, and he yearns for a time when Bart was alive so he could kill him all over again.  Luckily, Bob is able to 'borrow' enough materials from his college that he's able to build a reanimation machine to bring Bart back to life, good as new.  Thus begins a cycle where Bob kills Bart quickly, then his machine brings Bart back as good as new regardless of how badly Bob hacks or chops Bart up.  Eventually, though, Lisa finds Bart by peeking in from the basement window, and the family goes in to rescue and reanimate Bart.  Bob tries to stop them, but Homer knocks him out with a lamp, then chops his head off with the same, reanimated lamp.  Bart then takes Bob's head and various other parts to reanimate Bob as a chimera sort of thing, which makes his job as a professor slightly more difficult.
Individual Score: +1.1

Homerzilla
In a rural, 1940's Japanese town, Abraham Simpson is mocked for sending a donut out to sea daily, as he does so to prevent the rise of a massive monster.  One day, however, crazy ol' Abe dies, and nobody in his family believed his story so nobody carries on the tradition.  Soon enough, a beast rises from the sea: Homerzilla.  Causing havoc all around, Homerzilla destroys all.

It's revealed, though, that Homerzilla is just a film (evident by the Homer in the suit falling off the city set), and a group of modern movie executives plan on creating a modern Homerzilla.  Two years later, the remake, 'Zilla, comes to fruition but with an uninteresting plot and product placements everywhere, the movie bombs heavily.  The execs decide to dump all copies of the movie into the sea, which bumps into, and awakens, a Homerzilla sleeping within.
Individual Score: +0.5

Telepaths of Glory
Milhouse falls into a hole, with Bart and Lisa giving chase.  The three land in cavern littered with nuclear waste which eventually explodes.  When they awake, Milhouse and Lisa realize that they've been given telepathic powers which react to their intellect (which means Bart gets squat).  As Lisa slyly abuses her powers, Milhouse goes full on madman with his, but is struck down mightily.  As Lisa denies having anything to do with it, it's revealed Maggie, too, has powers thanks to sucking on a radioactive element of some sort.  She uses her powers to do incredible things, like making French people nice.  Then, the aliens lament being relegated to a simple cameo again and when the picture ratio drops to 4:3 as punishment, Kodos warns their overlords that this isn't Season 4 (don't worry, we know it isn't).
Individual Score: +0.4

Quick Review
Well, I really enjoyed the Sideshow Bob bit, a nice return for the Kelsey Grammar-voiced character after his last, very odd appearance.  The Homerzilla bit started off very nicely, and the twist involved I had no problems with, but the comedy following the twist fell flat and held that segment back.  The last segment was short, not that funny and got a little reference-happy at the end.  In the end, its an improvement from last season, but its still one of the weaker Treehouse of Horror entries.

Final Score: 7.0

Halloween of Horror (S27, E04-578)

Being afraid gives anyone the ability to shoulder the weight 240+ lb men.

Plot Summary
The day before Halloween, Homer finishes up decorating his house for the holiday ("Everscream Terrors"), a top notch effort of spooky sights.  Upon learning his skeletons have melted, though, he and the family take a quick trip to the temp Halloween store managed by Apu.  Three temp workers attempt to give Homer a backdoor deal under the condition he doesn't tell "Señor Squishee", but Homer, unaware of who that really is, immediately tells Apu about his great deal.  Apu quickly fires his three "helpers", who immediately note to a leaving Homer that he's going to be sorry for getting them fired.

That night, Homer takes Bart and Lisa to a Krusty-sponsored Halloween event.  Lisa in particular is hyped for it, however the sights, sounds and terrors of the event are too real for Lisa to deal with and despite everyone including Lisa knowing the scares aren't real, Lisa breaks down in terror.

On Halloween day, Bart's buccaneer costume is forcibly limited at school.  Also limited is Lisa, who can't even look at Halloween decorations without freaking out now.  As such, Marge forces Homer to take down Everscream Terrors to save Lisa's sensibilities, but as Homer refuses the two notice that Lisa has recovered "Tailee", a soft toy from Lisa's past that she uses as an emotional crutch that her parents had hoped she moved on from.  Knowing Lisa's back on Tailee, Homer relents and takes down his showcase, further disappointing Bart.

To try and make up for things, Marge tries to take Bart trick-or-treating at a fancy neighborhood but are denied entrance.  Marge tries to take Bart on last-second trick-or-treating around their neighborhood but everyone closes up shop.  Now that it's late enough, "Adult Halloween" begins, where adults in skimpy costumes walk around town and be drunk and vulgar, right in front of Bart who is aware - if nothing else - that his Halloween is ruined.

Meanwhile, Homer attempts to have a regular, quiet night with his emotionally fragile daughter.  However, he's visited by the three men whom he got fired the other day.  Realizing their intent, Homer attempts to lock down the house without alarming Lisa, but fails as the three find a way to enter the house.  Homer tries to make a break for the Flanders' place but Lisa heads back to retrieve Tailee.  Homer runs back to get her but the two are confronted by the men, and they're forced to flee into the attic.

As Lisa completely shuts down from the fright, Homer tries to reassure her that, yeah, he's scared too but being afraid doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to think at the same time.  Comforted by her father's words, Lisa recovers and helps Homer come up with a plan to draw attention to the house - using various fireworks and decorations from Homer's other holiday extravaganzas.  Homer quickly sets up a makeshift firework display, but its too windy to light up a match for any period of time.  Lisa nobly offers the flammable Tailee to provide a consistent fire, and with it Homer sets off the fireworks, drawing everyone from Adult Halloween - including the police, to his house.  The three men are quickly arrested, and with Lisa having overcome her fears, Everscream Terrors is back on, much to the delight of Bart.  In the credits, Maggie discovers a burnt-up Tailee, but its suddenly restores itself, carrying on its terrifying legacy with the second Simpson daughter.

Quick Review
This was a pretty decent episode.  The main storyline with Lisa and Homer was pretty good and had many good jokes and bits.  Bart's sidestory was significantly less funny, and the "Adult Halloween" bit was a major miss, bringing the episode down.  Still, the episode didn't suffer too much from many of the things that often plague modern Simpsons (even the referencing was limited to just Halloween costumes), making for an overall enjoyable experience.

Final Score: 7.4

Puffless (S27, E03-577)

That's some quality bonding, that bleach to the men's retinas I mean.

Plot Summary
Its the 80th birthday of Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, and the family reluctantly goes, including Maggie who befriends a cartoonish squirrel just before they leave.  At the birthday party, after some shenanigans Marge, Patty and Selma finally learn how their father died: lung cancer, presumably from smoking.  The news unnerves Patty and Selma and the two decide to quit smoking before they suffer a similar fate.

The process of quitting is a difficult one for Patty both because it seems like Selma's doing okay and Patty is having symptoms similar to that of a stroke.  However, at the hospital she figures out that Selma is, still, smoking.  Unable to patch their differences in this difficult time, Patty leaves Selma to try and quit on her own, living with the Simpsons in the interim.  Selma is willing to accept things as they are, but with her visualizing her cigarette as a woo-ing, Jon Lovitz-voiced tempter, Selma realizes her error, and reunites with Patty.  The two attempt to quit together, but upon realizing how awful their apartment smells without cigarette smoke filtering everything, the two quickly return to their habit, with a montage of their smoking to finish the episode.

Meanwhile, Maggie's squirrel friend introduces her to other animal friends, including a possum whom Maggie gets particularly attached to.  One night, however, the possum disappears, but Maggie notices Cletus and his family going home with it with the intention of cooking it.  Maggie rallies up the animals and concocts a plan of rescue, however she is unable to go because she's too slow, that is until a pig (the "Spider-Pig", from the movie) arrives to give Maggie a lift.  Maggie, with the animals, defeat a guard dog and a hillbilly baby to free the possum.  The group disbands before the credits.

Quick Review
This episode, actually, was very funny.  Maggie's animal sideplot was much funnier than I anticipated, thanks in large part to the use of Cletus and his family.  The main plot has lots of funny moments as well, particularly the parts with the bleach, call me silly but I liked that gag a lot.  The episode has a few too many references against it (namely the Spider-Pig and a whole segment that looks like it was from the cutting floor of Lady Bouvier's Lover), and the ending was pretty stupid (oh our place smells lets smoke again so we don't have to smell it LOL), but overall, this is the funniest episode I've watched that wasn't a crossover or cross promotion of something in a couple of seasons.  What a pleasant surprise.

Final Score: 8.3