The Old Blue Mayor Ain't What She Used to Be (S29, E06-624)

Recap: Marge runs for and is elected Mayor of Springfield, but as she's unable to fulfill her promises, Homer's oafish demeanor allows her to retain decent approval ratings.

Review: The first half of the episode was irredeemable garbage, with the blatant, practically shameless referencing and disregard of Marge vs. the Monorail, so poorly done it was even worse than the heavy-handed political references that littered the episode.

The episode is barely salvaged by a stronger second-half, after Homer's bumbling helps Marge out.  The jokes were stronger overall in the second half, which keeps the episode from tanking completely.  Better than what I was expecting, but that's not saying much.

Final Score: 5.0

Opposites A-Frack (S26, E05-557)

This scene implies their emotions while they were having sex.  Thanks, I guess.

Plot Summary
Marge's sisters come to stay at the house as they returned from vacation early and their apartment is still being cleaned of black moss.  Homer is not ready to deal with this, but quickly realizes an out: he sees his kids coughing as his sisters-in-law smoke near them and makes the valid assertion that the two must either stop smoking in the house or be kicked out for the sake of the children.  The two agree, and Homer - knowing the two will break at some point - installs smoke alarms everywhere to stop the two from smoking in secret.  What's worse, its raining outside and electronic cigarettes just don't cut it for them.  The two find apparent salvation, however, when they see the bathroom has no smoke alarms.  The two rush in and lock the door and make every effort to avoid being caught, including turning on the faucet to muffle noise.  However, when they ignite their lighter, the bathroom explodes, and the two are caught.  As Homer sends the two to where smokers like them belong - the dog racing track - Marge and Lisa notice that the water is literally on fire.

Lisa quickly investigates that this is likely the result of "fracking", a controversial method of mining for natural gas that has the adverse side effect of polluting water supplies with the gas.  Bart and Lisa locate a suspicious building nearby that's masquerading as a women's basketball hall of fame that's actually a fracking operation run by Mr. Burns.  As he quickly shoos the two away, Lisa decides to call upon one of her liberal heroes in congress that she hopes will put the fracking operation to an end: Maxine Lombard, a democratic assemblywoman (voiced by Jane Fonda).  Quickly, Maxine stages a hearing against Burns for the fracking operation and orders it shut down.  Angered, Burns confronts Maxine in her office, when suddenly their passions overlap and the two just have sex right there in the office.

The two realize they enjoy each other's, hm, "company", but business is business and Burns needs to get the fracking operation back up.  He learns that he can do so if he can have the mineral rights of the land signed over to him by every resident in the area, and calls upon the likable Homer to convince everyone to do so.  Burns also asks Homer for relationship advice, and Homer notes that if she's getting in the way of his business priorities then perhaps he should harden his heart and move on.  Meanwhile, nobody is particularly willing to sign it over, until Homer points out that Mr. Burns will give each person $5000 to do it, at which point everyone signs over their rights... except for Marge who remains against the operation because she literally saw her water on fire.  With her support unobtainable, the measure is lost and Burns' operation can not continue.  Maxine comes to gloat while presenting him another opportunity to "fool around", but an angry, hardened Burns casts her aside and declares their "relationship" over.

Homer is similarly upset with Marge over ruining his newfound career as a propagandist (even though the water was actually on fire), and goes to hang out with Burns to talk about their relatively similar romantic situations.  Just then, Burns' mansions starts to get torn down as part of a revenge-related redevelopment project that plans to turn the mansion into several pro-liberal projects at once.  Further angered, Burns takes Homer back to the fracking base and immediately resumes the operation, much more severely than before.  Marge convinces Homer to stop following Burns by once again reminding him their water was literally on fire, and Homer uses this to his advantage by igniting hose water to melt and destroy the fracking apparatus.  His operation ruined, Burns is aghast that Homer has made up with Marge despite there being nothing in common between them.  Maxine - who is probably a bit forgiving considering she won - convinces Burns that love continues on their sheer passion, which the two of them still have.  Some time later, the two are in bed talking about mundane things, their passion gone but they remain a couple.

Quick Review
This episode fared a lot better than what I was expecting.  Let's review: the writer had written three previous episodes, all of which I found to be awful episodes.  Season 26 has gotten off to a poor start as well, and worse yet this episode was rife with political commentary and jokes.  That all could've easily combined to make yet another disastrous episode.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case.  The opening act with Patty and Selma was excellent and put the episode on the right foot, and the political jokes weren't too bad, and Lisa was less annoying than she usually is in these kinds of episodes.  Overall, I can say this episode wasn't bad, somehow.

Final Score: 7.3

The Kid is All Right (S25, E06-536)

I still remember when Bill Clinton was cool.  ...no I don't, I'm lying.

Plot Summary
After forgoing the opening sequence for a lengthy homage/reference to the Disney short Music Land, the episode begins with Lisa being, once again, depressed because she is, once again, alone.  However, once again, Lisa finds a glimmering ray of hope when she befriends, once again, the new kid in school, fellow 2nd grader Isabel Gutierrez who shares Lisa's love of literature.  The two team up to do a school report on Franklin Roosevelt when Lisa notices Isabel's portion is a rather conservative take on the otherwise well-liked President.  Lisa learns that Isabel is a rather hardcore Republican, shocking even more so to her given Isabel's Latin heritage.

Lisa talks it over with Marge who tells Lisa that Isabel is likely just going through a phase, like Marge did back in the 80s.  Back at school, Lisa learns Isabel's mother told her daughter that Lisa is going through a 'liberal phase'.  Despite their political divide, Lisa and Isabel decide to forgo all that and remain friends.  That is, until the upcoming class president elections.  As Lisa decides to run for the position she learns she'll be going up against - yep - Isabel.  This garners the attention of the Republican party (Mr. Burns, mostly), who desperately need a Hispanic voice like Isabel in their stead, but Isabel refuses their outright help, so the Republicans decide to help Isabel out "behind the scenes", mainly filling the school with pro-Isabel propaganda to hurt Lisa's campaign.

Desperate Lisa, once again, turns to Bart for help.  Bart gets Lisa's campaign back on track, but as Bart shows Lisa a captured video of Isabel falling off a training wheeled bike, Lisa (once again) backs off the 'dark path' and decides to simply run against Isabel fair and square.  In a debate, Lisa tries to tell the audience about the simplicity of being a liberal, and that those ideals were in place during America's best times.  Lisa has a dream a short time later where she's visited by the ghosts of other democrats who lost big in elections, indicating Lisa is gonna be next in line despite her big speech.

In the final debate, though, Isabel decides to, again, eschew politics and decrees that even if Lisa wins, it'd be no big loss for her because Lisa's her friend and that the race for class president shouldn't be politically charged anyway.  Lisa shares the sentiment, but Isabel ends up winning anyway.  Later, Milhouse reveals that an exit poll shows that 53% of the class would vote for a liberal candidate, just not Lisa.  Lisa is content with that.  In 2056, Lisa and Isabel are, once again, against one another, this time for what I assume is President of the United States, and an elderly Homer is proudly watching alongside his Music Land parody self.

Quick Review
I have really mixed feelings about this episode.  There were some really good jokes and bits in the episode that I felt worked really well, and that if those bits were the only elements within, the episode could've gotten the highest score I would've given in several seasons.

However, there's just so much that goes wrong, too.  The opening sequence was tough to sit through, for starters.  And then, of course, the episode is heavy with the political themes, thankfully it wasn't anything too bad, though moments when Lisa and/or Isabel would clamor on about the greatness of their specific ideology I couldn't help but cringe.  With no side plot to possibly help out, I'm left with an episode that, while having some good moments, is just too far dragged down by its political elements to be worth giving a good score to.

Final Score: 6.3

Politically Inept, with Homer Simpson (S23, E10-496)

She always knew, she always knew.

Plot Summary
The Simpsons are trying to go to their cousin's wedding but suffer delay after delay at the airport and in the airplane itself when hours pass without a takeoff.  Homer finally has enough and goes on a rant throughout the plane about how crummy airlines have become.  Bart is able to record video of the rant and uploads it to the internet.  In time, Homer learns he's become a popular internet sensation.  He gets invited to a conservative news program for some reason, and its host gets the better of Homer at first, but with encouragement from his family, he's about to out-rant the host and show him up.  Network executives come up and reward Homer by giving him his own show on their network.

Homer's rants on his show have an extra kick to them, as Homer often cries while defending whatever it is he's talking about, showing more emotion than most other pundits.  Marge and Lisa begin to worry that Homer's inciting flames of some sort, and that becomes true after Homer goes on a tear about the gravy boat of freedom or some such.  With legions of people now on the gravy boat bandwagon, Homer is chosen by the Republic party to select someone to become their candidate for presidency.  At the Republican HQ, Homer has trouble choosing a candidate, until someone shows up to make the choice for him: Ted Nugent.

Marge and Lisa now plead with Homer to reconsider, but Homer isn't backing down.  Homer then has a dream where James Madison shows Homer he's betrayed democracy, but he learns that it was actually a setup by his family led by Lisa.  Angered by this, he goes on his show to fully back Ted Nugent's candidacy, but finds he can't gather any emotion to back his pick.  Lisa shows up to tell Homer that this is because he doesn't believe what he's saying.  Homer admits he's full of crap, and apparently that's the end of his show and Nugent's campaign.

Quick Review
Well, this was a pretty bad episode.  Strike one: heavy political themes.  Strike two: Lisa meddling in Homer's affairs.  Strike three: Ted Nugent.  Oddly enough, its still not the worst episode of the season, but it certainly isn't watchable.

Final Score: 5.3

E Pluribus Wiggum (S19, E10-410)

"Mr. Lincoln, why did they make this awful episode?"  He did not actually say.

Plot Summary
Homer is set to start another diet, but before it begins Homer goes on a binge through Fast Food Boulevard.  He sees a public trash can nearby and decides to dump out his food garbage so Marge doesn't find out.  While he's there, he figures he'll clean out the rest of his car as well.  He throws in a leaky car battery and a still-lit match after lighting a cigar.  As he drives off, that combination of trash ignites a gas main below, and the entire boulevard explodes.  At a later town meeting, with everyone mourning the loss of the road, Homer convinces everyone they can rebuild, and Mayor Quimby decides to put a bond issue on it, to be voted on during their Presidential primary election.  However, that isn't for a few months still, so Quimby moves it up to next Tuesday, making it the first primary of the election season.

News outlets, as well as the candidates themselves, learn of this, and flock en masse to Springfield to get voters on their side, as well as voters in general.  None of the candidates look particularly good, though, and the media's constant presence becomes an annoyance as well.  They notice that the Simpson family is still undecided, and swarm their household trying to get them to pick someone.  Homer, as well as most of the town, has had enough.  He knows the media simply just wants to crown a favorite from the primary, and so he proposes that the town put in someone ridiculous as a write in vote.  The next morning, its learned that a surprise write in candidate won the primary and is favored by over half the likely vote: Ralph Wiggum.

Homer is particularly thrilled of the success of his plan, and goes full steam into getting Ralph through the rest of the primaries.  Lisa, however, is stunned by these developments.  Ralph is too dumb to be President?  That hasn't stopped anyone before.  The constitution won't let someone so young be President?  That thing died with the Patriot Act.  To make matters worse, both the Democrats and Republicans are trying to rally Ralph to their side, knowing that Ralph is the likely winner in the Presidential race.  As both sides try to swarm and convince Ralph to join their side, Lisa is able to get them off him to talk to him privately.  Lisa is once again stunned to learn that Ralph knows exactly what he's doing, and he'll unite both parties under his wing.  Lisa willingly relents, and Ralph ends up being sponsored by both parties.

Quick Review
I did not like this episode.  It had a couple of decent moments, like Homer's run through Fast Food Boulevard, or the moment Homer rallies everyone to nominate Ralph in classic Springfield style, but the heavy handed mockery of politics and political media, once again, fails to provide any decent humor, and the attempts were often tough to sit through.  Again, its not like its impossible to do political satire well, but for me that is usually the case when political satire is not the focus of the episode.  This episode fails to escape that fault, and suffers tremendously as a result.

Final Score: 4.1

Bart-Mangled Banner (S15, E21-334)

AMERICA, AMERICA, SOMETHING SOMETHING FREEEEEE

Plot Summary
The kids get inoculations, though Bart makes a decent attempt at avoiding it.  After Bart finally gets his shot, his ears swell and he suffers temporary deafness, leaving him unable to hear for about a day.  Bart still insists in participating in a donkey basketball game at the school, though.  Before the game, everyone rises for the star spangled banner as a flag is shown.  Bart, who can't hear neither the prompts for the song nor the song itself, continues messing around with a donkey, but the donkey literally ends up eating Bart's shorts.  A still unwitting Bart then showcases his bare butt towards a flag he doesn't even know is there, and people in the gym quickly chide Bart and his supposed anti-American act.

With Bart's track record, nobody believe Bart was actually deaf during the incident, and the local newspaper does its job of blowing the story way out of proportion.  Soon, the entire town hates by and, by extension, the Simpson family.  They get a chance to redeem themselves on a talk show, but the host only intends to make the family seem worse.  Frustrated, Marge accidentally makes it worse, and soon the entire town of Springfield is hated by America.  Quickly, Mayor Quimby changes the town's name to "Liberty-ville", and the entire town is given a red, white and blue makeover.  At church, Lisa makes note that, hey there's still the First Amendment, and right after that a swat team swarms in and arrests the Simpsons under the "Government Knows Best Act".

After a plane ride, the family is sent to a prison meant to keep other 'liberals' from expressing their opinions, and to 're-educate' people by brainwashing into them American values.  With the help from an old man, the family is able to escape, where they learn that the prison was actually Alcatraz.  As the family tries to decide whether to swim to Oakland or San Francisco, a French boat arrives to help the family.  Now in France, the family likes their new life, but they still miss America, given most of their stuff is still there.  Thus, they decide to go back, agree to immigrate there because who could hate immigrants, right?

Quick Review
This is one of the worst episodes in the series.  First off, even as an episode from 2004, its dated.  Secondly, the episode goes from a 'everyone and the media blows things out of proportion' theme to a full blown political agenda.  Its not even really satire like in past political episodes, its basically saying "we writers are liberal and we hate how persecuted we are just by having different opinions on things and so we're expressing our frustrations through this episode".  Hey, I'm as politically-apathetic as they come, finding most political banter as mindless waste, so seeing this slop in a Simpsons episode is as offensive as killing a character because their VA wasn't available.  The fact that this episode actually has passable jokes, sometimes, saves it from being the worst episode of all time.

Final Score: 3.4

Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington (S14, E14-305)

I get it!  Fox News is biased towards Republicans!

Plot Summary
To avoid disturbing animals while mating, the government redirects air traffic, which unfortunately causes planes to fly rather low over the Simpsons home.  They go to their local congressman to complain about it, but he just ups and dies in front of them.  So now, they have to get a new congressman.  Bart suggests Krusty the Klown, and everyone - the family, Krusty, the Republican Party - goes with it.

Krusty's run for congressman hits a snag when his various misdeeds from the past come back to bite him, including several gags he did on his show that were less than PC.  He's able to recover thanks to the help of Lisa who reminds him to connect with the common person, as well as Republican-favoring Fox News, having gained its infamous bias as late as 2003.  With that combination, Krusty wins the bid and becomes a congressman.

Krusty attempts to introduce an air traffic bill to congress, but they won't give him the time of day.  The Simpsons fly into Washington to see this, and wonder what they can do to help.  A janitor that may or may not be Walter Mondale offers to help.  He helps the Simpsons get that bill passed the only way most things in Congress pass: stupidly.  Bart blackmails one opponent of the air traffic bill, preventing him from voting against it, and Homer is tasked to keep another opponent busy by having him take part in a lengthy drinking contest.  Afterward, Homer barges in during the vote drunk off his ass, giving Lisa a chance to attach the bill to a more popular bill - flags for orphans - allowing the bill to pass easily and the Simpsons no longer have to deal with their plane problem.

Quick Review
This episode wasn't that funny, and no, the of notion of having scathing political satire wasn't the reason why it did so poorly.  The reason why it scored poorly was because the scathing political satire itself just was not funny.

Final Score: 6.4

Sideshow Bob Roberts (S06, E05-108)

"And just look how happy he is!"

Plot Summary
Seems I'm a bit late with this episode, a somewhat satirical take on politics both then and now, but more importantly than that its another Sideshow Bob episode.  Bob, still in prison after his attempt on Bart's life, calls into a right-wing radio show hosted by Birch Barlow, complaining that his incarceration for "attempted" murder has no merit.  Birch makes it his mission to free Bob, gathering a large public force to convince Mayor Quimby to let Bob go.  Quimby relents, and quickly Bob is released from prison.

With the race for mayor coming up, the Republican party, consisting of Barlow, Mr. Burns, some Texan, Ranier Wolfcastle, Dr. Hibbert and who I presume is Dracula, agree that Bob would make an excellent candidate to unseat the six-time incumbent Quimby.  Bob's campaign is harsh and quick, using his own release from prison as a weapon against Quimby.  In a debate, Quimby is suffering from a cold (and extra-drowsy cold medication) and is unable to keep up with a witty Bob.  Come election time, Bob earns 100% of the vote to Quimby's 1% (with a 1% margin of error) and Bob gleefully enjoys his victory.

Soon, Bob makes efforts to make life miserable for the Simpsons, Bart in particular.  The "Matlock" Expressway, a new highway initially proposed by Quimby to appease seniors but left in limbo during the campaign, is quickly being built by Bob but requires going straight through the Simpson house, leaving is to be demolished.  Bob also sends an executive order to send Bart all the way back to kindergarten.  Lisa is convinced that Bob did not win legitimately given the wide disparity of votes between two ex-convicts, and begins to investigate, easily acquiring the list of people who voted and for whom.  Falling asleep in her attempt, a shadowy figure gives Lisa a letter to meet at a Pay & Park & Pay.  Homer unwittingly reveals the figure to be Smithers, whose "lifestyle choices" are conflicted with Bob's ultra-conservative views, tells the kids to look for one name: Edgar Neubauer.

The search for Edgar is fruitless at first, but Bart finds a gravestone with his name.  Lisa then realizes that most of the votes for Bob were by the deceased, including most of the pets in the pet cemetery.  Having found evidence of voter fraud, they take Bob to trial.  There, Lisa recognizes Bob's ego and attempts to cast Barlow as the mastermind behind the fraud scheme, implying Bob was nothing more than a puppet.  Bob furiously refutes that claim and takes full responsibility for the fraud, including showing the court all of the evidence needed to convict himself.  Having been trapped, Bob is arrested, and things go back to normal with Quimby somehow getting back in.  Bob in the meantime is sent to a minimum security prison where rowing contests against Princeton alums is a thing.

Quick Review
For an episode that tries to be a Sideshow Bob episode and a political satire, the combination works very well here, and there was a lot of humor to supplement the plot.  Oddities, like Homer's newfound rivalry with the Riverdale gang and the Matlock expressway add to the episode's quality as well.

Final Score: 9.5

Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (S03, E02-037)

Get a load of this guy.

Plot Summary
Homer becomes hooked on a trial copy of a Readers Digest.  He spends, I dunno, a day or so fully enveloped in its variety of articles.  Eventually, Homer stumbles upon a contest, where a child 12 years or younger can submit a 300 word essay on America.  After some inspiration, Lisa goes ahead and enters the contest, and her essay is able to win the regionals (after getting a 5pt bonus from definitely not getting any help from her father).  As a result from winning, she and the family get an expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C.

After the family gets a tour of the city (including Homer getting an all-important "boo" towards the IRS), they meet Springfield's congressman, who just prior to the meeting agrees to an under-the-deal table with an eager logging lobbyist.  Early, early the next morning, Lisa is eager to get a few more sights in before the national contest begins, and goes off on her own.  While afoot, she sees that congressman meet up with the lobbyist, accepting a nice cash bribe to allow Springfield forest to get cut down.

Seeing the bribe in action completely disillusions Lisa, as she tears up a speech full of words she no longer believes in.  After some soul searching, and the contest about to begin, Lisa decides that the "truth must be known", and writes a new speech.  Arriving at the contest just in time, Lisa gives her new speech, one which claims Washington as a cesspool of corruption, and reveals the bribe she witnessed.  Quickly the word spreads, not just about the bribery but also how one little girl is losing her faith in democracy.  Quickly a sting operation is set up, catching the congressman in the act, and he is arrested and removed from office.  The news hits newspapers that same day somehow, and upon learning what had happened, Lisa's faith in the government is restored though her essay wasn't winning any contests anytime soon.

Quick Review
Despite its political commentary, I'm not gonna comment much on this episodes besides the usual "hey its funny" such.  Hey, its funny.  Also, apparently, it ticked off the timber industry because they somehow believed the episode made them look like greedy, corrupt lobbyists unconcerned with causing ecological havoc.  Now how could they of gotten that message?
Final Score: 7.9

Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish (S02, E04-017)

Burns loses because of this, not from any of his other atrocities.  Politics.

Plot Summary
In this rather lengthy titled episode, Mr. Burns feels the pressure on him as his plant fails a safety inspection brought on by the discovery of a three-eyed fish Bart caught in a river just outside of the plant.  Faced with the possibility of the shutdown of his plant (or paying millions of dollars in repairs), Homer inadvertently gives Burns the idea to run for Governor so he can decide what is or isn't safe.

As it turns out, nobody likes Mr. Burns.  Yet, with his money he buys the best advisers and political strategists he can, and slowly but surely he starts rising up the charts.  It creates a political divide at the Simpsons' home as well: Marge roots for the incumbent Mary Bailey because her priorities are correct, and also because she isn't Mr. Burns.  Homer roots for Mr. Burns so that Burns doesn't fire him.  Such heated controversy!

Eventually, Burns ties Bailey in the polls, and his advisers determine that a dinner with one of his plant workers (guess who!?) will push him over the top.  Homer convinces Marge to have the dinner, but she has a plan up her sleeve.  At the dinner, she offers Mr. Burns the three-eyed fish Bart caught earlier in the episode.  After previously mentioning how natural and delicious it is in a political ad, Burns is unable to stomach the taste of this one, and spits it out, and his bid for Governor along with it.

Quick Review
Ah, politics.  Its like sports, except without any of the fun.  They have big conventions showcasing their political stars like some big wrestling event, political parties mock one another like two cliques in junior high school.  Then somehow people from these sides get elected and it turns out showboating and making fun of people offer no help in actual lawmaking.  Go figure.

The episode, while fine on its own, is a weaker effort compared to the last two episodes from this season.  The inspection of the run-down plant and Burns' eventual bribe were the best parts of the episode, I believe.  Otherwise, there just wasn't too much to laugh at.

Final Score: 7.3