You Don't Have to Live Like a Referee (S25, E16-546)

Looks like Homer has the NFL referee's lifestyle down.

Plot Summary
After a failed history demonstration at school goes awry, Superintendent Chalmers tells Principal Skinner to figure out who the kids actually see as their heroes, with Skinner needing to get a sponsor for the school to acquire the necessary funding to set up a "my hero" contest at the school.  At the contest, Lisa thinks she's a shoo-in to win with her report on her hero Marie Curie.  However, Martin Prince gets to present before her, and Curie is also his hero.  With the originality of her presentation lost, Lisa runs off in tears.  Consulting the nearby Bart, Lisa gets the last-ditch idea from him to use Homer as her hero.  Composing herself, Lisa goes up and talks about the various times Homer had been a good father to her, including being a steadfast and honest soccer referee that one time.  The speech is a hit, and Lisa ties with Martin for the win, which means the school keeps the prize money.

Afterward, Lisa's speech goes viral on the internet, garnering the attention of top soccer officials, who needs Homer's honesty and incorruptibility for the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, given how many referees and top soccer officials have been corrupted by money.  Inspired by Lisa's words, Homer accepts the offer and the Simpsons head to Brazil (again).

As Marge works on her Portuguese, Homer begins to ref World Cup matches, and does so admirably.  Soon enough, a group of gangsters attempt to bribe Homer with food and money, but he turns them down, still holding Lisa's words strong within him.  This is shattered, though, when Bart reveals he wasn't her first choice as her hero.  Devastated, Homer reluctantly agrees to fix the World Cup final in favor of Brazil.  Lisa confronts Homer before the match, and tells Homer that while it was true he wasn't her first choice, his actions afterward have truly made him the hero she always hoped he would be.  His honesty renewed, Homer calls the World Cup fairly despite heavy Brazilian diving, and the Germans win the World Cup.  The gangsters find Homer to kill him for breaking the deal, and not even Marge's newfound Portuguese fluency will stop them.  However, the mother of the lead gangster steps in and forces them to leave Homer alone, after Lisa switched seats with her on the plane so she could watch HBO.  With that resolved, the Simpsons enjoy the rest of their time in Brazil.

Quick Review
This turned out to be a lot better than I expected.  Granted, I expected it to compete for "10 Worst Episodes" territory but, for once, my fears were unfounded.  The subplot was the school was pretty good, I felt, and set a good pace for the episode.  Of course, many episode before this do the same only to fall apart at the end.  That sort of happened here, but not too much.  Going in, I figured there'd be a lot of time wasted showcasing how great soccer is, and 'look at this, see how cool it is', stuff like that.  Thankfully that was kept to the barest of minimums with even a recurring diving joke thrown in.  (I'm aware this makes it sound like I'm not a fan of soccer and, outside of the World Cup ironically, I'm really not.)  Overall, this is one of the season's better episodes with only a few missteps, but far fewer than what I thought there'd be.

Final Score: 7.5

Marge Gamer (S18, E17-395)

We were all this bad once, though for some they were this bad when they were five.

Plot Summary
Marge gets tired of being left behind on things because she doesn't have an e-mail address.  So, not only does she get an e-mail address, but she becomes an internet addict, doing practically everything on it.  One night, while waiting feverishly for e-mail, Marge notices a banner ad for an MMORPG called Earthland Realms.  After creating a character that looks like her and some initial hiccups, Marge becomes adept at the game, though she loses a lot of sleep in the process.  She learns that many other Springfield residents play the game, but then learns that everyone is terrified by the Shadow Knight, a powerful player capable of killing everyone and anyone easily.  After witnessing the Shadow Knight's massive power, Marge goes to do laundry in real life, but then overhears Bart playing the same game... as the Shadow King.  Marge greets Bart ingame, much to Bart's embarrassment as he has online cred to maintain.  Bart saves Marge one day in the game, but returns to his castle in horror as he learns that Marge discarded his trophy room to turn it into a Hello Kitty expansion pack monstrosity.  Bart starts tearing apart the room in rage, but accidentally kills Marge's character in the process.

Meanwhile, Homer takes Lisa to her soccer game, but its about to be cancelled as the ref has quit.  Learning that referees share in snack time, Homer gladly takes over but as expected makes a total ass of himself during the game, earning Lisa's scorn.  Reeling from said scorn, Homer studies hours of soccer footage, and the next time he refs he becomes quite competent as the job.  Homer calls a foul on Jessica Lovejoy after she trips Lisa.  As the Lovejoys yell at Homer for his call, he insists the call is right, and play continues.  Lisa figures out that taking falls mean calls going your way, and with her father as the ref, takes full advantage and becomes a gigantic flopper.  After one such dive, which Homer falls for, he gets into an argument with Cletus (whose kids supposedly committed the foul).  Ronaldo, a soccer player famous everywhere except America and maybe Canada, arrives to confirm to Homer that Lisa flopped, and Homer has no choice but to penalize Lisa with a yellow card.  Lisa tears it up in rage, forcing Homer to give her a red card instead, kicking her out of the game.

Homer and Bart meet up later on as Lisa and Marge, respectively, are mad at them over their silly games.  They go to Moe's, where Moe (or a guy that kidnapped and replaced Moe) suggests Homer appeals to Lisa's reason, and Bart to Marge's feelings.  Homer gives Lisa a DVD documentary, which shows her just how bad soccer hooliganism can be.  Lisa realizes she was in the wrong, and that she won't get stupidly upset over soccer like the Europeans and South Americans do, and she'll only play for fun now.  Meanwhile, in Earthland Realms, Bart uses his abilities to revive Marge's character, but the process leaves Bart with only a third of his health.  The other players, thanks to an unwitting Marge, learn of this and quickly storm Bart's castle and overwhelm him, celebrating the fall of the Shadow King.  Bart mostly doesn't care and goes outside to join Lisa and Homer in soccer, but Marge promises to get vengeance for him, going on a killing spree on everyone in game and becoming a Shadow Queen herself.

Quick Review
Admittedly, I thought this episode was going to be terrible.  This episode aired back when World of Warcraft was still popular somehow, so the show, along with a few others, tried to capitalize on its popularity by making episodes themed around that game (the 'newbie parent embarrasses their pro gamer kid in game' trope is present in most of these).  This episode feels like it was written with no real knowledge of the game or genre, or that it was disposed in favor of quick not-that-funny gags like making Skinner a turkey in game and what not.

The soccer side story wasn't all that funny.  Ronaldo's appearance seems pretty throwaway and didn't really add anything to the episode.  The episode's score ends up being pretty low as a result, but its still much higher than what I thought it would be going in as episodes focused around video games can very easily become disasters.

Final Score: 6.7

The Cartridge Family (S09, E05-183)

All this, just by robbing the Kwik-E-Mart.

Plot Summary
An awesome commercial showing the cool nature of soccer captivates the Simpson family and Springfield as a whole, and they go to see Mexico and Portugal at the local stadium.  Turns out, the game is extremely boring, with one team just passing it to one another.  As people leave out of boredom, a riot breaks out, strengthened with the presence of some Scotsmen, and soon the riots occur throughout town.  With the mayor putting the city under mob rule, its every family for themselves.  The Simpsons attempt to get better security for their home, but its too expensive.  Marge pleads with Homer to find some way to protect the family, and Homer eventually decides the best way to do so is to get a gun.

After a painful five day waiting period, Homer's background check comes in, and its so littered with offenses that Homer can only possess up to three firearms, which allows him to buy the one gun.  He shows it to Marge later on, who freaks out over it, fearful that the gun could hurt the family.  Homer states his 2nd Amendment rights ('convincing' Lisa that the King of England could still come in and push her around without a gun), and takes Marge to an NRA meeting to show her the usefulness of guns.  At the meeting, Homer is captivated by how guns have helped its members, and decides to become a lifetime member.

Homer has no restraint with his gun, bringing it openly with him wherever he goes and uses it clumsily like its a tool.  At dinner, Marge pleads once more with Homer to get rid of the gun.  Homer relents and agrees to do so.  Some time later, Bart and Milhouse discover the gun (not very) hidden in the vegetable crisper in the fridge.  Marge is able to intervene before Bart can "William Tell" Milhouse, and becomes so angry that Homer lied to her about the gun she and the kids take off, refusing to return home until Homer decides that his family is more important than the gun.

Homer has no time to mope, though, as he had been chosen to host the next NRA meeting.  The members, however, are sickened and outraged that Homer is using his gun for mundane tasks like opening a can of beer or turning on the TV.  Unwilling to support Homer's reckless behavior, the NRA quickly kicks Homer out.

Homer finds his family, who are spending the night at a motel.  Homer tells Marge that he has gotten rid of the gun, and Marge decides to come back.  However, while the family is checking out, Snake attempts a robbery.  Homer pulls out his gun, much to Marge's anger having been lied to again.  During the confusion, Snake steals Homer's gun and as he's about to force Homer to give him the ammo to said gun, members of the NRA come in to force Snake away, having been called in via a silent alarm.  Homer gives his gun to Marge, admitting that he is unable to get rid of it himself as it comes with too much power, then takes his leave.  Just as Marge is about to dispose of it, she gives it a quick handle, comes to realize how cool she looks, and decides to hold on to it herself.

Quick Review
Its odd that I've come to this episode given what's going on in the United States these days around gun control and such, and though the issues at hand today differ than what's presented in this episode, it just goes to show that the 'gun debate' is and always will be a controversial topic.

As for the quality of the episode, it starts off wonderfully with the soccer scenes, hyping it up to be the best thing since Monday Night Football only for it to be so boring having a massive riot is preferable to it.  Homer's desire for a gun is good for a few laughs as well.  The NRA and their 'responsible' response to Homer's irresponsibility I found rather neat too given, well, the NRA.  In all, its another excellent episode for Season 9.

Final Score: 9.8