Great episode, still remember the lines from the proposal scene.
HOWEVER. Patty was wrong to turn down a happy relationship with Skinner just because of her sister. Especially when Selma herself was desperate to do the exact opposite, to a point where she put up with Barney Gumble. Not how a healthy bond works! Take him back, Patty!
I can't believe I've never seen this episode before right now.
6.5/10 on a classic Simpsons scale. While there were a number of good lines (Homer's terminator bit and discussion of Selma in particular) and some of that mix of cynicism and sweetness that makes the show great, there just weren't as many laughs and the emotion of the story didn't land as well as it needed to in order to make this a great one. Sad Sack Selma is a well the show's returned to a couple of times, and it's a legitimate place to go for pathos, but it didn't do a whole lot for me here. Skinner and Patty made a surprisingly cute pair, and the show did a good job laying the foundation for why they would find common ground. And the ending (with the Catch-22 exchange) works really well in the themes the episode traffics in.
That's the thing, there's nothing really wrong with this episode. Sure, it's a little lighter on laughs than I prefer in classic Simpsons, but there's more than enough to chuckle at, and the story of the episode is well spun and paced and structured. Something about the whole is just lesser than the sum of its parts somehow. Maybe it's just speaking from a place of experience I don't really have, and I'll appreciate it better when I'm a little older.
Shout by Mista LukaBlockedParent2022-01-06T15:55:27Z
“Principal Charming” is another mediocre episode that doesn't land the same emotional beats as previous episodes have. While I feel Principal Skinner and Patty ironically had good chemistry, neither character deserves to have that much screentime focused on them. There is nothing I found necessarily ‘bad’ about this one. However, I'm hard-pressed to think of compliments as well, as neither the humour nor the story stands out in any way.
Overall, not bad, but not good either.