20x17 The Good, the Sad and the Drugly

8.2/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale. I appreciated the central concept of this one, with Bart being pulled by his affections for new love-interest Jenny and his loyalty to poor maligned Milhouse. The structure was good, with Bart participating in a prank that gets Milhouse in trouble and promising to visit his grounded chum in the first act, Bart meeting Jenny and pretending to be a good guy to impress her while neglecting Milhouse in the second act, and the whole thing falling apart when Milhouse calls him out on it in the third.

But what makes this one a cut above much of the show's post-classic fare is the emotion in the storytelling. I don't mean that there's much of a big melodramatic feeling to these events, but we understand Bart's emotional highs and lows here, what his hopes and fears are in the storyline, and that gives it juice beyond the "here's a series of events" approach the show occasionally takes in lazier eps. Here, we see Bart feel genuinely appreciative of Milhouse taking the rap, invested in Jenny's affections to the point that he makes a real effort to be a the kind of good kid she likes, and guilty and paranoid when Milhouse threatens to mess up the whole deal. Bart being honest with Jenny, and then offering a heartfelt apology to MIlhouse in the end is the right way to close things up.

The laughs aren't very big or numerous, but everything's amusing enough (Homer suspecting that Milhouse might be El Barto) with the only really objectionably dumb stuff coming from Homer's exaggerated dimness (like getting "mugged" by his own reflection in a pond or smashing a fly with his forehead when he has food in each hand.) There was some minor meta humor (Lisa saying "in my concurrent adventure"), but for the most part, this was the usual collection of mild chuckles.

The B-story, with Lisa growing despondent about the fate of the world with threats like climate change, and going on "happy pills" to take her mind of it was rushed but solid. In particular, it led to a lot of fun visual gags with the omnipresent smiley faces working as a great visual metaphor for how the pills numbed Lisa to life's difficulties. Again, it's all wrapped up rather quickly and neatly, but I did appreciate how they tied Lisa's lesson into Bart's story, even if they were about as loud in the effort as a show can be.

Overall, a good example of the show's small but significant resurgence when the HD-era began, with good storytelling, character dynamics, and visual creativeness buoying a solid ep.