[7.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Pretty solid all around! This one doesn’t light the world on fire or anything, but it’s a roundly amusing episode with functional throughlines for each of its major players.
That starts with Marge. I’m always a fan of Marge episodes, and it’s nice to get a story that focuses on her having forgone a social life in order to look after her family. The idea of her rekindling the friendship with the “cool” moms and finding a little more fulfilment out of it is a nice touch.
I also like the complimentar ythrougline for Bart. THe notion that part of the reason the Cool Moms might have broken up is that the other kids were a bad influence on Bart is a good one. We see that dramatized nicely here, with the others egging Bart on to do more dangerous and risky stunts as the episode progresses. His sense of being in over his head and wanting his mom back are relatable, and I particularly like that it doesn’t end with Bart getting his wish thanks to some crazy scheme.
Instead, it’s due to Marge loving her son, and blanching when the other moms accuse him of being the bad apple. Marge not losing her social life thanks to Bart’s monkeyshines, but rather choosing to reject her fellow mom friends out of a sense of defensiveness for her special little guy makes the ending sweet rather than sad.
The comedy here is solid too. There’s something well-observed about the spouses of the Cool Moms being forced to hang out together despite not having anything in common. The opening rivalry between fourth- and fifth-graders after a controversial dodgeball game has a lot of laughs and smiles to go ‘round. And even Comic Book Guy’s flashback has some amusing nerd humor and misdirects. There’s a few rough jokes here (chiefly the gag about Mrs. K wearing a bra), but thankfully they’re brief and compartmentalizable.
Overall, this isn’t going to be anybody’s favorite episode. But it does what it does well and gets the core characters right, which speaks well of an outing in season 22.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-09-20T22:27:28Z
[7.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Pretty solid all around! This one doesn’t light the world on fire or anything, but it’s a roundly amusing episode with functional throughlines for each of its major players.
That starts with Marge. I’m always a fan of Marge episodes, and it’s nice to get a story that focuses on her having forgone a social life in order to look after her family. The idea of her rekindling the friendship with the “cool” moms and finding a little more fulfilment out of it is a nice touch.
I also like the complimentar ythrougline for Bart. THe notion that part of the reason the Cool Moms might have broken up is that the other kids were a bad influence on Bart is a good one. We see that dramatized nicely here, with the others egging Bart on to do more dangerous and risky stunts as the episode progresses. His sense of being in over his head and wanting his mom back are relatable, and I particularly like that it doesn’t end with Bart getting his wish thanks to some crazy scheme.
Instead, it’s due to Marge loving her son, and blanching when the other moms accuse him of being the bad apple. Marge not losing her social life thanks to Bart’s monkeyshines, but rather choosing to reject her fellow mom friends out of a sense of defensiveness for her special little guy makes the ending sweet rather than sad.
The comedy here is solid too. There’s something well-observed about the spouses of the Cool Moms being forced to hang out together despite not having anything in common. The opening rivalry between fourth- and fifth-graders after a controversial dodgeball game has a lot of laughs and smiles to go ‘round. And even Comic Book Guy’s flashback has some amusing nerd humor and misdirects. There’s a few rough jokes here (chiefly the gag about Mrs. K wearing a bra), but thankfully they’re brief and compartmentalizable.
Overall, this isn’t going to be anybody’s favorite episode. But it does what it does well and gets the core characters right, which speaks well of an outing in season 22.