[8.7/10] Such a great episode. For one, there’s just a lot of great gags about football. From the blandness of network promotions, to faux experts with meager prediction stats, to well-known cheating teams that win on “very suspicious plays,” there’s a lot of good satirizing of the football industrial complex that is surprisingly salient 25 years later.
But this is also just a great Homer and Lisa episode, which are one of this series’s strengths. There’s a lot of difference between the father and daughter, but also a lot of love, and so testing the fault lines between those things tends to pay off both emotionally and comedically. Seeing Lisa trying to get attention from her dad, and the two of them bonding over her preternatrual gift for picking games is a treat. There’s something adorable and how Homer’s aw shucks football fandom coincides with Lisa’s analytical appreciation for the game and, more importantly, time with her dad.
The bit with Marge taking Bart shopping is more in the pure comic relief department, but that doesn't stop it from being full of laughs and well observed bits of mom’s being kind of oblivious to the realities of grade school fashion and bullying.
But the heart of the episode is Homer and Lisa. The way the whole episode hinges on both an exaggerated sets of gags about the Super Bowl, and the core of the Homer/Lisa relationship at the same tiem is masterful. And between the funny football observations, and the tag that shows Homer going the extra mile for his daughter (possibly literally) threads the needle between sweet and hilarious just right.
Overall, one of those early-ish episodes that gets the core of both the humor and the characters pitch perfect.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-09-23T00:48:46Z
[8.7/10] Such a great episode. For one, there’s just a lot of great gags about football. From the blandness of network promotions, to faux experts with meager prediction stats, to well-known cheating teams that win on “very suspicious plays,” there’s a lot of good satirizing of the football industrial complex that is surprisingly salient 25 years later.
But this is also just a great Homer and Lisa episode, which are one of this series’s strengths. There’s a lot of difference between the father and daughter, but also a lot of love, and so testing the fault lines between those things tends to pay off both emotionally and comedically. Seeing Lisa trying to get attention from her dad, and the two of them bonding over her preternatrual gift for picking games is a treat. There’s something adorable and how Homer’s aw shucks football fandom coincides with Lisa’s analytical appreciation for the game and, more importantly, time with her dad.
The bit with Marge taking Bart shopping is more in the pure comic relief department, but that doesn't stop it from being full of laughs and well observed bits of mom’s being kind of oblivious to the realities of grade school fashion and bullying.
But the heart of the episode is Homer and Lisa. The way the whole episode hinges on both an exaggerated sets of gags about the Super Bowl, and the core of the Homer/Lisa relationship at the same tiem is masterful. And between the funny football observations, and the tag that shows Homer going the extra mile for his daughter (possibly literally) threads the needle between sweet and hilarious just right.
Overall, one of those early-ish episodes that gets the core of both the humor and the characters pitch perfect.