[8.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] What a difference a week makes! Ryan Koh wrote both this episode, a wide-ranging send-up of both The Wire and Roblox, which absolutely sings, and also the prior episode, an indifferent spoof of When Harry Met Sally that perpetually feels off key. The difference is in who showran each episode, and all I can say is Viva Matt Selman!
I’ll admit to being a sucker for The Wire parody. Skinner uttering the famous “You come at the king” line is amusing coming from such a stiff, and the tribute to the HBO show’s opening credits in The Simpsons’ closing credits is tons of fun for longtime fans of both (especially the scene where Bart uses his slingshot to ding the security camera.) But what I like most is the broader pastiche of The Wire’s themes and ideas, with a story of someone sidling up to “the life” out of a sense of dreaming big and convenience, only to fall so deep into the game that they lose themselves in it, and even turn on the one who brought them in. There’s shades of Marlo, Bodie, and others in that, and it’s a strange but effective thing to map onto Seymour and Bart.
But boy is it fun! I love the absurdity of this whole thing centering on Bart taking advantage of a glitch in a Roblox-style game to make real money. (It also has shades of Community using chicken fingers as fodder for a wide-ranging Goodfellas homage.) The idea lends itself to plenty of good humor, from Bart’s byzantine method to turn “bobux” into the real money, to the jabs at the progressive school who become Springfield Elementary’s rivals in the blox-bluffing business, to Bart not liking Roblox but preferring it to playing nothing at all. There’s an inherent silliness in treating something goofy, colorful, and generally low-stakes as the most dramatic, important, quasi-criminal thing in the world, and “Game Done Changed” mines as much humor as they can from the juxtaposition.
Despite all the absurdity at play, I like that Skinner has a goal that's driving him to sell his soul to the spiky-haired devil, just a bit. He wants to turn Springfield Elementary into a performing arts magnet school, so that he no longer has to sweat test scores or sports success, a dream that could get the funding it needs if Skinner turns a blind eye to Bart’s chicanery. It’s a little silly, but I like the musical montage, and it roots this journey in something understandable for Seymour. His becoming a monster after falling deeper and deeper into this gives him a good arc after starting with an “ends justify the means” position, and I like that after everything, it’s Bart who talks him down from going too far and doing something destructive to the progressive school.
If that weren’t enough, the B-story is great here too. Maggie learning to talk via emojis, to where she can express real thoughts to her family in the game is a neat little conceit. What I love the most though, is just how touched and thrilled Homer and Marge are to be able to hear from their youngest child. Maggie expressing that she loves her mom, and even “the donut man”, not to mention the glee it inspired in both her parents, is unbelievably sweet all around.
There’s a touch of darkness, with the family getting obsessed with the game at the expense of their real lives, which I can appreciate as a counterbalance. The story doesn’t really have an ending, more or less just stopping when it stops, which is a bit of a demerit. Nonetheless, I love the wholesomeness of it, and the show makes good use of the Roblox-esque aesthetic.
All-in-all, this is another winner under Selman’s tenure, which shows how much better the show is under his watch, even with the same writer and the same focus on spoofing a venerated pop culture property as a dud that aired just a week prior.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-12-21T06:26:29Z
[8.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] What a difference a week makes! Ryan Koh wrote both this episode, a wide-ranging send-up of both The Wire and Roblox, which absolutely sings, and also the prior episode, an indifferent spoof of When Harry Met Sally that perpetually feels off key. The difference is in who showran each episode, and all I can say is Viva Matt Selman!
I’ll admit to being a sucker for The Wire parody. Skinner uttering the famous “You come at the king” line is amusing coming from such a stiff, and the tribute to the HBO show’s opening credits in The Simpsons’ closing credits is tons of fun for longtime fans of both (especially the scene where Bart uses his slingshot to ding the security camera.) But what I like most is the broader pastiche of The Wire’s themes and ideas, with a story of someone sidling up to “the life” out of a sense of dreaming big and convenience, only to fall so deep into the game that they lose themselves in it, and even turn on the one who brought them in. There’s shades of Marlo, Bodie, and others in that, and it’s a strange but effective thing to map onto Seymour and Bart.
But boy is it fun! I love the absurdity of this whole thing centering on Bart taking advantage of a glitch in a Roblox-style game to make real money. (It also has shades of Community using chicken fingers as fodder for a wide-ranging Goodfellas homage.) The idea lends itself to plenty of good humor, from Bart’s byzantine method to turn “bobux” into the real money, to the jabs at the progressive school who become Springfield Elementary’s rivals in the blox-bluffing business, to Bart not liking Roblox but preferring it to playing nothing at all. There’s an inherent silliness in treating something goofy, colorful, and generally low-stakes as the most dramatic, important, quasi-criminal thing in the world, and “Game Done Changed” mines as much humor as they can from the juxtaposition.
Despite all the absurdity at play, I like that Skinner has a goal that's driving him to sell his soul to the spiky-haired devil, just a bit. He wants to turn Springfield Elementary into a performing arts magnet school, so that he no longer has to sweat test scores or sports success, a dream that could get the funding it needs if Skinner turns a blind eye to Bart’s chicanery. It’s a little silly, but I like the musical montage, and it roots this journey in something understandable for Seymour. His becoming a monster after falling deeper and deeper into this gives him a good arc after starting with an “ends justify the means” position, and I like that after everything, it’s Bart who talks him down from going too far and doing something destructive to the progressive school.
If that weren’t enough, the B-story is great here too. Maggie learning to talk via emojis, to where she can express real thoughts to her family in the game is a neat little conceit. What I love the most though, is just how touched and thrilled Homer and Marge are to be able to hear from their youngest child. Maggie expressing that she loves her mom, and even “the donut man”, not to mention the glee it inspired in both her parents, is unbelievably sweet all around.
There’s a touch of darkness, with the family getting obsessed with the game at the expense of their real lives, which I can appreciate as a counterbalance. The story doesn’t really have an ending, more or less just stopping when it stops, which is a bit of a demerit. Nonetheless, I love the wholesomeness of it, and the show makes good use of the Roblox-esque aesthetic.
All-in-all, this is another winner under Selman’s tenure, which shows how much better the show is under his watch, even with the same writer and the same focus on spoofing a venerated pop culture property as a dud that aired just a week prior.