[7.4/10] For all the crud writer Mike Scully gets for presiding over The Simpsons’ creative decline, he also penned one of the sweetest and most resonant episodes of the show. “Marge Be Not Proud”, aka the one where Bart shoplifts the Bonestorm video game, isn’t just one of the show’s better holiday episode, but it’s the rare Bart/Marge story, one that gets and affirms the relationship between Marge and her “special little guy” in a way few episodes of the show do.
So it feels appropriate that in Scully’s return to the show all the years later, he touches on the same sort of theme. I love the idea at play, of Marge feeling unseen and unconsidered by her kids despite all the love and care she shows them, and Bart and Lisa realizing how they’ve done her wrong and going to great lengths to make it right.
There’s truth and earned emotion in the premise. Marge breaking down crying to Ned over being an afterthought to her own kids is heartbreaking. Bart and Lisa realizing they’ve messed up and don’t really know their mom like they should is relatable for any maturing kid starting to see their parents as people and not just as caregivers. And their realization of how they’ve messed up and zealous efforts to do right by Marge make the catharsis of the ending one the show earns. The Mike Scully of 1995 would be proud.
There’s just one problem -- it’s not especially funny. “Iron Marge” has its moments. The running gag about denizens of “North Townsburg” canceling their plans to attend weddings because Bart and Lisa told them not to leave town got a chuckle out of weed. Likewise, the bit about various shops and residents offering weed and liquor no matter what other wares they sell is worth a laugh. But a lot of the gags involving Bart and Lisa’s obliviousness, or people bragging about bathrobes, or the li’l spy kit falls flat.
It’s ironic, because in Scully’s tenure as showrunner, the episodes are still pretty funny (or at least funnier than the show would become in the comfortable obsolescence of the later Al Jean years), but completely botched trifling elements like story and character and humanity. In Scully’s return to the show here, the plot, character, and heart are all firmly present, but the worthy gags are surprisingly scarce.
The same’s true for the B-story, which sees Homer becoming obsessed with rising up the leaderboard on a Nextdoor-style app. There’s a solid central observation here, about how gamifying safety and a neighborhood watch-style in the digital age incentivizes caricatured descriptions of risks that quickly turn into inadvertent or intentional scare-mongering. But the various situations Homer exaggerates for clout, his overblown descriptions of them, and his rivalry with Agnes Skinner aren’t particularly clever or funny.
That said, I like the ending of this story much better than the beginning or the middle. I appreciate the irony of how the minor sprinkler leak that both Homer and Agnes tries to capitalize on actually does turn into the sinkhole they issued an over-the-top warning about for internet points, only there’s no one there to help them out of it since they’ve scared everyone away from the outdoors. And Homer saving his rival and realizing that he was chasing the high of actually helping people, not just amassing clout, is an unexpectedly wholesome place to land with it.
I also have to say, the animation was noticeably great in this one! I don’t know why it was different here, but you could tell the animators went all out in several places. Agnes’ gestures and interactions with Homer while choking, Bart and Lisa playing with their toy, and especially the parrot attacking Marge all looked good enough for theatrical animation in their fluidity and expressiveness. Director Matthew Faughnan has been with the show for a while, but if this is what he brings to the director’s chair, I’d love to see him used more often.
I also really love the ending here. There’s something so poetic about Bart and Lisa going to such great lengths to find their mother’s long lost childhood pet, only to discover that it was instead her gladly exiled pet, to where Petey’s return is a nightmare rather than a dream. But the fact that it shows the kids noticed her and cared is what makes this disaster bird the best gift Marge’s ever received -- a clear sign that she’s “a thought”, not an afterthought. That’s a lovely way to dramatize the idea that it really is the thought that counts, especially with kids and their parents. And the rest of the family using the kids’ spy kit to give Marge a chance to show off her new bathrobe is the perfect capper.
Like many die hard fans, I’m still a little traumatized from Mike Scully’s tenure as showrunner, but that doesn’t mean the man himself should be crucified. He’s written, and even showrun, plenty of good and even great episodes of The Simpsons. “Iron Marge” is not without flaws, but shows that with the right story, and the right environment, even Simpsons fans’ bete noir can pen something superb.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-12T17:47:09Z
[7.4/10] For all the crud writer Mike Scully gets for presiding over The Simpsons’ creative decline, he also penned one of the sweetest and most resonant episodes of the show. “Marge Be Not Proud”, aka the one where Bart shoplifts the Bonestorm video game, isn’t just one of the show’s better holiday episode, but it’s the rare Bart/Marge story, one that gets and affirms the relationship between Marge and her “special little guy” in a way few episodes of the show do.
So it feels appropriate that in Scully’s return to the show all the years later, he touches on the same sort of theme. I love the idea at play, of Marge feeling unseen and unconsidered by her kids despite all the love and care she shows them, and Bart and Lisa realizing how they’ve done her wrong and going to great lengths to make it right.
There’s truth and earned emotion in the premise. Marge breaking down crying to Ned over being an afterthought to her own kids is heartbreaking. Bart and Lisa realizing they’ve messed up and don’t really know their mom like they should is relatable for any maturing kid starting to see their parents as people and not just as caregivers. And their realization of how they’ve messed up and zealous efforts to do right by Marge make the catharsis of the ending one the show earns. The Mike Scully of 1995 would be proud.
There’s just one problem -- it’s not especially funny. “Iron Marge” has its moments. The running gag about denizens of “North Townsburg” canceling their plans to attend weddings because Bart and Lisa told them not to leave town got a chuckle out of weed. Likewise, the bit about various shops and residents offering weed and liquor no matter what other wares they sell is worth a laugh. But a lot of the gags involving Bart and Lisa’s obliviousness, or people bragging about bathrobes, or the li’l spy kit falls flat.
It’s ironic, because in Scully’s tenure as showrunner, the episodes are still pretty funny (or at least funnier than the show would become in the comfortable obsolescence of the later Al Jean years), but completely botched trifling elements like story and character and humanity. In Scully’s return to the show here, the plot, character, and heart are all firmly present, but the worthy gags are surprisingly scarce.
The same’s true for the B-story, which sees Homer becoming obsessed with rising up the leaderboard on a Nextdoor-style app. There’s a solid central observation here, about how gamifying safety and a neighborhood watch-style in the digital age incentivizes caricatured descriptions of risks that quickly turn into inadvertent or intentional scare-mongering. But the various situations Homer exaggerates for clout, his overblown descriptions of them, and his rivalry with Agnes Skinner aren’t particularly clever or funny.
That said, I like the ending of this story much better than the beginning or the middle. I appreciate the irony of how the minor sprinkler leak that both Homer and Agnes tries to capitalize on actually does turn into the sinkhole they issued an over-the-top warning about for internet points, only there’s no one there to help them out of it since they’ve scared everyone away from the outdoors. And Homer saving his rival and realizing that he was chasing the high of actually helping people, not just amassing clout, is an unexpectedly wholesome place to land with it.
I also have to say, the animation was noticeably great in this one! I don’t know why it was different here, but you could tell the animators went all out in several places. Agnes’ gestures and interactions with Homer while choking, Bart and Lisa playing with their toy, and especially the parrot attacking Marge all looked good enough for theatrical animation in their fluidity and expressiveness. Director Matthew Faughnan has been with the show for a while, but if this is what he brings to the director’s chair, I’d love to see him used more often.
I also really love the ending here. There’s something so poetic about Bart and Lisa going to such great lengths to find their mother’s long lost childhood pet, only to discover that it was instead her gladly exiled pet, to where Petey’s return is a nightmare rather than a dream. But the fact that it shows the kids noticed her and cared is what makes this disaster bird the best gift Marge’s ever received -- a clear sign that she’s “a thought”, not an afterthought. That’s a lovely way to dramatize the idea that it really is the thought that counts, especially with kids and their parents. And the rest of the family using the kids’ spy kit to give Marge a chance to show off her new bathrobe is the perfect capper.
Like many die hard fans, I’m still a little traumatized from Mike Scully’s tenure as showrunner, but that doesn’t mean the man himself should be crucified. He’s written, and even showrun, plenty of good and even great episodes of The Simpsons. “Iron Marge” is not without flaws, but shows that with the right story, and the right environment, even Simpsons fans’ bete noir can pen something superb.