[6.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] There’s a solid core concept here. I like the emotional center of “It’s a Blunderful Life”, where despite Homer doing the right thing, his co-workers, the town,and even his family all believe that the holiday blackout is his fault. You feel for Homer. Everyone’s so used to being the schlemiel that you can't blame the rest of the crowd for assuming this was his mistake. But conspiring he did the right thing for once, and still becomes the scapegoat, makes him a pathos-ridden figure. It’s a rare look for Homer, and one that explores fairly new territory for the character, which is tough in season 35!
I’m not in love with how that idea is realized though. This is a very cartoony episode, where pigs at luaus wake up and run off, and spirits from a Little House on the Prairie knock-off talk to Ls about their hardship, and Grampa Simpson can fiddle in his sleep. It all tends to be too much despite the solid center here. The capper to that is that while the twon’s angry reactions toward Homer are a little outsized, the fact that their solution is to pick up the Simpsons’ house and deposit it teetering at the top of some rock formation is a bridge too far. This isn’t quite “move the whole town miles up the road” bad in terms of stretching the reality of the series, but it’s too big of a pill to swallow (especially when they move Flanders’ house too.)
The episode’s not without its charms otherwise. As feeble as some of the gags are, I like the frame story of “Granny Lisa” telling the tale of the great Springfield blackout from sixty years in the future. We’ll have the whole Simpsons timeline staked out eventually! And while poor Harry Shearer’s singing voice seems shot, Mr. Burns’ song in the episode is one of the best Simpsons tunes we’ve had in a while. And while the switch to old-timey talk to tell the story is out of nowhere, I like the notion of a blackout returning people to a modern day equivalent of frontier times.
Considering my home town is not far removed from a winter storm with ample blackouts, there’s something true to life about “hunkering down” without devices and electricity in the way Our Favorite Family does. Plus, this one has a couple of good one-liners, including Mr. Burns’ referring to non-union employees as “friends without benefits” and Flanders calling the trinity, “the father, the son, and the spooky plus one.”
That said, they lost me with the resolution here. Sure, it’s all well and good for Marge to realize that Homer’s telling the truth after seeing that his reasons for emptying out the fridge were genuine and well-intentioned. But they go from there to “Let’s ll get Mr. Burns for causing the blackout” with zero connective tissue. How do they know he did it? How can they prove it? Why does the rest of the town believe it? I guess you can point to this mob being ready to easily scapegoat the local villain, but I would have much preferred some setup or payoff to where Homer proves Burns caused the blackout or at least makes a compelling case. Here it seems to happen by fit.
Overall, the sympathetic Homer story, the charm of Burs song and the frontier times riff, boost this one to a respectable Turkey Dy watch level, but this is, unfortunately, another Al Jean showrun episode from this season that underachieves an interesting premise.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-13T03:50:33Z
[6.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] There’s a solid core concept here. I like the emotional center of “It’s a Blunderful Life”, where despite Homer doing the right thing, his co-workers, the town,and even his family all believe that the holiday blackout is his fault. You feel for Homer. Everyone’s so used to being the schlemiel that you can't blame the rest of the crowd for assuming this was his mistake. But conspiring he did the right thing for once, and still becomes the scapegoat, makes him a pathos-ridden figure. It’s a rare look for Homer, and one that explores fairly new territory for the character, which is tough in season 35!
I’m not in love with how that idea is realized though. This is a very cartoony episode, where pigs at luaus wake up and run off, and spirits from a Little House on the Prairie knock-off talk to Ls about their hardship, and Grampa Simpson can fiddle in his sleep. It all tends to be too much despite the solid center here. The capper to that is that while the twon’s angry reactions toward Homer are a little outsized, the fact that their solution is to pick up the Simpsons’ house and deposit it teetering at the top of some rock formation is a bridge too far. This isn’t quite “move the whole town miles up the road” bad in terms of stretching the reality of the series, but it’s too big of a pill to swallow (especially when they move Flanders’ house too.)
The episode’s not without its charms otherwise. As feeble as some of the gags are, I like the frame story of “Granny Lisa” telling the tale of the great Springfield blackout from sixty years in the future. We’ll have the whole Simpsons timeline staked out eventually! And while poor Harry Shearer’s singing voice seems shot, Mr. Burns’ song in the episode is one of the best Simpsons tunes we’ve had in a while. And while the switch to old-timey talk to tell the story is out of nowhere, I like the notion of a blackout returning people to a modern day equivalent of frontier times.
Considering my home town is not far removed from a winter storm with ample blackouts, there’s something true to life about “hunkering down” without devices and electricity in the way Our Favorite Family does. Plus, this one has a couple of good one-liners, including Mr. Burns’ referring to non-union employees as “friends without benefits” and Flanders calling the trinity, “the father, the son, and the spooky plus one.”
That said, they lost me with the resolution here. Sure, it’s all well and good for Marge to realize that Homer’s telling the truth after seeing that his reasons for emptying out the fridge were genuine and well-intentioned. But they go from there to “Let’s ll get Mr. Burns for causing the blackout” with zero connective tissue. How do they know he did it? How can they prove it? Why does the rest of the town believe it? I guess you can point to this mob being ready to easily scapegoat the local villain, but I would have much preferred some setup or payoff to where Homer proves Burns caused the blackout or at least makes a compelling case. Here it seems to happen by fit.
Overall, the sympathetic Homer story, the charm of Burs song and the frontier times riff, boost this one to a respectable Turkey Dy watch level, but this is, unfortunately, another Al Jean showrun episode from this season that underachieves an interesting premise.