“You don’t fail at 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
– Marge

The Simpsons‘ 30th Season keeps going with the second episode of the season, “Heartbreak Hotel“. The episode is a well-crafted mix of reality competition shows, marriage crisis, and dream fullfillment (sort of).

The episode starts with the Simpsons watching Marge‘s favorite reality competition show, called The Amazing Place, which is a parody of The Amazing Race. When Bart and Lisa point out that Marge has an absolute knowledge of the show (plus some sort of obsession with it as well), they try to encourage her to audition for the show. Marge reveals that she and Homer have tried out to be on the show 46 times, getting rejected in all of them.

Lisa makes an audition video for her parents by editing together the videos from their past audition tapes, and she and Bart later go to the show’s auditions in the Squidport. There they convince the staff of the show to let Marge and Homer compete in an episode.

“HEARTBREAK HOTEL”

B+

Marge and Homer arrive at the place where the show takes place, thrilled by the idea of being in the show, only to immediately get eliminated (shelliminated) in the first challenge, the Suitcase Stowaway. However, the show doesn’t let them go home and they are forced to stay 6 months in a Hotel, in order to prevent fans from knowing they’ve been kicked off before the season airs. Marge is devastated by the feeling of being a “noob” and being the first couple eliminated. Homer, in the other hand, enjoys and quickly adapts to hotel life.

Marge finally adapts to hotel life, but they eventually find the show’s post-production room and they discover the fault of them being eliminated the first day is all Homer’s, as he ate a giant chocolate bar that was her Suitcase Stowaway. Marge then gets angry with Homer, therefore starting a marriage crisis. After that happens, they meet another eliminated couple in a scene that parodies the film ”Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, were a character from the film also appears (Nick, voiced by guest George Segal, who also portrayed him in the original film).

They are then surprised by the show when one of the eliminated couples is offered to re-enter the competition, only if one of the members teams up with a member from another couple. Marge rapidly forms a team with Nick. They almost win, but ultimately fail, making Homer enjoy the feeling of being the one people pity.

The episode, written by Matt Selman and Renee Ridgeley and directed by Steven Dean Moore, offers a new take of a classic plot of the show, a Marge-Homer marriage crisis. At this point, Marge and Homer’s marriage has proven to be indestructible. So, as always, their crisis is solved. Unlike other past episodes, in this occasion the crisis is quickly solved. The parody of The Amazing Race is amusing and funny. The show’s host, Tag Tuckerburg (voiced by guest Rhys Darby), is also a hilarious character that offer some enjoyable moments.

The guest stars of the episode, George Segal and Rhys Darby, both offer well-acted performances. For a show like The Simpsons, it’s now unusual to have episodes with only an A-plot, but this episode manages to handle a single plot within a very short amount of time. The unneeded sport talk at the end could have been replaced with a couch gag in the opening, maybe.

This episode is more than just another marriage crisis episode, as the marriage crisis plot doesn’t go quite far than a quarter of the episode’s time, to a greater or lesser extent. The episode sees Marge and Homer going to compete in a reality show, expecting to face some challenges, and at the end they actually have to face some challenges from reality (their real word).

Stay tuned for more reviews!!

Notes and Observations:

• Marge seemingly has an obsession with The Amazing Place. According to Lisa, she has watched all the episodes, even listening to the director’s commentaries. She even made the family play the “horrible” home game of the show.
• Homer enjoys the feeling of not being the one ‘who screws things up’.
• Bart wanted to put a pool in the backyard, with Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph digging the hole.
• Remarkable quotes:
  • “The fitness center only had an old NordicTrack, but it felt good to work out.” — Marge
    “I sat on a yoga ball and drank cucumber water. It’s nice to know I can still do that” — Homer
  • “This conversation is hereby terminated. You are each entitled to one capful of bubble bath.” — Blue-haired lawyer
    “Now, that’s parenting.” — Homer.

“As someone who has fallen off cliffs multiple times, the best thing we can do is teach him how to fall off cliffs.” — Homer

The Simpsons‘ yet record-breaking 30th Season Premiere episode, “Bart’s Not Dead“, not only does assure what the title says, but it also makes evident that the show itself is far from dead. The show’s creativity is still on a good level, no matter how much time passes.

The episode sees Bart being dared by the school bullies but, after initially refusing the dare (and subsequently making Marge happier than ever), Bart later accepts to take a dare as he becomes the center of attention (in a bad sense) in school (even Ralph Wiggum tries to turn his back on Bart, only to face him again after a self spin). The bullies then dare Bart to jump into a reservoir. Bart fails the jump, thus falling into the floor and seemingly getting badly injured.

“BART’S NOT DEAD”

A-

In the hospital, Bart recovers and comes up with a lie to cover up with Marge, who again had hope of Bart being a good boy, and he tells he’s been on Heaven, and that Jesus told him a message for Marge, “things will get better”. The little lie suddenly turns into a big lie after three Christian movie producers (voiced by guests Pete Holmes, Dave Attell, and Kevin Michael Richardson) want to make a movie out of Bart’s story. Homer quickly gets a deal, and starts producing the film with Ned Flanders (credited as Homer’s assistant in the film’s credits). They go through some auditions, with guests Emily Deschanel and Gal Gadot, who audition for Marge and Lisa, respectively, in one of the episode’s funniest scenes.

The movie (with Jonathan Groff as Bart) is a huge success (scoring a 98% in “Rotten Communion Wafers”). But, after Lisa makes Bart feel guilty for his lie, he decides to tell the truth, which causes anger among the town’s citizens. After apologizing, Ned and Homer announce they’ll donnate all the profits of the film to charity. Bart and Lisa then have a talk in the roof where Bart asks Lisa if God will ever forgive him. Lisa answers that, if there’s a God, he’ll forgive him as long as he has enough remorse. The roof suddenly breaks and the siblings are saved by an actual miracle, Homer having raked the leaves for once.

The episode, written by Stephanie Gillis and directed by Bob Anderson, perfectly manages to deliver a nice story of Bart’s guilty feeling over his little lie becoming something much bigger that, like a balloon, has to explode sooner or later. Some of the best moments of the episode are the auditions for the movie. Homer’s jokes out of Emily Deschanel’s show ”Bones” and not being able to differenciate her playing Marge’s part from real Marge, even though he asked her to some particular moves when acting as Marge, sure can get some laughs. Homer’s lines about ”DC Comics” and ”Wonder Woman” during Gal Gadot’s audition is also a good, classic, Simpsons-style, fuuny pop-culture reference. Emily Deschanel and Gal Gadot both offer hilarious performances.

A weak point of the episode could be the Bart’s Not Dead movie itself, as only a couple of nice lines and a rather irrelevant musical number (well-performed by guest Jonathan Groff) are shown from it. The movie itself could have had more content. It had the potential to include more pop-culture references. Well, more from the film should have been shown. Having Homer written it, lots of Homer-esque humor could have fitted in the movie. Nevertheless, the movie is not an important point of the episode after all. Bart’s feelings are.

Another well-crafted part of the episode is the ability the show has to irreverently satirize religion, no matter which one. From Jesus telling Bart (during a dream) that “God is love” and immediately hitting the boy with a wood-made “Love” word, to Homer going to “Hindu Heaven” asking to be reincarnated (into a Turtle) instead of having to stay at Christian Heaven with Ned Flanders, the show has always had a compelling talent to joke about religion(s).

The episode not only says “Bart’s Not Dead”, but it also shows clearly that neither are ‘The Simpsons’, healthier than ever in their 30th Season.

Stay tuned for more reviews!!

Notes:

• Bart jumps into the reservoir from the “Dead Boy’s Ledge”, while the bullies watch it from the “Haw-Haw Heights”, both places within the “Echo Canyon”. “This Place sure has a lot of names”, points Jimbo.
• Among the protest signs: “B.S. is B.S.”, “That’s why I am a Wiccan” (Moe carries this one), “Never Trust Non-Hollywood Films”, “The Last Half Dragged”, “Bart Lies, Jesus Cries”, and “Kill The Father”(held by Patty and Selma).
• Apparently, Grampa Bouvier (Marge’s father) was missing a leg. He was still missing it in Heaven during Bart’s dream, as he seemingly lost it in a bet.
• Remarkable quotes:
  • “Like most of America, I think I know the movie business.” — Homer
  • “Our father who art in heaven, holler out your name. Thy kingdom come, I’m almost done.” — Homer’s prayers.
  • “Our movie is a hit and a lie.” — Marge
    “Oh, all hit movies are lies, Marge. Did you see Argo? None of that happened. And I have strong doubts about The Incredibles.” — Homer