This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 14
Spoiler alert: this The Simpsons season 33 episode 14, review is filled with clickbait. “You Won’t Believe What This Episode Is About – Act Three Will Shock You!” is more than an overlong title, it’s a very current and radical installment in the long-running series.
Okay, radical is going too far, but it is timely, progressive, and long overdue. Herstory is more than an amazing industrial vacuum rental slogan. After 33 years, this is the first episode where The Simpsons features an all-female creative team. It was written by Christine Nangle, directed by Jennifer Moeller and co-directed by Debbie Spafford with HeeJin Kim as the Lead Background Layout artist and lead timer Esther Lee. And Marge is not the only one to live out her wildest dreams. The creative team takes on every complaint leveled against their show, and sardonically skewers them with extreme subversion.
Burns doesn’t run the evilest institution in the episode, however. Theo (Kumail Nanjiani) is a very inventive villain. We know some evil is going to be revealed but he conceals it very well in plain sight. He runs an internet victim company named The Institution. Their clientele would most easily be classified as offenders, Springfield residents who want to “steam clean their reputational carpets,” as Marge puts it. This alone should make him suspect, look at who he hangs around with.
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“Lemonade Karen” Lovejoy called 911 on Sherri and Terri’s sidewalk stand, the Toilet Rocker forgot to turn off his live feed while at a urinal, Kirk “Juicebox Dad” Van Houten harassed a coach to take his son out of a game. These are all careless accidents, born out of rage. They are all representational of shaming fads, and awfully perfect candidates for redemption. The internet loves to define and to call out horrible people, and revels in those caught in the act, and doesn’t care if it’s a misinterpretation. When the public relations gestures are transparent, the fix becomes a caper, and this is where they spam us with cutting-edge satire.
The “Suicide Squad” suspense of the breaking-and-entering sequence works because it is relatable. All the expendables have to do to install the “universal eradication code” and erase the bad reputations from the global mainframe is walk past an office full of computer screens. Each is showing a clickbait title. They are as irresistible as Medusa’s eyes and just as costly. They can turn readers into pillars of salt for lifetimes while they wait for them to upload. The clickbait examples are inspired: photos before choking deaths, reasons you may never use a stapler again, what does she look like now. These are exposed as a distraction to the larger issues, which the episode succinctly and expertly dishes out. Ex-presidents and their kids, evil Russians, criminally abhorrent, perennially corrupt, and all of history’s other current monsters get lost in the swirl of “Lemonade Karens” and “Jukebox Dads.” The second act ends with valid objections, spoofed engagingly and succinctly.
The Simpsons have been on both sides of the argument. They were accused of breaking politically correct taboos, and equally criticized for adjusting for a more inclusive creative and talent staff. They don’t let themselves off the hook, and they are not making excuses. “You Won’t Believe What This Episode Is About – Act Three Will Shock You!” is clickbait you should not pass up.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article omitted Esther Lee’s contribution to the episode, and misspelled HeeJin Kim’s name/misidentified her job title. Our apologies to all involved.
