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Series: The Simpsons
Season: 20
Season episode: #2 (422)
Written by: John Frink
******Warning! Contains spoilers!******Season: 20
Season episode: #2 (422)
Written by: John Frink
Plot
Seymour and Agnus are driving on the highway when they suddenly run out of gas. His mother orders him to get some gas.
Seymour faces difficulties while crossing the highway, and Milhouse on the bridge notices this hilarious moment and call everyone from the school to withness it.
Drunk Barney mistakes principal from beer can and starts chasing him making the situation is even more absurd.
Incidently, Bart ends up a golf course where he gets a job; Finding the missing balls. Unfortunately Groundskeeper Willie halts his growning business.
Meanwhile, Denis Leary gets annoyed by the phone rinning and throws away his cell phone which lands near to Bart. Bart keeps it, ignoring the fact Leary might possibly get mad.
In the following week Bart makes several prank calls to taverns all over the world, for example Australia and Swedish.
Marge soon finds out about Barts doings, but after short discussion with Leary, gives it back to Bart but with tracking device hidden into it. Hence, she can always know if Bart's doing something naughty.
Lisa becomes aware of their parents' action and tells Bart about it, who decides to trick them by removing the tracking chip and placing it onto the leg of bird. Homer and Marge, still believing they're following Bart, get worried while "Bart" seems to have gone to a filed outside Springfield. Lisa checks from the Internet the bird they're following winters in Machu Pichu. Lisa, always wanting to see the place, shoos the bird so they can trace it to Peru.
Bart is living at home by himself, though being scary in nights. At Machu Pichu Marge sees a dream where ancient Maya leader urges her to allow Bart to take care of himself and not to be that strict mother.
The family returns to home and Bart while embracing his mother tell her not to leave him alone ever again. In the end they remember that they forgot Maggie in Machu Pichu. There, she has become a maya leader.
Picture and Audio
Like with the previous episode, high quality animation continues. No any reasons to complain The zoom effect shown when Bart makes his prank calls is nicely realized. Also the scene change, when the golf balls goes towards the camera is cool.
Sound enviroment can be considered quite basic. Two popular songs are used in this episode, though I was unable to find the names of the songs.
Major character appearances
Guest Stars:
- Denis Leary
- Brian Grazer
New Characters:
No real new characters, if not the Swedish bartender is count
Recurring characters:
Did you notice that..?
Pros and Cons
+Bart having a tea party with his sister and wearing Mad Hatter's hat.
+Maggie writing "ME SAD 2"
+Dr. Nick returning from death
+Bart's prank calls
+ Marge: "Bart, how did you get a cell phone?"
Bart: "The same way you got me. By accident, on a golf course."
+Moe and FBI scene
+Bart's acting like a real 10-year-old boy
-Barney chasing Seymour. Too must-be-funny scene.
-Denis Leary have too much lines considering his minor role
-Marge inside a coffin that Bart digs up in the cemetery. What the heck?
-Do Marge & homer really think Bart's gone to Machu Pichu and even decide to go after him?
-Maya leader's "moral lesson" looked artificial.
-Ending was anticipated and ridiculous.
Summary
After the sizeable disappointment the first episode Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes caused, this was true an improvement. The writers had not added unnecessary subplot, which usually splits badly the main plot as it did to Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes. By following only one story, it makes the episode much more consistent and reasonable. Despite some unfunny scenes with no logic, the episode goes on without major holes in the plot. Also, it's nice to see Bart centered episode which depicts him as both a reckless kid who likes to do pranks, and realistic child who miss his mom. This pattern gives the episode extra emotions. And compared to many Homer-doing-this-and-that episodes it's refreshing to see Homer as a minor character. Though there are some gags made by Homer, which frankly, are quite unnecessary. If Homer's not needed, let him keep low profile.
The straightforward plot accomppanied by some well made jokes guarantee this episode as many stars as:
***½/*****
Recurring characters:
- The Simpson family
- Seymour Skinner
- Agnus Skinner
- Barney
- Milhouse
- Nelson
- Doctor Hibbert
- Groundskeeper Willie
- Rich Texan
- Krusty
- Moe
Did you notice that..?
- Nick Riviera, who was allegedly got killed in The Simpsons Movie, is seen as Dr. Hibbert's caddy
- Wendell has a speaking role
- Before the credits there's a dedication to Paul Newman
Pros and Cons
+Bart having a tea party with his sister and wearing Mad Hatter's hat.
+Maggie writing "ME SAD 2"
+Dr. Nick returning from death
+Bart's prank calls
+ Marge: "Bart, how did you get a cell phone?"
Bart: "The same way you got me. By accident, on a golf course."
+Moe and FBI scene
+Bart's acting like a real 10-year-old boy
-Barney chasing Seymour. Too must-be-funny scene.
-Denis Leary have too much lines considering his minor role
-Marge inside a coffin that Bart digs up in the cemetery. What the heck?
-Do Marge & homer really think Bart's gone to Machu Pichu and even decide to go after him?
-Maya leader's "moral lesson" looked artificial.
-Ending was anticipated and ridiculous.
Summary
After the sizeable disappointment the first episode Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes caused, this was true an improvement. The writers had not added unnecessary subplot, which usually splits badly the main plot as it did to Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes. By following only one story, it makes the episode much more consistent and reasonable. Despite some unfunny scenes with no logic, the episode goes on without major holes in the plot. Also, it's nice to see Bart centered episode which depicts him as both a reckless kid who likes to do pranks, and realistic child who miss his mom. This pattern gives the episode extra emotions. And compared to many Homer-doing-this-and-that episodes it's refreshing to see Homer as a minor character. Though there are some gags made by Homer, which frankly, are quite unnecessary. If Homer's not needed, let him keep low profile.
The straightforward plot accomppanied by some well made jokes guarantee this episode as many stars as:
***½/*****
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