Review: The Simpsons “Mother and Child Reunion”

 

 

Overview:

The Simpson family loves to hear about their future, and this time they are exploring the predictive magic of tarot cards. To their surprise, they discover Bart and Homer will have bright days to come. It is Lisa and Marge who will struggle.

The story starts with Lisa deciding not to go to college after finishing high school, much to Marge’s disapproval. But, true to herself, Lisa avoids post-secondary all together and manages to build a successful career. Unfortunately, it is not until Lisa is elected as President of the United States that her relationship with her mother can recover.

 

Our Take:

The Simpsons love to make predictions of the future. And with the show’s famously intuitive fortune-telling, it is a tradition that deserves continuation. It has become a definitive feature of the series, to the point that the Simpson family explores time at least a couple of times throughout a season. And despite it creating discourse for the continuity hunters, the flashforwards can also generate some of the best moments of the year.

Interestingly, this episode decides to focus on the relationship between Marge and Lisa. Obviously, it is fitting that a story such as this would release on Mother’s Day. But the most recently released episode before this, “Panic on the Streets of Springfield”, also put a strain on the mother/daughter bond. It makes for more evidence that Lisa has become the central star of The Simpsons.

When this show first grew to popularity in the early 90s, there was no argument that Bart Simpson was the star. His face appeared on all the merchandise, all the advertisements, and the show featured Bart and his relationships prominently. As the year’s passed, The Simpsons slowly turned into a show about Homer and maintained that for most of its record-breaking run. But as the show reaches old age, it has made wise Lisa the prime perspective for most new episodes.

The one constant through the years has been Marge, who plays the part of the moral compass for her rambunctious family. The early years were spent helping Bart find his inner conscious. Then, when Homer was the star, many years were spent exploring their unbreakable marriage. And now, Marge is here to help her daughter stay grounded as she explores herself. This leads to back-to-back episodes of Lisa rebelling against her mother.

Unfortunately, this episode played too many of the old strings. Understandably, the writer’s room is running out of ways to explore The Simpsons future, but Tarot is not any more original than a crystal ball. Additionally, they played it safe by avoiding making too many bold predictions of what the future may be like. 

But the most considerable repeat comes when Lisa is elected President of the United States for the second time in the series. It is not like they couldn’t have done something we haven’t seen before, like make Lisa an Elon Musk type character, or at least put her on the moon.

There are some bright moments through this episode, specifically with The Amazing (Werner) Herzog as a special guest. But even the legend himself is returning for his fourth appearance on The Simpsons. Making the episode feel more like a Frankenstein of old ideas mashed together into a new package. Considering the level of content we have seen earlier in the season, we expect more from The Simpsons and want something fresher.