Review: The Simpsons “Iron Marge”

Overview

When Marge’s heart is broken by a bad birthday present, Bart and Lisa must dig into their mom’s past to show that they really know her; Homer becomes a neighborhood fearmonger.

Our Take

After a few seasons of running his own series in Duncanville, Mike Scully returns to write a new episode of The Simpsons, and it’s by far one of the best episodes of the 35th season thus far.

I was a bit annoyed, initially, about the gift-giving premise from Marge and the kids. For starters, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that one of the retail outlets gave Mike a $20 bill in exchange for writing an episode all about going to the store and buying expensive shit because, “that’s what mom would love”, but when Bart and Lisa unleash Petey the Parrot on the family, I was cackling like I hadn’t cackled for an episode of The Simpsons in quite some time. Throw in a couple of cutaways and a dash of Ned, and you’ve got yourself a solid plot.

As for Homer’s bit, I actually enjoyed the premise so much, I thought it could easily be the outline for an entire episode. Social media influencers and whatnot posting stupid shit just to get clicks or likes is absolutely an on-brand gag that the writers of The Simpsons could wallow in for eons, ironically this episode is airing the same week that the writers made headlines of their own calling out clickbait publications, much in the same way “Influencers in the Wild” does on a daily basis.

All in all, a solid half hour of The Simpsons to help wipe the taste of our mouths from the lackluster Treehouse of Horror that was last week. This is how I like my variety of The Simpsons, not giving a fuck about what people think and adding in some slight vitriol for good measure. It’s a personality trait for the franchise that really has been missing for a couple of seasons now, hopefully with the writers strike over, we can get some more pissed off takes like this in the future.