Review: The Simpsons “Bart’s Brain”

Overview

Bart makes a new friend

Our Take

The fascination of heads in body parts in formaldehyde jars has been going back for years for The Simpsons. Who can forget the iconic “Rosebuds” episode where Mr. Burns’ head is running around in a dystopian world followed closely by Smithers. This concept only grew with Futurama employing hundreds of jars of dead presidents and celebrities still very much able to do whatever they dream because, those brains are still functioning. While odd concepts at one point, Elon Musk will tell you that the whole point of his new product Neuralink is the idea of being able to download information from the brain that can later be uploaded into another brain there by assuring that the knowledge gained is kept intact.

But, before we can get there, we got to take care of our brains, amiright? Various television series, both live-action and animated, have utilized the old ‘take home eggs as part of an assignment’ bit. The South Park episode “Follow That Egg” comes to mind, but The Simpsons up the ante a bit by the second half of the episode where Bart takes an almost OCD take on the whole ‘pretend parenting’ concept and believes in his cause so much that he’s willing to do what it takes to make sure his “Buddy” is protected. Marge/Homer and Bart’s story arcs embolden over the 22-minute runtime.

That’s not to say the show doesn’t stay light and doesn’t go too hard into the science of things like a Rick and Morty or a Futurama would, rather, The Simpsons keeps its hands up(unlike Tyson Fury) and makes sure to shepherd in the trademarks of a classic sitcom that is then animated. From the various sign gags, the ridiculous cereal names that Homer is gallivanting over, to Chalmers and Skinners’ ridiculous outfits, The Simpsons stays stupid in an episode all about having brains.

We haven’t gotten a Bart-focused episode in quite a while and the send-off at the end was a great way to wrap a 35th season of The Simpsons. It was almost like the producers had a bit of a party and invited back notable guest voices like Kerry Washington and Megan Mullally, all-the-while introduced Professor Pocket Pool. We’ll go into more detail on the season as a whole next week in our season review, until then, The Simpsons will see you next Fall!