REVIEW: THE SIMPSONS “Moonshine River”

Homer tries to help Bart with his love-life in the “Moonshine River”. Soon, Bart travels to New York City to reconnect with his long-lost love, Mary Spuckler (guest voice Zooey Deschanel), who left Springfield and her back woods family to reinvent herself in the Big Apple season premiere episode of THE SIMPSONS

Spoilers Below

Lisa hits Bart with a pretty hard fact…none of his relationships last very long and as such Bart decides to visit all of his exes to prove that they all still like him. Unfortunately, after a run through the whole list Bart finds that none of girls have fond memories of him right up until he tries to meet up with Mary Spuckler of whom he finds out is in NYC! When Bart brings up the idea of going to the city his parents aren’t sold so instead Homer rents out Ned’s house instead which gives them a place to stay in the city and save on costs. Eventually, Bart gets to NY and meets with Mary and she’s not exactly living it up but is delighted to see Bart and is intrigued by the fact that he came to see her and as such she decides to setup a date.

The budding couple meet up and Mary couldn’t be happier but Cletus shows up to take her back to Springfield. Welp, The Simpsons go back but Mary escapes elsewhere. Bart is devastated that he lost his true love but Cletus tries to help by giving him a family portrait.

Meanwhile, Lisa, Marge, and  Maggie are trying to find fun shit to do in NY but its too expensive! Everything from Broadway plays to travel costs money . Eventually, they go to Central Park for a free Shakespeare gig but it gets cancelled after both troupes decide to pull out. Not to be deterred, Lisa opts to put on her own Shakespearean production using amateurs in the audience. Unfortunately, the NYPD and FDNY show up and use a fire hose on the production which I guess means is a cancellation.

So,  here come the Simpsons kicking off its 24th Season and overall the main plots were tepid at best but there were TONS of laughs to be had. For one, it was great seeing  Homer back in the city and the writers wanted to drop some hints of the old school jokes for the battle hardened fans that you may have forgotten like the return of Khlav Kalash!  That said the show was littered with the non-sequitors that we have come to love from Springfield’s finest like Moe dancing with his blow up dolls or Homer’s take on marriage.

The main plot in accordance was Bart was written very well and it was one of the few times where you felt genuine sorrow over Bart’s love woes. That said, Zooey Deschanel’s voice acting is pretty bad which makes me question why the hell the producers picked her to be the focal point in the first place. I mean, I get the fact that its a big name on a big premier of your biggest show but jeez, Zooey sounded awfully boring reading her lines with what sounds like no effort what so ever. Also, her Southern accent is so far off its sad and comes off as distracting and dull. The ‘B–plot’ was a more formulaic “the girls spending time together” deal that we’ve seen quite a few times before. That said, Nancy’s performance as Bart this time around has me thinking that “Moonshine River” is suited for an Emmy nom, but if it wins it has nothing to do with Zooey that’s for sure.

(8.0 out of 10)