Review:The Simpsons ‘The Saga of Carl Carlson’

 Spoilers Below

Bart and Lisa seem to really be taking a liking to a show called Ki-Ya Karate Monsters, so much so that the kids keep trying to perform martial arts on each other. Eventually, Marge takes the kids to a science exhibit and like usual Homer heads to Moe’s afterwards. Its there that Homer, Carl, Moe, and Lenny win the Springfield Lottery and they hold a big party in jubilee! Problem is Carl starts to take a bit longer than usual to cash the lottery ticket and as a result Homer, Lenny, and Moe speed on over to Carl’s house to find it deserted. Yep, Carl skipped town with the Lotto winnings.

Moe wants blood, Lenny wants a chance, and Homer probably wants a donut. Eventually, the guys find a note on Carl’s fridge saying that he went home….but where?? No one knows!! Yep, none of the guys know where Carl is originally from so they have no way of tracking him down. That said, a clue turns up at the bottom of a few pint glasses and we learn (thanks to Lisa) that Carl was at one time adopted by an Icelandic couple which means…yep Carl is from Iceland! Moe, Lenny, and Homer show p in Iceland and after getting new clothes they meet a dude on the street that knows all about Carl Carlson. Apparently, no one likes the Carlson family as they have a habit screwing people over. The guys head on over to his place and track down Carl of whom seems to be taking off somewhere. They chase after him, but eventually everyone just gets tired and Homer pays another guy to tackle Carl.

We find out that Carl took off with the Lottery money in an attempt to clear his parents’ name. We also learn that Carl never liked the other guys because they never got to know him better. This leads Lenny to reach across the table and nearly kills Carl with his bare hands.  After the fight breaks up, we learn that Carl spent the money on a page of his parents’ saga, but under the advice of a Skyped Marge, the guys read the document and find out that the Carlsons were a pretty brutal family and that everyone should instead know the real Carl Carlson. After a pretty awesome speech, the Carlson family gets their names cleared and Carl heads back home to Springfield….with his friends. And yes, the Simpsons get new pools..kinda.

The Simpsons have been around for so long that Carl Carlson has went from being ‘one of the guys at the bar’ to a fixture for the season finale!  The Seth episode got all of the press for the couch gag winner, the Downton Abbey bit, and Seth MacFarlane and Lisa Lampagnelli as its guest stars, but this episode gets all of the glory. The back story on Carl seemed like it would have been really difficult to pull off, but the writers nailed it and they did so with the help of their animators who did such a great job with the bubble scenes. Also, the speech that Homer and the guys give to the residents of Iceland had me in stitches, but the real highlight for tonight were the Sigur Ros infused bits that were written so beautifully and executed flawlessly. The one gripe I had with the episode was when Marge came in on the tablet as I thought that kind of made me forget that we were in a more old-fashioned type of a setting, but really this one was the real deal. The Simpsons were so friggin’ good this season it makes me angry, so check in when we do the Season Review in the next week or so.