Review: The Simpsons ‘Homerland’

Spoilers Below

Lisa’s gotta harp! Homer’s going to a Con for his job with the guys. The trip is actually out of town which leaves Marge and the kids by themselves and Homer at a con getting all of the free shit that he can find…or try anyway. We are introduced to guys named Alpine and Sherman whom are from a different plant and the party goes off with out a hitch. Three days later, the Simpson family grows worried because Homer was supposed to be home and he hasn’t yet. Eventually, he does get to the house but something’s a little…off.

Things get weirder when dinner time comes and Homer passes on pork chops and instead goes with the healthy stuff, no strangling takes place much to the dismay of Bart, and later at Moe’s Homer turns down beer. Lisa begins to worry, but answers may be closer because she runs into Wiggum whom notes that there could be a terrorist threat in Springfield and worst yet it’s someone that acts WAY different than what they were. Lisa confirms these suspicions when she sees Homer taking part in Muslim practices and sketching out the power plant. Lisa calls the FBI and we are introduced to Annie Crawford who suffers from Bipolar Disorder and is now the one Lisa turns to for help with finding out what the hell is going on with her dad.

Annie is nuts. She breaks into Bart’s room and heads on over to Homer’s bedroom to try and get some answers. He stays quiet, but offers clues of where she can look. The next day Homer shows up to work with a mysterious package and heads into the room with it. Lisa shows up and thinks its a bomb, but actually Homer is trying to do his part in being more eco-friendly. Yep, those Muslim practices and everything else has a pretty logical explanation and it actually inspires Lisa to make sure she finishes his work all the while the feds try to stop Homer. Instead Burnsie gets arrested for something completely unrelated, but it looks like Homer’s going back to the way things were. Annie walks off and pushes over Ralph.

The Simpsons start their 25th Season with me knowing that their 24th Season was awesome. How can this show top it?? Welp, they are off to a good start because the season premier was stellar. The plot was wildly original and I loved every turn, but it’s the jokes along the way that turn this one loose. It really is the little subtle lines that drive this one wild, with Bart checking in with his thoughts on cookie dough (“So many cookies will never be born”) and Moe probably had the line of the night with ‘Water! That Stuff Killed My Grandmother’! Kristen Wiig and the rest of the agents were good, too especially when Wiig’s character Annie breaks into the Simpson house and leaves behind an apparition that tries to snuggle closer to Homer. Wiig was rather stellar, but this isn’t her first rodeo at voice-acting and I think the one gripe I had with the episode was that her character of Annie wasn’t used a BUNCH and I seriously wanted to see more of her on drugs. Don’t worry though, there was enough and if this premier episode is indicative of what’s to come…we may have some new additions to best episodes of The Simpsons.