Review: The Simpsons “Springfield Splendor”

This week, Marge and Lisa stretch their creative sides and enter the whimsical world of comic books.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

So, with last week’s episode resting firmly in the experimental, this clocks in as the first “real” episode of the season. Lisa’s suffering from a recurring nightmare, sending her to a student therapist’s office at the Springfield Community College (Which goes about as well as you can expect) but leads her to make a therapy comic to better express her feelings. But, when Lisa’s art skills fail her, Marge comes to her aid with her surprisingly good drawing ability, creating the first issue of “Sad Girl”, a somber comic about Lisa’s depressing school life. After some hijinx with Comic Book Guy and his recently betrothed Japanese bride Kumiko, Sad Girl gets published and becomes a smash hit. But tension arises when Lisa starts getting all the credit for Sad Girl while Marge feels left out in the cold. With all the fame going to Lisa’s head, the two break their collaboration until self-proclaimed Broadway visionary Guthrie Frenel approaches them with an offer they simply can’t refuse: A chance to take Sad Girl to the Broadway stage as an avant-garde musical, with all the whimsy and giant puppets money can buy. But, as these things tend to go, the production spirals out of creative control with Guthrie at the helm, until Lisa’s story is barely recognizable from what she created, all while Marge is enchanted with seeing her art taken to the stage. The two reconnect, however, when Marge draws the original Sad Girl on a stage spotlight, shining brightly into the stage as a reminder that Marge loves Lisa for who she is, and that her story can’t go on without her. The play proceeds to literally fall apart, much to Guthrie’s charismatic dismay, but Lisa and Marge reconnect, mending their relationship for one more week.

Our Take

This is an of The Simpsons episode done right, taking the larger subject matter of creators and their art and grounding it in a simple, but honest, conflict between Marge and Lisa. The Simpsons have always had a finger on the pop culture of the day, but this episode shows how much more The Simpsons is moving towards their nerdier audience members. We have guest appearances from Alison Bechdel, Marjane Satrapi (Female comic creators of Fun Home and Persepolis, two award-winning graphic novels) and Dan Harmon (creator of Community, Rick and Morty and more) who give this episode a sense of real nerdy credibility. The musical version of Sad Girl is both a lampoon of the Fun Home musical and, with its ridiculous theatrics and over-reliance on spectacular symbolism, pokes at the disastrous Spider-Man musical from way back in the day. It seems that The Simpsons aren’t too worried if most of their viewers aren’t going to get the joke, and that bothers me none. Its the subtler, clever gags that have always made The Simpsons stand out, and viewers looking for a quality episode won’t be disappointed.