Review: The Simpsons “Left Behind”

It is the end of a significant Simpsons element… the Leftorium!

Overview:

Homer decides to sit out on the solar eclipse which reminds Marge that he hasn’t given her much attention lately.  He goes all out giving Marge the date night of the year. Unfortunately, when the night is about to get a lot more fun, the long-wedded couple is interrupted by a distressed Ned Flanders.

Nedward was forced to close his Leftorium mall stand after the neighboring Sears closed their doors.  Unemployed, Homer goes out on a limb and gets him a job in human resources at the nuclear power plant.  Between being neighbors, carpooling, and working together Homer has his fill of his neighbor-eeno and prays for Ned to lose his job.

Unemployed once again, Ned takes on some temp work, until finally deciding on pursuing a job as a teacher.  His first day at work in Bart’s class does not go so well, and it’s ended abruptly by Bart’s pranks.  Feeling sorry for their actions Homer and Bart apologize to Flanders and they all work together to stabilize his job at Springfield Elementary.

Our Take:

It seems like whenever the Simpson’s writers want to change up the continuity, it is the Flanders family that take the brunt of the punishment. Once again, Ned’s life takes a turn, and the highly religious man is beaten down by god once more.  Ned loses five careers in this one episode, but at least they didn’t kill off another one of his partners.

Despite Homer’s attitude towards Flanders, he sure goes out of his way for his neighbor a lot.  These feel-good episodes are the core of Simpsons long run.  There are strong morals featured in significant character changing events like these.  Unfortunately, when it involves Flanders religion is centre stage. Christianity is still relevant, but not the same way it was when Simpsons was first introduced, and the themes do not carry the same values they once did.  Though, they are healthy morals.

Overall, even with the strong Christian undertones, this was a well-developed episode.  Each family member of the Simpsons played a valuable role, and some changes happened that will impact the show for the remainder of its days- or at least until something terrible happens to Flanders again.  From front to back, this episode was full of feel-good moments, and it leaves you feeling just a little bit better.  There was a severe lack of jokes and could have used a couple of comedian rewrites to amp up the humour, but the plot was solid, and they probably did not want to tamper with it much more.