Review: The Simpsons “The 7 Beer Itch”

 

 

Overview:

Groundskeeper Willy shares a story of the loveliest woman to ever come out of England. In fact, Lily was deemed too hot for her country and sent to America. After turning down Hollywood’s best, Lily heads to Springfield in hopes of finding love. 

She finds him when she meets beloved oaf, Homer Simpson.

With Marge and the kids away on a three-week vacation, Homer is left miserable and alone. Which helps to distract him when Lily attempts to seduce him. Even when he does catch on to her intentions Homer does his best to stay loyal to his wife.

 

Our Take:

Thus far, season 32 of The Simpsons has been a return to form. The four previously released episodes are each more original and ambitious than the next. Even this year’s addition to the “Treehouse of Horror” anthology was one of the best we have seen in a long time. 

However, it was inevitable that the show would return to more realistic expectations at some point.

‘The 7 Beer Itch’ has The Simpsons returning to the sitcom family drama over something out-of-the-box and elaborate. The story centres around newcomer Lily, voiced by guest voice actor, Olivia Colman, best known for her role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. And the star is treated like royalty, going as far as becoming the star of the episode over its titular characters.

Written by a trio of Simpson vets, the story does fall into some old tropes. The theme of testing Homer’s infidelity has been used in much more entertaining episodes. The inclusion of musical numbers in the amount used here is only a reminder that the show can no longer create the memorable numbers that it once did. And even the name is a minorly tweaked repeat of season 14’s “The Seven-Beer Snitch”.

Besides this episode feeling like it had one of the shortest run-times and needed filler, there was no purpose to Groundskeeper Willy being the narrator to the story. He only made a few momentary appearances where he shared non-essential exposition. Aside from a couple of good jokes and asking the audience if they hadn’t “heard enough about the Simpsons,” the addition was pointless.

A much better place to add some airtime would have been Marge and the kid’s vacation. The adventure without Homer was glanced over with a couple of non-related events that caused Marge to return home early. There was a lot more room for them to play with, and the B-plot could have used more, at least some classic Bart pranks.

This episode did do one thing right that has been a sore thumb to the series for some time. The series has a tradition of testing the relationship between Marge and Homer. It is bound to happen at least a few times a season. This time around, it didn’t show the same strain that the two are destined for divorce. It did the opposite and had Homer fight to keep his loyalty. Maybe he has finally learned that a woman who has forgiven Homer for as much as she has is worth loving completely. Or, perhaps the writers have learned new ways of approaching the strongest romantic relationships on television.

Although the story steps on the toes of previous episodes of The Simpsons, it is not the lowest that the series has fallen. It doesn’t feel like the writer’s room has run out of ideas but explored different ways of approaching old plots. The animation carries the feel of the new Disney-era Simpsons with a charm that is both nostalgic and refreshing. And as much as the episode relied on it, Olivia Colman did deliver a memorable and stand-out performance.