Review: The Simpsons “Write Off This Episode”
Overview
When Marge and Lisa start a charity together, Marge is seduced by the money and prestige of big charity fundraising.
Our Take
Just last week we were mentioning this topic of charities that claim they mean well but they really are just bullshit, and here we are with a premise all about that! I think the writers could’ve been a bit more deprecating with the effort, but “Write Off This Episode” had a couple of laughs that I can get behind. I got a big kick out of the Salvation Army guy being a dick, but I’m surprised we didn’t get more of a clean hit on the Evangelical Christian-owned organization.
Harry Shearer’s take on “Burns” this week seemed a bit…off. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it sounded like Harry was really struggling this go-round. Much in the same way where I think the pep in Julie Kavner’s voice for “Marge” has been gone for a few years now, Harry didn’t seem to have the nuance in his Burns performance.
J. Stewart Burns is a longtime writer/producer for The Simpsons, having written for the top tier in adult animation lore including Beavis and Butt-Head, Futurama, and of course The Simpsons, but I can’t help but think the Harvard-educated writer didn’t have his best stuff in a lot of the dialogue. The Simpsons’ satire is some of the most biting in the industry and has been for years, “Write Off This Episode” seems tame by comparison.
Short of getting Roiland back, which I'm sure isn't going to happen, I don't even think they could get much better than the new voices from the previous season. And the ratings for season 7 weren't much lower on average than for season 6; it was pretty much just a normal season-to-season drop that most likely would have happened regardless.
I mean, look at the actual averages:
Season 1 - 1.57 million viewers Season 2 - 1.97 million viewers Season 3 - 2.33 million viewers Season 4 - 1.52 million viewers Season 5 - 0.96 million viewers Season 6 - 0.56 million viewers Season 7 - 0.42 million viewers
Ever since season 3, it had been having steep drops even with Roiland still involved; the season 6 to 7 drop is actually the smallest-percentage drop it's had since it started dropping, and if anything it's possible that changing the voice actors actually *boosted* interest a bit and prevented it from dropping even more.