Review: The Simpsons “Homer’s Crossing”

Overview
Feeling worthless at work, Homer volunteers to be a school crossing guard; when Homer’s safety squad receives too much funding, the crossing guards become a force to be feared.

Our Take

The season 35 premiere of The Simpsons put me through a SLEW of emotions that I was NOT ready to experience. Starting with a big “Holy Fuck! They did a Ralph Bakshi send up!” to annoyance because it seem as though we were going to get another Swartzwelder rehash, and finally, content with the number of parodies that were exhibited that helped this rocky effort land week number one.

First thing’s first, and I hate to say this, Julie Kavner’s “Marge” and Harry Shearer’s “Otto” sound every bit the age of their 70+ year-old voice actors but as I complain about that I shudder at the thought of more replacement actors given the fact that I continue to noticeably cringe at Grey DeLisle’s “Martin” and that the soul of the show is still limping along years after the BLM-influenced voice purge of 2020.

Ironically, this week’s episode goes there. As mentioned, the premise of the episode felt a LOT like Swartzwelder’s “Homer the Vigilante” for most of the run, but then we got injections of a Anchorman-like fight sequence that was hilarious and Homer’s usual silliness whenever he gets some sort of power.  Moreover, we had a number of funny gags that got a few more giggles out of me that seemed to help me come to peace with the fact that originality wasn’t going to be the episode’s strong suit.