Review: The Simpsons “The Tipping Point”

Overview

Homer loses his mind over tipping culture run amok.

Our Take

Tired of tip culture? Well you’re in luck because the writers of The Simpsons are as well, more specifically, J. Stewart Burns checks in with the penultimate episode of the show’s 35th season on FOX. The episode featuring guest stars Kyle Gordon, Chrissi Poland, and Audrey Trullinger featured three montages, a song, and an important lesson…don’t spend what you don’t have! The episode is also quite timely as California raised the minimum wage for fast food workers, which is why we’re getting all of these $20 McDonald’s cheeseburgers, so Bill Oakley’s gonna be upset somewhere.

In any event, this episode also features a number of thumbprints from Emmy-winner Michael Price. Everything from the song to the sight gags and of COURSE the Star Wars references are all trademark of the writer who has been a part of the series for decades and killing it. Ordinarily I would find fault with ANOTHER episode of the show giving us the “Homer screws up with Marge, Homer has to find a way to fix it”, but quite frankly, even with all of the hilarious montages, I had a good time with this one. “Tipping Point” felt very throwback in it’s execution and even brought back and introduced some seldom-used characters (there’s a GREAT one near the third act that I didn’t see coming from a mile away).

The Simpsons is staring down its season 35 finale in what has been a stressful year in Hollywood. Episodes like this though remind us that the show features one of the top-notch crews to do it and doing it they continue to do week in and week out.