Review: The Simpsons “Shoddy Heat”

Overview

An unearthed corpse opens up a cold case from Springfield in the 1980s.

Our Take

This week’s episode of The Simpsons brings us a trope that is almost as classic as the show itself…the flashback episode. In fact, the trope is so often used that they must’ve forgotten the fact that this week’s episode entitled “Shoddy Heat” shares more than a few bars with another episode altogether, which we’ll reveal in a bit. That said, the Jeff Westbrook-written script is one of the more edgy episode of The Simpsons we’ve seen in recent years aside from the Halloween specials and I’m all here for that!

I hate to give away plot details and twists and perhaps I’m not giving the biggest one away regardless, but this week’s episode features a number of flashbacks with Abe Simpson as one half of a PI duo with his now missing partner Billy O’Donnell (voiced by Topher Grace). During the flashbacks we learn that Abe had a one-time passionate fling with Agnes Skinner while she was doing the dirty with Mr. Burns. If that sounds familiar, it should, because during the show’s fifth season we had an episode entitled “Lady Bouvier’s Lover” which was also an episode that showed Abe having a passionate fling with a woman, in this case Marge’s mother Jackie, who is later stolen away from Mr. Burns. I guess if it wasn’t Mr. Burns being the main antagonist for both instances of the show I probably wouldn’t have cared as much, but here we are.

The other bit is the timeframe of the flashback, the early 1980s, or only a couple of years before The Simpsons premiered its first episodes on the Tracy Ullman Show which featured prominently among the cast Grampa so the fact that we got a flashback episode to a younger Springfield set, at best, five years before the show came to be is pretty nonsensical. Normally, I may be a tad more critical of these attributes, but really “Shoddy Heat” features a lot of comical qualities that made me forget all of this and just live in the moment.

From hilarious background gags (the one in the cemetery got me good) to the efforts the writers went to to de-age every character in Springfield up to and including Mr. Burns’ hounds, his statue, and his bitch (I’m referring to Smithers) was a lot of fun, and anytime I can get 22-minutes with a crabby Grampa I’m down. I, perhaps, would’ve picked an older voice actor than Topher Grace to pair with Abe (Dan Castellaneta ) as even at the age of 46, Topher still has the voice of his former 22-year-old self and I probably would have used him for something else instead to showcase his talent. Other than that, a solid week before we get to two-straight weeks of Halloween episodes. LET’S GO!!