Review: The Simpsons “Women in Shorts”

Overview

Girls just want to have funny!

Our Take

“Women in Shorts” refers to a gamut of shorts inspired by the women of Springfield including the likes of LuAnn Van Houten, Malibu Stacy, Mrs. Muntz, Marge, Patty and Selma, Bernice Hibbert, Mama Risotto, Lunchlady Dora, Lisa, Agnes Skinner, Helen Lovejoy and Ms. Peyton. Included in the episode is the Emmy-Award winning Kerry Washington returning as Rayshelle and Matt Selman’s wife Dr. Wendy Sage who made waves with her debut in “Lisa’s Belly“.

The Christine Nangle-written episode features bits about Homer having to buy tampons, Patty and Selma trying to survive without cigarettes, and roleplaying in marriage. Unfortunately, I’m not sure there’s anything here that’s going to have that legendary run that “The 138th Episode” gave us or even any of the Treehouses, but it was fun having a nice break from the ordinary and seeing the producers doing something a bit different that hearkens back to the show’s comic book origins.

For my money my favorite bit was Mama Risotto man-handling people in her own legal procedural followed closely by Lunchlady’s restaurant experience in the school’s cafeteria. I could’ve done without a Lisa bits given we have Lisa bits all-of-the-time, but overall “Women’s Shorts” was fun and wouldn’t mind seeing this as a yearly tradition. A shout-out should go out to Eric Koenig’s direction of the episode that includes a selfie-bit with Agnes that seemed to feature some rather sophisticated minutia that I think shouldn’t go unnoticed.