Review: The Simpsons “Bottle Episode”

Overview

Marge and Smithers team up to become wine-forging Robin Hoods.

Our Take

The last episode of The Simpsons for 2024 gives a bit more light on to the ol’ Smithers even sort of giving him his own intro with music from Queen which is definitely an on brand musical act to use for Waylon. Wine, Queen, and a stellar review from guest star Robert Parker? Without even looking I knew this week’s episode was written by father/son duo Rob & Johnny LaZebnik with a hefty amount of credit probably going towards Johnny. Personally, I know nothing about wine or counterfeit wine but I do know how to whine though this week’s review will have not very great many examples of that because “Bottle Episode” serves up a nice tall glass of quality episode that will surely do fine among fans of upscale booze humor.

We’ve seen Marge have run-ins with the law before and given the amount of tease featured in the end credits I would’ve liked to have spent more time in an episode that saw Marge continue to mingle with all of the hilarious inmates that were featured. The premise was noble though, Smithers and Marge aren’t trying to commit crimes just for selfish reasons rather they are doing it to better mankind. An interesting premise to have right now with the United Healthcare CEO murder allegedly by Luigi Mangione and the ongoing social media conversations about whether or not Luigi himself may have performed a Robin Hood act.

Such is the hell that is The Simpsons, always prescient even when not trying to be. I think that shows the amount of brainage that this writing staff continues to exhibit even today having been started with a group of Harvard writers 36 seasons ago and today we get an episode co-written by Rob LaZebnik, he himself a Harvard grad with almost 30-episodes to his belt. Rob’s been a genius writer for decades and it looks like Johnny is following quite nicely in his father’s footsteps.