Review: The Simpsons “The Flandshees of Innersimpson”

Overview

Bart dips his toe into the world of celebrity DJ-ing, and Homer finally pushes Flanders too far.

Our Take

For whatever reason, season 36 of The Simpsons has been THE year for Flanders. Between the X-mas special and the Pin Pals and now this week’s episode which is all about the longtime neighbors potentially solving their differences once-and-for-all.

The DJ-ing sequences are short-lived but continue to be scattered about throughout the Dan Vebber-written tale but really the crux of the episode is Homer doing everything he can to patch things up with Ned who finally snaps at Homer for the years of torment and because Homer constantly takes all of Ned’s shit and never gives it back. By the end of the second act, this whole thing gets turned on it’s head after one of the funniest skirmishes that I think I’ve ever seen in the form of Ned and Homer going head-to-head in a car battle that ultimately lands the two in therapy. Just when you thought this week’s episode couldn’t get any weirder, director Chris Clements dazzles us with his DJ-trip sequences whilst delving deeper into the psyches of both Homer and Ned, really fabulous stuff here.

I laughed quite a lot during the course of this week’s episode between the constant sight gags, the one-liners between Ned and Homer, and even Marge slowly coming to her own breaking point during the aforementioned car battle. Everything seemed to work tonight and the laughs just wouldn’t let up during the course of the 22-minute runtime. After a brief hiatus, The Simpsons returns to it’s rightful time slot in all of its glory and reminds us all why it kicks off this lineup in the first place. (Also, can we keep those end credits?)