Review: The Simpsons “Bart’ N’ Frink”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When Bart becomes Professor Frink’s lab assistant, the Simpsons are thrown into a world of tech billionaires determined to live forever.

Our Take:

It was only a week ago when we had a Bart-focused storyline in the form of a flashback episode.  Now, we have another episode this season focused on the troublemaking Simpson son.  However, this one seems to be more scientific than troublemaking, thanks to a familiar scientist.  As evident in the episode’s title, the narrative sees Bart taking on a specific job as the lab partner of Professor Frink after getting the latter’s “Dungeons & Dragons“ player killed.  With Bart’s dumbness and Frink’s intellectual mind, this could’ve sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.  Of course, from a narrative perspective, it’s reminiscent of the chemistry between an intellectual character and their dimwitted partner, seen in other projects like Dexter’s Laboratory.

“Bart’ N‘ Frink“ may initially appear to pay tribute to this type of onscreen chemistry. However, this chemistry is actually used to highlight the characters’ new friendship during their trip to Frink’s billionaire college reunion. With Frink’s scheming college friend, Peter Linz (voiced by Glenn Howerton), in the mix, these two seemingly different science pals find their bond tested, while Homer becomes entangled in a scheme related to eternal youth.  The result is an amusing and well-executed episode that combines its satirical outlook on wealthy billionaires with its smart depiction of the smart character/dumb lab partner dynamic.  Additionally, it showcases Bart as surprisingly more brilliant than we assumed regarding his schematics of Frink’s emoji glasses, much to Lisa’s frustration.  Admittedly, I would love to see these glasses get invented in real life. With this episode and “Bad Boys… for Life?”, Bart may have put the new season back on track after the disappointing Man Camp episode.