Review: The Simpsons “The Day of the Jack-Up”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After a mysterious buyer purchases every ticket for the K-pop concert Lisa wants to go to, the Simpsons have to figure out the identity of this evil ticket reseller.

Our Take:

It’s always frustrating when a concert you’re eager to go to sells out quicker than the Road Runner from Looney Tunes.  However, seeing the same person purchase all the seats just to troll can really make your blood boil.  When that happens, the suspect had better be prepared for an earful once they get caught.  This is the case when Lisa and the family set out to unmask the perpetrator known as “SeatMiser”, who is responsible for preventing her from attending a K-pop concert held at Mr. Burns’ spherical concert hall.  Coincidentally, his new building is reminiscent of the Las Vegas Sphere that opened two years ago.  To be honest, I’m surprised it took the show this long to have an episode centered on this recently huge spherical concert hall.  Fortunately, the sequence featuring this Sphere-like building, where Lisa’s favorite K-pop band performed, was worth the wait for the motion-capture performances. 

For some reason, whenever a topic related to K-pop music pops up, I immediately have KPop Demon Hunters stuck in my brain.  When something like that reaches that high level of popularity, it can be challenging to get that hype out of your system.  Sadly, there isn’t a reference to the recently popular animated Netflix film in this episode, with Kneesock Dolls filling that void.  It doesn’t have the same ring as Huntrix, but at least Fortnite is making up for this by having The Simpsons and Huntrix under one virtual roof. Instead, its second half did provide a reference to M. Night Shyamalan’s recent divisive thriller, “Trap”, with Bart attempting to outsmart security to retain his identity as the “Seatmiser”.  As one of the people who liked that Shyamalan head-scratcher, I somehow got a kick out of Bart’s latest predicament.  However, its humor didn’t quite hit the twisty vibes as the jokes in the first half, including the “rules of negotiations” segments.  “The Day of the Jack-Up” may not be as enjoyable as Bart’s previous misadventures this season, but its reflection on Mr. Burns’ Sphere building and K-pop energy kept this episode from selling out too fast.