Review: The Simpsons “Irrational Treasure”
Overview
Marge’s crusade to get the family dog in better shape leads to her entering Santa’s Little Helper in canine agility competitions and a trip to the National Dog Show in Philadelphia. There, Marge and Homer suddenly find themselves – and the dog – mixed up in a historical conspiracy adventure worthy of a “National Treasure” movie.
Our Take
Though advertised as the 800th episode of The Simpsons, this really is the 800th to have aired on FOX not counting the Disney+ exclusive episodes that have cropped up the last season or so but we are coming to the end of the show’s 37th season aired on FOX and what a way to do it with an episode that sees Homer and Marge head to Philadelphia and bring with it a bevy of guest stars including the likes of Quinta Brunson as Adrienne, Noah Wylie as Doctor, Katherine LaNasa as E.R. Nurse, Taylor Dearden as E.R. Intern, Questlove as Tour Guide, Kevin Bacon as Philly Concierge and Boyz II Men as themselves.
As a guy who grew up about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, I got a big kick out of all of the sports references, the pop culture send-ups, and a rather entertaining take on National Treasure that was all sorts of fun. In fact, I’m wondering what the Universal Basic Guys producers are thinking seeing a terrorist group called the Hoagie Men given that the newer show’s brothers are known as the hoagies and in this week’s episode we even got some Wawa references!
I really couldn’t find a lot of flaws this week either, everything felt correct and funny and very much a classic take by The Simpsons to take a billion dollar movie franchise and load it up with a Philadelphia pastiche that works just as well as the show’s other international stops that have given us other classic episodes from Australia, Alaska, NYC, and more. Over 800 episodes and The Simpsons still know how to do it.
