Review: The Simpsons “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream”

Marge feels an overwhelming dread of the empty nest.

Our Take

Pretty much every season of The Simpsons features some sort of a flashback or flash forward episode, and most of them are pretty bad…but “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream” from Carolyn Omine was actually very well done.

Usually when you look for heart on FOX’s AniDom lineup, The Simpsons haven’t really been putting out those kind of episodes as much as of late, preferring to lean into parody and satire and leaving the sweeter stuff to say a Bob’s Burgers. But, when The Simpsons DOES go that way, they usually do it quite well and this was a great example of that.

Featuring the return of Kerry Washington as Miss Peyton, “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream” features a lot of beats that are very reminiscent of A Christmas Carol but featuring a premise that is just as relatable to parents everywhere, when their kids leave. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen this episode with another 15 minutes and dig deeper to see how Marge and Homer’s marriage would continue with all of the kids leaving.

This week’s episode of The Simpsons serves as the first break of the show’s 35th season with new episodes not returning until October 22nd, until then, you should watch this one with your family.