Review: The Simpsons “Baby You Can’t Drive My Car”

“Sometimes my road rage is actually home rage that I bring onto the highway.”

Overview:

Homer loses his job after crashing his car into Mr. Burns’ office.  While looking for a new job, he comes across a start-up self-driving car company that is coming to Springfield.  Homer’s bad driving record and passivity make him the best candidate and he gets the gig.

After being a success at sitting around and letting the car drive itself, the company finds Homer to be the ideal employee.  They give him a promotion and hire Marge on to work beside him.  Afterword spreads to the power plant that things are so great, everyone leaves to join Homer.  But, discovering that the company is driven by collecting data and selling advertising leads to Marge and Homer getting caught in an ethical decision.

 

Our Take:

 

The Simpsons step into the future.  This fresh episode puts commentary on all of the things that have been on our mind entering into the future like self-driving cars and our computers listening into our conversations.  It is this kind of commentary that we watch The Simpsons for.  It is great to have this kind of intelligent and humorous look at what impacts our world.  And, it is episodes like this that remind us exactly why we need The Simpsons thirty years after their introduction.

The idea of self-driving cars kind of freaks me out.  I don’t know about you, but I feel like there are a lot of ethical questions to be played out.  Like, what if I and my family are in one and it is about to hit another child.  Does the car swerve to miss the child endangering my family, or does it endanger the child?  Somethings, like this hypothetical situation, should be left to chance and not some computer algorithm.  Anyways, the show didn’t really touch on much of these topics as I thought it might but instead focused on how technology is leading us into a world of consumerism.

The idea that our everyday technology is listening into our lives and offering ads that suite our lifestyles is more common than one would think.  For the most part, this collection of data does not scare me.  However, much like in this show, the future is pretty freaky.  To think that my car will take me to a fast food joint simply because I said I am hungry has lots of ramifications.  This leads to an unhealthy America that is more focused on making money than it is on citizens well-being.  And, it is The Simpsons that is leading the way by warning us about such things.  But, we don’t really take them seriously, despite the many times they have predicted the future.

After all of that heavy talk, I did want to make a quick mention to the best part of the whole episode.  Tracy Morgan has a cameo near the end of the show, that had me in hysterics.  I think it may just be his voice that I love, but it is worth watching the whole episode for.

I am quite pleased with how this episode went down.  It was relevant, on topic, involved a well-rounded story and it was a Homer heavy plot.  You mix these ingredients together and you have The Simpsons at the top of their game.  Sometimes it feels like the show is losing its touch, and then it comes out strong with a piece like this one.  And, I am left to think, what would we do without this show.