Review: The Simpsons “Friends and Family”

Why can’t we be friends?

Spoilers Below

Season 28 appears to be the Year of Mr. Burns, or so an accident of scheduling would have us believe. After the season premiere saw the Springfield billionaire attempting to exorcise his showbiz demons, “Friends and Family” finds him looking for even more essential emotional satisfaction. After the death of his therapist, Dr. Nussbaum, Burns decides that he may want to actually seek out familial fulfillment, and the magic of virtual reality appears to be the perfect way to quench this desire. To play his virtual family, he hires the Simpsons, minus Homer, who in his increased free time makes a new friend voiced by Allison Janney.

What is immediately striking about the VR family plot is how little a fight the Simpsons put up about Mr. Burns’ terms. Sure, eventually, the nerves start to fray, but it is odd that no demands are made to ensure a favorable contract. Instead of a peep about ethics from Lisa, or a note of worry from Marge, everyone is eager to jump into the motion-capture suits. Even Homer, while disappointed at being left out, accepts his fate plainly. And so it goes, with the disconnect that brews between Burns and his fake family becoming whiplash-inducing, especially considering the connection that he and Lisa forged an episode ago.

The VR story does not satisfyingly conclude so much as it just stops, but it is worthwhile for all the Mr. Burns dialogue it gifts us with. Thank God everything worked out with Harry Shearer’s contract issues last year. Because otherwise, lines like “I should consider encasing people in plastic” and “Is there a milkmaid skipping rope?” would just not be the same. The lack of emotional resonance is not a big deal, because this is Mr. Burns after all, but it would be nice if the Simpsons themselves had weightier moments to work with.

Instead, that emotional burden falls to the B-plot. Or maybe it is the co-main plot. This story is certainly substantial enough to stand on its own, and in fact it is the sort of story that has been the main focus of plenty of past Simpsons episodes. Homer and Marge fight and then make up, realizing how much they still love each other? We have seen it before, and then we have seen it even more, and I trust that it can still work when we see it again. And as for the When Harry Met Sally-style tale that examines whether or not a man and a woman can really be platonic friends? Pop culture is filled with them, but they are so promising that I trust that The Simpsons, even in Season 28, can pull one off.

So I’m a little torn about what to say here. This is hardly the disaster that last year’s “Every Man’s Dream” was. Allison Janney pulls off the voice of the easygoing Julia with aplomb, and this actually is a story in which platonic love is not threatened by pesky romantic feelings. But there is room for something better, and the efforts to get there are visibly messy. Marge’s frustrations with her husband are usually well-founded, but this is the rare case in which Homer has actually been mostly upstanding.

The trouble is, the virtual family story does not really have any thematic connection to Homer’s, when it very easily could have. Marge is practically in not just another storyline, but another whole episode. “Friends and Family” needs to pick between the friends or the family. Either commit to the emotional resonance of an earnest love story, or revel in the nastiness of Mr. Burns’ witty depravity. Or, you know, just find a way to contrast the two with an interesting juxtaposition.

Memorable Lines and Random Jazz:

-The Pokémon Go-inspired couch gag is clever enough without calling attention to itself.

-Maggie has multiple lines of dialogue. I do not detect any good reason for this.

-“Euthanasia! Sweet, sweet euthanasia!” “Ooh, can I buy it as a gift?”

-“Hmm. No pulse. Oh, wait, that’s me!”

-Burns, to Maggie in motion-capture suit: “Ugh! What is that? A river otter?”

-“Idiots! Mountebanks! Featherwicks! Poltroons!”