Review: The Simpsons “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”

You guessed it, Homer and Marge’s relationship is in heavy water again.

 

Overview:

After a wonderful date night that brings the couple closer together, Homer mistakenly drops Marge causing them both to be injured.  As Homer is dealing with the hallucination of his hernia characterized, Marge gets into physiotherapy.  As she and her therapist get closer, she becomes interested in kiteboarding with him.  Homer, thrust by jealousy decides to try the sport himself in hopes of winning her back.

Meanwhile, the couple hired a new babysitter for the kids.  It turns out, she’s a pretty terrible babysitter as she throws a kegger with her boyfriend, Jimbo.  However, when Lisa is looking for advice on how to help her parents relationship, she turns to the babysitter for advice.
 

Our Take:

I would like to start by mentioning the brilliant title of this episode as it happens to be one of my all-time favourite Beatles songs.  This is just another in a long history of Simpsons episodes being titled after some classic songs.  Though usually the title is switched with a clever pun like “Smoke on the Daughter” or “Helter Shelter”.  Either way, you have to appreciate The Simpsons showing their love for one of the greatest bands that ever existed.
 

I have to admit that I was pretty frustrated with the theme of this episode.  Marge and Homer’s relationship is in trouble… again?  Sometimes it is nice to see how this couple can overcome anything, but after a while it becomes cliché.  It is easy to have these two go through some trouble considering Homer’s lumbering.  And, three of the last four episodes of the Simpsons have had this very theme.  For season thirty, we should expect more.  I am a fan of these two’s relationship and how strong it actually is.  But, there comes the point where it is just put to the test one too many times.  Give us a break.
 

I would also like to touch on Lisa’s obvious stupidity in this episode.  There has been a bit of debate going around Twitter recently that argues how much Lisa’s character has been dumbed down over the years.  This episode kind of puts that at the forefront as Lisa does not really come off as intelligent as she should genuinely is.  When confronted with the issue of wanting to help her parents relationship, Lisa goes to who she assumes are the best couple she knows.  A couple of teenagers that just threw a party at her house.  I dunno, Lisa, I think you are better than that.  And, really if your parents are in this much trouble all of the time, they need professional help.

 

Overall, there was plenty of enjoyable moments sprinkled throughout this episode, but I can’t help but feel like I have seen this same story a hundred times out of this show alone.  Maybe I am frustrated that I feel like I have reviewed the exact same plot of a Simpsons episode so many times in just a few months.  But, as I mentioned, we are in season 30, I really was hoping for some originality and unique episodes this year.