Review: The Simpsons “The Serfsons”

To kick things off this season, The Simpsons try their hand at a fantasy episode. Laughter is coming.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Well, The Simpsons are back for season 29, and they’re giving us a season premiere unlike any we’ve had before. In the spirit of the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes or the many guest opening sequence animations we’ve been getting in the past few years, The Simpsons are shaking things up with a new genre take on Springfield. This episode follows the peasant lives of The Simpsons’ medieval doppelgangers, “The Serfsons”, who scrape out their living in a “Ye Olde” version of Springfield complete with evil wizards, knights, and monsters played by all your favorite characters.

The plot is a relatively simple one: Marge’s mom is infected with a disease that she got from a bite from a wight who was “getting fresh”, which slowly turns her to ice until she becomes something of a white walker from Game of Thrones. At Marge’s request, Homer tries to raise the money to purchase a special, 100 gold pieces amulet which can save her life. After pleading with his boss (An evil merchant version of Mr. Burns) of the “Human Power Plant” for the money, and finding out Lisa has the magical ability to transmute lead into gold, he succeeds and gets the amulet for Marge. But, this causes the king (Played by Mayor Quimby) to find out of Lisa’s magical talent, and she is promptly kidnapped. The episode finishes up with a great battle led by The Serfsons and their friends to free Lisa, which Marge’s mom ends by destroying the amulet keeping her alive. This turns her into a white walker, and she uses her frigid form to kill the dragon which King Quimby had sent to kill them. With the dragon’s death, all the magic of the world disappears, leaving The Serfsons world forever changed.

Except then we get a nice speech at the end from Lisa about the importance of science in a world without magic, only to see Homer revive the dragon by starting a bonfire in its mouth, restoring their wonderful, magical, ignorant world. I guess some things never change in Springfield.

Our Take:

This is easily one of the most fun Simpsons episodes I’ve seen in a while. It’s great fun to see the fantasy makeover that Springfield gets, and I found myself excited in every scene to see what cool new character design I’d see next. The plot’s not terribly interesting, and a lot of the jokes are just cheesy fantasy satire, but that’s alright. The real fun of the episode is the rapid-fire gags constantly being thrown at you. Whether its Marge swatting a three-eyed raven off her windowsill or Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia appearing as a missionary trying to convert The Serfsons to Christianity. Every scene has a fun new bit of fantasy tomfoolery to throw at you. It’ll be no surprise that the ever-popular Game of Thrones is the biggest influence here; we actually have a guest appearance from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones’s “Jaime Lannister” fame) as Marge’s incestuous twin brother, Markery. Well played, Serfsons.

All in all, it’s not a gut buster, but it’s a fun time and its always great to see The Simpsons do something a little different, especially when they’ve been in the game this long. If you’re a fan of The Simpsons or just a fan of fantasy in general, don’t miss out on this one.