Public humiliation is the best humiliation. Simpson, whose sisters let it all hang out for the kids while keeping discipline as extended babysitters. “I just never let myself enjoy it.” This is a big step in both self-awareness and self-consciousness for Mrs. “Pity, is this how you feel all the time,” Homer asks after finally tanning himself in the arm glow of the unexpectedly wonderful feeling. Marge denies problems like she denies herself joy.įurther reading: Are The Simpsons Conservative, Liberal or an Equal Opportunity Offender? She always gave as good as she got, which told more about the environment than spousal abuse. Marge doesn’t always counterpunch her way out of situations like Audrey Meadows had to do to make Jackie Gleason less abusive on The Honeymooners. Every time he screws up, she gets the sympathy. Simpsons fans are so used to Homer being the chaotic faction, even more so than the boy, on the show we forget how much it pays out to his long-suffering, wine-sneaking, over-zealously middle of the road wife. Marge has the greatest arc of the evening, while Homer gets the best reward. The voice acting gets satirically stylized, which works but is a little creepy, probably what they intended. The characters lose none of their animated form in the false extra dimension of reality TV. The show-within-the-show plays the sexual innuendo off some very impressive animation. It is gratifying to see her waddling in her own banality, throwing up her hands at the indifferent gods of reality programming. Marge is also the biggest enabler on television. But in the episode, her final defeat is she screws up a recipe, which so unlike her. She can glaze a ham until it glows in the dark. Julie Kavner’s Marge Simpson provides the best and worst America has to offer when it comes to mothering. She is even barred from vacuuming at the hotel she is banished to by maids who get paid for that kind of work.
The episode is a tour de farce for Marge, who reveals her innermost fears while failing at the very things she prides herself on.
#The simpsons season 30 episode 2 tv
Even the store where you buy your sundries is awesome to Homer, who is otherwise too distracted by the room service, booze, all-you-can-stomach appetizers and endless TV he is forced to endure.įurther reading: Marge Simpson’s Julie Kavner Is a National Treasure Homer dives right in like he was made for it, which he, and most of us, is and are. Marge has trouble adjusting to hotel living because she doesn’t think she deserves valuables. Reality Shows thrive on the reveal and Chief Wiggum has already revealed quite enough for one episode. So valuable, they get locked away like buried treasures in the airport hotel, because even a slip of the lip during a call to their kids can cost them a million dollars, or if they were residents of Georgia, the death penalty. But she is far more valuable to the production after she and Homer are disqualified. She studied every flaw made by every contestant during every season, and still she falls for the first trick out of the box. Before submitting previous audition tapes, she knew the show inside out. Marge reveals herself a dreaded newbie when she loses the Suitcase Stowaway challenge. While Homer still clings to the notion that the only reason the Dippin Dens chewing tobacco parlor wasn’t a hit was because the proprietors he invested with were not ready for all the spitting, Marge is ready for a snarling close-up.įurther reading: The Simpsons Season 30 Premiere Review: Bart’s Not Dead In “Heartbreak Hotel,” she is still probably repressing her old wife swap escapade with Klang and Kudos on their interstellar reality programming. Marge points out that he once believed they were “the greatest thing that ever happened to us.” Homer realizes that he’s grown, but Marge hasn’t. the Third Grade,” Homer admits he hates reality shows. She’s taped all the episodes, strung together the outtakes and even bought the terrible home game the family never played. The Amazing Place, or “the place show” as Homer calls it, is Marge’s favorite competition series. The Simpsons are taking on the almost-current state of reality TV, again on season 30 episode 2, “Heartbreak Hotel.” The family has been conned into this game before, sometimes willingly giving themselves over to conscious anachronism and sometimes dragged there to get out of a country, or arrest, where the camera was really a body-cam and the director actually a local cop. This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.