After a nasty hit to the economy, Ogdenville, one of Springfield’s neighbors, quickly fell into chaos. All of its citizens picked up what the had and moved to Springfield, taking jobs left and right, doing things most Springfieldiens would never want to do.

This episode’s plot was clearly meant to parallel the US/Mexico border situation. However, I didn’t think there was a whole lot of comedy in this episode. This is one of the harder episodes to review because it was just simply mediocre and yet, there weren’t many parts I hated.

The ending, however, I didn’t like. It was all too predictable and preachy. The season started out with a road, with several very good episodes, but it just seemed that as the season was wrapping up, everything went downhill.

Rating: 6

The typical setup for the episode was very much out of the ordinary since we were dealing with a story retelling episode. The only modern scenes were really just the ones in the beauty salon of Maggie, Marge, and Lisa getting a little work done.

Lisa and Marge were at odds with one another over what is important to a woman. Lisa liked being smart, while Marge likes the idea of a woman being married and being able to depend on him at times.

I wasn’t a big fan of seeing Homer as a murderer. It was all too violent for this show. On the other hand, Lisa’s retelling of numerous children’s stories was terrific. I got a chuckle out of the “Walt Disney might sue us” stuff in this episode since there was a lot of material borrowed from Disney-owned stories. The unusual blending and weaving of multiple stories was enjoyable and downright hilarious at times.

I was shocked when they had Maggie talk. Jodie Foster provided the voice, but it just wasn’t right. If Matt and the gang were to age the children, I’d be okay with Maggie talking, but they’re not, so she should not be talking.

Rating: 6.4

The Simpsons manage to get around this legal issue by renting an apartment in the new school’s town and Homer got stuck living in the apartment because of the threat of a random audit. The school is onto the families who do exactly what the Simpsons are doing and they want to make sure that only families truly living in the area are able to get into their uppity school.

Homer’s stay in the micro apartment was without a doubt the highlight of the episode. This plot only got better when Marge dropped by and it was like they were a whole new couple again. I liked it.

The scenes at the Waverly Hills school didn’t win me over. This entire plot seemed tired, like it was something we’ve seen half a dozen times. It lacked originality and I couldn’t wait for it to be over. This really took down the episode since so much of the episode was geared to this one lame plot.

Rating: 4.5

After realizing Bart was a loser and Lisa was a loner, he immediately took action, trying to rectify the problem. It was strange watching Bart act like a total waste of space. We’ve known him to be a prankster, but this was an all-time worst version of Bart. It was borderline ridiculous.

Homer’s way of fixing everything was to become a helicopter parent, a parent who hovered over their child and did everything for them. Homer tried to take over the building of Westminster Abby, a project for school. It didn’t go so well, of course.

Homer didn’t find any more success with his helping of Lisa. Lisa’s new friends were ridiculously shallow and Lisa quickly got tired of them for this reason. Before long, Homer realized he was a failure and it was best for him to stay out of parenting and leave that to Marge.

The ending of this episode was a huge surprise for me. They had an edited version of Canvas doing an a cappella of The Simpsons‘ theme song. I loved it!

Rating: 7.3

The prank that started the episode was rather clever: remove every screw in the school. As the school day unfolded, so did most of the school. Just about everything fell apart, almost all of it humorously.

Actress Anne Hathaway delivered the voice for Jenny, the little girl who got so much of Bart’s attention. Jenny was portrayed as an angel, whereas we all know Bart is more of a little devil with his many antics over the years. However with his new relationship with Jenny, Bart’s behavior had changed dramatically. He was finally behaving, helping out around the house.

Everything came crashing down when Milhouse found out what was going on. As he was trying to split them apart, Bart confessed all of his sins to Jenny and within minutes, the two were no longer together. Bart and Milhouse would later reconcile, but Jenny was out of the picture at that point.

Meanwhile, Lisa Simpson had her own thing going on. She learned the sad truth about the future of Springfield when she got on her computer and read more about global warming, overpopulation, etc. It meant sure doom for the city. After a mini-meltdown, Lisa was put on antidepressants and that was all she wrote. Lisa was turned into a zombie at that point.

A last prank ended the show, but it wasn’t very funny. In fact, it was more cool than anything. I rather enjoyed seeing the halls of Springfield Elementary turned into a massive skating rink.

This episode didn’t have anything new in it. However it still felt somewhat fresh with the humor. We’ve all seen girls come between Bart and Milhouse in the past, but it was the humor sprinkled throughout that kept this episode going. The 20th season remains one of the best seasons in recent memory.

Rating: 7.6

After neglecting to take care of Maggie, Homer gets assigned to watch her every morning. I don’t blame Marge for her anger at Homer. He’s not exactly the ideal father figure.

Homer’s opinion of taking care of Maggie is making sure she is playing while daddy is busy drinking at Moe’s. It seems to work out for Homer, of course, but Maggie finds herself at a pretty rough playground, where every one of the kids is a bully and they want to take out the new kid.

As for Moe, he managed to get a new girlfriend via the Internet. She was a little person and this was a bit awkward from time to time. Moe couldn’t let her see the inside of his bar until he tore down a rather insulting sign.

Despite their height difference, the two didn’t seem to have many issues. Sure, Moe couldn’t introduce her to all of his friends because they may act improperly around her, but it was Moe himself who ruined any chance of a relationship when he made a few too many improper jokes. He had been holding them in for so long that the jokes kind of just burst out like a dam breaking.

Of the various scenes in the episode, I would have to say that my favorite was the one in the library which had Moe chatting with his girlfriend over the Internet and he had to choose which photo of himself to send. He debated whether or not he should doctor the photo because he doesn’t consider himself to be very handsome. The transformation was quite stunning when you look at it.

“Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe” had a few touching moments and is better than most of those episodes which prominently feature minor characters.

Rating: 7.3

This episode explored the fact that Homer and Marge’s latest re-marriage wasn’t legal because Reverend Tim Lovejoy wasn’t officially a minister at the time. It seems there was some technicality about him not being able to pay for the re-licensing and he had to apologize to everyone who was affected.

Just as I was noticing Marge was getting a little carried away with her wedding plans, Homer somehow read my mind. The word ‘bridezilla’ came to mind mere seconds before Homer slapped that label on her too.

I wasn’t surprised when it was revealed that Marge’s sisters were involved in the kidnapping of Homer, but I have to admit that the story got a little weak at this point in the episode. There didn’t seem to be anything new brought up. Both sisters know Marge is too good for Homer and well, this just seemed like an unnecessary rehashing of information we’ve known for years.

That being said, I still enjoyed the episode. The story got weaker as the episode played out, but there were some funny moments and I have to admit that I really enjoyed the latest ‘couch gag’ segment.

Rating: 7.5

The Simpsons have traveled all over the world, but I don’t believe they’ve ever been to Ireland, so since St. Patrick’s Day is here, it was time for the Simpsons to kiss the Blarney Stone and poke fun at the Irish.

It’s rare for Grandpa Simpson to get such an integral part of an episode, but he was there this week, at the center of attention, along with his son, Homer. Grandpa had a bucket list that he wanted to see completed and he had Homer take him back to Ireland, which is where he was some forty years ago during World War II.

The pub that Grandpa liked so much wasn’t much of a pub anymore. Ever since Ireland welcomed big tech companies and banned smoking in pubs, Grandpa’s favorite hang-out went down the tubes.

Bart was on the top of his game this week, cracking jokes and pulling stunts. I think his Blarney Stone stunt was the best in a heck of a long time. What made that scene even better was when the kid in the line wanted to carve his name into Bart’s butt. Bart’s reaction was classic.

While this episode was filled with all sorts of Irish jokes, I have to admit that the inclusion of Police Chief Wiggum was the best of the night. The judge’s comments about how all of Ireland’s dumbest, laziest people were sent to the U.S. was worth a good laugh and was quickly followed by Chief Wiggum pepper spraying and tazering himself. It went on a little too long, but it was quite funny. It was a smart way to end the episode. It’s too bad The Big Bang Theory can’t figure this out.

I would love to see Grandpa featured more often. I realize the writers don’t always have something for the old man, but he can still be a funny character.

Rating: 8.6

There were some intriguing puzzles introduced in this episode. It felt like National Treasure to some extent, with the puzzles that Lisa was supposed to solve in order to find her baby sister Maggie.

I enjoyed the scene in the rowboat with Homer, Santa’s Little Helper, and Maggie. It was worth a chuckle or two to see Homer try to come up with a scenario that would get the family across the river, only to be upstaged by Santa’s Little Helper, who could of course doggie-paddle across the water.

What this episode really lacked was a string of funny moments. Everything deserved a smile, but there wasn’t anything that really stood out when compared to some of the other episodes which have led up to this one. Still, this wasn’t exactly a bad episode. This was still a good episode, with clever, sarcastic writing throughout.

Rating: 6.6

I think one of my favorite comments in this episode came during that scene where the Simpsons are being kicked out of their house and one of the mortgage broker mentioned that the company’s CEO was let go and given a $50 million settlement package and Homer sarcastically wondered how he’ll ever manage to get by.

If there’s any major gripe about this episode, it’s that it was woefully predictable. Even though Ned was angry at Homer and his family, they have too much history to just end it after kicking them out.

It may have been rather predictable, but this was still a good episode. I don’t know if it’s just me, but The Simpsons has put together a nice run of good episodes which is very much out of character of the show. The writers are on their game at the moment.

Rating: 7.6