[The long of it]
Tonight's episode must surely represent some sort of milestone in "Simpsons" history: After watching it, I had less idea of what it was about than I did before I saw it. "Brawl in the Family" is an almost bizarrely unfocused episode, going off on at least three tangents. If "Seinfeld" is a show about nothing, then "Brawl" is the show about everything.
The first act opens with the pro-conservation parable promoted in Fox's ads for the show. Springfield's Republicans scrap all the environmental regulations at once, and the local environment quickly goes to Hell in a handbasket. There's some potential for good satire here, but the writing was too heavy-handed. For instance, the GOP doesn't even revoke the laws for some selfish purpose; they just do it for kicks because they're blatantly evil. When Mayor Quimby decides to drain the wetlands, he pulls a big rubber plug, like the kind you see in a bathtub, and swamp get sucked down a drain. Exaggeration may give birth to humor, but too much can kill the joke. (On the other hand, it was funny when Nelson bullied the spotted owl.)
That part's over fairly quickly, though. The action shifts to the Simpson home, where OFF waits out an acid rainstorm by playing Monopoly. It's a nice domestic family scene, the kind we don't get quite enough of nowadays. It even reminded me of the family's game of Scrabble, way back in "Bart the Genius (7G02)."
Like that game, the Monopoly session ends in domestic violence, setting in motion the next major plot. Gabriel, a family counselor, is assigned by the state to help the Simpsons function normally as a family. He's played by Delroy Lindo, who radiates a calm, nurturing presence. It's an impressive performance coming from someone who always seems to play a tough guy in the movies. Gabriel has his work cut out for him. Homer persistently confuses him for an angel (maybe the archangel Gabriel, although he never says so). At school, Bart brags about having a counselor assigned to him -- "That's how nuts I am," he says. His efforts to get the family cooperating in one of those feel-good woods exercises goes amusingly wrong, or amusingly right depending on how you look at it. The second act is the best part of the show.
As soon as things look up for the family, who should show up on their doorstep but Amber, the cocktail waitress from "Viva Ned Flanders (AABF06)." Her partner Ginger is back too, ready to pick up married life with Ned Flanders. "Brawl" loses some steam at this point. Neither Amber nor Ginger seem as likeable as they did in Vegas, so watching them was less fun this time around. Had the Vegas girls been more friendly, there might have been some interesting tension; we know Homer can't leave Marge for Amber, but can he find some way to let her down gently? As it's written, were just waiting to see how Homer can get rid of this harpy, and fast. Ned's scenes with Ginger are more interesting, because he actually tries to make a go if it with her. Perhaps there should have been a Ned-centric episode built around this plot. In its favor, the third act comes to a nice, well-defined ending, free of hanging plot threads, bizarre non-sequitirs, and mob scenes. I appreciated that.
Rambling and unfocused, "Brawl" redeems itself at least partly with some solid humor in each of its acts, although to widely varying degrees. Like the last DABF__ show, "She of Little Faith (DABF02)," it's a flawed but promising episode, written by people new to the show. (Well, Joel Cohen wrote the first "THOH XII (CABF19)" segment, but this is his first *full-length* episode.) Since most new writers improve on their debut effort, it's easy to imagine the show capitalizing on the potential of its new writing talent. I hope that day arrives soon, because I'm getting a little antsy.
[The short of it]
This show goes all over the map in terms of plot, and the result is an uneven but promising episode. The environmental satire at the start is too heavy-handed for its own good, but a strong second act and a cast-against-type performance from Delroy Lindo lift the second act. The final part of the show loses some comedic steam, but at least the ending is well wrapped up. Good potential here, even if the show doesn't quite capitalize on it. (B)
[DYNs]
... all of the identical red dresses in Lisa's closet? ... either Lisa has no negative behavior patterns, or Gabriel forgot to mention them at the summit in the woods? ... Maggie sings along (or at least lip-syncs) with the rest of the family on the drive home? ... Maggie loses her pacifier when she gasps at Amber's wedding video? ... Jane Kaczmarek is back as Judge Harm?
[References]
"All in the Family" (TV series) - title a spoof of this series, where a family fights all the time
"Blind Date" (TV series) - "First Date" has similar premise and logo
"We Are Family" (song) - Simpsons make up their own lyrics to this song by Sister Sledge
Britney Spears (singer) - Marge derisively calls Amber "Brittany Beers"
[Previous Episode References]
[7G02] Off plays a classic board game [2F02] Republicans' sinister headquarters shown [8F22] "Bart, don't feed your sister hotels" [2F19], [AABF03] Lisa snubs a well-respected school [AABF06] Amber and Ginger return [CABF22] Judge Constance Harm seen
[FFF]
GOP HQ sign:
SPRINGFIELD
REPUBLICAN
PARTY
HEADQUARTERS [This sign is in red neon, and blinks]Republican nameplates:
C. M. BURNS DRACULA
RALPH NADER RICH TEXAN
KRUSTY
Environmental treasure signs:
SPOTTED SPRINGFIELD
OWL WETLANDS
HABITATAir polluters:
STEEL MILL DAY-CARE
SMOKE FACTORY CENTER <- multi-color lettersMonopoly variations:
STAR WARS MONOPOLY
RASTA-MON-OPOLY
GALIP-OLOPOLY
ENDA KRABAPPOLYLisa's box of stress balls:
STRESS
BALLS[Oops!]
Unless the Simpsons had special house rules, you can't have more than one hotel (or four houses) on one property.
Anti-goof: The animators remembered to keep Bart's driving gloves on when they cut from him putting them on to him driving the car.
[Personal Comments & Observations]
Gabriel's "Best of Wings" album includes "Band on the Run," one of their best-known hits. Interestingly, his CD starts playing near the end of the song.
Marge says the family has had "about 280" adventures together, referring to the approximate number of "Simpsons" episodes in circulation.
Soon after, Lisa says, "Could this be the end of our series?" The meta-reference aspect of this should be self-evident.
Desperate to stay in the house, Homer warns Marge that throwing him out will cause a miscount in the census. Marge throws him out anyway. Perhaps she's noticed that after every census, there's claims that someone or other's district was under-counted. (By law, the United States government must count up how many people are in each state. Among other things, the results are used to decide how many Representatives each state gets in Congress.) What's interesting is that the Census Bureau releases figures saying how far off the census is. It makes you wonder why they even need to bother counting if they already know the results.
After her morning aspirin, Amber gulps down several doses of the contraceptive RU-486. Most contraceptives are at least a little controversial, but RU-486 is especially contentious. It's a "morning after" pill that works by preventing the fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Anti-abortion activists consider this akin to abortion, and their lobbying kept RU-486 out of the US for several years. Either way, it's not surprising that a dedicated floozy like Amber would be well-acquainted with this pill.