"Every day at noon a bell rings, and they herd us in here to feeding time. So we sit around like cattle, chewing our cud, dreading the inevitable..." Lisa Simpson, 7G06
After a break of some days (I wasn�t in the mood to write reviews) here a new one to go back to a little normality. I choose a rather sad and thoughtful episode this time instead of something hilarious and funny (and thus empty as I always say) as it seems to me that sad episodes are more suitable in these days than mindless slapstick.
I have chosen the great classic 7G06 "Moaning Lisa". I know that I already wrote a short review about that episode but I think it�s important enough to deserve a long review as it is one of the most defining episodes of the entire show, possibly the quintessential character episode in season 1 and the episode that showed for the first time what deep potential the characters really have.
The very first episodes 7G01, 7G03 and 7G04 were in most scenes often nothing more than 20-minute-versions of Tracey-Ullman-Shorts: strange animation, weird voices, little content and very thin plotline, characters superficial and cartoon/sitcom-typical, Lisa as plain female version of Bart and both kids doing nothing but mischief. 7G02 had a little bit more satirical content but a lack of depth. 7G05 "Bart the General" was maybe the first episode that transformed the show from an overlong sitcom short into the brilliant satire it would become but 7G05 was still an episode with more regard to its rather radical plot (which was excellent) than to the characters who were still rather flat in comparison to the later standard. 7G06 changed that.
I was rather angry when I read the British so-called "Bigger and Better Simpsons Guide" (by the way the worst OFF guide I�ve ever seen) which called the episode bad and "syrupy". It seems to me that the authors who wrote the book haven�t noticed the potential and the big improvement the episode meant to the show but just thought "not funny = bad". Bad thing for a book.
7G06 is defining in many elements and I�ll try to show some of them:
Defining for Lisa as character: it was the first episode that gave her real depth and a first trace of the upcoming three-dimensionality of all characters. She was no longer the crazy little sister of Bart with the single purpose to participate in Bart�s pranks (her role in many shorts) but became a somewhat real personality, in this case a very sad child experiencing a terrible childhood angst. Her lines and her behaviour in 7G06 were very defining for everything she did and said in later episodes and the flat female Bart she was ceased to exist and was replaced with a child as moral center of the family.
Defining for Homer as character: in the very first episodes Homer was a rather simple character and too often too close to a typical and stereotypical sitcom dad but 7G06 showed him for the first time as more than that, as a "real" but also somehow "bizarre" person who was partly like a normal man and father but partly also like something unique, like a big child living in his own strange world. He was no longer the weird safety crusader from 7G03 or the overdone overfather from 7G04 but he became the real Homer. He plays an extremely violent video game that is more important to him than anything else, he even goes to the Noiseland Arcade to learn from kids how to play, he wakes up at night, screams, but goes immediately back to sleep etc etc. Defining scenes for a unique character.
Defining for the relationship between Homer and Lisa: the episode shows us for the first time that Homer and Lisa seem to think on a very different level, that Homer is unable to communicate with his own daughter. Homer tries to talk to Lisa but he understands neither her feelings (says Homer "I have feeling too, you know, like "My stomach hurts", or "I'm going crazy!") nor her deep questions and replies with a simple "Come on Lisa, ride the Homer horsey! Giddy up! Wheee! heh heh heh" to show his inability to understand Lisa. Her following line "Sorry Dad, I know you mean well." and also Homer�s somewhat sad answer "Thanks for knowing I mean well" show a first glimpse of the relationship they will have in later episodes. The difference between their characters and even the "Homer horsey" are recurring elements in many later episodes (among them the very best episodes.)
Defining for plot structures: while the very first episodes had a somewhat simple structure (often that of an overlong Ullman short) and revolved around a single character, 7G06 contains not just one but three stories in its 20 minutes. There�s at first the main plot about Lisa and her childhood angst. She tries to find own answers about the most important questions of life. The main plot is also about the suppression of Lisa�s great creative spirit, especially noticably in her conversations with Mr Largo and Bleedin�Gums. Then there�s a second plot about Homer and Bart (the lighter side of the story) who play the extreme violent "Super Slugfest" which leds to the fact that Homer has a crisis of his own and feels inferior to Bart. The third plotline is about Marge who tries to force Lisa to smile (as Marge�s mother had said "Let's put our happy face on, because people know how good a mommy you have by the size of your smile") but finally understands how wrong she was.
We have three storylines, each one well written and defining for a character plus we have very good filler material between the three character stories like a funny prank call ("Jock Strap") or a strange nightmare of Homer or the extreme violent video game scenes and even the best scene of the entire episode with Maggie who comes to the one she loves best (which is neither Bart nor Lisa but the TV though Lisa said "No Maggie, don't go for the glitter, look for substance") That is true great satire of the first year. Excellent.
To come to an end: 7G06 was IMO a big improvement to the very first episodes. The animation had improved, the voices had improved (Homer sounds more like himself and less like Walter Matthau and we have a very good performance by Yeardley Smith who makes Lisa�s sadness very believable) and the characters and storylines became much deeper than before. The story is mainly about sadness and suppression of creativity but has also funny elements and subplots which merge to a real story. There are of course some of the usual season 1 weaknesses but on the whole the episode is one big improvement and one big step out of the Ullman era into the era of intelligent satirical episodes.
Some 44 seconds were cut in syndication, including a part of Homer�s and Bart�s video game and Moe�s reply to Bart�s prank call. It�s not too bad, there are many episodes which are far worse cut and the upcoming DVD will of course include the entire 7G06. I�ve heard that Sky One cut most of the Super Slugfest scenes because of the violence.
Chris