[The long of it]
At first, "Brake My Wife, Please" appears to have all the features of a great episode. An interesting premise, good characterization, and amusing humor are all there. Yet, "Brake" doesn't gather the momentum needed to take the leap from being an okay episode to being a great one. Looking closer, I can see that the potential is there, but it's never fully realized.
There are actually two good premises in this show. First, after Marge has a difficult time reaching him in an emergency, Homer gets a cell phone. (At this point, allow me to be the 100th person in the group to say, "It's Moe who should get the cell phone! Moe! Moe!" Thank you. Now, back to the review.) Alas, the phone proves to be Homer's ruin. It leads to dozens of other mobile appliances until the family car resembles a Best Buy on wheels. It's pretty funny to watch Homer tool down the road, watching TV and spinning records on the in-car turntable. At one point, he starts a fog machine and, as the fog rolls in, Homer says, "Even I think this is crazy." After the inevitable accident, Judge Harm has an even lower opinion than that, and Homer's license is summarily revoked.
The funny thing is that, after he gets used to the idea, Homer *likes* walking everywhere he goes. He spends most of the rest of the show traipsing care-free around town, as Marge frazzles under the burden of doing Homer's driving chores in addition to hers. I get a vague sense that there's a satirical point here, about our dependence on cars perhaps, but I'm not sure exactly what that would be. We should walk everywhere we go? Commuting is a pain in the ass? There's enough material here for a diverting subplot, but it can't carry an episode and the writers wisely don't try.
Of course, that means they *do* have to fill the rest of the show somehow. So Marge, by now stressed out, not-to-subconsciously tries to kill her husband. Now, this is an interesting idea. It would have been great had the script revealed Marge's state of mind more gradually, by showing her doing things that may or may not have been accidental, and working up to the one obvious act of revenge. Alas, Marge just "accidentally" hits Homer with her car, and soon the couple lands at a marriage counselor's office. I felt short-changed, because the potential suspense involved -- is Marge subconsciously trying to hurt Homer or not? -- would have made this a good (and, yes, funny) direction to go. Of course, this would have given us the second "Homer and Marge's marriage is in trouble" plot in less than a month, but I think most people would have that reaction to this plot anyway. The writers might as well have gone all the way with it. The lackadaisical ending (is it me, or are a lot of the endings this season just petering out?) just emphasizes this plot's weakness.
There are a lot of good jokes in this episode. The aquarium field trip that opened this episode had most of the highlights. I liked sharing Lisa's discovery of what penguins do when no one's watching. The way the museum stores sea life when it isn't being exhibited -- in oversized plastic bags, like you get at the pet store -- was funny. There's a good scene where Homer and the kids walk to relentlessly perky music while Marge stews at home. Even the marriage subplot had a keeper. The slogan for the Simpsons' marriage counselor is, "The one who's wrong pays." Yet, when I first watched the show, the jokes seemed to be spread thinly, surrounded by expository dialogue or "good but not great" gags. It wasn't until I took a closer look for this review that I realized how much good material there was; it was just let down by plot execution that is half-baked.
That is what keeps the show from taking off, in spite of being refreshingly down-to-earth for a Tim Long episode. The fundamentals of a good episode are there, but a bit more polishing was needed to make the show as good as it potentially could be. Instead, I'm left wondering if someone just wrote this episode while driving to work. It's kind of hard revising dialogue while steering with your knees, you know.
[The short of it]
With two good plot ideas, this could have been a great episode. However, one subplot (Homer loses his license and must walk everywhere) isn't substantial enough to carry the story, and the other (Marge "accidentally" hurts Homer) isn't thought fully through. As a result, *neither* plot carries the show. That's too bad, since it detracts from several good jokes and some nice characterization. This episode is okay as is, but doesn't have the "oomph" needed to make it a great one. (B)
[DYNs]
... Marge "spit-straightens" Skinner's hair? ... Homer just throws his money away when he discovers he doesn't have a fanny pack?
[References]
Henny Youngman (comedian) - his signature line, "Take my wife -- please!" parodied in this episode's title
"I Can't Drive 55" (song) - CBG sings this Sammy Hagar song, sort of
"Dennis the Menace" (comic) - Homer accidentally thwacks the Wilsons with a stick - Mr. Wilson declares Homer a "menace"
[Previous Episode References]
[DABF17] Driving with a cell phone leads to an accident
[AABF12] Lindsay Neagle in the cellular communications business ...
where she got her start on the show
[1F12] Unconventional appliances in the car
[4F18] Rev. Lovejoy's VW Karmann-Ghia[FFF]
Aquarium marquee:
[dolphin]
SPRINGFIELD
AQUARMIUM
DEAD FISH
SKIMMED DAILYSign on Skinner's back:
KICK
ME
HARDThe Springfield Aquarium's latest exhibit:
WONDERS
OF THE
GULF COASTTicket's to the '39 World's Fair:
+----------------------+
| NEW YORK [star] |
| WORLD'S FAIR |
+----------------------+ [Trylon] 1939
[and Perisphere] +----------------------+
| ADMISSION TICKET |
|APRIL 30 TO OCTOBER 10|
+----------------------+Marriage counselor's sign:
MARRIAGE
COUNSELING "THE ONE WHO'S
WRONG PAYS"People who are important to Homer:
- Homer
- Homer J. Simpson
3. Commander
Cool (Me)Banner at Marge Appreciation Dinner:
WE LOVE YOU
M A R G ESign by railroad tracks:
WELCOME TO
MONTANAHomer's decoy letter to Flanders:
DUDE,
MEET ME IN
MONTANA XXOO
JESUS (H. CHRIST)[Personal Comments & Observations]
Hibbert advises Marge that Bart will be "up and underachieving in no time," a line that probably refers to Bart's early-90s slogan, "Underachiever and Proud of It."
Homer has Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" on the turntable as he drives. (I'm mentioning it here because they aren't making fun of it, and hence it isn't a reference.)
Most drivers in real life don't have the array of "car appliances" that Homer collected, but according to traffic-safety researchers, many drivers do have the same distraction problem. By now, who hasn't heard -- or personally experienced -- a horror story about someone shaving, applying makeup, or even reading while at speed on the road? Homer even had a TV on the dashboard. Lucky for him the police in Springfield are so lax, since it's illegal in most states to have a car TV positioned so the driver can see it. (Fancy GPS navigation screens aren't covered by this ban, by the way.)
Incidentally, Homer's car reminded me of a New York City taxicab I saw on television one day. The cabbie had outfitted it with almost everything you might see in a discotheque: a sound system, flashing lights, and even a mirrored ball. His gimmick was that he was not only your cabbie, but your deejay as well. Sounds nuts, but then it's not like the rush-hour traffic in Manhattan is moving all that quickly.
Cell phones catch most of the blame for driver distraction. (Perhaps not fairly -- a study conducted by the AAA showed that cell phone use accounted for only 1.5% of all driver-distraction accidents.) Headsets, like the one Barney suggested, are pitched as a safer way to use cell phones, but most of distraction comes from holding a conversation, not from carrying the phone in your hand. The writers might be alluding to this when Barney calls a headset "the next best thing to paying attention to the road."
It's VW day at Car Watch headquarters!
* Reverend Lovejoy drives by in a white Karmann-Ghia convertible. This is presumably the same car from "In Marge We Trust (4F18)," but Rev. Lovejoy apparently found the time to restore it.
- Comic Book Guy tools slowly around town in an orange Volkswagen Old Beetle.
- There's a green Old Beetle in the traffic jam Homer walks past.
* Just when you thought nobody in Springfield bought a VW in the last 30 years, a red New Beetle shows up in the same traffic jam.
Clips promoting this episode showed Homer saying, "How can you hate me? Your husband? Whom you're contractually obligated to like!" The line was cut for the episode itself -- a pity, since it would have been one of the better lines in the show.