Own the rights?
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
The combination of this episode winning an Emmy, good word of mouth and seeing- and loving- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) made me want to see this episode. I was somewhat disappointed- it is a strong latter day effort for The Simpsons, like The Simpsons Movie, but that doesn't make it an equal to the episodes of the golden age, or to the movie the title references.Homer finds out he took a drink to make him lose a memory, and wonders what he did that was so bad he'd want to forget it. He finds evidence he gave Marge a black eye after catching her with another man, and horrified, contemplates suicide. But it turns out that Marge wasn't having an affair with this man and the black eye was the result of an accident. Her real aim is to throw Homer a surprise party, and Homer takes the memory loss drug to make the party a surprise again.What's good about this episode is that it scores some laughs, though not all of the jokes are great. Was I really supposed to laugh at "new bubble smell"? Homer seeing his life flash before his eyes was also done in an artsy way. I looked it up, and sure enough, it was a parody, but even though it's not original, I'll give The Simpsons credit for taking a good idea and making it its own. (Kind of like how the endings of Life on the Fast Lane and When Flanders Failed were actually parodies but worked on their own, by which I mean, enjoyable and touching even if you don't get the reference). On the other hand, speaking of spoofs, although I loved Ice Age (2002), I'm not sure I would have parodied it as they did in this episode. I'd only parody movies that have been or are guaranteed to be around forever to make sure the parody stays timeless. Ice Age may not be remembered in twenty years.The down side of this episode is that it doesn't have the depth of the classic episodes. Take the episodes I've already mentioned- Life on the Fast Lane (s. 1) dealt with Marge nearly having an affair and When Flanders Failed (s. 3) has Homer wishing misfortune on his neighbour. These episodes thus explore the characters' dark side while making them understandable, sympathetic, and human. Eternal Moonshine looks like it will explore the Simpsons' dark side through the hint of infidelity and domestic disturbance, but it doesn't actually do this. Of course, not all episodes have to, and I'll give the episode a passing grade, but I won't give it the same regard that I give to older episodes.
You may report errors and omissions on this page to the IMDb database managers. They will be examined and if approved will be included in a future update. Clicking the 'Update' button will take you through a step-by-step process.
