Marge takes up bowling, and meets a mysterious man who teaches her the way of the sport.
This episode is one of the first moments where Homer is truly a deadbeat husband, as he forgets Marge’s birthday. The kids take immense time and effort into making a special birthday breakfast for her, as well as gifting her thoughtful presents (or as thoughtful as they can be for their age and resources). With this, we find out that Homer only gives Marge gifts that HE likes, without any real consideration for what she actually wants. Between her forgetful husband, Marge doesn’t even get to pick where she wants for dinner as her sisters tell her where she should go. Though the kids are at a better version than they normally are, they still bicker with eachother at her dinner. All around she’s surrounded by negativity and a lack of care for who she is.
All of this is phenomenal context to set up why Marge’s arc is so understandable. As she’s ignored and forgotten about by everyone in her life, why wouldn’t she be attracted to a man who actually cares about her? A man who’s attractive (or I assume is attractive, sometimes it’s hard to judge looks in the Springfield universe), funny, mysterious, and dangerously charming.
Homer then has the audacity to be sad that Marge is enjoying the gift he bought for her (that he really bought for himself). It’s as if they want you to feel bad for him but… he did this all to himself. There’s a lot of room where this whole episode dynamic could make the audience hate Marge, but the set up is so pristine that we completely see where Marge is coming from and her reaction to this man giving her full undivided attention. Even Homer redeems himself at the end as he realizes what he did wrong and why he should cherish Marge!! It’s a win for everyone. It’s one of the better character arcs we’ve seen in a single episode and makes the resolution that much better.
This is one of the most cinematic episodes of The Simpsons, the bowling sequence between Marge and Jacques with the jazz music playing in the back worked really well and would be even better in a live action shot. The dancing dream sequence of black and white with hints of pink was so visually interesting and had to have been heavily inspired by Singing in the Rain.
This really was a fantastic episode. I loved the concept and the artistic design. It felt so different than any other episode of The Simpsons, I didn’t quite cherish it for the humor but more so for the aesthetic. I feel silly giving so many of these episodes 4 stars, but when you watch them solo you get to enjoy what happens in this 22 minute runtime without comparing it to anything else. I wouldn’t necessarily say the 4 stars declares it an episode I would always choose to rewatch, but one that gave me a highly entertaining half hour of content.
The most painful part of this episode was watching Marge bowl, as it was like looking into a mirror. It’s okay Marge, we will have bad form together.