This week’s episode was Valentine’s Day themed, and let’s just say I loved it. The episode was filled with laughs, and had a plot that was basic, but revealed a lot about the characters. Even though the first half of the episode was amazing, while the second half was average, “The Blue and the Gray” was still a great episode.
The episode’s plot centered around two characters, Moe and Marge. Moe is once again lonely at Valentine’s Day, and so attends a convention to help guys get girls. It was great to see all of Springfield’s lonely men in one place, from Comic Book Guy to Principal Skinner. The advice Moe eventually received was to get a wingman, a guy that would make Moe look better. He obviously asks Homer to be his wingman, and Homer agrees.
The main reason Homer agrees to be Moe’s wingman is to get away from his home life. The day after Valentine’s Day, Marge finds her first gray hair, and goes to the barber to get it died. Her barber reveals to her she’s been gray for a quite awhile, something alluded to in the episode, “Secrets of a Successful Marriage“. Instead of hiding it, Marge embraces her grays and comes home with a full head of gray hair. So Homer stays away from the house, afraid he’ll say something that would make Marge mad.
Eventually, with Homer’s help, Moe gets lucky in the dating scene, something that was good to see. After much ridicule from other women, Marge decides to dye her hair blue again, not because of her image, but because it’s what Homer likes (as evident from Marge asking Homer what he thinks of when she says “Beautiful Woman” in which Homer imagines a female Na’vi and Smurfette, along with Marge).
All of the funniest jokes in the episode came from the fist half or so, and came lightning quick. The episode started with some periphery characters celebrating Valentine’s Day. Crazy Cat Lady finds love with Crazy Dog Man, who throw their pets at one another, before kissing. Lenny and Carl date each other’s sister, which creates a weird situation where they’re dating the female versions of each other, but it fit perfectly with Lenny and Carl’s relationship.
The funniest part of the episode was the Simpson family’s reaction to Marge’s new hair. When Marge asks Homer what he thought of it, the camera zoomed into Homer’s brain, where the Marriage Preservation Committee was having an emergency meeting. Anthropomorphized brain cells debated how to answer the question, with one suggesting they fake a stroke, only to be rebutted by his colleague, who said the last time they faked a stroke, it triggered a real stroke.
The Simpson kids also had a great reaction to Marge’s hair. Bart asks where exactly his head stopped and his hair started. This led to an amusing sequence where the Simpson kids touched their hair, looked in the mirror, and drew their own hairlines with a marker in order to define their hairlines. It was great for the show to reference the oddity of Bart’s, Lisa’s and Maggie’s hair.
The only negative I can find with this episode is that it petered out in the second half. The jokes came slower and were not as funny, and even the plot suffered. Moe’s dating success was virtually forgotten in the latter part of the episode, which was a shame, as I wanted to see Moe happy after all the bad things that have happened to him over the years.
Other than that, this episode was awesome. The one-liners and self referential humor were great, and the plot, even though it was simple, allowed the jokes to form and made me laugh, what else can you ask for?
To watch clips of this episode and others, or to learn about upcoming episodes, go to thesimpsons.com.
