"The Simpsons" Season 24 Finale
Christopher Falcioni ’16/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
The Simpsons have truly come an incredibly long way since it’s premiere in 1989, with dozens of awards, a comic book series, its own movie, several albums, several video games, its own new and popular app, and its very own themed land in Universal Studios, which includes its own ride and, soon, will get an expansion featuring Moe’s Tavern. Now with its 24th season at its end, the Simpsons seem to be keeping its momentum with its two-episode season finale.
The two-part episode opens with first half about Moe, Carl, Lenny, and Homer winning a lottery ticket and Carl’s mysterious disappearance. The lottery story does a good job of showcasing one of the many great subplots that the show offers – between the kids at school, all of their strange relatives and neighbors, and dozens of others. Taking a page from the Hangover, the episode takes a fun look at the “four best friends” and has a lot of fun in an epic adventure.
The finale episode of the set (my personal favorite) is everything anyone could want in a Simpsons finale: we get a bit of backstory in a flashback in the form of Lisa’s conception (on a train in a strip mall). We get to see Homer show his heart when he works on a secret surprise for Marge, restoring the train (One of the best jokes is when Homer wanders in singing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”, and when Marge asks why he’s singing it, he responds “It’s public domain.”), and Marge thinks about having an affair with a man voiced, ironically, by Family Guy’s Seth McFarlane. If Marge were going to cheat on anyone, it’d almost certainly be him. Of course, it all ends up fine for our favorite cartoon family, but it wouldn’t be a Simpsons finale without inside and meta jokes, obscure references, adult jokes that just barely get by the censors, random character cameos, and (most of all) a whole ton of heart. And you can’t go wrong with a liberal helping of Downton Abbey jokes.