The Great Wife Hope

The Great Wife Hope was a kinda bad episode. So far to me in this season there has been one really good episode, one just good episode, and one kinda bad episode. Unfortunately, this is the kinda bad episode. To me in this episode a lot of the Simpsons family feels like they've gone through flanderazation. Marge feels like just an obsessed and overly clingy mother stereotype and nothing more. To me her she just feels so one dimension in this episode. In other words, she's very hollow. Lisa just felt bored and uninteresting with anything Marge was doing, even if it was really crazy. I wish Lisa cared a little more about what Marge was doing because that could have lead to some pretty heartfelt scenes. Homer just felt like the only thing he liked was food and violence, which is not all he likes. The only character that really felt alive was Bart. Instead of Lisa, Bart was the one that wanted his mom to be safe, and I really liked that. It's shows a Mother and Son relationship between Bart and Marge. Even though a lot of the Simpsons Family felt flanderazated, I still thought some of the jokes were funny. There weren't many jokes, but most of them they had were pretty funny. Oh well. I guess this is the start of when the Simpsons become bad ( I thought the shows was okay in Season 11-20 ). Well, even thought the Simpsons isn't officially good anymore , I would rather watch this than some of my sister's YouTube channels ( She never made any YouTube channels before, I mean the YouTube channels that she watches ). Even though the episodes after this might be bad, I can't wait to see how the characters and the series evolves, for better or worse. In all, I give this episode a 5.9 out of 10.

So a "new" fad of MMA sweeps through Springfield in the form of the Ultimate Punch Kick and Choke Championship (a thinly veiled reference to the real no. 1 MMA promotion, the UFC). Marge sees Bart staging MMA matches in the backyard and gets her do-good friends together to protest it. Guess what? You're too late by about 13 years since Sen. John McCain succeeded in doing that in 1996. MMA is licensed and monitored by a majority of state athletic commissions these days starting with the New Jersey State Athletic Commission's creation of the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts in 2000.

Chet Engelbert, the promotion's president, challenges her to a fight with the condition that if she wins the promotion will fold. Marge doesn't know anything fighting, and the morons who wrote this crap don't know anything about contemporary MMA training, initially trains in rhythmic gymnastics but later learns some judo, boxing and bullying from Kearny, Jimbo and the other children. She of course wins her MMA fight after taking a beating and seeing Bart threatened with physical harm.

This show's lame attempt at latching on to a popular sport like "ultimate fighting," or MMA to anyone know who actually knows what the sport is, shows The Simpsons' age and cultural irrelevance. It also does real disrespect to the legitimate athletes, many of whom have an extensive amateur collegiate athletic background in wrestling or football with even some Olympians like Freestyle Wrestling Gold Medalist Henry Cejudo taking up the sport, who compete to make a living and feed their families.

In this episode, Marge embarks on a protest against a new 'ultimate fighting' fad in Springfield that is corrupting its children. Marge protesting? That's a new idea isn't it? Oh wait, it was covered nicely right back in the second series, when she tried to ban/soften Itchy & Scratchy... owing to its violent content and bad influences on children. I'm hardly going to sit here and painstakingly point out every time The Simpsons repeats itself (Comic Book Guy style), but so much work goes into making these episodes, so why bother making a point you've already made?

Alright, I don't think this episode really had a point anyway. Maybe we can overlook this, maybe we can say 'it made many valid points back in the nineties... as long as it still makes us laugh, that's all that matters.' On this measure, it fails again. I barely smiled throughout this dragged out piece of rubbish. Every attempt at humour was terrible, just the same character-based jokes we've seen a million times... Homer likes food, Homer likes violence, Marge is over-concerned. The desperation to please was very obvious - background characters were pulled in left, right and centre, and yet it still failed to deliver.

For every new episode of The Simpsons they make, I'm going to watch something pre-eleventh season. I beg you to join me.

I thought this was another good episode from the 21st series, with some nice jokes and moments along the way.

Like a few 'modern' episodes (I know, I'm so far behind!) the ending feels a bit rushed, but other than that, I enjoyed this.