***INCLUDES MILD SPOILERS***
I've watched this episode many times, but it's been a few years. After FXX's marathon happened it got me back into the show, but I missed this one during the 12 day bonanza. So I fired up the old DVD and put on this episode.
It's better than I remembered. This is quite possibly one of the most perfect episodes of television ever created.
It's perfectly paced, the gags are great, the story is honest and emotional and all the characters involve truly shine here.
After embarrassing himself and Marge at a movie which results in Marge yelling at him, Homer drops the family off at home and happens upon a country bar. He meets Lurleen Lumpkin, a waitress who sings a song that truly speaks to him.
He winds up becoming her manager and what ensues is temptation and potential infidelity on Homer's part.
The Simpsons has always done a brilliant job with this subject and approaches these situations very carefully with a lot of heart and real humanity with characters struggling to understand how they really feel. It's very easy to identify with the three characters who are at the forefront of the episode.
You understand why Lurleen is attracted to Homer, and it feels legitimate and earned. You understand why Homer is torn between Lurleen and what seems like fading feelings for Marge. You understand Marge's heartbreak and Julie Kavner nails her performance of a wife afraid of losing her husband.
It's heavy subject material, but the episode isn't without its moments of levity which play as well as any gag in the history of the show.
One scene in particular in which Lurleen expresses her true feelings for Homer is captured perfectly with brilliant shot selection and an absolutely moving score by Alf Clausen, an arrangement that accompanies Lurleen's song, "Bunk with me Tonight".
This episode is the epitome of what makes the Simpsons, the Simpsons. With top tier writing, acting, animation and direction it may possibly supersede every episode that came before it or after it in the show's overblown lexicon of episodes.
I've watched this episode many times, but it's been a few years. After FXX's marathon happened it got me back into the show, but I missed this one during the 12 day bonanza. So I fired up the old DVD and put on this episode.
It's better than I remembered. This is quite possibly one of the most perfect episodes of television ever created.
It's perfectly paced, the gags are great, the story is honest and emotional and all the characters involve truly shine here.
After embarrassing himself and Marge at a movie which results in Marge yelling at him, Homer drops the family off at home and happens upon a country bar. He meets Lurleen Lumpkin, a waitress who sings a song that truly speaks to him.
He winds up becoming her manager and what ensues is temptation and potential infidelity on Homer's part.
The Simpsons has always done a brilliant job with this subject and approaches these situations very carefully with a lot of heart and real humanity with characters struggling to understand how they really feel. It's very easy to identify with the three characters who are at the forefront of the episode.
You understand why Lurleen is attracted to Homer, and it feels legitimate and earned. You understand why Homer is torn between Lurleen and what seems like fading feelings for Marge. You understand Marge's heartbreak and Julie Kavner nails her performance of a wife afraid of losing her husband.
It's heavy subject material, but the episode isn't without its moments of levity which play as well as any gag in the history of the show.
One scene in particular in which Lurleen expresses her true feelings for Homer is captured perfectly with brilliant shot selection and an absolutely moving score by Alf Clausen, an arrangement that accompanies Lurleen's song, "Bunk with me Tonight".
This episode is the epitome of what makes the Simpsons, the Simpsons. With top tier writing, acting, animation and direction it may possibly supersede every episode that came before it or after it in the show's overblown lexicon of episodes.