Friends and Family

Friends and Family is a great Simpsons episode with a well written plot and plenty of very funny scenes. It's an interesting one, as we see Mr. Burns hiring Marge, Lisa, Bart and Maggie as his virtual reality family. It makes a farcical jab at how ridiculous technology has gotten, as people are now using it to create a whole new life different from their own.

I did feel the main plot could have had more of a structure. It seemed to merely be one gag after another, rather than giving us an actual arch that we could follow through with.

The Homer and Julia plot was very well developed. I thought the dialogue between the two of them was fantastic as we saw him somewhat falling for her as a result of how easy she was to talk to. Allison Janney's voice work in the role was stellar and suited the character perfectly.

It has a subplot that stands out so well that it saves the episode from sinking in to mediocrity. Friends and Family is a very enjoyable Simpsons.

Mr. Burns hires Marge and the kids to play his virtual reality family. Meanwhile, Homer befriends his neighbour Julia.

This episode showed us how crazy life is becoming, with Burns getting his own VR family (Marge,Bart,Lisa and Maggy).

The other plot is about Homer's new friend Julia, who's just a friend and not more.

There where a lot of funny scenes and lines. It's also cool to see that these first 2 episodes are mostly about Burns.

These two plots make this episode nice to watch and it's already better than the first episode.

And the end gives us a nice preview of what the Simpsons think the future may be....

"Friends and Family" is an episode of The Simpsons that is enjoyable to watch, but also has its fair share of shortcomings. On one hand, the episode features clever jokes and clever references that will make you laugh, but on the other hand, the floating timeline of the show makes the satire of the episode about new technologies unnecessary. The older episodes of the show are set in a time with technologies that are now obsolete from our point of view, which adds a special appeal to those older episodes. However, in the modern episodes the technology is presented as something alienated from reality and still unknown, which takes away much of the realism from the show and the representation of the characters involved in those satirical situations. The episode is still worth watching, but the show's treatment of technology feels out of place and detracts from the overall experience.