The first few moments of the episode showed promise. The Simpsons made a name for itself way back when by comically exaggerating real life commonalities, and the family racing from the church service to be the first out of the parking lot reminded us of those dysfunctional early years. Even the search for a decent place to have brunch was enjoyable to that extent, playing up some decent puns as restaurant names: "Griddler on the Roof," "Thank God It's Fried Eggs," "Luftwaffles." But the good times didn't last. Marge, against character, convinced the family to crash a catered event. After a little bit of time schmoozing it up and scoring free food, the family realized the event was a funeral. Homer was asked to be a pallbearer, fell into an open grave and hurt his back. At the hospital, we found out that, when on his back, Homer's stomach lodged under his diaphragm giving him a powerful singing voice. And that, for lack of any better route, is how we got to that.
The montage of hospital folk enjoying Homer's rendition of "If Ever I Would Leave You" was excruciatingly long. Near the end, Mr. Burns overheard the singing while shopping for body parts in the hospital morgue. (Okay, that was funny.) At that point, Homer was cast in the Springfield Opera House's production of La Boheme. From there, he became an opera star, hounded by fans both old and older. In an unexpected moment, a woman driving a sleek motorcycle -- with sidecar attached, of course -- saved Homer and Marge from a crazed mob of fans. Turned out, the woman, Julia, was the craziest fan of all. Through another long, unfunny montage, we saw several attempts by Julia to seduce Homer. He thwarted her advances, which clearly indicated that Julia must now kill Homer. The assassination was prevented, however, with Marge's prowess with a French horn and the bumbling Springfield police department. Oh, and then Homer quit the opera to paint a work of art on the ceiling of his living room.
It's not like The Simpsons haven't done a disjointed story like this before and done them successfully. What was missing here, as we said, was a sense of purpose. Homer didn't intend to become an opera star, he just did. There was no real reason a crazed fan (a criminally wasted Maya Rudolph) would want to kill Homer, it just sort of happened that way. What's troubling is that we know the show can do this right. The episode "Crook and Ladder" from last season is a great example of a funny, well-paced story that flowed from one seemingly unrelated moment to another very well and for very good (and funny) reasons. A story will never be satisfying if the events involved happen "just because." One positive note: the season can only get better from here.
Right?