Those who think that all The Simpsons's new episodes are so worthless that the couch gags are better (and I thought only a select few episode were bad enough in that regard) haven't seen anything as great as this or Springfield Splendor, Halloween of Horror, Dark Knight Court, The Hateful Eight or The Way of the Dog, all very good The Simpsons episodes that could be better when compared to the average 1990s episodes from the golden age, but we should be less negative on The Simpsons or Bojack Horseman when they have a...slightly below average episode. They do not focus on puberty like Big Mouth, so they do not need the best writing to be a great show. If only the current writers of The Simpsons could all think of better ideas and executions to get them out of their rut by writing in new directions The Simpsons hasn't gone before (except for permanently aging the characters) that became possible to do 30 years later in a new feminist cultural climate where women doesn't need a man to be happy, particularly by giving better episodes to Lisa or Marge, it could be as good as the golden years and not be a miserable watch because it was locked in its ways by ruining good plot potential like Todd, Todd, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me, or remaking an old episode in a worse way like in I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say D'oh when the writer of A Streetcar Named Marge wanted to make an episode about Hamilton.
Bart is feeling bored with his life. He goes through the same stuff on all 5 days of the week. Then Bart sees a commercial for a super-fun cruise line. He sells all of his things and then the rest of the family sells things to help him get it. Some of you may be viewing this episode a bit too negatively because The Simpsons used to live in a world where everything sucked, when seemingly great toys or vacations were a complete letdown (see Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy and Itchy and Scratchy Land for some examples), but I never faulted this episode for being different that way. It had a clever subversion of that sort of thing when the Simpsons are taken to a sugar-free fitness cruise, but then get back on Royalty Cruises with a triple upgrade. Bart has the most fun he could possibly have in a single week, and so do the rest of his family. Then he sabotages the vacation so they can stay on the boat forever. Now, I know this episode is not perfect because we do not get that confession until the end that he wanted to do it not just for himself, but for all of them, and it could have showed us earlier that he wanted to keep them having fun, too. But as far as any episode of The Simpsons goes, I believe this is on par with the quality of most episodes before Season 10. Maybe such a plot about Bart feeling dull would work better with Lisa like in Moaning Lisa, but it also worked well with Bart. This was even better than Barthood!
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