Friends and Family (The Simpsons)
| "Friends and Family" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | ||||
| Episode no. | 598 | |||
| Directed by | Lance Kramer | |||
| Written by | J. Stewart Burns | |||
| Showrunner(s) | Al Jean | |||
| Production code | VABF18 | |||
| Original air date | October 2, 2016 | |||
| Couch gag | Unseen player attempts to capture all 4 of the Simpsons in the style of Pokémon Go, except Homer, who proclaimed he is too fat, and a hammer knocked him out. | |||
| Guest appearance(s) | Allison Janney as Julia | |||
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"Friends and Family" is the second episode of the twenty-eighth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 598th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 2, 2016.
Plot
Mr. Burns goes to an appointment with his psychiatrist to deal with his anger issues. Much to Mr. Burns' anger, Dr. Nussbaum gives up on his case after seventy years and says that he will never be able to have a family. A few moments after Burns leaves the room, the doctor dies. During his funeral, Mr. Burns paid for his tombstone which had "Paid for by C. Montgomery Burns" written on it. This angers everyone there, so Waylon Smithers had to escape with Burns. During their escape, Smithers runs over Professor Frink who was wearing virtual reality glasses. Mr. Burns gets interested on the technology and takes it home where he has a lot of fun with them. However, Smithers reminds him that the last thing his doctor said was that he needed a family. Burns denies, so Smithers gives him the idea of programming a virtual reality family to Mr. Burns.
At the families tryouts, the Simpsons are the ones who stood out the most to Mr. Burns, so he decides to hire them. Burns has intended to be the father of the family, so Homer Simpson is sent back home. During the first recordings, Mr. Burns likes the experience so much that he hires the Simpson family for ten years. At home, Homer misses his family at first, but he later realizes that he could have fun by himself. When he was laying naked on the roof at night, he meets his neighbor Julia. He quickly realizes that they have the same love to beer and hatred towards Flanders, so they decide to be friends.
At the recordings, the rest of the Simpson family is already tired of their job and Mr. Burns is angry at them. That's when Mr. Burns realizes that having a family is not for him and decides to give up on his project firing the Simpsons. When the family gets back home, Marge finds out about Homer's friendship. She gets angry at him as she thinks Homer was cheating on her with Julia. That's when Julia enters Homer's home and explains to Marge that they're only friends.
The episode ends by fast-forwarding a few years into the future showing most Springfieldians, including Homer and Marge, using virtual reality glasses.
Reception
"Friends and Family" received positive reviews from critics. Dennis Perkins of the The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- stating, "Thankfully, while 'Friends And Family' never quite comes together, each story has its charms. Latter-day Simpsons has a bewildering tendency to jam two possible A-stories into the same episode, shorting them both. Here, the blame lies more with how damned long it takes to get to the plot(s), but, by the time the sweet ending rolls around...the consistent gags and smidge of heart wore me down."[1]
Tony Sokol of Den of Geek rated the episode four of five stars commenting, "Lines aren’t everything, especially in animated entertainment and this episode has dozens of sight gags, many of them are happening in the background...I don’t use this word lightly, but this episode was excellent."[2]
"Friends and Family" scored a 2.6 rating with a 9 share and was watched by 6 million people, making The Simpsons Fox's highest rated show of the night.[3]
References
- ↑ Perkins, Dennis (October 2, 2016). "On The Simpsons, past and future almost—but not quite—find balance". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ↑ Sokol, Tony (October 2, 2016). "The Simpsons: Friends and Family Review". denofgeek.com. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
- ↑ Porter, Rick (October 4, 2016). "'Family Guy' adjusts up, final NFL numbers: Sunday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved October 4, 2016.