The Simpsons – Season 23

As the only show in the Sunday night line-up NOT created by Seth MacFarlane, in addition to being the longest running prime-time television show in American history, The Simpsons need no introduction. However, for the sake of the review, let’s just give an introduction to where the season premiere begins.

The episode begins with Comic Book Guy referring to the voting results of the cliffhanger from the previous season regarding the courtship between Edna Crabappel and Ned Flanders. He mentions it being deeply hidden in the episode (which isn’t too deeply hidden as the answer is clear midway through) “like a crumb in his fat folds.”

From there, the episode features Marge dreaming of being on a Top Chef show, only to have the snack she made for Bart and Lisa rejected by them as Homer heads to work late after spending another night out at Moe’s, drinking. It is there, he meets the new security guard, Wayne (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland). After picking up Wayne as he walks in the rain and hail, they head to Moe’s where Wayne fights off the local criminal who attempts to rob the patrons.

Following a hilarious reenactment on the local news channel that parodies the Taiwanese animation used in news report, Wayne is publicly recognized for his valor and is even rewarded a silver helmet by Mr. Burns, though his flashbacks to his time in the CIA, causes him to attack Mr. Burns and he is subsequently fired from his security guard position. It turns out that Wayne is haunted by the accidental death of a Ukrainian mobster’s wife who finds him via a YouTube video of his attacking Mr. Burns. It is then that the mobster kidnaps Homer, hoping that Wayne would save him, which he does. After that, Wayne seems to find that he is unable to stay in Springfield, but instead, Homer gets him a job in the DMV.

It is during Wayne’s loud nightmares as he sleeps in Bart’s tree house that you find out the answer of the vote, which features the couples in Springfield unable to sleep, including Ned and Edna. At the end of the episode, they thank the viewers for voting yes for their relationship to continue. Being that this is The Simpsons, the episode has some humorous moments, but it didn’t really feel like much of a season premiere worth raving about. The YouTube video of the autotuned cat lady and the Taiwanese animation made for the funnier moments of the episode, but did nothing to make this episode feel like a classic Simpsons moment.