TV Recap / Review: Lisa Becomes Fashionable In "The Simpsons" Season 37 Premiere - "Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother"
The Simpsons is back for its 37th season starting tonight, and below you’ll find my recap and review of the season premiere, entitled “Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother" (a riff on the title of the 1975 Paul Simon hit “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover).
“Thrifty Ways to Thieve Your Mother" begins with a Simpson family outing to the Aztec movie theater on opening night of a new Hungry Hungry Hippos movie, until they all realize they can just wait three days to watch it on streaming. Three days later, the family gathers around the TV in the living room to enjoy the film, but Marge (voiced, as always, by Julie Kavner) is so bothered by the suggestive nature of the ads– the most prominent one of which is promoting deodorant for all the grossest parts of your body– that she yanks the cable out of the wall. This prompts the family to dig through an old box of DVDs, including a boxed set of a show that’s an obvious parody of Dawson’s Creek from the 90s (which is evidently when Homer and Marge were in middle school now, yikes). But Homer (Dan Castellaneta) and Bart (Nancy Cartwright) aren’t interested, so they become obsessed by a contemporary streaming show about a guy who punches everyone (think Reacher) instead.
When Marge and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) finish season one of their show, they go up to the attic to hunt for the season two boxed set, where Marge remembers that she used to dress just like the kids from the series. Lisa discovers that she can fit into Marge’s old clothes, so her mother encourages her to try dressing in retro-90s style at school. There’s a bit of tension here over whether or not her new style will be accepted by the other students, but just when Marge comes to the realization that it might not be cool to wear your mom’s old clothes, some never-before-seen cool kids at school (voiced by guest stars Paul Brittain from Saturday Night Live and Stephanie Hsu from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) decide that Lisa’s outfit works.
Back at home, Marge and Lisa go through more boxes to dig up some additional vintage clothing for Lisa to wear to school, and soon Lisa finds herself invited to join a fashion club that has occupied the music room– leading to one of the funniest moments, when Lisa is led to believe that Mr. Largo has died… although maybe he just has jury duty– these kids don’t care. So yes, this is ultimately another one of those “Lisa becomes popular" episodes that The Simpsons returns to every half-dozen seasons or so, but it’s fresh and funny enough to work. Anyway, the demand for vintage clothing among the fashion club becomes so intense (and thrift store prices so high) that the kids soon formulate a plan to begin stealing old clothes from the other moms around Springfield. Lisa hesitantly goes along with these Bling Ring-like heists until the episode culminates with an attempt to rob Martin Prince’s house.
The scheme is for all of the moms to be drawn out of their homes by a mother-son dance at Springfield Elementary School (thankfully Principal Seymour Skinner– voiced by Harry Shearer– and his mother Agnes– Tress MacNeille– have hit a rough patch lately), while the dads are distracted by the same violent streaming show that has Bart and Homer engaged. But Martin’s father Gareth (Chris Edgerly) hears a noise from his attic and calls the cops, so Lisa and her new friends are forced to make a hasty escape. But when Lisa’s backpack breaks the lattice via which they are egressing, she panics– only to be saved at the last minute by Marge, who has discovered the plan for the heist at the school while there for the dance. This famous mother-and-daughter duo share a nice moment on a lake inspired by their favorite 90s teen drama, and Marge then makes the kids return all the clothes they stole, except for a t-shirt that replaces one of Marge’s that got ruined during the drama.
I actually found myself laughing a lot during this episode, and it had some really nice animation, making it a strong start to the 37th season of an animated sitcom that has been running since I was 10 years old (I’m 45 now). I especially guffawed pretty loudly at the throwaway line about “Who wants to watch a show from the 90s," but chances are I won’t actually feel old until The Simpsons finally comes to an end. For now, I’m enjoying the ride.
New episodes of The Simpsons air Sunday evenings on FOX.