If it's Valentine's Day, that means even Springfield will find love. While Lisa spies her amore through a crack in the wall, Bart discovers the joys of MythBusters, leaving Marge to feel a little left out. "The Daughter Also Rises" (episode #499, we're reminded) is another one of the many (many) Simpsons offerings that is mostly middle ground, but apart from a few good musical cues, doesn't offer much to make it a Valentine's Day tradition.
When a Boy Loves a Lisa
Marge makes Homer's dreams come true when she gives him the night off on Valentine's Day (not before scaring him by suggesting they do things with each other every day). While Homer and Bart knock each other out with baseballs, Lisa and Marge go to dinner, where Lisa meets Nick (Michael Cera), a Hemmingway-reading dreamboat who captures her heart and her imagination. But Marge fears that Lisa is spending too much time with the boy, and besides - wouldn't she rather marry a man like her father?
Back to the Heart
It must be a terrible thing to write for The Simpsons, because every episode has to hit the reset button at the end. If millions are won, they must be lost. If a character is developed, he or she must lose all learning by the credits. And if someone finds love, the relationship must die. With those rules carved in stone, Lisa + Nick won't make "The Daughter Also Rises" one of the remarkable or memorable Simpsons episodes of all time. Their time together is cute (and Abe stealing the retirement home van to give them a ride is hilarious), but the angle ends so abruptly - Nick turns out not to be the romantic intellectual he seemed - that you can almost hear writer Rob LaZebnik pulling the plug on it.
"That's it?" you ask in bewilderment. "He just says lied to Lisa and that's it?"
HeartBusters
It's the same with Bart & Milhouse's story. While it's nice seeing Milhouse as the guinea pig in MythCrackers, and The Simpsons can now say they've got those two guys from MythBusters (Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman), their spot wasn't as funny as it could/should have been (although making "a scatter plot of the remains! Booya!" and increasing gas prices bit was good). Ultimately, their appearance boiled down to "Another guest voice on The Simpsons this week". Take a number.
Verdict: Guilty
The best parts of the episodes - Homer enjoying himself, freed from his Valentine's Day commitments, and Groundskeeper Willie's fond (then sad) reminiscing about his childhood - are also the quickest. It's a shame, because those could have been legitimately interesting stories in their own right. Lisa finding love and losing love in time for the end titles isn't, honestly, because we've seen it a dozen - maybe even a hundred - times before. And episode #499 or not, I'm not sure we needed to see it again.
The Simpsons, "The Daughter Also Rises" : 3/5. A few entertaining gags and passable stories isn't enough to make this episode a keeper.
Michael Perera - The only rule in writing is honesty. If you're honest, the words will write themselves.
