This episode veered dangerously close to the after-school-special line that The Simpsons has been straddling for a couple of episodes now. Up to this point, Moaning Lisa is the episode that focuses most heavily on the characters learning a life lesson. However, that episode is somewhat unique because of the relatively dark subject matter in Lisa's depression, and the lack of resolution. In comparison, this episode focuses on the common theme of bullying and ends with Bart apologizing and learning from his mistake. It's a bit too cookie-cutter for my taste.
That being said, this episode once again introduces a style that is used throughout the rest of the show. Whereas The Call of the Simpsons introduced the non-sequitur first act (which was used once again in this episode with a very funny church scene), this episode begins to use Springfield itself as a character. This is partly due to the fact that there are enough established characters for the writers to rely on. For example, I was struck by how we have been introduced to just about every character in the mob. It is a start contrast to crowd scenes from just a couple of episodes ago. If you go back and look at a crowd scene in one of the earlier episodes, none of the characters are familiar, and they are almost distractingly disfigured. But in this episode, we hear familiar voices from the crowd; Krabappel, Krusty, Burns and Smithers all get their own lines.
Furthermore, we actually get scenes that don't involve a member of the Simpson family in any way. When the head is discovered to be missing, we get reactions from the characters we know at Moe's Tavern and the nursing home. To be honest, those two scenes are probably some of the most crucial in the entire series. The writers have realized that the show doesn't have to be about a single family. It's actually about the entire town. This is the reason why the show has been able to survive for over twenty years. There just isn't enough material to write over 500 episodes about 5 characters alone. When I think about The Simpsons as a whole, I certainly don't think about the family itself. In fact, it's hard for me to think about the show on a large scale because it is just too massive. I am so excited to see the writers begin to realize how much potential is sitting in Springfield.
Springfield characters (there were a lot):
Jebediah Springfield - Springfield's beloved founder. Jebediah is a great character because it seems like every story about him is horribly exaggerated and full of misinformation. In fact, in a later episode, Lisa exposes Springfield as a huge fraud. Regardless, I love how whenever Springfield is mentioned everyone in the town is filled with an incredibly passionate and violent sense of town pride.
Reverend Lovejoy - We didn't get a good sense of Lovejoy's character, but he already seems fairly judgmental. From what we heard of his sermon, he uses lots of hyperbole and from what we saw of his speech, he gets very impassioned. As his character evolves, he becomes more like Krabappel - weary and burnt out.
Kearny, Jimbo and Dolph - More students to flesh out the school. Again, a hugely necessary step in making Springfield seem more like a real place. I also like how these bullies are different from Nelson. They're particularly nasty in this episode. As obnoxious as Bart usually is, you can see how he's still a good kid. There's nothing particularly redeeming about these three.
Apu - In this episode Apu is just an Indian guy running a convenient store. I can't wait until we get more of him; earlyApu is a great character (When his wife Majula is introduced in a later season he becomes pretty unbearable and unbelievable)
Krusty the Clown - Krusty had a few brief scenes, but they were surprisingly accurate to his character. He's basically a terrible and corrupt clown. It's fitting that the first episode that we see him he is part of an angry mob trying to kill a child. He is a huge sellout, has no morals, and is a great character. I love the story about his character model too - Krusty has the exact same character model as Homer except for the hair. The idea was that Bart constantly disrespects Homer, but idolizes a clown who looks and acts exactly like him. The writers were even considering making Homer actually be Krusty and keep the secret from his family. Luckily they thought this was unfeasible.
Other stuff I liked:
The Sunday School bit was hilarious. That poor teacher. It must be brutal to have Bart poke holes in everything you're saying. I wonder what kind of reception this episode had from the church. It certainly did not paint religion in a very good light (later episodes that focus entirely on religion do a much better job of showing the pros and cons).
Bartmania continues with the first instance of "Cowabunga". I think we've heard just about every famously terrible Bart line to be printed all over Simpsons merchandise ("cowabunga", "don't have a cow", and "eat my shorts" to name a few).
I liked the cloud-gazing bullies. A pretty common joke in The Simpsons is showing the soft side of bullies, and they started it here.
Homer's love of bowling is introduced. This seems like a very old-fashioned hobby, and it goes away after about 10 seasons. The next episode (which is a great one) features bowling heavily.
A pretty standard episode for the first season. Nothing too spectacular, but nothing horribly jarring.
5/10
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