The Simpsons - "Love is a Many Strangled Thing" - Talkback [3/27]

I enjoyed this episode. My favorite part's were the Planet Express appearance, Marry Me Pa/That's just sick, The NFL Mascot zoo with the dolphin smacking the panther, Kareem Abdul Jabaar strangling Homer, Homer running into the cacti and suing Dr. Zander for his tree.
 
I am the only one here who has problems with the final act of this episode? Among the problems:

1. Dr. Zander's completely missing the point of the problem. The problem that Bart and Homer are having has nothing to do with "trust" issues. Rather, it has everything to do with Bart becoming very unruly, with Homer not able to do anything thanks to the "Hurricane Ned" rehash of a therapy that he received (and the thing that Zander had planned is only making things worse).

2. The bit with Marge and Lisa. Anyone else think that it's nothing more than another "rake gag" (aka something added because the episode needed a minute of padding material)?

3. The whole therapy bit in which he has Homer hang himself in hopes that Bart would cut the rope. To me, this felt like the ultimate sign that the Simpsons writers have forgotten the show's roots, with the show becoming something that needs to be put to rest. Yes, I know Bart is mischievous, and Homer has experienced some physical abuse by some of his pranks. However, at the same time, Bart doesn't really try to seriously injure anyone physically and would never do anything that he'd think would result in Homer getting seriously injured and sent to the hosptial. Hence, when seeing Bart decide that he rather send a prank text to Moe than rescue a hanging Homer, that to me felt like a sign that even Bart has become victim of Flanderization.
 
Premiered in the UK recently and...eh. I think this is one of the plots we've seen done countless times, even a mish mash. Homer lets down one of the kids and Bart is out of control. The problem is the two didn't flow very well. Bart is fairly balanced at the start, then becomes a tyrant once he realises Homer fears him. I think they could have handled this better, since it seemed rushed to resolve the plot. I also think the therapist angle was odd. Great that Homer was called out for constantly strangling Bart, but the gag about the ciinic closing down as an elaborate excuse to get him involved to solve the problem felt forced. This is something the scripts have had a problem with for a long while, odd conspiracies behind everyday elements and using said elements to get things rushed into place for the final act.

I think the basic story here could have worked well but as usual everything worth saying with the characters already has been.
 
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