Impetus: Simpsons producer states in an interview that Homer and Marge Simpson will separate in an upcoming season.
Knee-jerk reactions:
- The Simpsons are still on the air?
- The Simpsons are still relevant?
- Did they not just notice Spider-Man comics basically redact and say “my bad” to their own terrible spousal separation storyline between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson?
Whatever though. In spite of all the Comic Book Nerd analyses of how Homer and Marge are technically already separated and completely miss the point to their relationship and dynamic in the first place, it appears that the show is going to try and shake things up around the amazingly still-alive Simpsons universe, and have them separate-separate; in the sense that they will no longer will love and cherish each other, regardless of status legal union.
As someone who likes to believe in the idea of true romance and love, this does make me a little bit melancholy. Some people like to watch television to escape reality, not be reminded of how much it’s capable of sucking. Cartoons, being not humanoid portrayal, make this line easier to distinguish, but the Simpsons are trying their best to blur it by running a break-up storyline and separating Homer and Marge.
Personally, I don’t like it, but then again, I didn’t like it when Marvel broke up Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and don’t really like hearing about any sort of divorces from any couple that ever looked like at any point, that they should be together forever.
It seems really weak too, the idea of Homer leaving Marge for a pharmacist that’s apparently going to be voiced by Lena Dunham. I know that she’s currently a popular flavor, riding the popularity of Girls, but there’s no way Dunham stays on board for the long haul, as long as the actress/writer herself has so much other things on her plate. And in the end, we’ll have an animated sitcom about a broken family, with Marge probably being the odd woman out because the show is called the Simpsons and not The Bouviers.
Who really knows though? I don’t know the full story, and frankly I probably won’t care enough to find out the rest of it. Maybe Julie Kavner’s voice talents are getting to be too expensive for FOX, or maybe there was a fall out, leading to the inevitable phasing out of Marge, because let’s be real here, Homer is the carry of the show, and losing him would effectively kill the show outright. Or perhaps the Simpsons are kind of doing this as a grasp at straws for attention, because this has legitimately got people talking about the show again, so there’s always the chance that they get people watching, only to pull the rug out from underneath us and don’t run it.
Or perhaps, they learn from Spider-Man, and realize that ruining a relationship for the sake of trying to stir the pot isn’t necessarily always the great idea, and come up with some convoluted dream sequence or outlandish story arc that redacts it, or they make some elaborate win-back-Marge storyline for even later down in future to dust off once the novelty of the show grows old again.
