Episode no. 598 Written by J. Stewart Burns Production code VABF18 | Directed by Lance Kramer Showrunner(s) Al Jean | |
Original air date October 2, 2016 (2016-10-02) | ||
"Friends and Family" is the second episode of the twenty-eighth season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 598th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on October 2, 2016.
Contents
Plot
Mr. Burns goes to an appointment with his psychiatrist to deal with his anger issues. Much to Mr. Burns' anger, Dr. Nussbaum gives up on his case after seventy years and says that he will never be able to have a family. A few moments after Burns leaves the room, the doctor dies. During his funeral, Mr. Burns paid for his tombstone which had "Paid for by C. Montgomery Burns" written on it. This angers everyone there, so Waylon Smithers had to escape with Burns. During their escape, Smithers runs over Professor Frink who was wearing virtual reality glasses. Mr. Burns gets interested on the technology and takes it home where he has a lot of fun with them. However, Smithers reminds him that the last thing his doctor said was that he needed a family. Burns denies it, so Smithers gives him the idea of programming a virtual reality family to Mr. Burns.
At the families tryouts, the Simpsons are the ones who stood out the most to Mr. Burns, so he decides to hire them. Burns has intended to be the father of the family, so Homer Simpson is sent back home. During the first recordings, Mr. Burns likes the experience so much that he hires the Simpson family for ten years. At home, Homer misses his family at first, but he later realizes that he could have fun by himself. When he was lying naked on the roof at night, he meets his neighbor Julia. He quickly realizes that they have the same love of beer and hatred towards Ned Flanders, so they decide to be friends.
At the recordings, the rest of the Simpson family is already tired of their job and Mr. Burns is angry at them. Mr. Burns realizes that having a family is not for him and decides to give up on his project by firing the Simpsons. When the family gets back home, Marge finds out about Homer's friendship with Julia. She gets mad, thinking that Homer's cheating on her with Julia, but when Julia comes in through the back door, she assures Marge that she and Homer are just friends and that she's not the type of woman to steal a man if he's already in a relationship. Julia leaves after telling Marge that she and Homer are very lucky to have each other, and Marge, though she seems to accept Homer's friendship with Julia, is still a little angry with him. But after Homer explains some things that his friendship with Julia taught him that can improve his relationship with Marge, she forgives him and they share a hug, which is seen by Julia and her fiancé, who works as a pilot.
The episode ends by fast-forwarding a few years into the future showing most Springfieldians, including Homer and Marge, using virtual reality glasses.
Reception
"Friends and Family" received positive reviews from critics. Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B- stating, "Thankfully, while 'Friends And Family' never quite comes together, each story has its charms. Latter-day Simpsons has a bewildering tendency to jam two possible A-stories into the same episode, shorting them both. Here, the blame lies more with how damned long it takes to get to the plot(s), but, by the time the sweet ending rolls around...the consistent gags and smidge of heart wore me down."
Tony Sokol of Den of Geek rated the episode four of five stars commenting, "Lines aren’t everything, especially in animated entertainment and this episode has dozens of sight gags, many of them are happening in the background...I don’t use this word lightly, but this episode was excellent."
"Friends and Family" scored a 2.6 rating with a 9 share and was watched by 6 million people, making The Simpsons Fox's highest rated show of the night.