A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream

This episode explores Marge's psyche akin to "The Sopranos" second season finale "Funhouse." Marge's insecurties as a mother spring to the surface as she comes to terms with the idea of her children eventually "leaving the nest." Marge never feels like a caricature and with no real B plot her story has room to let her confront those emotions. It could've been an easy task to phone in the Marge centric episode and rely on Marge's flanderized traits of "nagging" and "helicopter parenting" but the writers choose to humanize her. While this episode never truly hits the lofty heights of the early Simpsons, Marge feels closer to her original incarnation here, than she has in 20+ seasons.

I came across the initial sequence for this episode in a Facebook video and was intrigued because it was so heartfelt that it actually left me teary-eyed. I gave up on The Simpsons about 20 years ago, trying to get back into it now and then, but always finding it too difficult because the writing became so shallow and moronic. The characters I once loved had been reduced to hollow idiots, placed in increasingly stupid situations.

This? This is different. I'm actually taken aback by how good it was-the dream sequence, Homer actually trying, Bart being mischievous but sweet, and a deeper layer to Marge's character that had not been shown before. If this is how the writing is going to be from now on, I'm in!

Too bad it's so late in the game, but hopefully, this will be the beginning of a new era of writing for the longest-running show in history.

The episode wants to be an Oscar-bait or something, i know it is a type of loss not that far from having a death in the family, to let a child go to have their own life...

But nobody moves out, it is just that Marge feels that Bart is not clingy anymore, and started forming opinions and not an "agreeing to any Mum activity machine" any longer.

It's hard to find the usual Simpsons entertainment in this that one usually pops one up on the screen for. It's all very artsy, maybe a Homer having a chilly hallucination marathon in the desert thing but with Marge, but the women edition of it prohibits it from being funny or something?..

I just had to see the very first frame of the Terminator 2 dream sequence, i immediately knew what's coming, and i said to myself no way, they are not having Marge as a flaming skelet---oh yes they do.

Not unlike "22 Short Stories About Springfield" did years ago, changing the format once in a while can be a really strong play for the writers struggling to come up with a new concept after so many episodes. It does feel a little off for a Simpsons, maybe even a little too serious, but I'd rather have a heart filled episode that feels true to the characters than a episode trying to be funny but being untrue to the meaning of the show. I would call this a companion episode to "The Mysterious Voyage of Our Homer", the episode where a chili pepper send Homer on an acid trip through his mind led by a Johnny Cash voiced Coyote. That episode, like this one, feels a little too serious... but is ultimately an important character building episode. Marge's odyssey is a sweet and surreal trip through her fear of losing touch with Bart, which is right in character for her and gives the episode a proper weight of importance. It's a beautifully animated episode which results in a great emotional payoff. This kind of writing is sorely missed from modern Simpsons which I hope we get more of to make these final years salvageable. Could this also mean a simpson 3rd wave of a comeback? We had the first 12 years of classic Simpsons, then seasons 13-19 were mighty shaky, then a sudden come back of funny and cleverness around the time the movie came out Iike they changed over or something) season 20-26, then some really really questionable episodes season 27-34. Could 35 be the start of one final push of greatness? Maybe.

A Mid-Childhood Night's Dream was an amazing episode. So far there have been 7 other Season 35, and this is my third favorite episode of the season. There have been 1 bad episode, 1 okay episode, and 6 pretty good episode. This is obviously in the bad episode category. Just kidding, this is in the pretty good episode category. A Mid Childhood Night's Dream has probably one of the best Marge stories in the Simpsons ever. This episode just has a focus that should have been focused on a bit more in the series. Only around 1\7 of the Simpsons episodes are Marge episodes. Now let talk about the rating. 7.0 out of 10 is a way too low score for this episode. This episode deserves a 8.0 out of 10 at least. Can you believe it that this episode used to have a 6.9!! I know it doesn't seem lie much, but the .0 are pretty important when anything has a score. This episode is not funny enough for a 9.5, but it deserves at least an 8. In all, I give this a 8. 3 out of 10.