Random Good Watch: “Lisa’s Wedding”
Random Good Watch is a new article I’ll be posting every now and then that is essentially what its title describes: a random good watch. Whether it be a long ago buried Simpsons episode like this one, an old indie film, or just a solid piece of pop culture, it will be something worth watching that I enjoyed and I think you’ll enjoy too.
From: The Simpsons, Season 6
You can pretty much pick any episode at random from this season and it will be a classic, but there is just something very special about this one. “Lisa’s Wedding” marks the first time The Simpsons jumped forward in time (to the far away future of 2010) where we got to see Lisa fall in love and get engaged. There are the usual clever sight gags (crying robots who melt) and character references (Mayor Quimby is now a taxi driver) but what really makes this episode is how tremendously heartfelt and true to the show it is. As we all know from countless reruns Lisa doesn’t get married because although her family is incredibly dysfunctional it’s her family and she loves them, and her fiance just can’t understand that. There is nothing forced or uncharacteristic about this storyline, instead it shows a real affinity and depth of knowledge the writers had for the Simpsons, something they arguably lost later on and something Family Guy or any other subsequent animated sitcom has failed to accomplish (or even understand). The final scene, back in the present, where Lisa holds Homer’s hand and walks through the carnival is so unexpectedly beautiful it’s no wonder this episode won an Emmy, or that The Simpsons could be anything other than one of the greatest sitcoms that ever aired on television.
