Man, Martin Scorsese went on a very weird phase with this. But I have to say this, it's his best work since goodfellas and taxi driver!
5 Reviews
Gangs of Springfield.
lisitsinnick19 January 2021
It's gonna be something good
snoozejonc22 December 2022
Marge opens a pretzel business to complete with her friends pita bread company.
This is a very enjoyable episode with strong humour and parody.
The plot involves a new venture for Marge that gives the character something interesting to do outside of general housewife/mother duties and it works due to the antagonism the writers create between her character and a group of others. Plus the satire involving get rich quick schemes and characters like Jack Lemon's tribute to his 'Glangarry Glenross' role is great.
My favourite parts mostly involve the organised crime scenes with Fat Tony's gang, however the gag with Cletus and his multitude of fashionably named children is absolutely priceless. Ironically, I live in a working class village in the United Kingdom, and many of those names (along with various surname-like American names) are fashionable now. Poor children!
This is a very enjoyable episode with strong humour and parody.
The plot involves a new venture for Marge that gives the character something interesting to do outside of general housewife/mother duties and it works due to the antagonism the writers create between her character and a group of others. Plus the satire involving get rich quick schemes and characters like Jack Lemon's tribute to his 'Glangarry Glenross' role is great.
My favourite parts mostly involve the organised crime scenes with Fat Tony's gang, however the gag with Cletus and his multitude of fashionably named children is absolutely priceless. Ironically, I live in a working class village in the United Kingdom, and many of those names (along with various surname-like American names) are fashionable now. Poor children!
One of my favs
mdreyse27 June 2022
So sad to see such a low rating, this is one of my favourite simpsons episodes. It has a lot of really memorable lines (at least in latin spanish) and a really fun mob-related plot that work really well for us who likez mafia movies.
Great Conclusion
Hitchcoc29 July 2022
I'll always remember a Monty Python bit where a group of old ladies take over the streets and beat up on skinheads and murderers, leaving them dying in the streets. The women in Marge's investment group pose a similar threat, so when the Mafia gets involved it gets ugly. I thought it was pretty good though a bit slow at times.
Too Salty
Tebbit-215 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This episode has some bright moments, but they punctuate a story that struggles to find its sincerity. It opens with Marge being ousted from her all-woman share trading group, (consisting of Helen Lovejoy, Maude Flanders, Agnes Skinner, and Edna Krabappel), and ends with gangland warfare outside the Simpsons' house. You'd expect an escalation of this nature to have some pretty crazy twists, but honestly the progression is pretty uninspired.
Marge's indecisiveness and timidness gets played up to the max here,when she goes with her family to the Franchise Fair, and is too nervous to buy into any of the franchises she finds. The characterisation of marge in this and other scenes is disappointing. This season, we start to see the Flanderisation of a few characters, and seeing Marge flattened into just one of her characteristics is kinda lame.
Upon discovering that Homer has enlisted the mob to cripple her competitors, Marge exclaims that they are not going to give Fat Tony any of the money, because she earned it. This is completely uncharacteristic of Marge, not just because she is the voice of reason, but because she demonstrably did not earn it - her business only succeeded when Fat Tony and his goons stepped in. This undercutting of Marge's sensibilities for very little benefit was disappointing.
Side characters add very little value to the episode. Grandpa Simpson shows up very briefly, babbling and looking confused (a trope that was used to far greater effect in the previous episdode, The Springfield Files). Cleetus and his enormous family elicits a mild chuckle at best
The owner of the pretzel stand is a little goofy, and slightly beguiing, but he's not especially interesting or funny, and comes to an unsatisfying end, having died in a car crash. He is a very thinly veiled plot mechanism when he sells Marge his franchise, and his death feels cheap and a little callous, being used for a pretty average goof about his executor being in the same car.
Fat Tony and the Yakuza are shining stars in this otherwise mediocre episode. Fat Tony has some great lines, and tonally darkens the episode, adding some nice gravitas. The Yakuza show up at very end and havea bad-ass fight with Tony and his goons, and is a fun and silly conclusion to the episode.
Homer and Marge also have a nice sentimental moment towards the end of the episode, with Marge almsot redeeming her flat attitude with a kind and sweet analysis of Homer's "attempt" to help her.
Overall, this is a disappointing and underwhelming episode, saved by Fat Tony and a man who's only line is "Forgiviness Please". You can get a little forgiveness. But not 7 stars worth.
Marge's indecisiveness and timidness gets played up to the max here,when she goes with her family to the Franchise Fair, and is too nervous to buy into any of the franchises she finds. The characterisation of marge in this and other scenes is disappointing. This season, we start to see the Flanderisation of a few characters, and seeing Marge flattened into just one of her characteristics is kinda lame.
Upon discovering that Homer has enlisted the mob to cripple her competitors, Marge exclaims that they are not going to give Fat Tony any of the money, because she earned it. This is completely uncharacteristic of Marge, not just because she is the voice of reason, but because she demonstrably did not earn it - her business only succeeded when Fat Tony and his goons stepped in. This undercutting of Marge's sensibilities for very little benefit was disappointing.
Side characters add very little value to the episode. Grandpa Simpson shows up very briefly, babbling and looking confused (a trope that was used to far greater effect in the previous episdode, The Springfield Files). Cleetus and his enormous family elicits a mild chuckle at best
The owner of the pretzel stand is a little goofy, and slightly beguiing, but he's not especially interesting or funny, and comes to an unsatisfying end, having died in a car crash. He is a very thinly veiled plot mechanism when he sells Marge his franchise, and his death feels cheap and a little callous, being used for a pretty average goof about his executor being in the same car.
Fat Tony and the Yakuza are shining stars in this otherwise mediocre episode. Fat Tony has some great lines, and tonally darkens the episode, adding some nice gravitas. The Yakuza show up at very end and havea bad-ass fight with Tony and his goons, and is a fun and silly conclusion to the episode.
Homer and Marge also have a nice sentimental moment towards the end of the episode, with Marge almsot redeeming her flat attitude with a kind and sweet analysis of Homer's "attempt" to help her.
Overall, this is a disappointing and underwhelming episode, saved by Fat Tony and a man who's only line is "Forgiviness Please". You can get a little forgiveness. But not 7 stars worth.
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