This week's The Simpsons had a lot going on up in the air, and while "Convenience Airways" was a wonderfully-structured episode with Homerisms and Bart's increasing thirst of being the Snark, it had the inconvenience of following the story. As a Simpsons fan since is first day, it was a bit annoying, but on the other hand, I invest my trust in the writers, so perhaps there was a method to their madness.
Don't ask me what goes on in the writers' room, but whatever happens in there regarding the craft of The Simpsons, they have my support. It's not every show where you have a constant flow of genius episodes, with very few hiccup ones in between.
How did "Convenience Airways" fare? Let's take off with the review.
Reviewing The Simpsons "Convenience Airways"
Surprise, surprise (but not really) Homer's on the FAA's "No Fly List," and coincidentally, he and his family must take an airline that caters to the prohibits. You can expect that chaos and rudeness, and Homer experienced all of that, plus more.
Marge recounts the faithful day in court, where the Simpsons, Patty and Selma, plus a bunch of other passengers, began their travel destination to Louisiana. For the Simpson family and Patty and Selma, they were going to a Boucherie for a Bouvier family reunion and indulge in Cajun cooking. Marge is French Creole, so it makes perfect sense for her to want to celebrate her heritage.
While in-flight, Marge's been upgraded to First Class and sleeps through the entire trip. Lucky her, for she had no clue what went on in Coach.
Homer's unfortunately been assigned to a middle seat, where his row mates are a social media influencer who cook shrimp in a plane lavatory and Comic Book Guy, who's just a miserable fellow most of the time and spreads it to others. It's hilarious for the most part, but on an airplane where you just want to unwind, it's annoying.
Bart, for his part, freaks out when all of his devices shut down, and has to make his own fun. So, he finds the fun in antagonizing the poor air steward, who's not doing such a great job, even at cracking jokes. It's a hilarious scenario because it did help pass the time for Bart.
To add fuel to the fire, Maggie is crying her heart out when Lisa tries to calm her down with jazz music. When Homer tries to intervene, it just makes the situation worse, and by worse, he has to change Maggie in that tiny plane bathroom that only provides enough room to do your business.
After all of that, Homer discovers that the passengers disappeared, and he soon joins them. Convenience Airways has an in-plane prison for unruly passengers, with shackles included. Who would even conceive of such a thing? Why, it was Mr. Burns who thought it'd be a great idea. It's bad enough to have to deal with smart alecky passengers on board as you have no other choice, but to suffer in a prison environment? Well, that's just plain cruel.
Also, the FAA would never approve of an in-flight detention system, as it'd be too dangerous and risky. Planes would have to execute emergency landings in the event where passengers pose in-flight endangerment. But this is The Simpsons, so anything goes.
Meanwhile, back in First Class, things are't much better, as the passengers are acting up, and they too, find themselves inside the prison. Marge and now Maggie, are the only ones who are not in lockup.
Homer has to think things through if he wants to get out of prison. He texts Marge, and in response, Maggie leaves a trail of emojis, which he misinterpreted as Marge's. Using his brain and contemplating his actions, he "decodes the message" and takes control of of the prison, leading to release and getting along with his fellow passengers on board.
Bellamy Blake, Homer is not, but I give him credit when credit's due and deserved and that's when he puts his own feelings aside and thought of others.
Did the plane ever landed in Louisiana? Who knows, but at least the flight smoothed out its turbulence. And that' all we could ever hope for.
One last thing, Marge sleeping through the entire flight is relatable. I slept on my round trip to Boston earlier this year going and coming back. I didn't even know that I was asleep until 10 minutes to landing. Oh, well. What are you going to do?
One very last thing, I was able to follow along, so I was wrong in my thought process there.