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Dangerous Curves (The Simpsons)
Encyclopedia
"Dangerous Curves" is the fifth episode of the twentieth season of The Simpsons
. It first aired on the Fox network
in the United States on November 9, 2008. The episode received mixed reviews from television critics.
, the Simpson family
takes a road trip to visit a cabin in the woods. While driving there, they pick up hitchhikers Squeaky Voiced Teen and his girlfriend, Beatrice. Staring at the two younger teens, Homer
flashes back to how he and Marge
were, twenty years earlier, in their dating years. In the flashback, a young Homer and Marge are on bikes, riding down the highway. Homer and Marge attempt to kiss while biking, but Homer ends up crashing his bike, forcing them to continue on foot. Ned
and Maude Flanders, who are driving by, see them and pick them up. Ned and Maude shock Homer and Marge by revealing the two of them are married (as of 2:00 pm that day). They appear to be having some marital problems already and, seeing this, Homer proposes to 'not' marry Marge. Back in the present, Homer becomes quite annoyed with the Squeaky Voiced Teen's kissing Beatrice, which prompts him to go into another flashback, five years ago in Homer and Marge's married years.
In their married years, Homer and Marge are more stressed. Driving with Marge, Patty and Selma
, and getting the usual flak from the latter two, Homer reaches his breaking point and kicks his sisters-in-law out of the car. Marge points out that Patty and Selma have the map and therefore the directions to their destination. After mistaking the fuel gauge for a compass reading "E" for East, the car runs out of gas, and Homer and Marge head to a nearby home to use their phone. The house owner, Alberto, is having a party, and he invites Homer and Marge inside. Marge becomes annoyed with Homer's behavior at the party, and becomes enraged after seeing him flirt with a beautiful woman named Sylvia. Following an argument about this with Homer, Marge accidentally falls into the pool. Homer starts a sushi
fight, and Marge regrets marrying Homer. In the present, the family drops off the Squeaky-Voiced Teen and Beatrice at a cabin, while the Simpsons head off to their cabin.
Homer and Marge flash back to their dating years, where the Flanders' dropped them off at the very same cabins they are at today. Flanders manages to successfully convince Homer and Marge to sleep in separate rooms, while Ned and Maude have sex
, much to their disappointment. In their married years, Marge leaves Alberto's party with him to run to the cabins. Similarly, Homer runs off with Sylvia to those very same cabins. Not wanting each other to discover their own near-affairs, Marge hides Alberto in a box and has Homer put it outside; Homer, not knowing Alberto is in there, puts Sylvia inside as well. Alberto and Sylvia fall in love while Homer and Marge rekindle their love. In the present, Homer and Marge meet Alberto and Sylvia, now married with a child of their own, and learn of each other's near-affairs. Marge becomes disgusted that the most important moment in their early years of marriage was based on lies and deceit; however, Homer points out that Marge was just as bad as he was at the time, and that she has no moral to scold him
. Homer regrets marrying Marge and, trapped in a ball of their luggage which happened while unpacking, has Alberto and Sylvia's daughter roll him away from Marge into the woods but he gets hit by a pedal car driven by Bart with Lisa and Maggie inside.
Back in their dating years, Ned tells Homer that if he were married to Marge, he could make all the love to her he wants. Taking a walk through the woods with Marge, Homer carves the message "Marge + Homer 4ever" into a tree. In the present, Homer sees this message on the same tree and decides there is still time to save his marriage. He attempts to peel the bark off the tree and show the message to Marge; Marge suddenly arrives to find Homer and accidentally knocks the tree, which had severely weakened roots, over a ravine. Homer clings onto the bark and refuses to let go, but Marge tells him that their love for each other is within themselves, not in the bark. Homer falls down the ravine toward the river below, still holding onto the bark and peeling it all off the tree, with Marge falling after. They stop falling when the line of bark stops, allowing them to be saved by Bart
and Lisa
in their pedal car, which Bart had accidentally driven into the river. As the episode ends, Bart allows Homer and Marge to have PG-13 smooching in the back seat.
, Trix
, Cap'n Crunch
and Count Chocula are all featured on Bart's "Cereal Killer" game; they are, respectively, the mascots for Fruit Loops, Trix, Cap'n Crunch and Count Chocula breakfast cereals. The handheld system Bart is playing on is a Game Boy Advance
. The non-linear plot showing various points in Homer and Marge's relationship is very similar to the 1967 film Two for the Road, starring Audrey Hepburn
and Albert Finney
, and the episode's musical score mimics that film's classic Henry Mancini
score.
said, "I did find Bart and Lisa as the bickering couple...to be very funny. It added a fresh twist to this generally stale outing. ...There were other fun laughs...but none of that could make up for the poor story being told or the overall unfunniness of the episode." He gave this episode a 5.8. Daniel Aughey of TV Guide
said, "[It was the] Worst. Episode. Ever. I found the events of this week's episode so simplistic that I was utterly confused." He went on to say, "The story was stitched together and never really had any momentum." Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict wrote: "I’ve always enjoyed The Simpsons flashback episodes. The best of them tickle a nostalgic funny bone, but 'Dangerous Curves' doesn’t really fit with those episodes, though. The story of Homer and Marge’s marriage weathering a serious storm would be a lot more compelling if we hadn’t seen it before. I’m glad the writers feel they can write character-based stories after 19 years. I just wish they’d stop repeating themselves. Still, 'Dangerous Curves' is at least a complete story from beginning to end, and it has some of the best one-liners this season."
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. It first aired on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
in the United States on November 9, 2008. The episode received mixed reviews from television critics.
Plot
On the Fourth of JulyIndependence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
, the Simpson family
Simpson family
The Simpson family is a family of fictional characters featured in the animated television series The Simpsons. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of the married couple Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa and Maggie. They live at 742 Evergreen Terrace in the fictional town...
takes a road trip to visit a cabin in the woods. While driving there, they pick up hitchhikers Squeaky Voiced Teen and his girlfriend, Beatrice. Staring at the two younger teens, Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
flashes back to how he and Marge
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
were, twenty years earlier, in their dating years. In the flashback, a young Homer and Marge are on bikes, riding down the highway. Homer and Marge attempt to kiss while biking, but Homer ends up crashing his bike, forcing them to continue on foot. Ned
Ned Flanders
Nedward "Ned" Flanders, Jr. is a recurring fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the next door neighbor to the Simpson family and is generally...
and Maude Flanders, who are driving by, see them and pick them up. Ned and Maude shock Homer and Marge by revealing the two of them are married (as of 2:00 pm that day). They appear to be having some marital problems already and, seeing this, Homer proposes to 'not' marry Marge. Back in the present, Homer becomes quite annoyed with the Squeaky Voiced Teen's kissing Beatrice, which prompts him to go into another flashback, five years ago in Homer and Marge's married years.
In their married years, Homer and Marge are more stressed. Driving with Marge, Patty and Selma
Patty and Selma
Patty and Selma Bouvier are fictional characters in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. They are twins and are both voiced by Julie Kavner. They are Marge Simpson's older twin sisters, who both work at the Springfield Department of Motor Vehicles, and possess a strong dislike for their...
, and getting the usual flak from the latter two, Homer reaches his breaking point and kicks his sisters-in-law out of the car. Marge points out that Patty and Selma have the map and therefore the directions to their destination. After mistaking the fuel gauge for a compass reading "E" for East, the car runs out of gas, and Homer and Marge head to a nearby home to use their phone. The house owner, Alberto, is having a party, and he invites Homer and Marge inside. Marge becomes annoyed with Homer's behavior at the party, and becomes enraged after seeing him flirt with a beautiful woman named Sylvia. Following an argument about this with Homer, Marge accidentally falls into the pool. Homer starts a sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
fight, and Marge regrets marrying Homer. In the present, the family drops off the Squeaky-Voiced Teen and Beatrice at a cabin, while the Simpsons head off to their cabin.
Homer and Marge flash back to their dating years, where the Flanders' dropped them off at the very same cabins they are at today. Flanders manages to successfully convince Homer and Marge to sleep in separate rooms, while Ned and Maude have sex
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
, much to their disappointment. In their married years, Marge leaves Alberto's party with him to run to the cabins. Similarly, Homer runs off with Sylvia to those very same cabins. Not wanting each other to discover their own near-affairs, Marge hides Alberto in a box and has Homer put it outside; Homer, not knowing Alberto is in there, puts Sylvia inside as well. Alberto and Sylvia fall in love while Homer and Marge rekindle their love. In the present, Homer and Marge meet Alberto and Sylvia, now married with a child of their own, and learn of each other's near-affairs. Marge becomes disgusted that the most important moment in their early years of marriage was based on lies and deceit; however, Homer points out that Marge was just as bad as he was at the time, and that she has no moral to scold him
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
. Homer regrets marrying Marge and, trapped in a ball of their luggage which happened while unpacking, has Alberto and Sylvia's daughter roll him away from Marge into the woods but he gets hit by a pedal car driven by Bart with Lisa and Maggie inside.
Back in their dating years, Ned tells Homer that if he were married to Marge, he could make all the love to her he wants. Taking a walk through the woods with Marge, Homer carves the message "Marge + Homer 4ever" into a tree. In the present, Homer sees this message on the same tree and decides there is still time to save his marriage. He attempts to peel the bark off the tree and show the message to Marge; Marge suddenly arrives to find Homer and accidentally knocks the tree, which had severely weakened roots, over a ravine. Homer clings onto the bark and refuses to let go, but Marge tells him that their love for each other is within themselves, not in the bark. Homer falls down the ravine toward the river below, still holding onto the bark and peeling it all off the tree, with Marge falling after. They stop falling when the line of bark stops, allowing them to be saved by Bart
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
in their pedal car, which Bart had accidentally driven into the river. As the episode ends, Bart allows Homer and Marge to have PG-13 smooching in the back seat.
Cultural references
Toucan SamToucan Sam
Toucan Sam is the cartoon mascot for Froot Loops breakfast cereal. The character has been featured in advertising since the 1960s. He exhibits the ability to smell out Froot Loops from great distances and invariably locates a concealed bowl of the cereal while intoning, "Follow my nose! It always...
, Trix
Trix (cereal)
Trix is a brand of breakfast cereal made by General Mills for the North American and by Nestlé for the European, South American and Asian markets. The cereal consists of fruit-flavored, sweetened, ground-corn pieces. They started out as round cereal pieces, but in 1992, they were changed to puffed...
, Cap'n Crunch
Cap'n Crunch
Cap'n Crunch is a product line of sweetened corn and oat breakfast cereals introduced in 1963 and manufactured by Quaker Oats Company. Quaker Oats has been a division of PepsiCo since 2001. The product line is heralded by a cartoon mascot named Cap'n Crunch, a sea captain .-Development:Pamela Low,...
and Count Chocula are all featured on Bart's "Cereal Killer" game; they are, respectively, the mascots for Fruit Loops, Trix, Cap'n Crunch and Count Chocula breakfast cereals. The handheld system Bart is playing on is a Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
. The non-linear plot showing various points in Homer and Marge's relationship is very similar to the 1967 film Two for the Road, starring Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
and Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
, and the episode's musical score mimics that film's classic Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
score.
Reception
Since airing, the episode has received mixed reviews from television critics. Robert Canning of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
said, "I did find Bart and Lisa as the bickering couple...to be very funny. It added a fresh twist to this generally stale outing. ...There were other fun laughs...but none of that could make up for the poor story being told or the overall unfunniness of the episode." He gave this episode a 5.8. Daniel Aughey of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
said, "[It was the] Worst. Episode. Ever. I found the events of this week's episode so simplistic that I was utterly confused." He went on to say, "The story was stitched together and never really had any momentum." Erich Asperschlager of TV Verdict wrote: "I’ve always enjoyed The Simpsons flashback episodes. The best of them tickle a nostalgic funny bone, but 'Dangerous Curves' doesn’t really fit with those episodes, though. The story of Homer and Marge’s marriage weathering a serious storm would be a lot more compelling if we hadn’t seen it before. I’m glad the writers feel they can write character-based stories after 19 years. I just wish they’d stop repeating themselves. Still, 'Dangerous Curves' is at least a complete story from beginning to end, and it has some of the best one-liners this season."