11. The Crepes of Wrath

Episode Title: "The Crepes of Wrath"
Episode Number: 11
Original Air Date: April 15, 1990

Plot Synopsis: After Bart impressively manages to both severely damage Homer's back and injure Agnes Skinner with a cherry bomb within the span of a single day, Principle Skinner (and eventually Homer) decides that he's had enough. Skinner suggests that they all band together and send Bart to France for three months as part of a student exchange program. In return, the Simpsons will get a lovely Albanian kid named Adil. So they do that. 

Adil shows up and is, as expected, quite lovely - he's polite, he's intelligent and he helps out around the house. When Bart gets to France, he realizes that the beautiful dream land he's been promised is a complete lie as his temporary "parents" make him work in awful conditions in a rundown winery. They sell his stuff and even give his lucky hat to their donkey. Adil turns out to be a spy and is only in Springfield to try to steal blueprints of the nuclear reactor. Meanwhile, Bart's captors send him to Paris to get some anti-freeze for their wine. While there, Bart tries to get help from a policeman, but can't speak French. Until a few seconds later, when he realizes that because he's been in France for three months he can speak fluent French. 

The policeman arrests the evil winemakers for putting anti-freeze in their wine, which is a very serious crime, and Adil gets sent back to Albania when he's discovered by the United States government. Bart returns to Springfield with gifts and everyone is happy, except for Homer who doesn't know how to open a wine bottle.

Overall Thoughts: This is another one of those episodes that I had massive preconceived notions about. I'd watched it as recently as college, and I remember it being a whole lot more bizarre than it actually is. Yes, Bart going to France for a "fish out of water" story is kind of peculiar, but I guess it's still kind of grounded in its own way. The writers go to great lengths to justify it, which is much appreciated. It isn't as out and out cartoony* as I'd remembered it being. Certainly, it's a long way off from something like "Otto crashes the bus and all the schoolkids have to live on an island" and stuff like that from about a decade in the future.

*Additionally, I'm well aware that I keep using "cartoony" like it's bad, even though I'm literally watching a cartoon. What I mean when I say that is, sometimes the show spirals outside the bounds of its own reality. There's "over the top," and then there's "over the top, even for 'The Simpsons'". That second one is like, "super duper over the top", believe you me. Especially in a season that remains, for the most part, grounded in reality, stuff that is way, way over the top sticks out in a "not good" way. And my point is that I remembered this season doing that way more than it actually does.

What Works: The animation is getting better as the season moves along, as this episode proves. While the show still doesn't look quite as good as it will in about four or five years, it's definitely starting to look better than it has for the previous ten episodes of this season. So that's noteworthy.

There are a few (and I do mean "a few") really solid jokes in this episode. My favorite of which is probably Bart's long speech (in French!) to the policeman about how the winemakers treat him poorly, and don't feed him, and gave away his stuff, and put anti-freeze in the wine, and make him sleep on the floor," which prompts a response of "They put anti-freeze in the wine?! That's a very serious crime!" from the cop. Good stuff.

What Doesn't Work: There isn't much that's that bad about this episode, necessarily. But it isn't necessarily good, either. If anything, it's a totally neutral experience. While there are a few solid jokes here and there, the episode on the whole isn't really all that funny. So it could be funnier, I guess.

On the story front, I don't know that I completely buy Marge being so keen to send Bart to France for three months, even if Bart initially seems into the idea. It seems a touch out of character, and at the very least is one of those things that a character just does because that's what they have to do to move the story along.

I don't know. When I say it was a neutral experience, I kind of mean that very literally. There's nothing standout great about this episode, but because it isn't weird and bad like other episodes in this season that's actually a good thing.

From a story standpoint, Bart suddenly learning French seems like a major deus-ex-machina of an ending, but it leads to a good joke so all in all I'd call it another wash.

Closing Thoughts: Okay, so two things. Number one, Wikipedia tells me that certain people really like this episode. Like, a lot. Now, this episode is fine. There are parts that are quite funny. But evidently, in 1997 a dude from TV Guide (David Bauder) named this the best episode of "The Simpsons" ever. And that's goddamn ridiculous. It isn't even the best episode of this season. So David Bauder, you're on notice.

Secondly, it should be noted the foreign exchange student Adil becomes the first person on the show to use Mr. Burns' catchphrase "Excellent." He even does the little hand thing. Unless I've missed it, which is entirely possible, Mr. Burns has not quite done his classic catchphrase this season.

I'd say this is a slightly below average episode of "The Simpsons," which makes it an above average episode of "Season One" by my estimation.

Final Grade (out of 10): 7