9. Life on the Fast Lane

Episode Title: "Life on the Fast Lane"
Episode Number: 9
Original Air Date: March 18, 1990

Plot Synopsis: When Homer forgets Marge's birthday, he decides that it's a great idea to buy her a bowling ball as a last minute gift and call it a day. Even though Marge has never bowled before in her life. And that bowling ball has the name "Homer" engraved on it. Not surprisingly, this backfires. Out of spite, Marge decides to take up bowling to make the most out of her gift. At the bowling alley she meets Jacques, a French bowling instructor. At first, Marge is intrigued by Jacques and impressed by his bowling ability. Soon, as she realizes that he's essentially the total opposite of Homer, she starts to like him. They decide to go out on a brunch date, where they are spotty by town Gossip Gertie Helen Lovejoy. Marge has a romantic fantasy about Jacques, which is super weird and uncomfortable for me, the viewer. Jacques invites Marge over to his apartment, which is equally weird and uncomfortable (again, for me). Homer finds a present that Jacques gave Marge, which makes him realize that there's trouble in paradise. When Marge is on her way to stupid Jacques' apartment, she starts to remember everything she loved about Homer and how they're married and all. Instead of going to Frenchy's apartment, she heads to the nuclear power plant for reconciliation (and good, old-fashioned parking lot car sex).

Overall Thoughts: Okay, so I'll be totally honest: the reason why there was no update yesterday is because I looked at what episode I had to watch, saw it was this one, and really didn't want to. This has long been one of my least favorite episodes, ever since I was a little kid. I mean, I get why a little kid wouldn't like it, as it's one of the more "adult-oriented" episodes of this season, but even seeing it as recently as just a couple of years ago my feelings hadn't really changed. My memory of it has always been that it's just "that weird episode where Marge wants to cheat on Homer." Maybe "wants to cheat" is a strong way of putting it, I guess, but even if that's not quite it "Marge exploring other options, maritally speaking" isn't any less weird.

What Works: As with a lot of these first season episodes, the characters are doing their best to save the show from the plot. Patty and Selma make an extended appearance, and for the most part it's a successful one. After watching Homer essentially inhale a steak at Marge's birthday dinner, Patty asks Selma (or the other way around - who knows) if she knows the Heimlich Maneuver, and she replies with "No." Patty says "Good" and they both share a hearty laugh at the idea of Homer choking to death, which is always funny. A lot of other good dialog jokes abound.

All told, this actually starts out as a pretty decent episode. I like the kids doing their best to make Marge a nice birthday breakfast. I like Homer being a dummy and buying Marge a bowling ball. I like everything, up to a certain point.

What Doesn't Work: And that point's name is Jacques. I mean, I get the joke. Jacques is French, which makes him essentially Pepé Le Pew as a bowling instructor. And he's voiced by Albert Brooks, which is  normally pretty tremendous. I don't really think the extended sequences of Jacques teaching Marge to bowl are very funny, and I don't think Marge becoming smitten is very compelling. I think it's something to do with her character - whenever they do these "Homer and Marge on the rocks" stories, I like them from the other perspective better. Homer is the one who wavers, and it's Marge who is able to bring him back. I think this is another one of those things where I can't shake my preconceived notions about the characters, admittedly. I just don't think that anyone, let alone a French dope named Jacques, could get Marge to even think about straying. It's not even like Homer did anything *that* bad - yes, he's selfish and he forgot her birthday and he got her a shitty gift, but that's not enough to drive her into the arms of another man, I don't think. Not that she goes into his arms, but you get what I'm saying. I think.

And Homer doesn't actually do anything to "win Marge back." Marge is the one who realizes that she loves Homer. Homer seems to have learned a bit of a lesson, but he doesn't actually do anything to prove that. He doesn't fight for Marge or anything like that. He just goes to work like normal and gets lucky when she shows up. Which, all in all, is sort of bizarre when you think about it.

Closing Thoughts: All in all, I wouldn't necessarily say this episode is as bad as I remembered it. I don't think I've ever watched it within the context of the entire first season like this. If you pick it out and watch it randomly at some point, yeah, it's super weird. If you're watching the entire first season, I guess it's no weirder than Homer trying to commit suicide. It's still not good, and it's definitely my least favorite episode of the first season so far, but it isn't an abomination.

I was really shocked to find out, thanks to Wikipedia, that this episode was nearly universally praised when it came out. It was the first episode of the show to win an Emmy, and a lot of people really like it.

It is, however, another season one episode written by the great John Swartzwelder that I don't really like. Which is shocking. Maybe he turns "on" at some point, like some type of comedy robot.

Final Grade (out of 10): 5