Oh no, I've had two glasses of wine and I'm dangerously close to doing a painfully earnest essay/tweet thread on why "Summer of 4ft2" is the best episode of The Simpsons

OK I ended up falling asleep VERY early last night (on account of the two glasses of wine) but I'm a man of my drunken word so:

"Summer of 4ft2" is the best episode of the best season (Season 7) - the crowning jewel of a show at the very height of its powers.

Season 7, to me, is the moment when the show took the brilliant wackiness of Season 5 and 6 (Homer in Space! Homer becomes the leader of a secret society!) and dialled it back just enough for the warmth of Season 4 to come back. The show developed comically AND *emotionally*.

A good example of this development is A Fish Called Selma - an episode with the amazing Planet of the Apes musical number (wackiness), but which also ends with a genuinely poignant moment, where Selma realises she can't bring a child into a loveless marriage (emotional depth)

The melodrama is generally less in Season 7 than in Seasons 5 and 6. Very few episodes play with the idea that a member of The Simpsons are in mortal danger (unlike, say, Homer in Space or Itchy and Scratchyland). The magic comes from making us care about relatively low stakes

This is the show's greatest achievement - the fact that it can go to weird and wonderful places and yet still keep the audience invested in entirely grounded, almost mundane, problems: like Marge wanting to fit in a country club, or Bart shoplifting, or Lisa becoming a vegetarian

Which brings us on to

SUMMER OF 4FT2

I've come to the conclusion that Lisa episodes are the best - not necessarily because Lisa is the *best* character (although she probably is) but because she is the character best suited to carry the emotional weight of an episode

There are two great other Lisa episodes in Season 7 (Lisa the Vegetarian and Lisa the Iconoclast) and they are both amazing episodes because they explore Lisa's conflict between loyalties: in Lisa the Vegetarian it's between her family and her ethics...

...and in Lisa The Iconoclast it's between her town's heritage and the truth (an episode which gets more relevant with every day in 2020).

In both episodes, she finds a way to resolve that internal conflict inside herself - to know the truth but tolerate other people as well

Summer of 4ft2 is different - it's an episode where the conflict comes from Lisa's own painful sense of inadequacy, that all too relatable idea that we're not good enough or cool enough and that we have to change ourselves to be loved.

On the surface, this could lead to a potentially predictable episode. It could be a mirror image of Scenes from the Class Struggles In Springfield - like Marge, she becomes a colder, crueller version of herself to win friends, and in the end she'll realise she was happier before.

But that's not what Summer of 4ft2 does. Lisa DOES become a different person to fit in with her friends - but unlike SftCSiS we're somehow rooting for this new Lisa, because in this new town, she's finally been accepted.

This *shouldn't* work, but it does, and it shows the confidence of the show at this point - that this total transformation of a character is still intangibly *Lisa*. Mostly it's down to Yeardley Smith's brilliant performance, and wonderful moments of internal doubt

The episode has to make sure that we still love the old Lisa who brought a microscope to the beach, but also that we still want the new Lisa to thrive - not just because it's the perfect embodiment of teenage angst, but because it's the emotional crux of the whole episode.

Bart in this episode basically represents all of Lisa's self-doubt and insecurities - a ticking timebomb. He's not cruel for the sake of it - who hasn't watched as their sibling reinvents themselves and felt a pang of indignation as they win new friends with a new persona?

(speaking of other characters, one of the best things about Lisa episodes is the way that they free up other characters to come in with iconic dumb one-liners - both Homer and Marge have BRILLIANT moments in this episode)

(also this episode should be considered the best for Milhouse ALONE - it is comfortably the best Milhouse episode)

Having made us invest in this new Lisa, the writers destroy her in the most painful and humiliating way possible - by Bart reading from her yearbook.

The way Bart ominously appears over the sand dune, holding the book and grinning - she knows what's coming but can't stop it.

For me, it's the most heartbreaking moment in The Simpsons - the glee with which Bart ruins Lisa's new life, the confusion in the eyes of her (surely former) friends as they realise she's lied to them, and that sense of shame and horror in Lisa's eyes as she runs away

The scene at the breakfast table the next day might be my favourite non-comic Simpsons moment - how Yeardley Smith manages to get across the fury, pain, hatred, betrayal in her voice is genuinely extraordinary

Another moment that stays with me is when Lisa is walking back from the carnival - her rage towards Bart has given way to a sense of hopelessness, a belief that she's just supposed to be alone. In another show, this line would be too much - but the show has earned this despair

Because that's how we feel at the end of this episode - she can't win. She's unloved when she's herself, but any attempt to break free from it, to have one little moment of happiness, will make her into a phony. It's a sadly relatable feeling

The happy conclusion - when Lisa's friends reveal that they still think she's great and don't care about her "nerdish leanings" - is a beautiful message: that you shouldn't be afraid to grow and change because what makes you YOU will still be there

There's also something inherently and existentially sad about Summer of 4ft2. It's a beautiful "coming of age" story - about a character who can never truly "come of age". Lisa was 8 in 1989, she was 8 in 1996 when this episode aired, she'll be 8 in Season 148 in 2067 or whenever

Bart, Lisa and Maggie are trapped as children forever in the show - something which becomes more and more horrifying with every new season of The Simpsons - and most newer episodes reflect that confusion: sometimes Bart acts like a teenager, sometimes he's Dennis the Menace

But in Summer of 4ft2, there's a genuine sense of growth and change - this feels like a monumental summer, a moment in Lisa's life which she would look back on as definitive (if Lisa were allowed to age). It's so good it almost breaks the very fabric of time in the show

The Simpsons is an inherently static show - and any attempt to deal with monumental growth or change is usually a mess (Maude Flanders' death, anyone?)
The fact that Summer of 4ft2 can make us suspend that disbelief demonstrates just how darn good it is.

END