"The Bob Next Door"
The recession hits Springfield, but Bart Simpson has other worries. The sublime Kelsey Grammer returns as "The Bob Next Door", episode number 463 of The Simpsons. It's a good old fashioned Simpsons tale of revenge, a prison escape, gruesome face transplants and ruining the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. And spare a thought for waitresses who lament that "All the good men are either gay, or have no face."
Things are looking downhill for Springfield as the financial crisis causes houses to go up for sale, prisons to release low-level criminals, and renders police incapable of enforcing speed limits because they can't afford a radar gun. However, new resident Walt Warren cheers everybody up, impressing Marge and Lisa with his furniture and hybrid car, offering the children ice cream and the adults free Wifi. Bart is convinced that the mild and innocuous Warren is Sideshow Bob in disguise, but Warren denies this ("Sidewhat Whom?"). Nothing Bart does to catch Warren in a lie (including enticing Walt to sing a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta) pays off, and the matter is seemingly closed when Marge takes Bart to the Springfield Penitentiary (Police Officer: "Pretty lady in a strapless dress coming through! Nothing is holding up the dress! Only her melons!") to settle the question of Sideshow Bob's incarceration with their own eyes. And with their own eyes, they see Bob in a straightjacket with a crayon in his mouth, writing "Bart Simpson Will Die" on the walls of his padded cell. Things are cleared up, and Walt invites Bart out to a baseball game. But Sideshow Bob escapes from prison and heads towards the Simpsons' house.
Sideshow Bob has always been one of the best recurring characters on The Simpsons. Not only is the idea of a Hannibal Lector-esque former TV personality tormenting the most mischievous kid on the planet hilarious, but Kelsey Grammer brings every nuance of his brilliant acting talent to the fore. Whether it's a simple "Hello, Bart!" (followed by flashbacks of Sideshow Bob saying the same thing in previous episodes so we can hear over and over how wonderful it sounds), singing all the Gilbert and Sullivan he damn well pleases, or even his ultra-creepy "And nighty-night to you" to the real Walt Warren, Grammer's voice and presence kicks the episode up a whole notch.
Accordingly, the rest of the episode raises its game, too. Homer is relegated to the background, but even he has his fun, like when he tells Marge to buy the newly-sold house next door because it smells like cookies ("Marge, get loan pre-approved! Offer over asking! Waive inspections! Two-day escrow!"), or telling Sideshow Bob "I'm going to do to you what you should have done to my son a long time ago!" Refreshingly, "The Bob Next Door" has no B-story, and that helps writer John Frink keep things focused and quick. The episode never lags or feels burdened to carry a subplot, and we can focus all our attention on the smooth tones of Sideshow Bob.
Given the simplistic brilliance of Bob's plan to kill Bart at the Five Corners monument ("I can stand in one state, fire a gun in a second state; the bullet will travel through the third state, hitting you in the fourth, so you fall dead in the fifth"), the episode's resolution is a bit disappointing, but so much time had been spent establishing the Walt Warren/Sideshow Bob story that there probably wasn't time for a more dramatic conclusion. That said, there's plenty to keep us entertained, like Homer's frustration at a Mexican food vendor not being able to translate "Taco" into Mexican, or Cousin Ted (and Bonnie and Connie) moving in next door to the Simpsons
"The Bob Next Door" continues the run of good Simpsons episodes, and the return of Kelsey Grammer/Sideshow Bob puts this week's installment over the top. The writing is sharp ("Are you here to teach me or to kill me?") and the slapstick humor (Bob stepping on a rake and being arrested by police officers with awful New Jersey accents) touch on all the best things about The Simpsons that we've come to love and expect over the last twenty-one years.
