It was clear from the early promos that this episode wasn't going to be special in any meaningful sense. It was just a regular old Simpsons episode, which happened to drop into the "500th episode" slot in the series' run. This seems like a puzzling waste of opportunity. Only four other shows in the history of television have gone for more than 500 episodes, and two of those shows are WWE wrestling so I'm not sure if they really count. 

 

It seems like it would have been right to mark this milestone with something a little different. I'm thinking of the "Behind the Music" episode, something meta, an episode that is ABOUT the show. It kind of makes me wonder if the show's creators actually care about the show at all, you know? We make an effort to mark the epic milestones of the things we care about. For grandpa's 100th birthday we don't just give him a cursory pat on the back and get on with our day.

 

Granted, we had a pretty awesome "couch gag of all the couch gags." But then it led straight into a regular old episode, which was fine, it just… I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I love the show more than THEY do, is all. 

 

Aw shucks.

 

Anyway, this was a perfectly competent episode, although the experience was a little spoiled for me because I kept getting déjà vu. Haven't they already moved the town? (Yes, episode 200, because the town filled with garbage.) Haven't they already been tricked into spending time in their bomb shelter? (No, that was a South Park episode where Cartman keeps Butters trapped.) Haven't they already moved to a rural nightmare to escape criticism? (No, that was a Family Guy episode where the Griffins flee to Texas because their church thinks that Stewie is possessed by the Super Devil.)

 

I had a few good laughs. The child-sized body bags in their bomb shelter, Julian Assange's password, Maggie getting involved in a "Baby Thunderdome." 

 

I wish we could have lingered longer over the specter of Skinner wandering an abandoned Springfield, empty of all its contents including storefront signs. I imagined him passing his exile by seeing how many times he could bounce a basketball in a day, then trying to break that record. Bart's gyrocopter rescue seems a bit premature, but the show's 22 minutes were up, so there you go.