Days of Future Future
| "Days of Future Future" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |||
| Episode no. | 548 | ||
| Directed by | Bob Anderson | ||
| Written by | J. Stewart Burns | ||
| Showrunner(s) | Al Jean | ||
| Production code | SABF13 | ||
| Original air date | April 13, 2014 | ||
| Couch gag | The couch and the floor are covered in bubble wrap, which everyone pops. | ||
| Guest actors | Amy Poehler as Jenda | ||
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"Days of Future Future" is the eighteenth episode of the 25th season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 548th episode of the series. The episode was written by J. Stewart Burns and aired on April 13, 2014, on Fox.[1] The episode is a sequel to "Future-Drama" and a continuation of "Holidays of Future Passed", set 30 years from the present. In this futuristic installment, Bart goes to a clinic to rid himself of his feelings for his ex-wife Jenda (who is now dating a xenomorph-like alien named Jerry), Lisa must choose whether or not to cure her zombie husband Milhouse after he gets bitten by a homeless zombie, and Marge (after putting up with years of Homer dying and being cloned back to life by Professor Frink) loads Homer onto a flatscreen monitor and throws him out of the house.
Plot
Marge wakes to find Homer atop of the kitchen table in nothing but his underwear, and gives him advice on his health. Just when Homer seems to be taking Marge's words to heart, he marches upstairs to tell his wife that he will take his health seriously only to fall down the stairs and die. At his funeral, Professor Frink announces that he has made a clone of Homer, and Marge warns Homer to take this second chance seriously. After thirty years of clones dying, Frink cannot bring Homer back, but has stored his memory in a flash drive, which he plugs into a television screen. When Marge realizes that her husband is just a face on a screen, she is fed up with him, and gives the flash drive to Bart, so that Homer can reside with him until she can figure out a way to get used to him in his current form.
Bart shows Homer his new digs, an abandoned classroom at Springfield Elementary. As soon as a glum Bart sends his two sons to his ex-wife Jenda's house, he needs advice more than ever now, but Homer is of no use when the monitor freezes. Working at a dinosaur amusement park, Bart laments that he misses his children. Elsewhere at Lisa's zombie soup kitchen, her husband Milhouse is attacked by a zombie. Unable to move on from his ex, Bart sees a targeted billboard telling him to move on using shock therapy that makes him forget. After the procedure, Bart starts to get back into the dating scene, and sleeps with one woman after another(including Lisa's former teacher, Ms. Hoover). He visits Marge, who claims to not miss Homer that much, but in an attempt to initiate a conversation between her and Homer, he sees she does miss Homer. At Bart's apartment, Homer gets a new lease of life in a robot suit. Bart still longs for his ex-wife and comforts Jenda when Jerry breaks up with her for someone else. That night, they go out to dinner and in spite of it not going well, both she and Bart begin bonding again. Meanwhile, Lisa and zombie Milhouse are attacked by bullies, and Lisa actually finds it attractive that Milhouse fights them off. She does not want him cured and is stalked by Dr. Hibbert who isn't happy about her decision. Bart and Lisa both go to Moe's to deal with their respective marital problems, where Marge tells them to stick through. She then electrocutes herself to death in order to live in the flash drive with Homer. Milhouse is cured and Bart moves on from Jenda.
Bart then finds himself back in the therapist's chair, and learns that what he experienced was just a neural implant. Bart and Lisa visit Marge and find out that she and Homer have finally gotten back together, and she gave him a new robot body and personality; Milhouse remains a zombie and Santa's Little Helper is seen talking.
Reception
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C, saying "Things are even worse for The Simpsons after tonight’s sequel, “Days Of Future Future,” where Burns returns to the (it seems) inevitable sci-fi future of the series and limits the show’s world even more. Losing much of the heart of its predecessor in favor of the sort of ill-conceived and contradictory character arcs the latter, scattershot Simpsons has become notorious for, “Days Of Future Future” reveals a series willing to shrug off what it still could be. Instead, this future Simpsons world seems just a playground for writers to use up whatever Futurama jokes they had left over."[2] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode four out of five stars, saying "The Simpsons’s “Days of Future Future” is a laugh every 2.5 seconds, allowing for wind resistance. A very worth entry into what will someday be an even longer running longest running show that has ever walked slowly up a flight of stairs. I absolutely love Jerry, Bart’s future ex-wife’s new soon to be ex-Alien lover. Nelson’s mom still has to strip at the age of 87 because there’s no more retirement. Even with 99 Democrats in the Senate, because the Republican still knows how to get things his way. Of course Ralph Wiggum will be the new chief of police, he’s a chip of the old cop. Santa’s Little Hybrid is an unnatural progression that Cosmo doesn’t teach about."[3]
Teresa Lopez of TV Fanatic gave the episode four out of five stars, saying "I always love The Simpsons episodes that show the possible futures of Bart, Lisa, Maggie, Homer and Marge. And this week was no exception. Even though the future episodes are not technically canon (I mean, who can say what will really happen in their future?), I liked that this one attempted some continuity." She did, however, criticize the episode's plot twist near the end, saying "What didn't work so well for me in this week's future glimpse was the way in which a portion of the show's events didn't actually take place. They were merely the work of the neural implant that the "Moving On" store used to help Bart get over his ex-wife. Although, the series did a nice job referring back to this little plot quirk at the end."[4]
The episode received a 1.7 rating and was watched by a total of 3.64 million people, making it the second most watched show on Animation Domination that night, beating Bob's Burgers and American Dad! but losing to Family Guy with 4.39 million.[5]
References
- ↑ "The Simpsons Episode Guide 2014 Season 25 - Days of Future Future, Episode 18". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
- ↑ Perkins, Dennis. "The Simpsons: "Days Of Future Future"". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
- ↑ Tony Sokol. "The Simpsons: Days of Future Future, review". Denofgeek.us. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
- ↑ Ryan. "The Simpsons Review: Moving On". TV Fanatic. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
- ↑ "Sunday Final Ratings: ‘Resurrection’, ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘The Simpsons’, ‘The Amazing Race’, ‘Cosmos’, ‘The Mentalist’ & ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ Adjusted Up; ’60 Minutes’ Adjusted Down". Tvbythenumbers. Retrieved 2014-04-15.
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The plot description was adapted from Days of Future Future at Simpsons Wiki, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
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