"
To Surveil, With Love" is the twentieth episode of
The Simpsons' twenty-first season. It premiered on the
Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States on May 2, 2010 as the 461st episode of the whole series. In the episode, radiation seeps out of Homer's gym bag after a bomb squad blows it up and Springfield officials decide to suspend all civil liberties. Meanwhile, Lisa dyes her hair after being stereotyped for being blonde.
The episode was written by Michael Nobori and directed by Lance Kramer and guest stars Eddie Izzard. It also featured a new sequence with Ke$ha's Tik Tok, as the theme song for the episode replacing the whole opening sequence. The episode, "To Surveil with Love" has received overwhelmingly positive reviews with TV Squad naming it the best episode in years. The episode also received a 2.7/8 in the 18-49 Nielsen Rating demographic going down one-tenth from the previous episode, "The Squirt and the Whale".
Plot
When
Mr. Burns is informed that the
Nuclear Power Plant has run out of room to store waste
plutonium,
Smithers hides some of the radioactive matter in
Homer's Duff gym bag. Shortly afterwards, Homer goes to the train station to eat
mac and cheese (because Lenny told him it was better than the one in the plant), but when a passenger tells him that he should try mac and cheese in
Ogdenville, he rushes there, forgetting the bag. The police see the bag as a threat and decide to detonate it, which causes a nuclear explosion in the train station (which according to
Kent Brockman released enough radioactive power to create seventeen
Incredible Hulks and a
Spider-Man). The incident sparks fears of
terrorism, and the town votes to hire a British security consultant named Nigel Bakerbutcher (
Eddie Izzard) to install
surveillance cameras all around Springfield. Soon the entire town is being watched, but Chief Wiggum and the other officers tire of watching the surveillance screens and recruit some of the townspeople — including
Marge and
Ned Flanders — to keep watch. Marge is not comfortable watching the activities of her fellow townspeople, but Ned discovers he enjoys being Springfield's "conscience" and proceeds to nag everyone through loudspeakers on the cameras.
Bart becomes frustrated by Ned's constant nagging and discovers that the Simpson family's backyard contains a blind spot. Soon, he and Homer are charging the townsfolk to use the yard to relax and do anything they want. Marge voices her disapproval and Ned overhears. When Ned confronts Homer and scolds him for creating a "Church of Misdemeanors", Homer rebukes that it was Ned's fault, remembering that they only ever do that because the abuses of his power and points out that Ned is playing God. Ned is troubled by this and apologizes for interfering in their free will and he and Homer proceed to destroy every security camera in town.
Meanwhile, Lisa is invited to join the school debate team but soon discovers that she faces prejudice from the brunette supremacist judges (that her competition readily capitalizes on) because she has blonde hair. Even Cletus mocks her when she raises concerns about infringement upon civil liberties at the town hall meeting, and Marge even tries to cheer Lisa up with a childrens book which talks about prejudice, but only makes her feel worse, since the "moral" of the book makes clear that there is nothing Lisa could do but endure the abuse. So, she decides to dye her hair brown. At the next debate meeting, she intentionally presents a weak argument and when the judges enthusiastically agree with her, she points out that they judged her on her hair color rather than the strength of her debate skills, and notes that there are exceptions to every stereotype. Just as she says that not all old people are bad drivers, though, Grampa crashes his car through the wall of the gym where the meeting is being held, stating "this building cut me off!" and weakening her argument.
In the end, it is revealed that the antics of Springfield's citizens were broadcast as a reality TV show in the United Kingdom, known as American Oafs. Queen Elizabeth II remarks "I'll miss that Ralph Wiggum. Reminds me of my boy", and her son Prince Charles replies with a quintessential Ralphism: "My cat's breath smells like cat food."
Production
The episode was written by Michael Nobori who served as a production assistant for seasons 20 and 21 and directed by
Lance Kramer and guest stars
Eddie Izzard performing impressions of
Queen Elizabeth II,
Prince Charles and the character Nigel Bakerbutcher. In an effort to attract more viewers for
May sweeps,
Fox made a week full of musical segments in all the shows called Fox Rocks. For
The Simpsons they had a couch gag with The Simpsons characters
lip dubbing
Ke$ha's song "
Tik Tok", making it the first time that the series has forgone its traditional opening theme since the
pilot, "
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire".
Eddie Izzard stated in an interview about the show "‘I’d love to be in it, but they never asked me, and I don’t want to push it. I think it’s because I’m a cult – rather than a mainstream – name".
Cultural references
The song "
Tik Tok" by
Ke$ha is used in place of the regular theme song, as an extended
couch gag sequence as part of a week of musical-themed programming on Fox called Fox Rocks. Bart states that blonde boys are not dumb, but "evil like in
The Karate Kid or
World War II". The episode ranked 25th in the 18-49
Nielsen Ratings for the week the 7th top rated show on Fox in the demographic and 5th highest scripted show.
The episode was met with high positive reviews. Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode 8/10 and remarked that "Overall, it was a fun episode, hurt only by the uninteresting filler of Lisa dealing with blonde stereotypes. But even that delivered its share of memorable quotes. If the past few episodes are any indication, this season may go out on a very high note." This episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews. TVFanatic.com gave the episode 4/5 and stated "The Homer's backyard sequences felt reminiscent of the prior prohibition episode, but were still plenty of funny moments. While the actual plot was nothing too unique, we liked the ending with Flanders realizing he was playing God and the whole camera-setup being set up as a reality show in England."
Sharon Knolle of TV Squad stated "From the inspired 'Tik Tok' musical opening sequence to the last gag, 'To Surveil With Love' ranks as one of the best 'Simpsons' episodes in years. I never expected the rest of the episode to live up to that killer opening, but, unbelievably, it just got better as it went along." Todd VanDer Werff of A.V. Club gave the episode an A- and said "I thought this was a strong episode of The Simpsons. I laughed frequently throughout, I thought both of the major storylines mostly made sense and concluded well, and I enjoyed some of the ways the episode turned satire on its ear. I particularly liked the idea of Lisa conforming by becoming a brunette after everyone made fun of her for being a blonde. Dumb blonde jokes are as old as time itself, but the way the episode turned the whole thing into a sly parody of diversity and conformity was winning.
Ariel Ponywhether of FireFox News gave the episode an A, remarked that "the episode is one of the better outings of the season" and concluded "There were some very slight characterization flaws, which detract slightly from the grade, as does the well-written but underdeveloped Lisa subplot. Add in excellent voice-over work by Eddie Izzard to the mix, however, and you have a solid episode.
References
External links
"To Surveil with Love" at TheSimpsons.com
"To Surveil with Love" at The Simpsons Archive
Category:2010 television episodes
Category:The Simpsons (season 21) episodes
