1. Plot

2. Reception
    Ratings  Critical reception 

3. References

4. External links

"Postcards from the Wedge" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-first season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 14, 2010. In the episode, Homer and Marge once again try to discipline Bart after Mrs. Krabappel tells them that Bart has not been doing his homework, but Bart has a plan to manipulate Homer's strictness and Marge's sympathetic ear, which backfires when Homer and Marge see through the plan and decide to ignore Bart. These themes had been seeded in the previous season (e.g. "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble", and "The Good, the Sad, and the Drugly"), would culminate in the show's first ever true grounding, and the first to stand for the rest of the episode. It would also be the last episode to feature a grounding, until "The Marge-ian Chronicles" in Season 27, six years later (also written by Brian Kelley).

The episode was written by Brian Kelley and directed by Mark Kirkland. The episode features references to the shows Pokémon, House and The Jetsons. The episode received mostly positive reviews and got an 18-49 Nielsen Rating of 2.6/8.

Plot

At school, after Mrs. Krabappel shows a video from 1956 to her students about the future, she tells her students to turn in their homework project (which they had three months to do). Bart did not even attempt to complete his homework, so he tries to make his homework on the fly out of odds and ends found in his desk. Unfortunately, Mrs. Krabappel does not approve, and prepares to send a letter to his parents. She gives it to Martin to mail and he heads out the door. Bart shoots an eraser at the pull station, breaking the glass, pressing the button and activating the alarm. Everyone evacuates, but Bart runs through some 6th graders and gets through them. He almost gets the letter when it drops out of the mail slot, but Groundskeeper Willie heads off with the mailbag.

Homer and Marge then receive the letter from the teacher informing them Bart is one month behind on his homework. When Homer is informed that he does not have to help Bart with this work; he is eager to increase his son's workload (commenting he wants him to "be Korean by the time he's (Bart) done"). Marge, however, is concerned that the heavy workload will dissuade Bart from liking school (ignoring or unaware of the fact that he already hates it). When Bart realizes his parents do not agree on this issue, he uses their opposing views to avoid homework entirely. Lisa explains that this is a wedge issue, an issue that sharply divides two parties.

Marge and Homer begin to argue more and more, with Bart inciting the two to argue about very minor things that even do not involve his homework, and Lisa calling him a sociopath. Marge seeks counsel from Ned Flanders, who recalls having a minor argument with Maude on the day she died. He mentions that this argument still haunts him. Marge also counsels Patty and Selma, who, eager to break up Marge and Homer, encourage her to "stick to her guns", saying that then she will be "free and happy" like them; however, knowing how her sisters feel about Homer, and then thinking about how her life could end up like theirs, Marge immediately heads out to make things right with her husband. Meanwhile, Homer falls asleep at work, dreams about accidentally killing Marge and realizes that he too wants to apologize. The two spot each other in traffic, rush out of their vehicles and embrace. They then decide to let Bart fend for himself, especially since he was the reason they got married in the first place, leaving Bart stunned when they pay no attention to any of his antics.

Bart and Milhouse then decide to play a prank on Principal Skinner. To evade capture, the two hide in the abandoned Springfield subway system where they discover the subway trains still work. They race down the tracks and cause a seismic tremor to shake the town. When Homer and Marge fail to react to this, Bart confesses to Nelson he no longer feels a thrill when he plays a prank. Nelson suggests Bart receives no gratification from pranks unless someone loses their temper.

Bart then decides to destroy Springfield Elementary, which was damaged by the first subway tremor, by driving the train under it. Homer and Marge find a note from Lisa informing them of this prank, and they decide to take immediate action. They rush to the subway station, where Homer tries to push the emergency kill switch. It is stuck, but Homer then imagines that the switch is Bart, pretends to be strangling him, and he succeeds in stopping the subway. Skinner is relieved when he realizes the school is saved, and he puts a flag up. However, the flagpole falls against the already damaged building, causing it to collapse, much to Nelson and Krabappel's delight. Because of this, Bart is grounded and also has to tweet Homer about his current activities (despite Homer not knowing anything about Twitter, and not wanting to), and his parents have returned to their basic purpose: keeping their son in line. Lisa confronts Bart, who is bored, unhappy and suffering, due to his punishment and backlog of homework. She tells him that she didn't write the note because it misspells the word "Elementary" and adds that it's just like Bart to botch a word he sees first thing every morning at school. Bart looks worried, but Lisa adds that she will keep his secret and let everyone go on thinking that Bart is a soul-less evil kid, leaving Bart in good spirits as the episode ends.

Reception

Ratings

In the original American broadcast, "Postcards from the Wedge" was viewed by 5.233 million viewers and got an 18-49 Nielsen rating of 2.6/8 coming second in its timeslot after The Amazing Race making it the third most viewed show on Fox that night after a new episode of Family Guy and a rerun of "The Great Wife Hope", but the second highest rated show on FOX that night after Family Guy."^[3]

Critical reception

The episode received positive reviews. Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode an 8, stating the episode was "outstanding" and that "Again, the story was nothing entirely new, but the jokes were smart and fun and worth sitting on the couch for a half-hour.".^[4] Ariel Ponywether of FireFox News gave the episode a B- and said that "There were some very solid moments in this episode, with some surprisingly subversive humor throughout, and the final scene was a real winner. The middle stretch slows down the episode’s pacing a bit."^[5] On Yahoo! TV, the episode received 84%, saying it was good out of 6 ratings.^[6] Todd VanDer Werff of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B and stated "I don't think the plotting here was as tight as it might have been – lots of threads were introduced and then mostly left dangling, and the end was particularly abrupt – but I laughed fairly frequently, and that will be enough".^[7] Jason Hughes of TV Squad said that "All in all, while it was an unexpectedly serious episode, it was a pleasant enough one as well. No big guffaws, but enough smiles to go around."^[8]

The episode won the Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, for Charles Ragins' Background Design.

References

External links

• "Postcards from the Wedge" at TheSimpsons.com
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100417181156/http://www.snpp.com/episodeguide/season21.html "Postcards from the Wedge"] at The Simpsons Archive
• {{tv.com episode|the-simpsons/postcards-from-the-wedge-1306614}}
• {{IMDb title|1606137}}

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