The Simpsons – Season 35 Episode 1 “Homer’s Crossing” Recap & Review

Homer’s Crossing

The first episode of The Simpsons season 35 starts with Springfield Elementary School announcing to the parents that they will need to drive their kids to school since the bus is no longer available. However, noticing parents’ frustration, the school suggests it’d be better if children could walk to the school. All they need is crossing guards. Homer accidentally volunteers. He is visibly upset, but he can’t back down now.

Bart is concerned that Homer might embarrass him. However, Homer becomes a local hero after saving a kid during his job. Impressed by Homer’s heroism, Mayor Quimby allocates a budget for crossing guards at Springfield.

Homer becomes the captain donning a strong-looking uniform, hiring new personnel, and doing lots of other things. However, soon all the spotlight and popularity gets in his head and he starts taking things a little too seriously. Principal Skinner informs Homer that the morning drop-off on Monday is going to be quite challenging due to some events. But, a cocky Homer barely pays attention.

The “Monday morning mayhem” gets too much for Homer to handle. A riot breaks out, and Homer is brought into the Mayor’s court for questioning. A corrupted Homer purports the riot happened owing to a lack of budget. He demands more budget, and surprisingly he gets it.

Later, Mayor Quimby notices Homer is harassing the citizens of Springfield. On Chief Wiggum’s advice, Mayor Quimby slashes the crossing guard budget. Homer takes it as a challenge and promises to bring Quimby down. Quimby asks Chief Wiggum to stop Homer. Wiggum destroys Homer’s crossing-guard chair and confronts him.

A war breaks between cops and crossing guards. More law-enforcement departments join it, and the battle begins. In the process, Homer is struck by the school truck. In the hospital, Lisa tells Homer that too much power corrupted him.

Episode Review

Have we seen something strikingly similar? Yes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the episode isn’t good. The first episode of The Simpsons season 35 is a fine start featuring some signature story elements and scenes.

However, these aren’t the kind of episodes that we would want to be the highlight of the new season mainly because it’s a beaten track. The more we watch this kind of stuff, the harder it’s going to be to obtain joy from these episodes. We hope the upcoming episodes will see a rise in story strength and punchline density too.