TV Recap / Review: "The Simpsons" Does a Very Specific Parody of Netflix's "Ripley" in New Disney+ Special "Simpsley"

Just a couple weeks ago, Disney+ debuted a new double-length episode of The Simpsons entitled "Extreme Makeover: Homer Edition". And today, a second new (this time only single-length) Disney+ exclusive episode for this summer premiered on the streaming service: "Simpsley" (the title and plot of the episode being riffs on the 2024 Netflix neo-noir thriller series Ripley, which itself was a remake of the 1999 Anthony Minghella film The Talented Mr. Ripley and another adaptation of the 1955 novel of the same name by author Patricia Highsmith).

"Simpsley" (like Ripley before it) is entirely in black-and-white, and its non-canonical story begins with a single and destitute Marge Bouvier (voiced, as always, by Julie Kavner) working menial tasks for the very idle and very rich Luann Van Houten (Maggie Roswell) and Agnes Skinner (Tress MacNeille). While listening to them complain about how poor people simply aren't ambitious enough, she overhears Agnes talk about her son Seymour's indefinite European vacation, and how she would give someone lots of money to bring him back home to the United States. So Marge creates a fake new identity as one of Seymour's old schoolmates and befriends Agnes, then travels to Europe to meet up with Seymour (Harry Shearer), with whom she successfully ingratiates herself only to find that he already has another hanger-on fraud in the form of Homer Simpsley (Dan Castellaneta). It seems that Homer has been acting as Skinner's permanent roommate and "muse" while Seymour practices his painting skills, but Marge is all too eager to take over that role, pushing Homer to the side.

Then, in a scene once again right out of Ripley, Skinner finds Homer trying on some of his clothes. The two get into a fight that ends with Seymour tumbling down the stairs of his lush apartment and "slaptick-ing" himself to death, as Homer puts it. As Skinner lays dying on the floor, Marge and Homer concoct a scam to take over his life and his wealth, with Marge learning to forge his signature and Homer impersonating his appearance... as best he can despite their difference in weight. Then they realize that Seymour is not quite dead yet, so they smother him and dump his body in a trunk, then on a boat and into the ocean. While at sea, Marge proposes marriage to Homer so that they might continue living off this dead man's money, and Homer accepts rather flamboyantly. The next day they go to an Italian bank to withdraw stacks of his money, which works thanks to a naive European teller who says Homer looks "close enough" to Skinner's passport and is willing to turn around to show that the back of her jacket matches the front so that Marge can sign the withdrawal slip.

Back in the States, Agnes Skinner dies from choking on broth when she learns that her "son" has found true love, and in Europe Seymour's body comes free of the trunk thanks to fish eating his hair. It floats to the surface where it is misidentified as Homer Simpsley's corpse because it's so bloated and bald. So Marge and Homer continue to get away with their mutual crime, and then Skinner's old pal Gary Chalmers (Hank Azaria) shows up for a visit, and is immediately suspicious of the two, so they have to kill him as well. On their way to the beach to dump that body, they're spotted by a very Italian version of Bart (Nancy Cartwright, who says "Aye Columbus!") and Homer must choke the boy to death in silhouette. The following scenes see Homer and Marge interrogated by Police Chief Wiggum (also Azaria, doing a similarly Italian version of the character's voice) but eventually set free because they've mistakenly arrested Italian Hans Moleman (Castellaneta) for the murders instead. So Marge and Homer celebrate by taking another boat trip out to the middle of the ocean, where it turns out they were both planning to murder each other... and they do. The real winner of the scheme turns out to be Skinner's painting protege Lisa (Yeardley Smith), who sells Seymour's paintings on the street as a "mentorless child."

I enjoyed this special episode quite a bit, and I've been appreciating it lately when The Simpsons has taken big swings like this. I mean let's face it-- not everyone has seen Ripley (back when it came out my wife and I only watched the first episode, which was really good, but clearly we weren't hooked enough right away to follow through on the entire miniseries just yet... it's on our very long list of shows we'd like to finish someday) and I think it's safe to say that violent black-and-white noirish storytelling probably doesn't appeal to everybody in the modern animation audiences. So while this outing isn't going to be for everyone, I would say it's absolutely worth it for the gorgeous animation style and a lot of really solid jokes that play on the tropes of this genre. So this gets a thumbs-up from me as an outside-the-box experiment, and I'm looking forward to seeing what The Simpsons writers and animators have cooked up for the third entry in this summer's tryptic of Disney+ specials: "Yellow Mirror," which drops at the end of August.

The Simpsons - "Simpsley" is available to stream right now, exclusively via Disney+.