Best episodes of The Simpsons : Bart of Darkness

Bart of Darkness is a great episode of The Simpsons because it’s the show at its satiric best.

Plot: Bart breaks his leg one Summer and is left shut up in his room with nothing to keep him company but a telescope. Understandably bored, he uses it to watch people in the neighborhood and one day he think’s he sees evidence that Ned Flanders killed his wife. In the meantime, Lisa becomes popular as all the kids in the neighborhood want to come to the Simpsons’ house because of their new pool.

What makes it a great episode? Bart of Darkness is The Simpsons at their satiric best because it’s an excellent parody of a terrific classic movie. The episode’s plot revolves around a satire of the iconic Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window where a character with a broken leg sees that a neighbor may have murdered his wife during a Summer heat wave.

The episode is also perfectly paced and has a genuinely interesting story that makes the viewer want to know what happened, much like in Who Shot Mr. Burns? While the story has many strengths, putting in Ned Flanders as the suspicious character is what really ties it all together.

The episode’s other main strength is that it takes a well-known work of culture and put its own unique spin on it. Bart of Darkness is just one episode that shows the series’ unique ability to parody culture, as The Simpsons early episodes are particularly great about cleverly satirizing classic movies or TV shows. This also explains why The Simpsons annual Halloween special became an iconic staple of the show, as it’s the one time every year that people can expect the series to parody famous scary movies or TV shows.