(S06E19)

Marge: FOX turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually I never noticed.

Following an episode I wasn't that thrilled with comes another that's filed in my brain under "Meh." Episodes that show the family in the future always turn me off, and I'm not sure exactly why that is. Maybe I'm just not willing to accept Bart and Lisa as young adults and Homer and Marge as an old couple.

This episode begins with the family at a carnival, and Lisa wanders into a tent featuring bizarre animals, such as a chicken wearing a rainbow wig, a one-headed dog, and an esquilax, a horse with the head of a rabbit, and the body of a rabbit. The rabbit --sorry, esquilax-- escapes, and Lisa chases after it, winding up in a tent with a fortune teller. The first tarot card she places down is the Death card, which frightens Lisa, but the Death card is actually good, it's the Happy Squirrel card she needs to be concerned about.

The fortune teller gives Lisa a vision of her future and her first true love, a boy she meets at college named Hugh (voiced by Mandy Patinkin). Hugh comes from prestigious roots, and Lisa fears her family's lack of refinement will cause Hugh to lose interest in her. Lisa and Marge begin to plan a wedding, but Homer doesn't participate. This isn't because Homer doesn't want to, but because Marge actually got a restraining order against him to stop him from planning the wedding. Homer takes this rather well and heads for his hammock.

The future version of the Simpson's universe has some funny touches, such as Bart and Homer's George Jetson-style shirts, a Big Ben with a digital clock flashing 12:00, cars that sound like the ones from The Jetsons, the "Dr. and Mrs. Dre Hall" at Lisa's college, and the news network named CNNBCBS (a division of ABC). There's also a running gag of everyone talking about how Maggie never shuts up, even though everytime she tries to speak, she's interupted.

Lisa slowly begins to realize that Hugh has no respect for her family, even when he tries to "compliment" her by telling her she's "like a flower that grew out of a pot of dirt." When he refuses to wear the piggy cufflinks Homer's father gave to him at his wedding, Lisa realizes she can't marry someone who doesn't love her family as much as she does. Despite my aversion to this episode, it does have a very sweet ending, and when it cuts back to the present, I love how Lisa becomes really interested in what her dad has been doing (eating seven pounds of fudge). It's a nice moment, but the journey to get there feels a little too long.