While The Simpsons season 35 has given every member of the eponymous family time to shine, the long-running animated sitcom has devoted particular attention to one underrated character. The Simpsons has been on the air for 35 years and, in that time, the show has aired over 760 episodes. It would be reasonable for viewers to assume that every member of the titular family has gotten more than enough time in the limelight, but this isn’t necessarily true. Although The Simpsons season 36 may change this, the show has historically treated Homer as its default lead character.
Originally, Matt Groening intended Bart to be the show’s protagonist. However, Homer soon proved popular with viewers and critics and overtook Bart as the show’s star. Since the Simpsons never age, the dynamic shared between the family members hasn’t changed all that much in the last four decades. This means one major character has been relegated from the role of straight man to Homer’s funny man, thus limiting their long-term character development. Although she has starred in some great standalone episodes, Marge’s The Simpsons season 35 role marks one of the show’s first attempts to seriously explore her character.
The Simpsons season 35, episode 16, “The Tell-Tale Pants,” will be another Marge-centric episode that focuses on the family’s long-suffering matriarch. Marge has been the breakout star of The Simpsons season 35, with five of the first 16 episodes of the season focusing on her. This is a great choice since, even though she has been one of the show’s lead characters for decades, The Simpsons hasn’t done all that much to explore Marge’s internal world in recent years. Marge starred in episodes like season 33, episode 1, “The Star of the Backstage,” but these were few and far between.
Since Homer is the unofficial lead character of the series, most of Marge’s stories center on him. Some classic Golden Age outings, like season 6, episode 11, “Fear of Flying,” and season 8, episode 11, “The Twisted World of Marge Simpson,” centered entirely on Marge, but these were rare campers to frequent Homer-centric outings. As The Simpsons season 35’s Homer stories have explored a darker side of Marge’s husband, the show is perfectly poised to make Marge its heroine for this outing. This renewed sense of purpose has resulted in some of the show’s best episodes in years.
Even some of Marge’s most iconic episodes, like season 7, episode 11, “Marge Be Not Proud,” are more focused on Bart, Homer, and other family members than Marge herself. Marge’s role as a wife and mother means she is often sidelined in The Simpsons, and this has garnered criticism over the years. Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg drew attention to Marge’s lack of character development with a viral Twitter thread where he noted that, after over thirty years of the show, it was tough to name any of her friends. Marge Simpson Anime took this critique even further.
This popular webcomic turned Marge’s repression into a trippy psychosexual odyssey, lending more credence to the claim that The Simpsons has never focused on Marge and has treated her as a comparatively one-dimensional figure as a result. The Simpsons season 35’s Marge episodes disprove this claim, with outings like episode 14, “Night of the Living Wage,” episode 13, “Clan of the Cave Mom,” episode 6, “Iron Marge,” and episode 2, “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream” all addressing previously unseen elements of her personality. From her protective streak to her anxiety to her righteous anger, Marge’s broader personhood has been illustrated here.
Even though “Clan of the Cave Mom” focuses on Marge’s role as a mother, the episode uses prehistoric interludes to freshen up this familiar theme. By showing viewers what the instinctual side of Marge’s brain sees, the episode makes her plight more compelling and the plot’s circumstances more meaningful. Similarly, “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream” used Marge’s hallucinatory fever dreams to highlight her fear of her children growing up, proving that even Marge’s role as a mother still has unexpected story potential. While The Simpsons season 35 ignored numerous supporting stars to give Marge this focus, this gamble proved worthwhile.
Meanwhile, season 35 giving Homer a more villainous role in the series allowed the show to highlight Marge’s plight. Homer might be a lovable everyman, but five episodes from season 35 focused on the darker side of his character. Whether he was actively opposed to Marge’s unionizing efforts or abusing his authority as a crossing guard, Homer has played a surprisingly villainous role in season 35 and this has made Marge’s new role all the more vital. As the the show took a more critical look at her famous husband, Marge became the heroine of The Simpsons season 35.