Miracle on Evergreen Terrace (The Simpsons)
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 It's more of a Christmas disaster than a Christmas miracle.
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Miracle on Evergreen Terrace is the tenth episode of Season 9 of The Simpsons. It aired in the United States on December 21, 1997, and is one of the three episodes that is rated TV-G, along with All Singing, All Dancing and Bart the Mother.
Plot
When Bart accidentally destroys the family's Christmas trees and presents, his lies about a burglar stealing them spiral out of control, leaving the Simpsons heavily indebted to the generous townsfolk.
Why It's NOT a Miracle
- Misleading title: Despite the episode being called "Miracle On Evergreen Terrace" (which is an obvious parody title to Miracle on 34th Street), it makes seem like this is an episode where the Simpsons family have a Christmas miracle, the episode is nothing like that at all.
- As a matter of fact, it almost has nothing to do with the title of the episode, as the episode doesn't even parody the movie that the episode's title is parodying.
- Though to be fair, not every episode with a title that parodies an existing form of media has always parodied whatever the episode's title is parodying.
- As a matter of fact, it almost has nothing to do with the title of the episode, as the episode doesn't even parody the movie that the episode's title is parodying.
- The main problem with the episode is that it relies way too much on being a dark Christmas story, to the point where it tries way too hard and fails miserably with it. While it is not a bad concept and the show can make one work as we can see with "Marge Not Be Proud", they went way too far with this one.
- Bart is extremely insistent and careless at the beginning of the episode, as he wakes up and opens his present early before 07:00 (despite Marge telling to not do so) which the present is a Inferno Buster 3000, an fire truck toy. Then he accidentally crashes the truck into the Christmas tree resulting the tree and the presents beneath it being set on fire and and worst of all, then hides it and completely lies to his family by claiming that a burglar stole the presents and the tree.
- This episode is one of the few examples where Bart's carelessness and incompetence are really at their worst.
- The episode is nothing but a giant torture episode for the Simpsons family, as they often get treated like butt-monkeys and punching bags throughout the entirety of the episode thanks to Bart for lying about what happened to the tree and the presents.
- The townsfolk become unlikable, greedy, and out of character after they find out what happened to the tree and presents as they claim that the Simpsons "scammed" them and forced the family to give them back their money.
- In one scene, Bart tells his family the truth about what happened to the tree honestly and truthfully. Despite this, both Homer and Lisa get mad at him anyway and proceed to strangle him.
- If Bart wasn't honest with his apology and showed little care for what he did, then it would have been completely understandable for Homer and Lisa to attempt to strangle him, but since he was honest about his apology and showed regret for what he did, it makes Homer and Lisa look like jerks who can't accept apologies.
- The scene where the Simpson family goes on Jeopardy! serves no purpose other than filler and a pointless reference to that game show in particular. And on top of that, the late Alex Trebek's cameo wasn't needed.
- Terrible ending: The people of Springfield refuse to forgive the Simpsons and proceed to loot their house as revenge for "scamming" them, leaving their house empty, and the only thing they have left is just a washcloth.
- The scene was also supposed to be "heartwarming" at the same time, but realistically, this isn't heartwarming at all because the Simpsons family have literally nothing left in their house and the washcloth is the only thing they have left.
- And yes, this is really how they ended this Christmas episode, nothing says heartwarming like being robbed on the night before Christmas and having everyone in your town hate you for being falsely accused of "scamming them"…
- It doesn't help by the fact that the next episode never follows up with the events of this one, and the fact the episode didn't have a way of maintaining the status quo like most episodes of the show do makes this episode feel pointless and it makes it seem as if it's non-canon, despite the creators never confirming as if it's non-canon.
Miracle Qualities
- Funny moments such as:
- The beginning scene where Homer steals presents from other people in the store is pretty funny.
- Even though Lisa and Homer got mad at Bart for being honest, the part where Lisa tried to strangle him before Homer stopped her and said his line "Lisa, no! Your hands are too weak!" before strangling Bart himself was funny.
- Homer trying to get the car heater to work only for the snow that got stuck fly onto Marge's face.
- Despite the bad ending, seeing the family playing with the washcloth is a little funny and heartwarming at the same time.
- Marge's "Yoink!" line.
- The Christmas decorations falling off the roof along with Homer.
- The Snow Globe couch gag is decent.
- Bart does at least feel remorseful about burning down the tree and did confess to his family and apologized for it.
- The Gracie Films variant at the end of the episode, which uses a Christmas-themed version of the logo's jingle was a nice touch.
- Whilst the other Simpsons family members don't deserve what happened to them, Bart is the only one who came close to deserving it. After all, he lied to the entire town and didn't tell his family about their Christmas tree and presents being burned down.
- Despite what WINAM 8.a.1 says, it is likely that the townsfolk apologized to the Simpsons and gave them their stuff back offscreen after the episode.
- The only person who didn't take the Simpson family's belongings was Ned Flanders, instead, Ned is taking back all the stuff Homer "borrowed" from him.
Reception
Despite receiving positive reviews from critics, this episode's reception from fans of The Simpsons went from being mixed to being bombarded with an unfavorable reception, most of the complaints go to the fact that the Simpsons family is treated like punching bags throughout the entire episode as well as the bad ending where the town of Springfield loots the Simpsons' house. Along with "The Principal and the Pauper" and "Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"", it's mostly considered by fans to be one of the worst episodes of the "Golden Age" (Seasons 1-10), and some fans even go as far to say that it is one of the worst episodes of the entire series.
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