The episode begins with the family preparing for Thanksgiving Day. Even though I'm from Spain, where we don't celebrate this holiday, we do have similar gatherings to what's shown in the episode. That's why I can enjoy the humorous details because the episode's director creates a genuine and relatable family atmosphere. It's like your father, Homer, lighting the fireplace and tuning in to the football game on the car radio while picking up your grandfather, just like your grandparents with their peculiar indifference to life because they feel they're nearing the end of their journey and don't care much about anything anymore. Then there's Marge, acting just like your mother, occasionally glancing at the TV as she goes in and out of the kitchen while setting up the festive table. Homer and Grandpa gossiping about the news anchor, like your father and grandfather do in real life, and so on. That's pure humor, depicting family life and making it endearing. But then, what happens in a family like mine occurs, of course: an older brother who always has to be there to lower your self-esteem when you think you've done something worthy of admiration to impress the adults, just like Bart with Lisa and her centerpiece.
Then, masterfully, the episode's script shows us that there's no courtesy between these two siblings. Remember that courtesy is the tool we have to please others with good manners and education because we believe we deserve respect, like the naive beings we are, and assume that all human beings should have it. But masterfully, it shows us what other TV shows don't, the reality that doesn't exist among certain children with siblings. It's highly relatable. What follows is also very relatable, an angry child mad at their parents, wanting to run away from home to give them a scare, secretly desiring to do it deliberately out of resentment.
Further on, there are some very decent humorous details, but the best one is when Kent Brockman is in the soup kitchen delivering a banal and insincere news report about heartwarming solidarity.
However, the reason this episode gets my 10 out of 10 rating is because Lisa's sadness is remarkably well represented, very realistic. They've captured everything from real life masterfully. The way it ends with Bart and Lisa makes you want to cry because it's so well done.
That's why, my friends, I say that seasons 1 and 2 were the best of the series. Even in season 3, which is the best in terms of comedy and parody, that masterful realism and that heartwarming, relatable family atmosphere that was present in those underrated first two seasons is already lost.
