When Billie Met Lisa

This, like Maggie eloquently put, sucks. But not in the good way.

I'm just glad these are being done as shorts instead of forced half an hour nonsensical episodes like the Lady Gaga one.

Also, aren't these shorts supposed to be funny like the Maggie ones?

This is just a "look how great this artist everyone already knows is" with no wit, no parody and (most importantly) no comedy.

The Simpsons needed to change producers 20 years ago...

Lisa can't play her saxophone peacefully at home, so she relocates to a bridge. Billie Eilish randomly finds her there looking for new talent.

Probably the stupidest plot in all of the shorts. By now there is no logical explanation required whatsoever for a celebrity to appear. Billie just happens to be in Springfield and we don't know why. She's also a weirdo who has her agent hold her upside down talking to the girl playing sax under the bridge.

There's not a friendship "developed" between Lisa and Billie, we are just supposed to get excited about Billie Eilish guest starring in a short. It pales an incredible amount to Lisa seeing lonely jazz player Bleeding Gums Murphy sounding away his sorrows in the middle of the night. Coincidentally both involve a bridge. But while here it's a cheap joke, there it serves as a meeting place for a profound and emotionally revealing connection of souls. It's not just beautiful and atmospheric, it does a great job at making you care about Lisa's feelings of alienation and desire to find like she belongs somewhere.

This is Simpsons in 2022 though, so any sublety or finesse you might expect will not be present. Instead we get Lisa monotonously saying that her father couldn't care less about her music, and if he seems to it's only because he's drunk. They prefer presenting it like the whole family is miserable and never in sync with each other rather than attempting something more nuanced. Lisa is a victim of everyone's stupidity or ignorance and she's a perfect angel who can do no wrong.

And of course, there is nothing funny whatsoever. Not even a mild chuckle, every single joke lands with a thud. The worst one has to be spiders crawling out of Billie's mouth, which is so bafflingly dumb that I'm at a loss for words. Was I supposed to laugh at how gross it was? How random it was? I honestly cannot tell what the punchline is supposed to be.

Dear Al Jean and Disney, please get it through your heads nobody wants these lazy advertisements that only get produced as money-making filler for the platform! They are embarrassing and tarnishing The Simpsons' name more than the show itself already does.

Did Billie just say that the Danny Elfman original score of the Simpsons was garbage? Maybe I misinterpreted it. Look, all of these direct to Disney Plus shorts have been absolutely awful. They are single joke oddities with no Simpson flare and a feeling of corporate creepiness like co-branding anything that sticks. Please stop it and get back to quality like the Maggie's shorts in the daycare (but not the same thing rehashed... something new). These shorts have me worried about the Simpsons Sequel coming up. I hope they show more restraint than spiders coming out of someone's mouth as a joke.

This I just awful not about the celebrities part just that they made homer sound like a bad dad even tho he tries his best and even showed proof he cares about her daughter in older episodes.

Longtime fan of Lisa Simpson here. Should have liked this short, and didn't. The Simpsons shorts in the post-Tracey Ullmann era started out good (The Longest Daycare, Willie's Views on Scottish Independence, Playdate with Destiny), and gave a breath of fresh air to these characters having them respond to current events, or explore new directions such as Maggie having a silent little adventure. Since moving to Disney+, it's been generally downhill.

The shorts all seem intended to advertise both the show or other Disney products. Plusaversary was particularly bad with the way it shilled for Disney+, and there's a bit of that with this one too, particularly in the end credits. Three minutes long and not a single laugh, and a few cringey moments too (spiders out of Billie's mouth, eww). I think it's time for The Simpsons writers to stop and rethink, "What are we doing here?"