![]() In several DVD commentaries, Matt Groening has noted that, for all the accusations that The Simpsons is some heathen, irreligious show, he and the writers have generally tried to treat Lovejoy more charitably than the other side characters, presenting him more as flawed than as outright corrupt. The opening church service is taking what has long been the central joke with Reverend Lovejoy-his total yet weirdly judgmental apathy toward everything, give or take model trains-and pushes it to its logical extreme with his lengthy sermon on constancy, sweet, sweet constancy. The set-up for “In Marge We Trust” operates along those lines, with Marge volunteering at the church as a way to bring back some value to the activity, to restore some of the beauty in what could be a profound experience but what is just total drudgery for all involved. Mostly, she’s just looking to get through the day with a smile on her face, and it’s hard to begrudge her that when she has to put up with the likes of Homer and Bart. Like her daughter, Marge cares about bringing meaning to her life, but in a distinctly less high-minded sort of way. She can absolutely have adventures-becoming a cop, insinuating herself among the Springfield country club elite, starting her own pretzel business-but even those flirtations with wackiness are born of specific, carefully detailed character beats, almost always to do with her frustrations with the monotony of domestic life. She isn’t likely to respond to a reinstated prohibition law by becoming a master bootlegger, nor is she about to ask deep, soul-searching questions about the ethics of eating meat or the importance of skeptical inquiry. Marge episodes tend to be the smallest-scale of Simpsons episodes, a natural byproduct of her status as the show’s resident grounded straight woman. In which we should all just be glad God’s not here… ![]()
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