Kredit Kookies: Flyby: Maggie being carried by a stork; Billboard: The Springfield Retirement Castle (with a picture of Abe and the subheading ‘get me out of here’; Chalkboard: “Teacher’s Unions Are Not Ruining This Country.” Couch Gag: The Simpson and Bouvier clans gather in a most Norman Rockwellian manner around a Thanksgiving table…only to quickly rip the meal apart and gather with their plates before the television to watch football.C

The Simpsons try to make a point about prejudices - and the importance of high-quality booze that won't leave you sightless - in Rednecks and Broomsticks.  

While trying to get home from a ski weekend, Homer accidentally crashes the Simpmobile in an ice-covered lake, sinking it.Some of the episode’s best jokes involve the Simpson kid’s playing with an annoying toy called “Bonk It”, which haunts the parents Simpson no matter how hard they try to rid themselves of it.The Simpsons are saved by the Spuckler clan, who allow them to recover there while waiting for a ride home.There are a ton of redneck jokes here that have a sense of already having been played out in regard to Cletus and his family

While temporarily stuck in Springfield’s sticks, Homer takes a shine to Cletus, and Lisa wanders into the woods, where she meets a coven of Wiccans who tempt her to join their religion.Lisa rejects the notion – though she does mention that she’s got a project due the next day.As she panics over her pipe cleaner sculpture, she learns that Miss Hoover’s out with the stomach flu.Thinking that the wiccans placed a spell on her teacher, Lisa becomes anxious.She also converts to the religion with zeal.Unfortunately, Flanders sees her chasing about her new “Familiar” Snowball II, and calls the local morals squad.

Lisa finds out that her new friends are harmless, unfortunately just after they’re arrested for allegedly casting a spell that’s made half the town blind.Unless Lisa figures out a way to prove that her new friends are innocent, all three women will be executed by the Springfield justice system.

“Rednecks and Boomsticks” is a fair, if unspectacular episode.There were some great gags (The “Bop It” Parody; Kent Brockman and Selma’s interaction outside the courthouse; Ned Flanders mistaking the word ‘Dell’ for ‘hell’; Lisa high-fiving Jenny and getting temporarily glued together), but in expanding the plot outside of Cletus’ redneck neighborhood and to Springfield proper, it loses some magic.As paranoid as Springfield is, Cletus’ neighbors would be even more willing to drown the three young witches.While the plot generally hung together in a logical fashion, it lacked spirit and punch and true connectivity.The most irritating part of the episode revolves around Homer’s characterization, which tends toward jerkass (especially in the final scene).Neve Campbell’s turn as one of the witches was ignominiously indistinct – you could not pick out.The show also squandered a plum opportunity to poke fun at Campbell’s appearance in “The Craft”, a cult film about teen witches with much more potent powers (which is why, I presume, she was used as a guest VA in this episode).Mildly amusing, but not with the verve the show’s been displaying this season in general, and arguably the second-worst episode this season after “Homer the Whopper” – not a condemnation, but not a recommendation either.

Letter Grade: B-

Ratings for “Rednecks and Broomsticks” are currently unavailable.

Only one new episode of the Simpsons will air before the new year, “O Brother Where Bart Thou?”, in which Bart goes in search of a younger brother figure after witnessing Lisa and Maggie’s close bond.It’s set to air December thirteenth.