The Simpsons Season 35 Wasted Its Most Impressive Guest Star

Although The Simpsons can get almost any A-list star imaginable to appear on the series, season 35 of the show wasted one of its most high-profile guests. At the height of the show’s popularity, The Simpsons was incredibly ambitious when it came to cameos. Not only did the creators of the series ask various US presidents to appear on the show, but they also secured guest appearances from the likes of Michael Jackson, Johnny Cash, Elizabeth Taylor, and Stephen Hawking. While The Simpsons season 36 may change this, the show has relied on these starry guest spots for decades.

The cultural clout of the series is a double-edged sword. Since the Simpsons never age, the show never needs to end and can continue to cast new celebrities in guest roles forever. This can result in stunt casting, with The Simpsons prioritizing a big-name appearance over solid writing. This can be particularly egregious when the guest star in question is a great actor who could have provided a stronger performance if they were given more to work with. The Simpsons season 35’s strongest episodes prove the series has ingenuity, but its weakest outings fall into this trap.

The Simpsons Season 35 Episode 11 Wasted Amanda Seyfried

Homer’s new professional rival got barely any screen time

In season 35, episode 11, “Frinkenstein’s Monster,” Homer enlists the help of Springfield’s resident nerdy super-genius, Professor Frink, in a wacky scheme. Homer gets a job at a Finnish nuclear power plant by getting Frink to feed him lines via a pair of high-tech glasses. Although Homer aces the interview, this results in the plant’s owner ignoring a candidate with much better qualifications who is more suited to the role. Amanda Seyfried’s Dr. Spivak becomes Homer’s latest enemy and tries to engineer his downfall, but the acclaimed actor’s guest role was wasted in a part that didn’t do her justice.

While even Golden Age episodes of The Simpsons had padding, “Frinkenstein’s Monster” suffered the opposite problem. The episode had two conflicting storylines that never gelled, with both plots stealing screen time from each other. On the one hand, Homer’s amorality and his willingness to cheat the system leads him to get a job that could have gone to a more qualified woman. On the other hand, Frink’s ability to coach Homer results in him wondering about the ethical issues involved in this ambitious experiment. With these two competing plots, Seyfried’s character had no chance to make an impression.

Amanda Seyfried’s Simpsons Role Flipped Her Best Recent Success

Seyfried played a hoax debunker after playing Elizabeth Holmes

Seyfried has a long, impressive screen career that ranges from hit comedies like Mean Girls to acclaimed dramas like Mank, to underrated cult classics like Things Heard and Seen and Jennifer’s Body. What made her guest appearance on The Simpsons feel like a particularly frustrating misstep, though, was a more recent career success. Seyfried brought famous fraudster Elizabeth Holmes to life in The Dropout, a tragicomic miniseries that chronicled the criminal’s infamous Theranos scam. Since The Simpsons references real news all the time, this plot was a perfect chance for the show to reverse Seyfried’s role in The Dropout.

In that earlier hit, Laurie Metcalf played Phyllis Gardner, one of the first people to blow the whistle on Holmes’ crimes. Seyfried could have played a similar role in “Frinkenstein’s Monster” if she had more screen time, and the episode attempted this when she challenged Homer to hold a conversation about nuclear physics without his all-important glasses. However, this confrontation happened mere minutes before the episode ended and the status quo was restored to normal for the Simpson family, so the scene carried no tension. Ironically, The Simpsons spoofed Theranos in season 35, episode 4 “Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story.”

Seyfried’s Wasted Simpsons Cameo Underlines A Concerning Season 35 Trend

Kylie Jenner and Taika Waititi’s cameos were similarly pointless

Although The Simpsons season 35’s Marge-centric episodes have been strong, the show’s reliance on guest stars has resulted in some particularly weak outings. Seyfried’s Dr. Spivak was the most notable of these failures, since the series went to the effort of creating a new character for the actor only to waste Spivak’s potential in an episode that crammed in way too many subplots. However, Taika Waiti’s cameo in season 35, episode 9, “Murder She Boat,” was also a wasted opportunity that relied too heavily on jokes about how great the director is.

Kylie Jenner’s appearance in season 35, episode 5, “Treehouse of Horror XXXIV,” was similarly dispiriting, although that pointless role was at least mercifully brief. Even though “Frinkenstein’s Monster” wasted the star of The Dropout, the show’s earlier Theranos spoof provided season 35’s strongest guest role. Elizabeth Banks shone as Persephone in “Thirst Trap: A Corporate Love Story,” imbuing her ambitious scammer with an unhinged edge. Sadly, outside of that episode, The Simpsons season 35’s celebrity cameos have most focused on big names over quality writing.