Brick Like Me

"Brick Like Me" is the five hundred and fiftieth episode of The Simpsons and twentieth episode of the twenty-fifth season.

Plot
Homer awakens in a utopian Springfield where everything and everyone is made out of Lego. While visiting the Lego Comic Book Guy's store to pick up a toy set for Lisa's birthday, Homer has a vision upon touching the box where he sees his normal cartoon self giving the gift to Lisa and helping her build it, which disturbs Lego Homer. Although Lego Marge tells him it was just a dream, Homer begins to have hallucinations of being flesh-based everywhere he goes. Meanwhile, Lego Bart inadvertently destroys the school building while chasing a skunk brought by Milhouse for "share day". Principal Skinner sentences Bart to rebuild the school, suppressing all creative attempts Bart makes at remodeling the building.

Homer continues to see himself and other Lego Springfieldians as ordinary people, which culminates with his hands turning into flesh while attending church for all to see. Going to the Android's Dungeon for answers, Homer touches the toy box again and has another vision of his cartoon self building a Lego model of Springfield with Lisa for a Lego construct contest, elated that he has found a common interest with her. However, Lisa instead decides to go see the new Survival Games movie (a spoof of The Hunger Games) with older girls, forcing Homer to enter the contest by himself. As Homer wishes he could live in the Lego Springfield he created with her, where "everything fits together and no one gets hurt", Comic Book Guy's giant Lego construct of Kendah Wildwill (a parody of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games) falls on Homer, knocking him unconscious. After being told by Lego Comic Book Guy that their world is a fantasy where Homer can live out his desire to spend time with Lisa forever, Homer accepts the false reality.

While playing with Lego Lisa, Homer realizes that he will never experience her or the rest of his family living out their lives, and decides he must return to reality. Homer returns to the Android's Dungeon and learns that opening the toy box will end his fantasy. However, Lego Comic Book Guy reveals himself as the part of Homer's psyche that prefers the Lego world over the real world. He proceeds to fortify his store and sets Lego pirates and ninjas on Homer to keep him from reaching the box. Hearing Homer's cries for help, Lego Bart builds a giant robot from various play-sets and takes down the pirates and ninjas before crashing onto the store. Homer finds the box in the rubble and opens it, changing back to his normal cartoon self. He kisses Lego Marge goodbye before jumping into the box.

Homer regains consciousness at the Lego contest and reunites with Lisa, who had come after feeling bad about leaving him. He tells Lisa about his dream and the lessons he has learned about parenting. When Lisa starts to compare his dream to the plot of The Lego Movie, Homer quotes "No, this is a new plot" as life-sized constructs of the movie's characters Emmet and Wyldstyle are carted in the background. Homer allows Lisa to see the Survival Games movie, telling her he can't stop her from growing up. Soon after, Homer and Marge sit behind Lisa and her friends at The Survival Games, with Homer complaining about the movie while Marge enjoys it and repeatedly shushes him.

Production
On February 16, 2014 it was revealed that the episode would air on May 4, 2014 and serve as the show's 550th episode. The episode was frequently stated to be 2 years in the making by Matt Selman, who served as the showrunner for this episode.

When  came out, writer Brian Kelley watched the film and realized the plot was similar in some ways to "Brick Like Me"'s plot. As a result, cameo appearances by The Lego Movie characters Emmet Brickowski and Wyldstyle were added into the 2D world later during production at the end of the episode, as well as a joke about the plots being similar. Also, a few scenes were edited out. Homer was supposed to go between worlds via a magical tunnel and there was a similar tunnel in The Lego Movie. A short construction scene was also left out as Emmet from The Lego Movie was a construction worker and there was a large construction scene in the movie.

Matt Selman consulted with The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets writer Simon Singh for the final joke of the episode. He wanted to be totally sure on the age of the universe and number of pieces (the number of observable atoms in the universe) as he thought "The fans would never forgive us, if we did not have the accurate number of plastic molecules in our Philip K. Dick-ian meta-universe."

Reception
The episode was watched by a total of 4.39 million viewers, making it the second most watched show on FOX's Animation Domination segment that night, beating ' and ' but losing to Family Guy.

"Brick Like Me" received critical acclaim. The A.V Club described it as, "a miracle of an episode, a heartfelt, inventive, exquisitely performed, and tightly written half-hour that reinforces what I’ve been saying all season—there’s no reason why The Simpsons can’t be good again." Praising writers Matt Salman and Brian Kelly, A.V Club ultimately awarded the episode an A- rating, the highest of the season. IGN offered similar opinion. Giving the episode a 8.2/10 "Great" rating, IGN summed up, "The similarities to  are unfortunate, but there's still a lot of fun to be had in this latest Simpsons milestone episode. [...] There's plenty of entertainment value in seeing a LEGO-ized Springfield and its blocky inhabitants. And the headier themes and story elements should connect with anyone who grew up playing with LEGOs. Now the only question is what the producers will cook up for a 600th episode celebration..." Time lauded the episode and wrote, "Brick Like Me" shows that The Simpsons can still be inspired, weird, and sincere, when all the pieces fall into place. [The episode] demonstrates that The Simpsons still has it, at least sometimes. Afterward, you and the kids can pop in the season 3 DVD and compare. Or put together the Lego Simpsons House–only $199.99, Brik-E-Mart not included." TV.com, while critical of the episode's plotting, ultimately described "Brick Like Me" as, "a stunner [...] rebuilding Springfield in bright, brick-by-brick 3D, and that's what the episode will forever be known for."

The episode was met with a similar reaction from fans. On No Homers, a fan forum dedicated to Simpsons discussion, the episode received a 5/5 majority poll rating. Many fans praised the episode, with some naming it, "the strongest episode of Season 25", "one of the 'HD era's best" and even "the best episode in the last 10 years." Several fans agreed that "Brick Like Me", combined with other recent efforts such as "Steal This Episode", is "conclusive proof that Matt Selman should be the next showrunner for The Simpsons." Despite this praise, not all fans shared mutual critiques. A frequent complaint was the episode's narrative being "semi-derivative of ." The animation-style also divided opinion.

The episode currently has a 7.6/10 IMDb rating and a 8.6/10 rating on TV.com.

In the United Kingdom, official BARB figures show this episode was watched by 924,000 viewers from 7:30pm on Sky1, with an additional 50,000 on +1, the most-watched programmes of the week on both channels, and serving up the highest ratings for a new episode on the channel since "The Day the Earth Stood Cool" from April 2013.