Release and Reception
In its original American broadcast, "The Bart Wants What It Wants" received a 6.1 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research, translating to approximately 6.4 million viewers. The episode finished in 27th place in the ratings for the week of February 11-17, 2002, making it the third most watched program on the network. Later that year, the episode was nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award in the Animation category, but it ultimately lost to the Futurama episode "Godfellas". On August 24, 2010, "The Bart Wants What It Wants" was released as part of The Simpsons: The Complete Thirteenth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. Al Jean, Matt Selman, Tim Long, John Frink, Don Payne, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Joel H. Cohen, Pamela Hayden, Michael Polcino, Steven Dean Moore and Bill Freiberger participated in the audio commentary of the episode.
Following its broadcast, "The Bart Wants What It Wants" received mixed reviews from critics. Giving the episode a positive review, Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star wrote, "Fortunately, the episode is on par with this season's best, boasting a reasonably unscattered plotline and, where the main romantic storyline is concerned, a touch of the childlike sweetness Simpsons writers have brought to previous 'crush' episodes." Casey Broadwater of Blu-ray.com gave a positive review as well, describing it as a "strong character-centric episode." Although he enjoyed most episodes of the thirteenth season, Colin Jacobson of DVD Movie Guide wrote that "Half-Decent Proposal" and "The Bart Wants What It Wants" "forces to rethink that opinion." He continued, "Like 'Proposal', 'Wants' isn’t a bad program, but it feels stale and rehashed." He particularly disliked a joke about poor mileage, which he stated was "identical" to a gag from an earlier episode. He concluded his review by writing that the episode is "mediocre at best."
Nate Boss of Project-Blu wrote that, while it featured Rainier Wolfcastle, which he considered to be "one of the funniest characters in Simpsons lore," the episode "doesn't tread ground that hasn't been tread a few times before." He continued, "Throw in Canada, and a few Mountie jokes, and bam, you have an episode." 411Mania's Ron Martin also found it to be unoriginal, describing the episode as a "yearly episode just with different tempters each time." Hannah Sung, also of the Toronto Star, felt the episode was disappointing, writing that it "wasn't entirely bad, but the payoff didn't match the hype". She said that the third act in the city of Toronto was a disappointment and "really just a sloppy amalgamation of every Canadian joke we've ever been told by Americans that lose their punch after the millionth time."
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