It was dedicated to James Lipton, who died on March 2, 2020 and had guest starred in the episodes "The Sweetest Apu" and "Homer the Father" respectively.
Bored at work, Homer becomes an expert in word jumble puzzles, Marge sees how the devices affect the lives of Patty and Selma, Bart starts to use his imagination when he recovers a rocket from the school's roof, involving Jimbo and Dolph too, and Lisa rediscovers the joy of finding books manually.
At night, the family work together, using sign language for communication, and manage to stealthily escape the center undetected and get a ride home on Jimbo and Dolph's makeshift rocket.
Club gave this episode a B−, stating that “Alas, there’s not enough else to recommend ‘Screenless,’ as the Simpsons’ individual journeys through the hell of online withdrawal are short-changed and unsatisfying.
Homer gets good at newspaper jumbles, which has one truncated but lovely little montage sequence where the glimpse of Homer J. Simpson recognizing some hidden talent inside himself is set to evocative music...Lisa briefly rediscovers the musty, dusty, opossum-infested joys of the library’s neglected card catalog.
Bart, like Homer, has the merest hint of a personal arc when he alone among his phone-tapping peers spies a forgotten toy rocket on the school roof and, retrieving it, rediscovers his atrophied imagination.”.