Sentence:  The Conan O'Brien-penned half-hour has the capacity to rip our collective hearts out the way the cute, funny bad girl next door does to Bart when she reveals that her new boyfriend is Jimbo Jones, but the show keeps shying away from genuine emotion in favor of jokes that, while overwhelmingly funny, detract from the poignancy and the emotional <WSD>intimacy</WSD> of the episode. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Feeling or atmosphere of closeness and openness towards someone else, not necessarily involving sexuality.