Simpsons rant (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gardiner]

Eric,

You may want to check out the "fake principal Skinner" episode. Season 9? I can't think of a more obvious shark-jumping point in any TV show.

 

[MarkHastings]

You may want to check out the "fake principal Skinner" episode. Season 9? I can't think of a more obvious shark-jumping point in any TV show.

Didn't they make reference to that show? The fact that they were desperate for plot lines?

 

[ThomasC]

It was the one where Marge went into the Pretzel business and Homer had the mafia take out the competition for her.

No, it's the season finale of the 13th season, "Papa's Got a Brand New Badge", where Homer creates a private policing company.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Homer being raped by a Panda was the final nail in the coffin for me

I must have missed that one. Phew.

I read an interview with Groening recently when he said something like "We'll stop when we run out of ideas", and I just thought "Does he really think they still have good ideas?" The show just lacks the inspiration. Sure, it can still raise a few chuckles, and even an occasional belly laugh, but they're just doing it for the money.

And yet I still watch - as was said above, new Simpsons is better than no Simpsons.

 

[Dan Rudolph]

I think about half of what they put out is still very good. A far cry from the 90% or so in the second through seventh season, but not bad.

 

[Rob P S]

Remember the show when the Simpsons tried to save the diving horse and Comic Book Guy reminds them that they already had a horse? I nominate the worst episode as the one when Homer had a bucket glued to his head, Bart became a preacher and someone had his leg severed at the end. How they ever recovered from that travesty is a miracle, but I thought most of the last season's episodes were pretty good.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Anyone else here think King of the Hill and Malcolm in the Middle are the funniest shows Fox has on Sundays?

Futurama, I think, has gotten a little stale since they cancelled it, at least compared to the first two seasons. It's still better than the Simpsons.

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Yes, I think that was in the "Behind the Laughter" episode. They also made fun of the constant parade of guest stars in that episode as well.

 

[MarkHastings]

I think that was in the "Behind the Laughter" episode. They also made fun of the constant parade of guest stars in that episode as well.

That's the one. They are constantly making fun of the fact that the show has gotten stale. I believe that was also the episode where Homer says "This will be the last season"

 

[Andy Sheets]

I'm trying to remember when I stopped watching The Simpsons but it's hard because for a while I had a job that usually kept me out of the house when it was on and I just missed a lot of it. Looking at episode guides, though, I think it was probably around the 6th or 7th season that I think the show really lost it.

The thing I liked about the earlier seasons was that despite being a cartoon it was actually a pretty on-target satire on suburban American life, especially compared to everything else on tv at the time. The stories - they actually told stories back then - usually sprang from some mundane situation blown up to ridiculous proportions. I think I started getting frustrated with the show when the writers lost interest in that and just started having a bunch of "Homer's a retard" gags, and the other characters lost a lot of the edges they used to have. Marge became less of an idiot, I guess to differentiate her from the increasingly moronic Homer; Lisa got really maudlin about everything (Christ, I hated it when she would start crying and they'd start slowly playing the theme song on a piano); Bart just lost his balls entirely - he went from being a real snot of a kid to actually feeling guilty about killing a bird, which I can't see the Bart from the earliest seasons ever feeling.

And the writers gleefully chucked out any sense of a relatable setting. It saddens me when I hear them talking on the dvd commentaries about how Homer doesn't even bother going to work anymore, since it kind of underscores how random the show has become. Just a bunch of weird stuff happening with insipid characters floating around everywhere.

And speaking of the characters, I think they went overboard with their digging into the general population of Springfield. While I enjoy seeing a lot of those characters show up for certain gags, that doesn't necessarily mean that I actually want to see whole episodes devoted to who they are in their personal lives. The lowpoint of this, IMO, was the "Milhouse's parents get divorced" episode, which was like a nightmarish fanfic that somehow got picked up for production. It's stretching things to say I give a shit about Milhouse himself, nevermind his damn parents.

And yeah, the celebrity voices got out of hand. It was more interesting when the celebrities would just be playing a character instead of themselves (although, granted, the softball episode is a classic).

Anyway, I think I should stop now because I think I'm starting to fall into a rant. I'll continue to buy the dvd sets for as long as I enjoy the episodes I'm seeing on them but for the last few seasons I've been happily ignoring most new Simpsons episodes. Hell, for all I know it's actually improved in the meantime and I just haven't been around to notice

 

[MarkHastings]

I think I should stop now because I think I'm starting to fall into a rant

Which would be ok, since that's what the thread is about