I feel like I’ve been hearing this for a decade. Not that the show has been good for the last decade, but that the latest season is always the one that was pretty good.
The last time someone I knew told me this, I pressed for details. I tried to get examples of good episodes vs bad episodes, and a sense of the ratio between the two. The impression I got was that each recent season had a few episodes that stood out as pretty good, and the rest were either forgettable or kind of crap, but not as bad as the worst episodes in the show’s history.
They had a couple strong seasons roughly 10 years ago IMO. Good enough to keeping me watching again consistently for a few years. Then one day I realized that we were 5 episodes into a season and every single episode had been an alternate universe style episode. Like, oh hey, this week’s episode is The Simpsons but it’s a spaghetti western for absolutely no reason and with no explanation.
I remember asking my wife it she could remember the last time we actually saw Homer at the power plant. Did he still work there? Did he finally get permanently fired and this season represents his decent into madness as he realizes there’s no coming back this time? Or maybe he never worked there and I’m the one who’s gone crazy.
I remember asking my wife it she could remember the last time we actually saw Homer at the power plant. Did he still work there? Did he finally get permanently fired and this season represents his decent into madness as he realizes there’s no coming back this time? Or maybe he never worked there and I’m the one who’s gone crazy.
Just watch the first 9.5 seasons and call it a day. There is enough good content out there that you don’t have to subject yourself to hours of unfunny brain rot just to find the one or two jokes that make you chuckle.
Ok, I’ve seen this take recently, but what made the newest season better? I’m probably going to give it a shot anyhow. I really hope I’m not let down. I still recite the old episodes like religion.
It’s going back to actual story telling instead of trying to just insert as many jokes as possible.
In the bad seasons, you’d have so many plotlines that just didn’t make sense and characters doing things they simply wouldn’t do. For example, Marge is not the absent minded idiot that Homer is, but if the joke needs her to be, then that’s exactly what she’d be turned into, without any explanation. They do the same with the overall plot too
The writing seems to try to tell a good story first and then add jokes in where they work, unlike trying to put as many jokes in a flimsy story as possible. They also handle character like Marge a lot more like the early seasons.
Fron what I heard it’s because the pandemic forced them to have less writers with more agency on each episode. It’s not every episode, but there are definitely a handful of banger.
A Serious Flanders works way better than it has any right to do so
the newest season was actually pretty good, if you get a chance i’d give it a whirl
I feel like I’ve been hearing this for a decade. Not that the show has been good for the last decade, but that the latest season is always the one that was pretty good.
The last time someone I knew told me this, I pressed for details. I tried to get examples of good episodes vs bad episodes, and a sense of the ratio between the two. The impression I got was that each recent season had a few episodes that stood out as pretty good, and the rest were either forgettable or kind of crap, but not as bad as the worst episodes in the show’s history.
They had a couple strong seasons roughly 10 years ago IMO. Good enough to keeping me watching again consistently for a few years. Then one day I realized that we were 5 episodes into a season and every single episode had been an alternate universe style episode. Like, oh hey, this week’s episode is The Simpsons but it’s a spaghetti western for absolutely no reason and with no explanation.
I remember asking my wife it she could remember the last time we actually saw Homer at the power plant. Did he still work there? Did he finally get permanently fired and this season represents his decent into madness as he realizes there’s no coming back this time? Or maybe he never worked there and I’m the one who’s gone crazy.
She said, “Let’s watch something else.”
Haven’t watched it since then.
They joked about that exact issue 24 years ago!
Just watch the first 9.5 seasons and call it a day. There is enough good content out there that you don’t have to subject yourself to hours of unfunny brain rot just to find the one or two jokes that make you chuckle.
The Simpsons has not been particularly funny since season 9, and I’m willing to die in this hill.
Ok, I’ve seen this take recently, but what made the newest season better? I’m probably going to give it a shot anyhow. I really hope I’m not let down. I still recite the old episodes like religion.
Lower joke count so some of them actually have time to land.
It’s going back to actual story telling instead of trying to just insert as many jokes as possible.
In the bad seasons, you’d have so many plotlines that just didn’t make sense and characters doing things they simply wouldn’t do. For example, Marge is not the absent minded idiot that Homer is, but if the joke needs her to be, then that’s exactly what she’d be turned into, without any explanation. They do the same with the overall plot too
The writing seems to try to tell a good story first and then add jokes in where they work, unlike trying to put as many jokes in a flimsy story as possible. They also handle character like Marge a lot more like the early seasons.
Fron what I heard it’s because the pandemic forced them to have less writers with more agency on each episode. It’s not every episode, but there are definitely a handful of banger.
A Serious Flanders works way better than it has any right to do so