The true Simpsons 4:3 format has been restored to Disney Plus, and while other animated series like Goof Troop and Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers are seemingly doomed to a stretched 16:9 image forever, it's a huge win. For hardcore fans of the service's only animated sitcom for adults. If you're considering revisiting The Simpsons, you'll probably remember that the quality of the show goes down at some point. When that happens is probably a matter of opinion based on your generation: For Millennials like me, the consensus is that seasons 3 through 9 represent the golden age of The Simpsons (with a season or two of latitude on either side). I have a younger brother who argues that it lasts longer, until around season 13. Anyway, the rich cultural world of The Simpsons memes has crystallized around seasons 1-10, and the popular Simpsons quote from the day of the Twitter account strictly shares scenes from seasons 1-11 only. People are still watching new episodes of The Simpsons now, of course, with season 32 coming later this year. But for me and many others, there's a definite golden age, and then everything else, which is to say, 300+ episodes I've never seen. I'm not going to comment on them, simply because I don't know the new stations as well. But I want to discuss the episodes that represent the obvious decline of the series, based on my own experience of watching these previous seasons more than 40 times. Identify the second when my heart breaks in two. The best Disney Plus deals today
When do the Simpsons go bad?
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(Image credit: Disney/Frinkiac) The signs of trouble begin in season 9. Many people point to The Simpsons episode "The Main and the Poor" as a "jump the shark" moment. This episode features the revelation that the main Seymour Skinner is, in fact, an impostor, when the real Skinner returns from a POW camp long after the Vietnam War. Turns out our Skinner is really a former bad boy named Armin Tanzarian.
It's a wild story, and it's extremely controversial among fans for the way it rethinks Skinner's character. But the execution of this episode is actually very good: it has several good jokes, even if the plot is hard to swallow.
The episode is a comment on the Simpsons' audience at the time and their inability to accept change, but the episode "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show" did the same thing more successfully. In fact, the last episode used the cartoon in the Itchy and Scratchy universe as a proxy to explore fans' relationship with the series as it changes. In "The Principal and the Pauper," The Simpsons actually changed their canon in a way that some fans didn't like (credit Talking Simpsons podcast for this observation).
``The main and the poor'' is probably a flop then, but it's an interesting themed episode that I always find fun to watch. Also, an implausible scenario is just one of the negative elements that recur in later episodes of The Simpsons. The show has been running ridiculous conspiracies for years: Homer went into space in season 5. In Season 8, he shot cannonballs into the chest so he could hang out with '90s gangs and impress Bart.
A more detrimental factor in recent seasons has been the unnecessary inclusion of self-playing guest stars. And the first time it really becomes a problem is in the episode ``When You Dish Upon a Star,'' which came in season 10.
In this episode, Homer accidentally lands through the skylight at Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger's vacation home, leading him to befriend the stars (and director Ron Howard). Ultimately, he betrays her trust when he steals her underwear and other property, and the celebrities are served with a restraining order against him. That's the whole story.
Aside from being terribly dated (Basinger and Baldwin divorced 18 years ago), the story is about the guest stars and nothing else. This episode again contains a number of good jokes, but I think it's a much worse effort than "The Principal and the Pauper". The difference is that ``The Principal and the Pauper'' is always an emotional story about Skinner's character with a desired theme, while ``When You Dish Upon A Star'' does not attempt to engage with his story.
It just doesn't sound like an episode you'd find in seasons 3-8, and I think it illustrates the series' continued decline at that time, even if worse episodes followed in subsequent seasons.
Otherwise, season 10 has a lot of episodes, but a lower success rate than season 9.
Then it got worse from there
"Should the Simpsons have a horse?" "Excuse me, but I think this family already had a horse, and expenses forced Homer to work at Kwik-E-Mart with hilarious consequences." pic.twitter.com/4lNmZFGG0529 April 2020 I still don't think Season 10 is going to be a bad year for the series, and I still love it on repeat. It just shows more signs of trouble to come: episodes without an emotional element, repetitive intrigue, guest star overload. Season 11 is the first bad season of the show, in my opinion. The episode "Saddlesore Galactica", like "The Principal and the Pauper", is often cited as an example of "shark jumping". It features The Simpsons getting a horse, a plotline that had previously appeared in another episode (which the show notes). Also, the episode's horse racing plot takes a left turn when it turns out that all of Homer and Bart's rival jockeys are actually supernatural creatures that live underground. It's pretty bad, but even this episode contains jokes that I like. This one, for example: But I think at this point the damage has already been done to The Simpsons. Mel Gibson's episode of "Beyond Blunderdome" at the beginning of season 11 is another one built around a guest star and then some, even if the jokes are very good. The next episode of ``Saddlesore Galactica'' features the rather bitter death of Maude Flanders, which seemed like a publicity stunt, and suggested that the writers did not care for the characters as well as the audience. The show was already out of the game: this creative decision was just another sign. However, even season 11 has a true episode masterpiece: ``Behind the Laughter,'' an avant-garde parody of the behind-the-scenes VH1 documentary series. And even season 12 has two of my all-time favorites: ``Skinner's The Meaning of Snow,'' where Skinner and the kids are stuck at school by a blizzard, and ``Bug Trilogy.'' ', which tells three intertwined stories about family members on the same day, Run Lola Run style. However, having a Simpsons marathon just stops giving me the same buzz after a certain point, and I inevitably forget my place and start over with the good episodes. And this cycle has been going on for at least the last ten years.
The decline of the Simpsons was inevitable
The older I get, the less I care about the decline in quality of The Simpsons after 90. Getting 10 good or good seasons on a TV show is miraculous compared to almost anything else. Arrested Development has had three good seasons and then two terrible ones. The community lasted six years and I really only like 4.5. Curb Your Enthusiasm is still great after ten seasons, but creator Larry David spends years between series, which The Simpsons can't. The repetition was inevitable and maintaining this form was impossible. You can only do so many great episodes where Homer gets a new job, or Bart misbehaves in a way that goes too far, or an episode where Marge or Homer ponders an adventure, or an episode where Lisa disillusioned a new one. outlet for your intellect. According to this Wiki, Bart had 21 loves. He has 10 years. The Simpsons doesn't offend me by his continued existence, not when people clearly appreciate him. However, it's a basic truth to me that The Simpsons had a golden age, and then they lost some kind of magic. Perhaps his success was supernaturally tied to the '90s, and by the end of the decade, that magic was gone. In some ways, I wonder if The Simpsons could benefit from a format change in the next few years. Perhaps 13 episodes on Disney Plus a year instead of 22 on Fox would be a better way to launch the series (although Fox is still streaming the series for season 32). Anyway, I have over 300 Disney Plus Simpsons episodes waiting for me that I've never seen before. Maybe not having to change DVDs is what finally gets me watching.