The kids could call you Ho-Ju!
THE RETURN OF THE SIMPSONS
After ten years of languishing in zany mediocrity, one of the best tv shows ever is climbing its way back to the top
I am what you would call a rabid Simpsons fan. I often spend hours quoting the series with friends (not a day goes by that I fail to make some kind of reference) and have been watching the episodes on dvd nightly for years without significant interruption. The first ten seasons of The Simpsons add up to what is almost unequivocally considered the best television ever produced, and nothing could ever take that away from us.
...Not that it didn't come close. For reasons I am still having a hard time deciphering, the show took a dramatic and ill-fated turn away from witty character pieces and into mindless zany antics. As time went on, the show increasingly relied on celebrity guest-stars and trips to foreign lands with nothing more than the occasional hackneyed attempt to inject some true emotional weight into each episode. A cursory glance through wikipedia reveals that for many seasons, nearly every episode boasted a guest-star (often 3 or 4), usually playing themselves and often appearing out of virtually nowhere in the show's story. Through the nearly ten years the show has languished, there were some good moments (the crayon in Homer's brain episode is a great example) but I could probably count them on one hand, and I eventually gave up watching the show. Occasionally I would come back to it, trying to convince myself that it couldn't possibly be as bad as I remember, but those attempts always ended with me cursing and yelling as I turned off the tv in disgust (usually within the first ten minutes of the episode). Secretly I hoped that the show would be put out of its misery and cancelled.
So imagine my surprise when the other day, after another bout of curiosity led me to hulu.com to try and watch one of the new Hi-Def episodes from Season 20, I actually kind of liked it. Not once during the episode did I feel compelled to throw anything, curse, or roll my eyes in disdain. In fact, I actually laughed a few times. The episode in question is titled "Gone Maggie Gone," and you can watch it for free on hulu.com right now. Granted, the plot was still pretty zany, but there was a freshness and creativity evident in this episode that I hadn't seen in years. Perhaps ever. Of the many things that had gotten worse over the years, the couch gags have actually gotten better, and the examples in these new episodes are no exception. I watched the rest of the episodes that were available, and save one (surprise surprise a travel episode to Ireland) I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
So what's different now? Ultimately, it appears that the Simpsons has returned to focusing on characters instead of zany antics, and is no longer sacrificing character integrity for a cheap laugh. They've transitioned into HD well, and have a newfound sense of experimentation that I find refreshing. Let me just clarify right now that this is not a return to the glory days of the show. It seems like with this new batch of episodes, The Simpsons seems anxious to permanently move on from its past and begin anew. In many ways it feels like an entirely different show. And I want to be clear when I say that in no way is the show as good as it used to be. But, I see lots of promise in these new episodes, and for the first time in many years I am actually excited to see where the show leads next. Unfortunately, the ratings have never been worse, and The Simpsons may never get a real chance to recover. For now, however, let's just sit back and get ready to laugh again.
After ten years of languishing in zany mediocrity, one of the best tv shows ever is climbing its way back to the top
I am what you would call a rabid Simpsons fan. I often spend hours quoting the series with friends (not a day goes by that I fail to make some kind of reference) and have been watching the episodes on dvd nightly for years without significant interruption. The first ten seasons of The Simpsons add up to what is almost unequivocally considered the best television ever produced, and nothing could ever take that away from us.
...Not that it didn't come close. For reasons I am still having a hard time deciphering, the show took a dramatic and ill-fated turn away from witty character pieces and into mindless zany antics. As time went on, the show increasingly relied on celebrity guest-stars and trips to foreign lands with nothing more than the occasional hackneyed attempt to inject some true emotional weight into each episode. A cursory glance through wikipedia reveals that for many seasons, nearly every episode boasted a guest-star (often 3 or 4), usually playing themselves and often appearing out of virtually nowhere in the show's story. Through the nearly ten years the show has languished, there were some good moments (the crayon in Homer's brain episode is a great example) but I could probably count them on one hand, and I eventually gave up watching the show. Occasionally I would come back to it, trying to convince myself that it couldn't possibly be as bad as I remember, but those attempts always ended with me cursing and yelling as I turned off the tv in disgust (usually within the first ten minutes of the episode). Secretly I hoped that the show would be put out of its misery and cancelled.
So imagine my surprise when the other day, after another bout of curiosity led me to hulu.com to try and watch one of the new Hi-Def episodes from Season 20, I actually kind of liked it. Not once during the episode did I feel compelled to throw anything, curse, or roll my eyes in disdain. In fact, I actually laughed a few times. The episode in question is titled "Gone Maggie Gone," and you can watch it for free on hulu.com right now. Granted, the plot was still pretty zany, but there was a freshness and creativity evident in this episode that I hadn't seen in years. Perhaps ever. Of the many things that had gotten worse over the years, the couch gags have actually gotten better, and the examples in these new episodes are no exception. I watched the rest of the episodes that were available, and save one (surprise surprise a travel episode to Ireland) I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
So what's different now? Ultimately, it appears that the Simpsons has returned to focusing on characters instead of zany antics, and is no longer sacrificing character integrity for a cheap laugh. They've transitioned into HD well, and have a newfound sense of experimentation that I find refreshing. Let me just clarify right now that this is not a return to the glory days of the show. It seems like with this new batch of episodes, The Simpsons seems anxious to permanently move on from its past and begin anew. In many ways it feels like an entirely different show. And I want to be clear when I say that in no way is the show as good as it used to be. But, I see lots of promise in these new episodes, and for the first time in many years I am actually excited to see where the show leads next. Unfortunately, the ratings have never been worse, and The Simpsons may never get a real chance to recover. For now, however, let's just sit back and get ready to laugh again.