However, I recently completed a straight watch-thru of every Simpsons episode, and while watching the lackluster episodes from seasons ~20-~30, I have to acknowledge one thing:
Quality of the show and its writing have noticeably improved since around Season 32.
The most recent episodes feel more centered on the family and much less on bizarre cameos and really outrageous situations. It actually feels like a show about the Simpson family and treats the characters more age-appropriately.
I don’t like that they lost/recast established voices of minority characters (Apu, Carl, Dr. Hibbert, etc), I do think the quality and the focus of the show is much better than it has been in almost 2-decades.
How do you know they suck ass if you haven’t watched them?
Legitimately, what is it about the Internet and this show specifically where people feel compelled to sound off on something they are not actually watching, and haven’t watched in years?
The graphic in the post does cut off 4 seasons before the current one and also before where the top level comment mentioned writing got significantly better again.
The graphic shows a stellar first 9 seasons, a medium next 15 seasons, and a terrible last 8 seasons… so the majority of them are medium with equal about good and bad episodes.
Honestly, the scores aren’t really terrible for the most part. The colors of the graphic are certainly painting it worse than it is. Dark orange is still up to a 6.7 rating, which isn’t bad, and that’s close to the average for the majority of the “bad” season. What hurts them the most is that the first 10 season were so good, the delta between them and after was large.
Not necessarily, context is pretty key on IMDb. There are plenty of shows and movies that get review bombed, especially if they’re tackling a controversial subject. And nowadays, if anything has even the slightest hint of either being “woke” or alrernatively making fun of “woke” subjects, either side will come in and drop a ton of 1’s, dropping the rating significantly. This happens with videogames all the time, too. The most famous example being Last of Us 2, where the game itself was really quite good (e.g. gameplay, design, pacing, etc), but because it included a trans character and a certain event at the beginning with a key character, the internet went rabid and bombed the shit out of the game at launch.
Imdb ratings mostly range between 5-10, and 6-8 range usually has the most difference within it. Even with ‘controversial’ items that seems true. Not to mention Simpsons isn’t that controversial of a thing
Oh, I’ve checked in with new episodes occasionally over the years, and they were awful. Legitimately, I’m sounding off on this show because in many ways it defined my childhood. What is it with the internet that people feel compelled to sound off on someone sounding off?!
The bigger issue is that 35 seasons of the Simpsons is over 380 hours of continuous television
The literal worst episode of Simpsons is still pretty good honestly. It’s not as good as the best episodes of Simpsons, but it’s still better than most TV shows.
What’s the worst episode? I think the lady gaga one used to have the lowest review score but I’m wondering if a more recent episode has taken the crown
Actually good point, I was thinking the lady gaga episode, but I don’t know if at this point that is still the lowest rated. But really, even not going by ratings and just going each persons personal opinion, the worst episode they can think of, or even while they are watching it, thinking, " this isn’t a great episode". It’s still better than most other stuff on tv, just not a good episode of simpsons.
Kind of like saturday night live, even the bad episodes and seasons are still a pretty good show. And easy to appreciate the effort involved.
I distributed the watch over a long period of time—I only ever watched episodes while on a lunch break at work. It was an effective way of unplugging and just watching something “familiar”. I would typically bang out (up to) 2-episodes/day, 5-days a week over the course of about 2-years.
I just checked, and I have not watched the most recent episode, but I’m sure I will while on lunch sometime next week.
I would argue that majority are not as bad as you imply, though some are a tough watch—like the pointless travel shows, I recall Denmark and Canada as being a difficult watch.
I have to agree, the recent seasons feel like they have a cohesive story and often even pull away from the 3 piece storyy telling they were doing between seasons 20-30.
I wonder if there was a new writer brought on from s32 onward who’s responsible for the uptick.
The way the Internet talks about the Simpsons is so damn annoying. The vast, vast majority of them haven’t actually watched an episode and formed their own opinion on it in over a decade, they just keep repeating the same tired meme over and over again.
Long running shows have different writers coming and going, therefore quality fluctuates up and down over time. That’s one of the nice things about a long running show: it gets to experiment and let new blood invigorate new life into it. There is no singular “death”, there’s just hills and valleys.
You nailed it. Individual episodes are good bad and meh. I have a feeling if I was younger and exposed to the Simpsons now, I would’ve liked it just as much as I used to.
The constant shitting on the Simpsons needs to stop. It obviously gets good enough rating to keep on the air well over 30 years, so give it a rest.
Lol, what? If you look at a list of scripted TV shows that have ran for 35+ years it’s going to be dominated by shitty soap operas. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Those shitty soap operas generally get views, and it also goes to show that a cartoon is even more rare. The Simpsons is alright, and people clearly do watch it if its still running. Hell, most good shows only get 3 to 5 seasons now if they’re lucky!
All of what you say is true of brand new shows as well, with even more room to experiment. I wish the Simpsons would just die and let new shows and new ideas take its place.
Honestly, what you’ve described sounds like a the Simpsons is an old, rich guy who pays young writers and artists to entertain him. Yes, he employs these people. No, I don’t think it’s anywhere even close to a good use of these economic resources. It’s for the same reason Hollywood makes so many comic book movies instead of dramas.
I caught some clips of a recent season and the VAs just sound so old and tired. Regardless of the current writing, just let the show end. Have the writers write for something else.
Yea, not a problem either, she tries, but she sounds her age too. Burns though, I saw a recent episode and had to look up if they changed the VA because it’s so different.
The Simpsons started as a parody of the (back then) dominant family sitcom that reinforced traditional values, where the family is led by a wise man who maintains the family and everyone else follows along in a traditional patriarchal hierarchy. Once that era got buried and they swallowed the thing they were mocking, The Simpsons slowly became self-referential, which made it a much harder show to write.
Isn’t it also just because it’s old and people get bored of it? People crave new things, and even if it’s just as good as in the beginning, it’ll get lower ratings because it’s not new anymore.
I remember quite some years ago i was like “i’m finally going to watch southpark”. And people were already complaining about how the latest seasons were worse than the first seasons. Watched a ton of seasons in a short period, and honestly can’t say the later seasons felt any worse than the first ones when you’re not bored of the series yet. Now so many years later when i watch some more southpark, it’s not as fun as when i started watching it since the “it’s new and exciting” feeling is long gone.
Losing a point or two over decades isnt bad entropy.
If copyright protection legnth wasn’t so insane, the Simpsons could be in the public domain soon (if not already) and others could take up the quest for better simpson episodes.
“Another Simpsons Clip Show” is the third episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 25, 1994. In the episode, Marge reads a romance novel in bed, and it prompts her to have a family meeting, where the Simpson family recall their past loves in form of clips from previous episodes.
“All Singing, All Dancing” is the eleventh episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 4, 1998. In the fourth Simpsons clip show, Homer claims he hates singing, so Marge shows family videos of musical numbers from previous seasons. The episode is in the form of a sung-through musical, featuring spoken dialogue only at the start and end of the episode. The original material was directed by Mark Ervin and written by Steve O’Donnell. It was executive produced by David Mirkin. It features guest appearances from George Harrison, Patrick Stewart and Phil Hartman, although these are all clips and none of them recorded original material for the episode.
The last few seasons had a big jump in plot quality imho, with some exceptional episodes. But also yes, 10 years ago entire seasons felt comparatively bland & empty. I also feel like I would rate early seasons a bit lower today than at the time.
I actually stopped watching when I stopped wathing most over the air. the problem is the streaming free options being to convoluted with the gatekeeping. once I miss epsiodes im just sorta out.
Comedy has changed in 31 years. So has humour in general, and so has writing.
The Simpsons is never going to be the same as it was over the seasons because that’s not how culture works. Meanwhile, the reviews are mostly coming from long time viewers who lament that it’s not like it “used to be”.
After reading The Bridges of Madison County, Marge decides that she and Homer need to teach the kids about romance. Each of the Simpsons (using clips from previous episodes) reminisce about past romantic encounters, leaving them all depressed and believing that love does not work. However, Homer saves the day by pointing out that one relationship has succeeded, his and Marge’s.
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