OT: Simpsons in decline?

[grim_tales]

I speak as a Simpsons fan, I really do - but I have to say that Sunday's Sky 1 (UK) episode was one of the poorest I've seen for a long time - another effort from 2004 that rewrites Homer/Marge's history and makes a naff "How Homer Met Marge" (again) story. :rolleyes: This time it goes in further back in time than the mid 70's.
What Marge said probably isn't fair on Homer - did he get stranded at Fat Camp on purpose? No.
Interestingly it shows all the gang as kids - (for some reason even a little kid version of that Chinese woman played by Lucy Liu in a recent episode), quite fun to watch but doesnt do much for continuity. :confused:

At the start of the episode, why does Milhouse say Homer was "his first kiss" (though that bit was quite funny)? :D Has he forgotten about Samantha Stanky? :confused:

[Greg Method]

Interestingly it shows all the gang as kids - (for some reason even a little kid version of that Chinese woman played by Lucy Liu in a recent episode)
Actually that was Cookie Kwan, Springfield's local aggressive realtor ("Stay out of the west side!") whom Marge met years ago in the same office she first met Gil.

[grim_tales]

Did Lucy Liu play the Cookie Kwan character in the episode where Selma (or is it Patty?) adopts a Chinese baby? Or a different character? :)
(Sorry, can't remember).

[UncleJunior]

Tress MacNellie is the voice of Cookie Kwan.

As for the decline of the Simpsons, it started at Season 9, then the late, great, Phil Hartman passed away, and now it's a decling franchise.

The worst episode, IMO was the religion episode last May. Very, very crude.:mad:

Actually, most of animation is in a decline nowadays. Mainly because of bad writing. Most of the CN shows suffer from this. Even Family Guy suffers from it.

I can't wait for South Park to return.

[grim_tales]

How did the religion episode go?
I've missed about 1-2 years worth of episodes (havent been keeping up) so it shows how behind the times I am ;)
I watched the 350th episode recently though (the one with Ray Romano) - had some funny lines but a stupid, farcial plot - and another one where Homer finds one of Marge's old letters when they're doing a jigsaw puzzle, and thinks she hates him (cue flashback) - and only stayed with him as she was pregnant with Bart.

[UncleJunior]

Bart gets expelled and goes to a Catholic school. Where a priest befriends him. So it's up to Marge (since Homer likes the priest) to save the day.

This had lots of bad stuff:

Lots of religion-bashing by Marge, who's starting to be one of the worst characters in animation today.

And no resolution to Bart getting expelled. We don't know if he returns to regular school.

That's one of the main things wrong with the Simpsons. Most plots don't get resolved nowadays. Plus the endings of the show end abruptly, without any fanfare.

Another thing wrong is the constant continuity errors. Like the episode Grim mentioned before, with Milhouse forgetting about Samantha, or Marge/Homer's history. I'm not even going to get started with Barney Gumble drinking again.

[grim_tales]

Watching an episode from even a few years ago (the one where Moe goes out with a girl called Renée) feels very different. Thats still quite recent but actually mostly funny. :)

I do love some lines from earlier shows that have now, in effect become in-jokes:

From "Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie"
Arty Ziff: Haven't you heard Homer? I'm stinking rich. Jealous?
Homer: I bet you'd trade it all for one night with my wife.
Arty: I would.

He did, in a much later "Indecent Proposal" spoof :D

Back to continuity, whatever happened to Mendula (Apu's wife)? Maybe these errors are just the writers being lazy, they do make gags about past episodes (in the 1st one I mentioned Homer gives Marge a list of all the silly things he did, which are worse than standing her up).

[Dan Porceddu]

The worst episode, IMO was the religion episode last May. Very, very crude.:mad: The episodes about religion are always the worst, at least since Season 5 or so.

[grim_tales]

I also don't like how preachy/intolerant Marge/Lisa are at times (Lisa The Vegetarian, Marge always being against Itchy and Scratchy etc).
I always thought Homer the Heretic (S4) was a very funny episode :)

[Ray Pointer]

I started loosing interest by the third season. It's only a matter of time when shows get worn out, and their appearance wears out their welcome. Although it has become a milestone for being on the air 15 years, it may have reached, or passed the saturation point. especially being so overexposed with new episodes combined with reruns during the week.

Aside from problems in story concepts, I wonder if anyone has noticed how annoying the voices are?

[grim_tales]

What, all of them? :)

I didn't lose interest that fast - to me, by S3 it was just starting to enter its' best period (until about S8/9). I don't like the 1st season that much, 2 is better, 3 & 4 are better still - with less Bart-centric plots.
The BBC (and later C4 do too many re-runs) I agree.

[Greg Method]

Did Lucy Liu play the Cookie Kwan character in the episode where Selma (or is it Patty?) adopts a Chinese baby? Or a different character?
That was a different character.

[Miss Marnie]

I think The Simpsons started out crappy (I hate seasons 1 and 2, with the possible exception of a couple of episodes), then by season 3 and continuing up until season 10, the show was actually good (even if it did have sucky episodes between the good stuff). Then from season 11 to now, it went back to being the drek-fest it started out as.

*sigh*

The only reason I watch FOX nowadays is for Seinfeld reruns, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad (which is currently MIA)

[grim_tales]

S2 has some funny episodes like "Bart the Daredevil" and "3 Men and a Comic Book" but its not up to the standards of later seasons.

[Dan Porceddu]

Actually, I think Seasons 2-3 were the best, with Seasons 1 and 4-5 being pretty excellent, and then Seasons 6-7 being watchable, and the rest just bad.

[Cartman]

I think the show was at its peak with seasons four and five. After that, it went down to watchable (seasons 6 - 9) and then bad. I really think they should put the show to rest rather than continue to come up with bad ideas.

[Larry T]

Starting with Season 4, the run downhill started, although there were a handful of watchable episodes interspersed with the other ones.

As soon as the show started to be "about" the other Springfieldians (Moe, Barney, Flanders, Lovejoy, etc), and all the Simpsons did was participate in the adventure, that's when you knew the writers were searching for other material. But there was so much more they could have done with the Simpsons themselves. My favourite character had begun with Lisa- the clever back-and-forth transition they did with her from an innocent 8-year old girl to a moral pious adult trapped in a child's body several times in a single episode was excellent writing. Now she's just totally become a whiny, critical, one-sided carbon copy of Marge. If I want to see that, I don't need to watch it on TV....

Also, when the guest characters began being introduced and animated as themselves, that's when you knew the staff were too tired to bother creating anyone interesting for a good episode. Plus, that really plans an obsolecense for the show for future viewers, and gives it an expiry date.

They should just put the Simpsons out of their misery once and for all.

I wish they would do something that Japanese series do on occasion- they make a final episode where they basically kill the characters off somehow, or end them altogether with a finalizing episode.

[Bandini]

It's easy to critisize (fun, too!) but even though it's obvious the Simpsons has declined in quality, it's still (imo) the best thing currently on television.

[Cartman]

Also, when the guest characters began being introduced and animated as themselves, that's when you knew the staff were too tired to bother creating anyone interesting for a good episode. Plus, that really plans an obsolecense for the show for future viewers, and gives it an expiry date.


Couldn't agree with you any more on that, Larry. I have gotten so sick of the recent references to pop culture on the show. A little bit of referncing is okay, but it gets so much that the show focuses more on that than the characters.

[cbrubaker]

I'd say the Simpsons declined somewhere between Season 8 and 9. It's pretty stupid now. Like the Mr. X episode. It started out good, but the ending...sucked. BUUUT, if that was a Family Guy episode, it might have worked, because that's something you'd expect in FG.

However, the show WILL end sometime. The Simpsons movie is coming out in 2008 and according to Matt, the show will end sometime after the movie is released.

[Thad]

For the record, Family Guy isn't that great of a show any more either. When most TV shows resolve the problem, they usually don't do it in just the last minute of it. Like the new one where Peter finds out he's legally mentally retarded. That plot wasn't resolved at all, not even a cliche "your test was wrong, you're fine" that could give them SOME credit. Besides, did we really need an episode that tells us that PETER is officially retarded anyway?

-Thad

[cbrubaker]

Well, I'll give Family Guy a chance. The show just came back from being cancelled and most of the writers are new.

I liked the one where Cleveland's wife cheated with Quagmire, though. A lot of good gags in it.

However, it seemed like the new episodes' purpose is to annoy censors. In the Cleveland episode, Stewie proved that the female golfer was male in a...unusual way. Let's not forget the AIDS song (although that was my favorite part)

[grim_tales]

Is the Mr. X episode the one where Homer makes his own webpage?

I like the "King Size Homer" one where Homer is unbelievably fat so he can work at home :D

"Das Bus" (Season 9 or 10?) is a pretty good episode too IMO.

Why was "The Catridge Family" banned? I also like that episode. It has production date of 1997 but wasn't shown in the UK (even on Sky 1) until about 3/4 years later.

Also I don't see the problem with making shows about secondary characters or other people in the Simpsons world. That makes it more interesting. :)
In fact I've noticed that even earlier episodes had multiple stories in them - "New Kid on the Block" is ostensibly a dull "Bart falls in love" plot - yet the side plots are funnier, especially the All you can Eat restaurant one.

(In "NKOTB" I wonder why Laura leaves Jimbo anyway? I mean, branding him a coward just because he got scared when an angry stranger burst into the house and threatened to kill him? In fact, acting the way most would in that situation? Jeez...)

The "Mary Poppins" episode is S9 (I think), but I love that one. Hilarious :D :)
I probably stop buying the Season sets after S8/9 though.