Sunday, September 26, 2010

WHY YOU LITTLE....: It's become far too trendy to say that The Simpsons has jumped the shark, or at least that it hasn't been good since a particular point in time (often correlated with when the speaker was in college), but I wanted to talk about several things that bugged about tonight's edition:
  • Excessive use of guest stars--there were seven special guest voices in tonight's episode. Only two (the Conchords) really added anything substantial (though Hawking and Glass had funny throwaway bits). One of the most remarkable things about The Simpsons is the massive ensemble it's created with just the five members of the voice cast, almost none of whom appeared in this episode (Krusty, Moe, Millhouse, Martin, and Grandpa are about it). Heck, even Marge and Bart don't have much to do in the episode.
  • Lazy writing--The episode introduces two completely separate storylines (Homer and Bart go to Europe and Lisa goes to arts camp), which never intersect in any way whatsoever once the characters part ways--it's almost like they wrote two fifteen minute shorts and just jammed them together into a single episode.
  • Family Guy-ification--Like South Park, the folks behind The Simpsons have tried to make clear that they're no fans of the Seth MacFarlane "remember the time..." setup to string in jokes/references. Yet, there were several instances of that exact same setup this week (pretty much all the Krusty flashbacks in particular). At its best, The Simpsons lets jokes follow from plot and from character, and doesn't just toss off lazy references.
All that said, there was a lot of funny stuff and oddball references (Marge knows the subtitles of both parts of Angels in America, visual tributes to the Conchords poster for Season 2, and a lot of nods to prior Conchords songs), but I wish the show could be what it was.

5 comments:

  1. GoldnI11:31 PM

    Interesting about the Simpsons becoming more like Family Guy, because my first thought about tonight's Family Guy was that "The Simpsons Already Did It"--it being the James Woods as Sideshow Bob plot.  I guess at this point none of them can help but borrow from each other, however they actually feel about it.

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  2. Dan Suitor12:34 AM

    As I tweeted a few days ago: "The Simpsons: 2008's pop-cultural trends today!"

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  3. Hasn't been must-see TV for me for a while, even though my daily conversation has several-too-many Simpsons references for me to get any dates...
    But one of my favorite things over these 21+ yeears is the fact that they actually get Stephen Hawking to appear - they could obviously use a generic computer voice, but, the smartest human on Earth like The Simpsons.

    "Larry Flynt is right!"

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  4. christy in nyc9:13 AM

    Yes, I actually laughed a lot while watching the premiere, but then afterward realized that it was all just little meta jokes and pop culture references. Nothing that made it uniquely Simpsons.

    Lisa's progression through the events of performing arts camp on her digital camera, finishing off with the entire title of Angels in America, probably had me laughing hardest. The big song was pretty good, too. And I also do love that they get the real Stephen Hawking.

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  5. isaac_spaceman10:50 AM

    It doesn't even have to be bad or tired.  Once a comedy rhythm becomes familiar and predictable to someone it becomes harder to mine for real joy.  I think it's great that new groups of people watch the Simpsons and get something out of it, but I can't for the life of me understand how anybody can stick with it for as long as a decade, much less its entire run. 

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