I stopped watching regularly at least five years ago, though when I occasionally catch a recent episode I still find them funny. I would be fine seeing them end the show as we have many episodes to watch in the archive.
Obviously, I canāt respond to those specific titles since I havenāt seen them. Or maybe I have, who knows. But I can speak to the general idea of satire in the show post 1993. Yes, the show continues to poke fun at society in the sense that it makes references to issues of the day, celebrities of the day, etc. But thatās all it ever does- make reference to. No wry observations, no sharp insights, no nothing. Just references. Any moron can make a reference- it takes a true artist to point out the emperorās new clothes.
The bitter irony is that this is exactly what Groening was so good at with his Life In Hell strips. I mean, the guy nailed the shallowness of our culture, the vast hypocrisy that plagues adulthood, better than anyone, and with just a sharpie. It was punk rock comics at its finest. And the Simpsons continued that level of quality at first. The first episode, with Bart at genius school, completely shreds academia and the over-acheiver mentality. It also established exactly what you mentioned, the small-scale foibles of humans and families. In it, we see Homer and Bart bond in the shared ignoramus experience of ridiculing opera, for example. It manages a truly heartwarming moment, and then, in perfect satire, destroys it when Homer fails to recognize Bartās eloquent insights and just gets mad that he tricked everyone.
None of that is present in the show after a few years. The characters are reduced from being complex (complex for a goofy cartoon, that is) to just being one-dimensional shadows of their former selves. Bart is just a pain in the ass- and nothing else. Homer is just an idiot- and nothing else. Etc. The show loses itās artistic bite AND itās human soul as it hands the spotlight to celebrity cameos and empty non-sequitors. Sure, they may have referenced healthcare, job outsourcing, and Creationism, but Iām willing to bet that had nothing much to say about it, and couldnāt be bothered to craft an entire story around it. They just threw it in there for a gag, and then ran off to the next pop-culture reference they could think of. Philosophically, Groening & Co. went from āWeāre here to strip society of its bullshit facadeā to āIf we canāt beat them, join 'emā in two years. Humor as a coping mechanism rather than an element of change.
Yes, it made them a lot of money and Iām sure they had a lot of fun while Rome was burning. Fuck them all.
There are 5 seasons already?!? WTF Netflix, how many tiems can I be expected to re-watch season 1?!
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Sad news:
Marcia Wallace, who voice Edna Krabapple and other characters, has passed away.
I wonder if theyāre going to write off Edna, Bartās teacher and Ned Flanderās new wife.
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I KNOW!!! And I want all of the Powerpuff girls and the Boondocks, tooā¦
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Iād bet they could sub in Tress MacNeille and nobodyād notice. Sheās the woman of a million voices after all.
Theyāve announced that theyāre āretiringā the character. Which means . . . what? No more scenes of Bart in the classroom? Ned Flanders moves away, or becomes a widower again?
Bummer, any way.
Not sure I need to add much to that. When I want to assess a TV show, Iām willing to actually watch it!
The episodes I mentioned make the point far more eloquently than I could, except perhaps by quoting their scripts in full (and then weād lose the brilliant performances), but hey, if you canāt be bothered to sit and watch the episodes, why would you read the scripts anyway?
The bitter irony is that this is exactly what Groening was so good at
with his Life In Hell strips. I mean, the guy nailed the shallowness
of our culture, the vast hypocrisy that plagues adulthood, better than
anyone, and with just a sharpie. It was punk rock comics at its
finest.
Whereas to me, compared to the deluge of rich comic imagination of the first 9 years of the Simpsons, when I investigated Groeningās earlier work it seemed both unfunny and about as subtle as a sledgehammer. His name rarely appears on the writing credits of The Simpsons (or Futurama for that matter). On one episode of the Simpsons where he is credited, itās about Homer becoming the manager of a country singer and itās the exact opposite of the kind of student-activist polemic against straight society (maaaaan) that you seem to enjoy. But itās also a very weak, unfunny episode, more like a dreary soap opera than a comedy.
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