Cartoons

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Surprised to hear myself say this (read myself write this?) But i really enjoyed the new episode of the Simpsons (S36 ep1). It's like a meta "final episode" of the Simpsons, i could see it being divisive but as a weird one off I was into it.

[JLM]

Yeah the current Simpsons writing team actually seem to get it after decades of pure garbage zombie-Simpsons. Seasons 33, 34 and 35 all had a number of genuinely good episodes. I never thought I’d hear myself say that either. “Lisa’s Belly” from season 33 is a lovely episode, and it’s where a lot of people started documenting this mini-renaissance they’re having. 
 

Big old disclaimer: It’s jarring to hear Julie Kavner struggling to do Marge, Mr. Burns sounds completely wrong, some of the episodes are still duffers and it's obviously not golden era level.  It’s not trying to be or doing a poor imitation of it though. They seem to have a handle on what was great about the show, how and why it’s declined, and what it could look like going forward.
 

There’s  a lot of it aimed squarely at people like me who used to adore the show and have most of the golden era episodes seared into our memories. "Lisa the boy Scout" only really works if you're a long time fan, and it definitely worked for me.

It's not all nostalgia-bait stuff though, they also give a lot of shine to older/under explored characters, doing simple character stories without shoehorning in celebs or going ultra-zany with it.
 

Carl getting a black girlfriend and realising that he only hangs out with white people and isn't in touch with his roots at all, Duffman trying to work out how to exist/be relevant in a landscape where he is a problematic dinosaur etc.

They even brought back Jaques the sexy French bowler. Thirty Three year callback! And they actually had an episode to do about him, it wasn't just "LOL REMEMBER THIS GUY!" The season 34 Treehouse of horror episode is also excellent, particularly the Westworld bit which specifically addresses the decline of the show and its relationship with the long term/lapsed fanbase. 

They're also doing relevant satirical stuff that they had pretty much forgotten about for 20 years. Homer starting a social media conspiracy group and finding it's one of the only places where he finds validation and people aren't calling him stupid is absolutely spot on. 

I cannot stress enough that I fully agree the Simpsons fell off a cliff post golden era and has been an utterly depressing shell of its former self for years and years. so I do not take recommending any modern Simpsons lightly, but 33, 34 and 35 have their moments and I’ll be watching 36. 

 

Edited October 1, 2024 by JLM

[Carbomb]

The most cited reason I've heard for this resurgence is that it's now being written by people who grew up watching it when it was good. 

[JLM]

6 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

The most cited reason I've heard for this resurgence is that it's now being written by people who grew up watching it when it was good. 

Yep it absolutely feels like that. They seem to genuinely love the show and the characters. They’re also trying things out of creativity rather than desperation. They don’t all hit, but it’s so much better than “find place they haven’t been yet and would you believe SHAKIRA IS THERE?”

Forgot to mention, the two parter “A serious Flanders” from season 33 is outstanding television even if you’re not a Simpsons fan. If you’ve seen Fargo it’s even better. 

Edited October 1, 2024 by JLM

[SuperBacon]

I'll watch some of the newer ones with my 11yo, as I've exhausted showing her the classics over and over, and while it's incredibly hit and miss (what show wouldn't be after more than 30 years) it's still a nice watch. 

[Bellenda Carlisle]

20 minutes ago, JLM said:

Simpsons

Yeah i agree with everything you said, I'm a wrestling fan so I'm used to watching stuff for years that's gone shit, but while catching up on either S33 or S34 I was amazed that the quality was majority good, and lots of the stuff i hated about modern simpsons felt less in the forefront. 

Also those two voices you mentioned are indeed brutal.

[BomberPat]

21 hours ago, Carbomb said:

The most cited reason I've heard for this resurgence is that it's now being written by people who grew up watching it when it was good. 

This is also where a lot of the stuff I don't like about modern Simpsons come from, so it's swings and roundabouts - a lot of their recent episodes, including the "finale" (which I haven't watched yet) are attention-grabbing gimmicks, and while they might not be just "remember this?", they are a little over-focused on lore, when historically the Simpsons had a really scattershot approach to its own history and continuity. 

[Carbomb]

4 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

This is also where a lot of the stuff I don't like about modern Simpsons come from, so it's swings and roundabouts - a lot of their recent episodes, including the "finale" (which I haven't watched yet) are attention-grabbing gimmicks, and while they might not be just "remember this?", they are a little over-focused on lore, when historically the Simpsons had a really scattershot approach to its own history and continuity. 

I get what you mean. It's a very tricky balancing act, isn't it, because on the one hand the nuclear power station's car park only extended to behind Homer's garden for the Stonecutters episode and nothing else, and we were all fine with that, and actually appreciated that it made the series practicable, but on the other hand people do pop for callbacks to plot devices, stories, and much-loved characters.

I'm actually surprised they've resisted the urge to bring back Hank Scorpio to TV all these years.

[lanky316]

After the talk of Jacques making a return and Albert Brooks popping in for that I decided to double check on that. Apparently, they did bring back Hank Scorpio for what I assume was a brief cameo in a season 22 episode "500 keys". Reading the synopsis for that I vaguely recall the episode but not his appearance so must have been a quick one-line at some point which is a relief. You'd have thought at some point they'd have found a way to engineer him into something at some point.

[LaGoosh]

On 10/2/2024 at 3:12 PM, BomberPat said:

This is also where a lot of the stuff I don't like about modern Simpsons come from, so it's swings and roundabouts

I think any media where the people currently making it are/were fans of it growing up is usually a bad thing. It usually just means you're seeing a regurgitation of what you originally loved with a weird reverence/fan service built in. I think what makes those original golden run Simpsons episodes so great is that the writers were so inspired by older comedy and movies, particularly their clear love of old timey Americana which feels built in to the fabric of the show. It's clear that there was a wide breadth of experiences, interests and knowledge from all over in that writing room. These days it just feels like the writers have only ever watched The Simpsons.

Edited October 4, 2024 by LaGoosh

[BomberPat]

100% agreed. I can't remember who first said it, but a point I find myself referencing a lot is how George Lucas grew up watching westerns and sci-fi serials and reading boy's own adventures, and later Kurosawa movies, and funnelled all of that into making Star Wars, whereas now directors grow up watching Star Wars and go on to make more Star Wars.

There was a story going around social media recently of one of the big studios planning on getting together a group of "fans" to oversee long-running franchises and warn them of anything that might create a fan "backlash", and it's the worst idea I've ever heard. Fans don't know what they want. Fans obsess over details of lore and accuracy to source material at the expense of whether those things make sense or adapt well into another genre, and are always going go be risk-averse because they don't want anything new, they want familiarity. Years ago, a Power Rangers movie came out, and a mate of mine went to see it. I asked him if it was any good, and he just rattled off all the things that were in it that had been in the original series. Still absolutely no idea if it was a good film or not, but at least a 20 year old got to recognise things.

[Carbomb]

Star Wars was the worst for that in recent years. I agree with Devon that The Rise of Skywalker is one of the most cowardly films ever made, backing down to Internet hate spewed by a bunch of fedoras. 

What I liked about The Last Jedi was that they tried to free the storyline from a load of tired tropes and predictable elements, not least of which is the frequently-overused Messianic narrative. For Abrams to then walk it all back just to please a bunch of incels was so frustrating.

[I Bent My Wookie]

Simpsons has gone on a bit of a resurgence in my friend group in recent years because of the output of the last few seasons.

Even the episode with all the ridiculous Simpsons write offs that never happened got great feedback when chatting, because it understood how absurd so much of its middle 2000s output was that it could be aware enough to take the pics out of itself.

[LaGoosh]

30 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Star Wars was the worst for that in recent years. I agree with Devon that The Rise of Skywalker is one of the most cowardly films ever made, backing down to Internet hate spewed by a bunch of fedoras. 

What I liked about The Last Jedi was that they tried to free the storyline from a load of tired tropes and predictable elements, not least of which is the frequently-overused Messianic narrative. For Abrams to then walk it all back just to please a bunch of incels was so frustrating.

It's no coincidence that the best Star Wars stuff is Andor, written by people who have openly admitted they don't really like Star Wars that much.