Simpsons by the Season: 17

"Sometimes it's  easier to be cruel than to say how we really feel."

Season 17, according to IMDB lists, seems to hit the biggest trough in the quality of the series. I remember watching it live and thinking the same thing - but to be fair that was my thought at the end of every new season for the last seven or eight years and for time beyond that as well. However, for a brief, shining moment of optimism in what has become a cesspool of disappointment (cesspool, cesspool!) I offer this message of hope: there are a few decent episodes still. I didn't give up on this show at this point because while there are quite a few poor ones (not many this season were truly atrocious) a couple don't feel like I'm wasting my life while watching them. I mean, I am, but that's for epiphanies later.

To begin with the negatives...

The show is still hampered by the same problems they've faced in the last several years, one of which is a lack of consistency in their characters. As a change of pace, they switched from making Homer quite possibly mentally ill and Bart bordering on psychopathic and went instead after Marge this season. Where once was a solid rock of a mother, they've introduced into this season a thief and a drug peddler. I'm not kidding. In "The Last of the Red Hat Mamas" we find Marge a part of a heist, attempting to steal from Burns' manor. This isn't the Marge we know - the one that made a point of paying for "two measly stinkin' grapes" and the one who was so damaged by Bart stealing from the Try 'N' Save. This is, however, the same Marge that sells Homer's pain medication to the highest bidder on the street. She ends up arrested by the end of the episode for this, by the way.

Even as a mother Marge loses her way this season. Yes, she makes a passionate plea to a monkey to return Bart in "Bart Has Two Mommies" (yes, that happened) but she also finds an interest in not one but two men this season. One, Homer wins back her love - "My poor sweet Homie, you sacrificed yourself for the manatees!" is a real quote from the way in which he does so. The second, Marge gets amnesia in "Regarding Maggie" and cannot remember Homer. She instantly goes out and looks to begin dating other men, apparently forgetting this man is her children's father. Again, that's terrible parenting. It's also a little bit of being a terrible person. Why is this Marge?

Perhaps this ties into the second major problem of this season, which falls to a blatantly obvious difficulty in finding fresh material for plots. Two of the episodes are three-part mini stories (a second round of Bible stories and a set of tales about the sea) and then there's the two episodes where they leave for other countries, Italy and India this year. As a side note: Homer in India feels like a rip-off of the Stonecutters, both in the main plot (Homer bumbles his way to the top of the chain in a new society where he's worshipped like a God) and in the visuals. Take a look at the image on the right and tell me that doesn't look like a familiar Stonecutters scene, for you major Simpsons fans. Anyways - it feels like a bit of a cheat, as travel episodes tend to be filled with easy jokes on other cultures that have been done countless times before and the three-part episodes are really just second shots at Halloween. 

However, those aren't the most notable examples of drying the well of good ideas; the worst comes from individual, terribly disjointed episodes. A few in particular feel more akin to bad improv nights than a planned program. In "Homer's Paternity Coot" Marge battles with a new toll booth, causes a number of tires to pop, meaning more for the tire fire, leading to the heat melting a mountain, allowing them to discover a frozen mailman, revealing a letter that implies Abe is not Homer's father. This all happened within the first few minutes of the episode. If this were Whose Line Is It Anyway? (to use a dated reference, but you try to make a more relevant one in regards to improv) they would be booed off the stage. 

I did, however, say there was some good. It's true. The episode in which girls are taught math differently in Springfield Elementary is funny. The episode on evolution and creationism is funny. "The Seemingly Neverending Story", which won an Emmy, is at the very least creative and fresh when so many of the episodes fall short in that aspect. There are still a few worth watching, and when that's the case, there's still hope. That hope will be drained in due time, but for now, I would still keep watching.

Best Quotes:

"Grover Cleveland's second term - if anything - was even more uneventful."

-Krabappel to her students

"But she made us feel happy - and not church happy - real happy."

-Rod and Todd pleading with Flanders to allow Marge to take care of them

Best Episode:

I would give it to "The Monkey Suit", in which Lisa argues for evolution to be taught in schools. The episode really stresses what this season did best, which is visual gags. There has got to be about ten of them, making it worth your time for that alone. 

Worst Episode:

Abe Simpson, crippled and old, blocks a football franchise from coming to Springfield, making him attempt suicide. Somehow he becomes a matador. The episode ends with Abe floating away on balloons. "Million-dollar Abie". Never again. If that picture above doesn't convince you to stay far, far away, I don't know what will.