Simpsons by the Season: Bottom Ten

"Shut up, brain. I got friends now. I don't need you anymore."

I grew up with The Simpsons. Quotes from the show were daily (sheesh, hourly) occurrences, I always looked forward to seeing a new episode, and as I grew older I developed an even greater appreciation for the classics, once I understood the more subtle jokes in them. Having been created right around when I was born and still running today, it's been a constant in my life, albeit a less important one in the last eight or so years. That's why I can't just give up on this show, and that's why I care enough about it to force myself through watching so many seasons when I stopped really liking them quite some time ago. Seeing so many terrible episodes disgraces something that has been so enjoyable in my upbringing, and as I've argued with video games, you can get attached to the characters in television just the same way you can a good book. Watching these atrocious episodes probably stings more than it should, but I can certainly understand why it stings at all - and why I can't just turn off the T.V.. Episodes like this tarnish a legacy that I've watched grow to great heights and fall so, so rapidly.

10: The Bob Next Door
Sideshow Bob has had many top tier episodes, and we've all come to accept that at the core of them he's trying to murder a ten year old. It's dark, but it's oddly acceptably dark. He has never actually killed anyone, and more importantly, he has never surgically removed his own face and that of someone else and switched them. Since I was ten, I have always thought: "Man, I hope he never robs a face. That would be needlessly gruesome and far too ridiculous for a show that's at least somewhat grounded in reality." You could imagine my disappointment when it happened.

9: Pray Anything
In season four, Homer stays home from church and it's a major point of contention between him and Marge. In season fourteen, he sues the church for a million dollars (which it can't pay) and thus takes it over, using a crucifix as an air guitar, drinking booze from a chalice, playing strip poker on the front lawn, and throwing a beer keg through the stained glass windows. It's a nice contrast for the degradation of the characters over the years.

8: Simpsons Safari
What an absolute mess. The Simpsons go to Africa, and after being chased by a hippo, they stumble upon a Jane Goodall type, but discover that she's actually using the chimps she's harbouring to mine diamonds. In the end they take the diamonds in exchange for their silence. It's atrocious on all fronts; it's never funny, it's far too ridiculous, and once again the family is a bunch of jerks.

7: Kill the Alligator and Run
The Simpsons become fugitives after killing an alligator, and... well, that alone should be enough to warrant a bottom ten placement. It just gets worse from there, with the whole episode being disjointed and poorly strung together. The entire family having to pack up and live a life as hillbillies running from the law is one of the stupidest plotlines of the series. But hey... a Kid Rock guest appearance. Who doesn't love Kid Rock? ...Right?

6: The Frying Game
If you can't remember the plot for this episode it's probably because there were seven of them slammed into one twenty-two minute segment. 1. Homer buys Marge a koi pond 2. They find a screamapillar, and must protect it as it's nearly extinct 3. Homer and Marge have to join Meals on Wheels 4. Homer and Marge become housecleaners for an old lady 5. They witness a break-and-enter and a murder that follows 6. Homer, a suspect for the murder, extorts the town with fear tactics 7. Homer and Marge are convicted of murder - but wait - it's all a joke! It's a game show! Haha!

The whole episode feels like it was written in one sitting by seven different people, none of which were communicating with each other. There's no cohesive plot, no laughs, and no semblance of reality in this godforsaken heap. Call Ray Patterson - clean this up.

5: Moe Goes From Rags to Riches
There are certain ideas for episodes that were doomed from their very inception. Moe being best friends with his bar rag which, as it turns out, is a sentient being that has been "living" through centuries before finding itself in Moe's care is not, under any circumstances, going to work.

4: Lisa the Drama Queen
Lisa finds a friend who brings her into a different reality, full of elves, trolls and other fantastical creatures. Why they would add a character that's somehow more pretentious than past-ten-seasons Lisa is beyond me. This episode is above all else simply boring. It'll leave you with yawns - angry yawns.

3: Saddlesore Galactica
Homer and Bart getting a tough-as-nails racehorse is a stupid enough plot as it is, but then discovering a secret society of jockeys (that are also elves) pushes me just too far. Homer falling into their jockey world is the second worst single moment of the series (the worst is in number one on the bottom ten list) in an episode that's irredeemable anyways.

2: The Man who Came to Dinner
There are a number of episodes in this list that I can't tell for sure if they're actually part of the Simpsons universe. Sideshow Bob stealing someone's face I assume is happening in reality, regardless of how impossible. Moe's bar rag? That one is a toss-up. The land of the jockeys? Probably real, I assume? But this episode - the most recent on the list - has Kang and Kodos abduct the Simpson family and bring them back to their homeworld. It's by far the stupidest episode they've done, and have stolen the aliens from their Halloween exclusive episodes where they so, so obviously belong. The entire episode is an atrocity, right down to the ending with Maggie flying the family back to Earth in a spaceship.

1: Homer vs. Dignity
What in the world were they thinking when they decided they would take one of their beloved characters and degrade him as much as possible for the purposes of an episode? The entire plot is Homer being a prank-monkey for Mr. Burns, lowering himself in a variety of ways for money. Homer getting sexually assaulted by a panda is the second worst thing to happen in this, and the worst (and the worst of the whole series!) is Homer sitting on the men's room floor in a diaper saying "baby made a boom-boom" for the amusement of Mr. Burns. There is nothing worse than that. There is no episode that even comes close.

Dishonourable Mentions:
"The Fool Monty"
"Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em"
"Mom and Pop Art"
"Mona Leaves-a"
"Gone, Maggie, Gone"

Simpsons by the Season: Top Ten

"Um, can you repeat the part of the stuff... where you said all about the... things? Uh... the things?"

To preface this blog post I will point out the top ten all come from seasons three to eight, the sacred halls of The Simpsons in which the show could do no wrong. It won't be long now that those times will be two decades past with the show still plugging along, having lost it's relevance, quotability and more often than not, it's humour. But this isn't a time for complaint, but rather a time for craning your neck up in non-shame, reliving the best of the best. It's no easy feat - finding ten classic episodes could be as easy as randomly selecting a patch from season four, but selecting only the top of these strips so many greats that deserve more credit. Sideshow Bob alone could account for half the list with Krusty taking the remainder and it wouldn't be too unreasonable. Nevertheless, here's my attempt, and since it's the internet what better way to do it than to list them in a top ten format where it's likely this first paragraph gets skipped and all the more likely that only the titles of the episodes are read.

If you've made it this far, kudos.

10: Homer's Enemy

Here's the difference between the cynical episodes of old and new. Homer remains a good person. Frank Grimes has a brutal life and ends up finding his end after a fit of rage towards the carefree, coast-through-life style of Homer Simpson, but ultimately Homer doesn't do anything to hurt Frank; at least not deliberately. He tries to befriend him, he's scared of going to work because of him, he's intimidated by him, and while he may be inconsiderate it's out of boorishness and never cruelty. It's a stark contrast to nowadays Homer in which he's grifting, thieving or otherwise. That's the reason why a darker episode in the series worked in the golden years and why they don't work today.

9: Homer Bad Man
For pure comedy this is quietly one of the best episodes of the series. You won't see it on many top ten lists but it's certainly deserving of high praise when high praise is all that came towards the series. It's consistently funny, the story is entertaining, and the Rock Bottom segment is one of the single funniest stretches in the shows long run.

8: The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show
Well, all of these episodes are hilarious so I might as well stop pointing that out every time. The introduction of Poochie comes in the eighth season of the show, around the time that if a show has lasted that long it's at the point where it's dragging its body across the finish line after having lost most if it's viewers. The whole episode is not only smart enough to poke fun at this but they do so knowing how good the show still is. Sadly, it's season nine that starts the decline. Perhaps they got cocky. Nevertheless, it's The Simpsons in a beautiful state.

7: Sideshow Bob Roberts
The Simpsons can occasionally take on political episodes so well they're the highlight of the season. We've seen it in "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington", a contender for the top ten, and now we see it mixing with one of the greatest of the Simpsons characters. The reason this episode takes the cake are quotations like this one that riddle the episode: "Your guilty conscience may move you to vote Democratic, but deep down you long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals and rule you like a king." It shows The Simpsons is more than just a regular cartoon comedy - it's much smarter than the norm.


6: Marge vs. The Monorail
It's sixth place on the list and third in it's season. The fourth season of the show is so stunningly good that the hilarious appearance of Phil Hartman can't even bring it to the top.

5: Homer at the Bat 

This episode didn't even make it to the top of season three, which attests to just how strong a season it was. The entire episode - the story, the humour, the animation (Mr. Burns' hand signals and Homer swinging at the baseball in slow motion spring to mind) - all culminate into a classic. Ask any good Simpsons fan to recite the "Talkin' Softball" song that plays at the end, and they'll probably repeat it verbatim. Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw... Steve Sax and his run in with the law.... We're talkin' Hoooooomer... Ozzie and the Straw!

4: You Only Move Twice

Considering how well received this episode is amongst Simpsons fanatics, I'm surprised Hank Scorpio has only one appearance in the series. In a way I'm glad he hasn't - his story only needs to be a one episode arc, and we can all rest peacefully knowing that the Globex Corporation is likely sort of running the Simpsons' world by now. It's refreshing considering every movie that did more than break even in the last ten years is finding a sequel, no matter how unnecessary. I'm looking at you, The Hangover. I'm also looking at you, The Hangover II. 

3: Radio Bart

Prior to seeing this episode on my extensive re-watch, I wouldn't have put it anywhere near the top ten. I felt it was just another classic amidst a number of other classics, but it's a solid step above. Just think of how many great moments: the birthday celebration at Wal-E-Weasel, the "Sending our Love Down the Well" song, the great visual gag of Willie revealing he's super jacked, and of course the core story of Bart being a practical joker but ultimately getting his comeuppance. It has all the makings of a top tier episode and it deserves it's spot. It's a near flawless episode. 

2: Homer the Heretic
Back in the day when the Simpsons went to church and Homer went to work, staying home from either was kind of a big deal. "I'm whizzing with the door open... and I love it!" is to this day a frequently quoted line in my house. It never gets old. Better yet, the whole episode is filled with quick wit that shows the characters can lead an episode and not just what's happening around them.

1: Krusty Gets Kancelled
It takes a lot to make it to the number one spot in the series, but the countless mega guest stars, the great plot, Krusty being at his finest and more great lines than most shows have in their whole seasons, "Krusty Gets Kancelled" takes the cake. Krusty deserves it anyways. He's the most consistent of all the Simpsons characters.

Honourable Mentions:
"The Homer They Fall"
"Mr. Plow"
"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"
"Cape Fear"
"Homer the Great"
"The Last Temptation of Krust"

Simpsons by the Season: 23

"Everything's perfect about the past, except how it led to the present."

I was feeling pretty smug at the start of this season, thinking I had it all figured out - the series dips terribly in the middle but they sort of start to figure it out towards the most recent. At least here and there they start having a few episodes, and there's this distinct possibility of having a solid, cohesive season. By about eight episodes in, right after seeing "The Ten Per Cent Solution" in which Joan Rivers is Krusty's old agent, I felt more correct than ever. There were a few duds early, but a third of the way through I was feeling like the series was finally turning it around. Unfortunately, at episode eight, it was not only the last good episode of the season but the last passable one.

The reason for the early praise on my part is the quality of two in particular; "The Ten Per Cent Solution" is excellent, and "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" is also top notch. In fact, they're the best in - perhaps literally - a decade, and it's not hard to see why. "Bart Stops" is a clever idea that fits with the characters; Chalmers appeals to Bart by showing him the manly side of history in Roosevelt, in spite of the man's name being Teddy. They tie in a smartly placed commentary on the school system being soft. Bart isn't a piece of garbage! "Ten Per Cent Solution" follows much the same way, with Krusty being classic Krusty. It doesn't get ridiculous. It's coherent. It's funny. Unfortunately, that couldn't be said for the last two thirds of the season. 

I believe most of the problems stem from the main themes of the episodes being noticeably worse, and because of that it's missing an edge. You can see perhaps more clearly than ever that the episode ideas are not coming as fast and loose as they used to, and the show is falling back on two main plans in order to prop the show up Weekend at Bernie's style. One, they have amped up the craziness, but that's been climbing steadily for years now. Second, and this is at least somewhat new, they're relying more frequently on whole episode-long parodies - picking out movies of (then) recent popularity and basing whole episode arcs on them. This season we have "The Book Job" (parodying the Ocean's series), "The D'ohcial Network" (The Social Network), "How I Wet Your Mother" (an extended scene has the family enter Homer's dreams Inception style, which also covers the ridiculous premise category quite nicely) and the Halloween special had two with Dexter and Avatar. Picking up someone else's plot has proven easier than creating their own. That being said, they're not necessarily bad episodes, but it's indicative of greater problems if they have to reach that far for more ideas. Perhaps it's not their fault, considering it's been over twenty seasons, but I won't feel sympathy for them when it's their choice to continue the series. 

I know it must be hard now with this season hitting its five-hundredth episode, but once more I'll plea to the Simpsons to keep reason and sanity within their program. Their good episodes this season, or at least the decent ones, are all plausible. "The Falcon and the D'ohman" is mostly reasonable (until the very end, as it takes a poor turn) and it's not a bad episode. Same with the two mentioned before, as well as "The Food Wife" (the family, save for Homer, create a food blog which works quite well until, as many other episodes, it loses touch with reality in the end and falls to pieces) and "The Book Job" in which they take a few fairly funny shots at young adult literature - a parody plot but one that holds up fairly well. 

But the poor episodes? Homer helps to choose the candidate for the republican party. The Simpsons get banished from Springfield until the whole town comes to join them (also not ending the episode reasonably). Bart tricks a whole cruise liner into believing the world has collapsed around them (and ends the episode with the Simpsons being banished in Antarctica with a bunch of penguins). A wave of robots turns on humanity and Springfield fights them in hand-to-hand combat. They just can't pull off stupid very well, and if they're to pull off a legitimately good season, they need to stop trying to.

Best Episode:

I won't describe them once more, but I'll give it a draw between "Ten Per Cent Solution" and "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts". 

Worst Episode:

Speaking of the stupid and ridiculous, we have a contender for the coveted "worst episode ever" title. In "Moe Goes From Rags to Riches", we discover Moe's Bar rag has a storied history going back hundreds of years. It's actually some sort of sentient being. I would honestly prefer the episode to be written by a rag itself, as a blank screen would have been preferable. Once more I have to ask - is this canon? Does Moe's rag really have a story behind it?

"Holidays of Future Passed" also deserves a mention. Yet another unbearable episode based about the family's future, it makes less sense than ever. Once more desperately trying to bring Halloween themed episodes into the actual world. Right when the trees started talking I almost called it quits. 

Best Quotes:

"Roosevelt killed more Spaniards in one day than most people have in their whole lives!"

-Bart, finally interested in history

"When a man who loves America cries, that makes him super straight!"

-Lenny on Homer's American passion

Simpsons by the Season: 22

"Why can't you support my gibberish?"

Season 21 began to taper off towards the end, and 22 continues in that fashion. It's far from the worst season you're going to see, and the more I watch I believe those seasons are somewhere in the 13-19 range, but it just isn't very good. The reason being is they must feel like they have to push to an extreme to keep the audience entertained, as if that twenty-two minutes of television isn't engaging enough unless there are needless Michael Bay-type explosions and eyes popping out of their sockets (both happened, and neither in the Halloween special). Simplicity just doesn't cut it, and going above and beyond both the abilities of the characters and going to extremes of the characters' personalities themselves happens nearly every episode this season. Nothing is written with a level head, and they try to push the entertainment almost as an adventure, with everyone getting into increasingly impossible situations rather than a character based comedy, but that, ultimately, loses the wit and charm of the show. The Simpsons has to realize that the audience isn't that stupid. We have patience. We don't need everything cranked up to ten. If we wanted Family Guy we'd just go watch it.

Too many episodes began well and held promise but lost it when the show took a ridiculous turn and shot itself in the foot. This is nothing new, but it seemed especially prominent in this season. Take "How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?". Bart nurses a bird back to health, and he gets upset with the dog because Santa's Little Helper swallows it whole. That's not that bad. But it can't stay that way. It's not insane yet, so the viewer must be bored. The result is bringing Santa's Little Helper to an ostrich farm to give him away, but Bart gets attacked and ends up choking out one of the birds. Things were going alright for a while, but just in case anyone fell asleep, have Bart wring the neck of an ostrich.

Or "The Scorpion Tale". Have the family accidentally happen upon a drug that makes old people nicer? OK, so the means to get there is pretty stupid but the end result isn't. Old people being pleasant isn't necessarily a bad plot. However, their eyes start popping out of their sockets as a side effect. When in doubt, resort to easy shock value when wit is in short supply.

How about "Homer the Father"? Homer tries to be a better father to Bart, using the values of a (really funny) typical '90s sitcom. Great! But instead of having the humour coming from how Bart reacts to this, or how Homer stumbles through his attempts, they have Bart steal nuclear secrets and sell them to China. As I said - it's not about the characters, it's about adventures and incredible situations. I won't even have time to discuss in detail the Simpsons winning both an Oscar and a Golden Globe, or Fat Tony dying and being replaced by a relative, or how profoundly stupid it is to have Ned and Edna fall for each other which is just baffling in and of itself, because there are just too many examples to exhibit.

Even if the situation isn't extreme, they'll make the characters that way, typically exaggerating their capacity for cruelty or some other degree of the evil in their nature. We've already seen Bart's ability to torture and blackmail in the reprehensible "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em" in which he threatens Skinner with a peanut after he discovers he's allergic. They inexplicably decide to return to that well, but this time around he's abusing Homer, as he can no longer stand up to Bart after taking a parenting course. You end up hating Homer for being a terrible, thoughtless parent but hate Bart more for treating him so terribly afterwards. This isn't the only example, either; the entire premise of "The Fool Monty" is the entire town abusing a helpless, lost-his-marbles Mr. Burns.

Trim it down, Simpsons. Find a middle ground and focus on who your characters are. The situations aren't funny; it's how the characters react to them, and they have to react in character. That's what's funny. Look at "You Only Move Twice" with Hank Scorpio; the government breaking into his compound isn't the funniest part of the show, nor is it the funniest part of the scene. It's when Homer, walking away dejected after having to leave his job, casually kicks a grenade away like a loose stone as he's leaving. Or in "Marge vs. the Monorail"; it's not that there are possums in the wiring of the monorail that's so funny. What makes that scene memorable is that he casually states he "calls the big one bitey" as if it's hardly a problem at all. It's Homer's stumble-through-life nature that's classic Simpsons, as in when he saved the nuclear plant by guessing and hoping for which button to push to save it from a meltdown, not having him blowing one up in China as they had in this season.

Moderation, Simpsons. All things in moderation.

Best Quotes:
"Boys don't have feelings, they have muscles!"
-Homer's advice to Bart

"Lay off Detroit. Those people are living in Mad Max times."
-Moe on Detroit

"His bat's hungering for a homer, just like Chronos for his children."
-The announcer at Bart's little league game

Best Episode:
I would say the best episode this season is "Flaming Moe" in which Moe makes his bar friendly to unattractive gay men. Moe changing up his bar is nothing new, but the show has traditionally made comedy about gay people pretty darn funny. It could have gone to "MoneyBART" where Lisa uses statistics to bring Bart's baseball team to consistent victories, but one scene in which a man offers to teach Bart over the summer to build model boats by hand. Bart responds with "How would you like to kiss my ass?". It was so indicative of the decline of the show and the characters that it spoiled an otherwise good episode.

Worst Episode:
Everyone abusing Mr. Burns in "The Fool Monty" was the lowpoint of the season. Once again, characters going insane is not funny. It's just lazy writing, and the same goes for when the characters are over the top cruel, which this episode has in spades.

Simpsons by the Season: 21

"Lis, what's going on? You're not normally this interesting."

I haven't been friendly to The Simpsons over the past several blog posts. Well... really, it's gotten angrier and angrier since season nine, but I'm going to go ahead and try to stay optimistic here. This is a notable improvement, and I dare say (I'm going out on a limb here) it wasn't a total waste of time to watch it. There. I said it. Above all else, in a lot of these episodes I was actually laughing. There were jokes that didn't involve Homer or Bart being cruel or thieves; they didn't exclusively rely on Homer's stupidity, while artlessly pushing it to a maximum; Lisa's whininess and ultra-liberalism are kept in moderation; their episodes were at least somewhat original; reality was at least somewhat present, save for a few examples (Marge and Homer becoming Olympic curlers is not the worst offence).

The greatest fault of this season is their inability to keep a consistently strong episode throughout the twenty-one minute span, in spite of the fact that many of them actually start with promise. "Homer the Whopper" has a decent story with Comic Book Guy writing his very own comic, but falls to another 'Homer finds a crazy new job' plot in which he once more becomes super jacked, but this time for the film adaptation of the comic. "The Great Wife Hope" doesn't have a bad beginning either, with seeing how the rise of the UFC effects Springfield. However, when Marge decides to get in the octagon as well, it's best left to be forgotten. Even "The Squirt and the Whale" starts with a fairly stupid but decent plot about Homer starting to use wind power (nothing special, but certainly OK) before it leads to a terrible ending with Homer being saved by a whale from a bunch of sharks. The lesson here to Simpsons writers: if you're playing heroic music, the characters are probably doing something stupid that doesn't fit their persona, and if the heroic music is being played for a whale, you should consider a new profession. 

The episodes follow a similar pattern to the season itself, with a fair batch of decent starter episodes but failing to continue that streak. "Bart Gets a Z", in which he gets Krabappel drunk during class and subsequently gets fired holds up O.K.. The Halloween special has some genuinely funny bits. "Pranks and Greens", in spite of having Jonah Hill (I really can't stand him for reasons I have difficulties explaining) is fairly strong as well. In fact, the first 5/6 are well above the average for the past ten seasons. It's the second half that goes horribly awry, as if they burned themselves out halfway through. 

Right around the beginning of the back end has "Boy Meets Curl" with Homer and Marge becoming Olympians. Their curling team consists of Marge (by the end having an arm in a sling), Homer (who is a terrible curler whom the team carries), Agnes (an ancient woman) and Seymour (a noted dud). It's not even the best team Springfield could put together, and it distracts from the jokes when you're constantly questioning if this is really happening or not. This season is a prime example of how the show stays fresh when in reality and completely falters when they lose sight of it. 

Mind you, the second worst episode, while not entirely unrealistic, is just plain awful. The family goes to Jerusalem with Ned, and Homer is a disrespectful, sacrilegious oaf. If that doesn't sound terrible enough, he eventually believes himself to be the messiah. Oh, if only that were the worst part of the episode - what takes the cake is the cliched-to-death Jewish tour guide.

In spite of all that...

Season 21 will make you laugh at times, in particular the first half. The series is having the life squeezed out of it, but it's still got a little juice left. Yes, it should have been cancelled. Yes, it should have ended over a decade ago (even at this point in time). But it hasn't. It's still here, they're still making episodes, and on the rare occasion there are some good ones.

Best Episode:

...Like this year's Treehouse of Horror. It's nothing too original or groundbreaking, but delivers on a number of jokes. I typically don't want to give the Halloween episodes the best episode honour, mostly because they don't seem to fall within the regular season quite as snuggly, but I'll make an exception.

Worst Episode:

In "The Bob Next Door", Sideshow Bob steals a man's face, escapes from jail, and once more tries to kill Bart. It's needlessly gruesome, ridiculous beyond even the most asinine episodes, and not only does this take the crown for the worst of the season and the Sideshow Bob episode by leaps and bounds, but perhaps comes in at one of the top ten of the worst of the series. 

Best Quotes:
"Available wherever dubious quasi-scientific books are sold."
-Where to buy "The Answer", the show's absolutely hilarious parody of "The Secret".

"I can't just get rid of a teacher if he's doing a good job - or an adequate job - or just shows up and doesn't touch anyone." 
-Skinner on getting rid of Krabappel's replacement

"His name is Fatov: he represents the Russian spirit of sloth and alcoholism."
-Bart's Olympic pin he made to help Lisa

Simpsons by the Season: 19

"Sometimes I think about getting on a bus and never coming back."

You know, I don't enjoy writing scathing reviews. It's hard not to come across as a whiner, or some real-life version of Comic Book Guy sitting behind his computer contributing nothing but judging everything. I miss the days where I struggled deciding which is the best episode of the season rather than sifting through the muck and mire and pulling out the best of a rotten bunch. Above all, I miss these characters of which I have given so many hours watching them develop (as well as throwing more than my fair share of dollars at merchandise, some of which even Krusty would be embarrassed of) and looking forward to Sunday night comedy slots where The Simpsons could very well be the highlight. I was just a touch too young to appreciate it's prime during the days in which it aired, but watching the repeats time and time again made me appreciate them all the more - especially as I aged and gradually understood it better. Watching it decline, bleeding out all the greatness it had is such a sad experience. So it is with a heavy heart I'm attacking you, Simpsons, because I know what you were and what you could be, but worse yet, I know what you are.

The writers have changed dramatically since the show's inception. Many of the very best have long since left, and they hired on a crew of new blood to push the longevity of the program. Sometimes I wonder if the newbies have watched the show since the beginning the way so many true Simpsons fans have. They forget the Simpsons have always been a family that just kind of gets by. Lisa is the only one with any real brains except for perhaps Marge to some degree, and Homer and Bart stumble through. At the core, they're the average, every-day family; even if you're not a fan of the show, you probably would know this anyway just through general pop-culture knowledge. So when did they suddenly become so talented at whatever they so please as they have in the past few seasons? 

In this season: Homer can suddenly sing incredibly well while laying on his back (which does not come to any real conclusion - he still can); Marge stops an assassin while doing front flips; Homer is making beef jerky quite successfully just as a thing on the side; Marge is great at dance, suddenly; Lisa has inexplicably found comedic talents; and Homer is some fighting machine/spy, swinging a cinder block tied to a chain at a bunch of Burns' men that are protecting some sort of rocket. Last season, Bart became an incredible jazz drummer and Marge became a top-class carpenter, just to name a few. Where is this sudden influx of skills and talents coming from?

I understand that this has happened in the past where the family finds sudden success or surprise talents, but it's handled in such a different way. Looking through the glory years, Bart got famous on the Krusty show just through sheer luck, not talent. Homer became an astronaut strictly because he's an average man. In "Homer the Great" he leads the Stonecutters simply because he has a fortunate birthmark. In "The Homer They Fall" Homer can stand up to most boxers simply because he has just that thick of a skull. It's all chance and fortune (the crux of the Frank Grimes episode) that propels the Simpsons. It's never skill. That's what makes it funny in the first place. (It's important to note that an episode I'll be discussing later, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", is a notable exception to this rule.)

As if that wasn't enough, some of their talents have even crossed out previous moments of Simpsons lore. We'll put aside the scene where Gil, working as a security guard, gets shot multiple times (is Gil dead now? who knows?) and move on to Marge and Lisa. Marge is not the only Simpson with dancing talent, as we suddenly learn this season. Lisa is a natural ballet dancer. Of course, not only has Bart already learned ballet, but Lisa has already tried dancing; she gave her best shot with tap but failed miserably, only finding success with the help of Professor Frink's self-tapping shoes as she was otherwise hopeless. That episode wasn't even that long ago. 

Then, of course, Homer apparently created the grunge music movement entirely on his own. Lets look at this for a moment. Again, putting aside the fact that Homer has already been a successful musician ("Homer's Barbershop Quartet") he's been to Hullabalooza, where he cannot understand their brand of music. Music that was popular in the '90s. Music that while not necessarily categorized as grunge holds many similarities. He even said to The Smashing Pumpkins' frontman Billy Corgan that he just can't "share [their] bleak world view". Now, not only does he understand it, but he started their very movement. 

I understand that doing episodes where things are happening in the past gets muddled when the show has been running for such a length, but such an oversight on what is a classic episode it's certainly hard to ignore. A prerequisite to being a Simpsons writer should be an encyclopedic knowledge of the show - which considering the fan-base it has, should not be a tall order - and I just don't feel that's the case right now.

Well... That being said...

If the writers didn't watch the show they couldn't lift the jokes from the early seasons, like Nelson's heartfelt Sundance film festival entry in "Any Given Sundance" that is essentially Barney's movie in Burns' film festival (right down to ending the clip with the word "fin" coming on the screen.  But I digress. 

Best Quotes:

"You have what made America great: no understanding of the limits of your power, and a complete lack of concern for what anyone thinks of you."
-Stephen Colbert's life-coach character to Homer

“Martin was a shy, awkward child who will never fulfil his promise to become a weird, unloved adult.”
-What is said of Martin after they believe him to be dead

"The first inspirational speech of the day was by the woman that climbed Mount Everest and got everyone else killed!"
-Marge speaking about a women's conference

Best Episode:
It's a tie. "Little Orphan Millie" has Milhouse believe his parents have died, and as a result he becomes emotional and reclusive, much to the admiration of the girls in Springfield Elementary. Emo Milhouse is genuinely funny, but it has to share the top episode spot because the ending in which they stumble upon his parents in a hot air balloon is so preposterously stupid I can't forget it. The second half tie goes to "The Debarted". Bart befriends a class clown that one-ups him at every turn. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a snitch. It's not great by any means, but it's a decent idea for a story and it has a few solid laughs.

Worst Episode:
With no doubt in my mind it's "Mona Leaves-a". Homer's mother returns once more, but this time is the last time as she passes away. Her final wish is to have her ashes thrown off the top of a mountain at a precise time.

Now this is where it gets messy.

The ashes clog the ducts of one of Mr. Burns' nefarious plots, stopping his plans. Suddenly it's a spy show in which the Simpsons are the heroes. Shocking.

Simpsons by the Season: 18

"I can't believe he acted completely in character."

Season ten started the decline of The Simpsons. Eleven found the plots becoming decreasingly realistic. Twelve, the plots went from unrealistic to just not entertaining. In the thirteenth, the characters weren't even really acting like themselves anymore. Fourteen, the quality of the humour really started to sink, as if it wasn't already. The fifteenth season finds the show trying to conjure up happier feelings with nostalgia in place of good writing. While the sixteenth is a strange throwback to slightly better stuff, it was too little too late as the following the characters just lose their humanity. 

This eighteenth is a culmination of everything that has gone wrong with the series, tied into one tidy bundle of garbage. Here's how!

Reality is taken out back and shot: 

Far too many episodes can essentially pass for Halloween episodes now, as writing in reality has evidently become too hard. If you remember when Community had their first paintball themed episode, it was fresh, original, and above all pretty funny. Then they started doing more of them, and other such episodes that didn't fit with the format and went about as off the rails as a show can go. It's probably easier to write as it opens up nearly endless material, but they rarely hit the mark and come across as cheap. "Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times" is another three-part episode in which the characters are different people, "Marge Gamer" (a self explanatory title) takes them into another universe, and "24 Minutes" (an episode parodying the show 24) is just an extended Halloween bit. With the Halloween episode itself added, about 20% of the episodes a season don't actually exist within the Simpsons universe anymore (maybe "24 Minutes" did, but man, that's a push).

The plots losing entertainment value:
I understand that this is about as subjective as it comes, but episodes like "Kill Gil" just can't make it past the first stages. Gil is a side character, and having him lead an entire episode in which he comes and lives with the Simpsons would work as a side plot as best. He's a one dimensional character - he can't hold a whole plot. It's like when The Office, in its declining years, had a few Creed-based episodes.

Characters just aren't themselves:
Homer becomes a thief (again?) in "Crook and Ladder". This isn't Homer being morally questionable, this is him flat out taking advantage of someone's buildings burning down and, in the case of Burns' Manor, just plain robbing him. Beloved family man, Homer Simpson...

The humour is dead and gone:
Watch "Rome-old and Juli-eh" in which Abe dates Selma and tell me if you laugh just once.

They might try for nostalgia but forget their own stories:
The crux of the "Haw Hawed Couple" episode is Nelson and Bart becoming unlikely friends. But... Nelson and Bart have already become friends before, in the episode when Bart  shoots the bird. This is already old news. Nelson even says at one point "I've never had a best friend before" - but he has! And it is the same person. 

The characters lose their humanity:
In "Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em" there is a side plot where Bart finds out Skinner has a peanut allergy. He then continues to blackmail, taunt and torture skinner by waving a peanut on a stick at him. Bart is a malicious and horrible person in this episode, and in the end Skinner is throwing shrimp at Bart (in which they find he is allergic to) and Bart is throwing peanuts at Skinner. All this occurs after an extended Family Guy-esque fight scene. I would say it would be like a time in Family Guy when it started declining, but that show has always been trash.

Bring on season 19. Lets try to forget this ever happened.

Best Quotes:
"This is the most disgusting place we've ever been!"
"What about Brazil?"
"After Brazil."
-An exchange between Lisa and Bart

"You have destroyed all human life on Earth. Level one: completed!"
-The video game Death Kill City 2: Death Kill Stories

Best Episode:
"The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and the Homer" is probably the top of the season. Fat Tony has a son, and exploits occur. That's all you need to know. It's pretty good.

Worst Episode:
"Please Homer Don't Hammer 'Em" is in contention for being one of the worst ever, in my books. I've already explained how terrible the Bart and Skinner side story is, but the main one fares no better. Marge inexplicably becomes a very talented carpenter (Bart in this season also becomes a fantastic jazz drummer too, somehow) but no one trusts her as she's a woman. Homer then takes the credit while letting Marge do the work. There's a terrible bit with a roller coaster falling apart, nothing makes sense, and if you laugh once it would be at, not with, this trainwreck of an episode. I can't believe it's worse than "Crook and Ladder". 

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.

Simpsons by the Season: 16

"When you work in the business as long as I have, you're bound to repeat yourself."

My typical approach for these blogs is to find a common theme of the season and express how many of the episodes fit within it. Lately, they've been scathing, frustrated reviews where the average episode has repeated itself, become too foolish, or has the characters become mockeries of their former selves. This post won't be one of them.

I hesitate on saying this season is a return to form, as that would imply it was a good season. It wasn't. However, it was a return to sensibility. Rarely was the plot so ridiculous it was hard to watch, and there were a scant few occasions where the characters lost their true selves. The only major exception to this is Bart and Millhouse needlessly ruining the visit of a tourist coming to Springfield, but hey - as they say in Australia, pobody's nerfect.

There's simply not a lot to hate about this season. There are a few repeat episodes, but nothing egregiously ripping themselves off. Homer gets a motor home again... they visit Canada once more, but at least this time for a longer time with better results... yet another future episode... another episode that ends by someone yelling "party"... but nothing I'm up in arms about. As with last season, there are a few notable continuity errors, but again they're few and far between (namely Nelson saying his dad left him, although his father came back the previous season and Lisa saying Bart's never done anything for her in spite of a whole montage of them being friendly siblings in the Lisa vs. Bart hockey episode). 

Overall, it's a reasonable, safe season. The problem is it's not a very funny season. There are no standouts on either end of the quality scale, with no terribly regrettable episodes but free from anything that really makes me glad the show has continued its exceedingly long run. This is what the show has come to - not interested in staying relevant, but rather simply staying. Sadly, that's the best we can hope for. Not being angry at this show is the best I've felt in six seasons.

Best Quotes:

"I realized I was an adult when the judge says 'we are trying you as an adult'". 

-Kearney

"Now let's go murder our enemies. Peace."

-Alcatraz, rapper

"Why did Lisa dump me? Is it because of my small calves? They're the hardest place to add mass!"

-Millhouse, large, strong, future version

Best Episode:

Sheesh. I guess I'll give it to "Midnight Rx" in which Homer goes to Canada to get cheap prescription drugs. It's really nothing special, but the Canadian bits are pretty good. I guess this one wins off writer home country bias.

Worst Episode:

Lately this has been pretty easy. Homer destroying churches, being made into a prank monkey, and fighting a bear tends to leave a nasty enough taste in my mouth to barely having to consider my pick. This time around it will go to "Goo Goo Gai Pan" in which Selma goes to get her daughter from China, not because it's a terrible episode but it's the weakest of an entirely mediocre crop. I've grown weary of the "Simpsons visit another country" style episodes (no, Canada doesn't count - it's right there and we're too alike) and it comes across as weaker than the rest and mostly boring.

Simpsons by the Season: 15

"Everything's back the way it was, which is the only way it should ever be."

If you read my previous entry in this series, the crux of the fourteenth season centred around nostalgia. This time around they moved from remembering the better days to rehashing them in hackneyed episodes in which they reuse main plot points from previous years - sometimes from incredibly poor episodes, as well. That's like reanimating the dead and choosing to make zombie Hitler. Here are a few.

1. "Fraudcast News" has Mr. Burns - much to his surprise - find out he's not well liked by the town. This of course has already happened in the reprehensible "Monty Can't Buy Me Love" in which he tries to win over the public by capturing the Loch Ness Monster, so he shouldn't be too surprised.

2. In '"Tis the Fifteenth Season" Homer usurps Ned's position as the nicest guy in town. If that doesn't ring a bell, think back to "Homer Loves Flanders" in which... well, Homer usurps Ned's position as the nicest guy in town. In one episode Kent Brockman states "there's an even fatter man holding families at nice point" while in the other a newspaper article claims "Big Fat Man Has Big Fat Heart" as a headline. It's like they're doing mad libs with whole episode arcs.

3. In "Regina Monologues" Homer causes an incident where he rear-ends the Queen while on a trip to England. Of course, Homer has a bad history in causing international incidents with major political figures, as he's already thrown the Japanese Emperor into a pile of laundry in "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo". Maybe they'll come to Canada next and Homer will punch Stephen Harper in the face. Actually, I'll be OK with that one.

4. I know this one is vague, but Bart finds yet another love interest in "Wandering Juvie". This time around, it's a new girl ending in an 'a' sound - no, not Laura, Jessica, Greta, or Clara - but Gina! For a ten year old, Bart gets around.

5. In "Millhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" Homer discovers that he can beg for money on the street pretending he's crazy, and make a lot of cash doing so. It's slightly less awful than his grifting, but really, it's the same plot - Homer gets rich off something akin to stealing. Marge eventually finds out much the same way as before. Why they would want to recreate such a terrible plot is beyond me.

6. The Pie Man, Homer's alter ego super hero, eventually is found out by Mr. Burns who threatens to reveal him if he doesn't do his bidding in "Simple Simpson". Much of it ends up being frustratingly similar to Homer being Mr. Burns' "prank monkey" in arguably the worst episode in the series, "Homer vs. Dignity" (it's the zombie Hitler thing!). Homer even has to "pie" a girl scout much the same way he throws a pudding at Lenny as his first assignment in respective episodes.

7. "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" is a conglomerate of two episodes. Artie's fall from grace and living with the Simpsons is basically early Herb Powell. Homer becomes the head of Ziff-Corp, inheriting the legal obligations, much the way he took over the power plant from Mr. Burns. We've seen it all before.

At the very least, if they're going to be redoing old episodes, at the very least I wish they would get the Simpsons cannon right. In "The Way We Weren't" - an episode that hinges on the Simpsons' past - Millhouse accidentally kisses Homer in a game of spin the bottle. He then says "my first kiss..." seemingly forgetting about poor old Samantha Stankey.

Best Episode:
The best is awarded to "I (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot". The plot is like a new age, original version of what made the Simpsons great; Homer genuinely wants to be a good father, but his lack of intelligence holds him back. Nevertheless, he tries his best - this time fighting robots (which sounds at least a little stupider than it is). It's funny, and Homer isn't a monster, but a decent albeit bumbling father.

Worst Episode: 

Although there are a number of poor episodes, few are truly awful. The worst goes to "The Fat and the Furriest" in which Homer is shamed by a bear, fashions a suit of armour, and ends up saving it. It's another example of the show adding animals and flying off the rails. As a sidenote, Homer also throws himself into a pile of toilets to hide from the bear, once again removing any semblance of dignity from a beloved character (pictured on the right). I really wish they'd stop doing that.

Best Quotes:
"We weren't as well behaved as our goody-two-shoes brother Canada - why by the way has never had a girlfriend - just saying..."
-Homer on the U.S. and Canada

"Ladies and gentlemen - ah, who am I kidding? Just gentlemen."
-The announcer at the Ultimate Robot Fighting tournament

"This is the little hooker line; all the girls your age are wearing it - except the freakishly unpopular."
-A salesman to Lisa

Simpsons by the Season: 14

"Are you ready for tales that will shatter your spine and boil your blood?!"

What can I say? The show got me down. I finished up the write-up for season 13, ending on a note of resigned sadness and it took me a fair while to recharge and go at it again. I filled the gap with Silicon Valley, and now I'm back with more of The Simpsons as it crawls through it's ever pressing decline into cultural irrelevance.


If season 10, 11 and 12 were awful to the point of anger, this season is more geared towards mild, nagging depression. It's mostly due to the episodes having a number of scenes that harken back to previous episodes or seasons and through that highlight how the show has fallen on tough times. They resemble previous plots, some have potential, and some directly shoot for nostalgia but it really just causes a juxtaposition between new and old they surely wouldn't want to highlight. Unfortunately, the episodes just don't cut like they used to, and everything they had once done so incredibly well - clever humour, satire, commentary - fall by the wayside in exchange for the cheap, easy laugh that's readily available.

Easy humour is the name of the game in season 14, and the best examples come through Marge's body modification. I don't expect some great satire on episodes related to Marge becoming a bodybuilder or getting breast implants, but somehow I was foolish enough to expect more out of the show. "Men like big breasts!" and "bodybuilding women are manly!" might be the best way to churn out episodes, but that doesn't mean you should - it's humour for junior high school students, and little more.

Occasionally they'll reference the past but draw comparisons they perhaps should have left unsaid. "The Great Louse Detective" for example. It's a Sideshow Bob episode in which someone is trying to kill Homer, and Bob actually tries to help the Simpsons. Ultimately, it's the son of the late Frank Grimes. It's not a terrible episode (although certainly not a good one) but it's bound to cause some loyal viewers to think this is one of the weakest Bob eps thus far, and reminds you of how strong it used to be around the time the first Frank Grimes was created. I understand they'll still want to keep Bob in the show, and that's all well and good - but that episode is pumped full of references to past seasons, and that's a dangerous game for a show in decline. Perhaps attempting to breath life into the show with new characters is a good plan, especially with the circumstances of the great Phil Hartman's passing, bringing Lionel Hutz with him. The replacement is - I kid you not - Larry H. Lawyer. Sigh. It's a tough act to follow, but that's rough.

In spite of all the nostalgia in this season, they still forget who the characters are at heart. This season Bart and Milhouse find a way into Flanders' house and ransack the place - in which Bart shows no remorse. Marge assaults a number of innocent people. Homer wrecks the church after acquiring the deed for it and holds a game of strip poker on the front lawn, seemingly just to rub away all that petty morality that had plagued the series for so long. They might bring back the past this season, but we all know it's just a memory now.

Best Quotes:
"My hobbies include: being quiet during trips, clapping with songs, and diabetes!"
-Ned's diary for Rod, demonstrating his knowledge of his son

"That is the most pungent thing I've ever smelled - and I am from India!"
-Apu upon smelling Maggie's diaper

"Let's raise the roof for the bland, informative rap of M.C. Safety and the Caution Crew!"
-From a Springfield Elementary presentation

"All my life I've had one dream; to achieve my many goals."
-Homer

Best Episode:
"Three Gays of the Condo" is my pick. It has a rocky start in which Homer and Marge needlessly feud (again) but when he meets with the gay crowd it's fairly clever and funnier than most of the rest of the season. It's not an A+ episode, but it's pretty solid throughout.

Worst Episode:
"Pray Anything" has Homer take over the church, flood the town for a second time somehow, and has twenty one brutal minutes without a laugh. Worse yet, when the town believes the flood to be God's punishment Lisa explains everything logically - with the worst logic they've ever had. A single bonfire caused enough rain to completely flood the city up to the rooftops. The trees being cut down - for this single bonfire - meant that a "flood was inevitable". If they're going to try to sell an absolutely absurd plot, don't sugarcoat it and pretend it makes sense.

Simpsons by the Season: 13

"This family has hit rock bottom."

I've been putting off writing this blog for a while. Typically it's a fight to trim down the word count in order for it to be brief enough that I'm not rambling (if you've read any of these blogs, you know it's a battle I most often lose). This time, however, I just don't have a lot to say. This season was poor, and it was poor mostly because of the exact same issues in the previous two. The characters are getting unreasonably stupid, the main plot-points are frequently far fetched, and many go in unnecessary tangents of ridiculousness where they clearly just don't know how else to end it. Here and there you'll run into a few missed opportunities, and that's that.  If anything, all that's new to talk about is the fact that now we're getting into some repetition. It was the second time for a number of things: the family finds themselves in jail, including Maggie; Homer is facing down a gunman(men) about to shoot him on his front lawn (this is the third time now, actually); Moe drastically redesigns his bar; Homer leads a group in pursuit of vigilante justice; and Maggie shoots someone, to name a few.

Repetition isn't the main problem, though. It still lies with the dumbing down of the series, as if the show doesn't believe that it can hold its viewership without resorting to Family Guy-esque humour and storylines. A number of episodes this season left me longing once more for the times when Bart getting an elephant was considered too out there. "The Parent Rap" had a judge punish Homer and Marge by putting them in stocks. Homer at one point was commanding a murder of crows. Homer (albeit accidentally) burns down the church with a rocket. Perhaps that wouldn't have been so awful if he had at least felt somewhat remorseful about it. Or if it had some repercussions for him. Or anything, really.

I mentioned earlier they had times where their stories were brimming with potential humour but eventually fell flat. The best example, at least the one that really stuck with me, was the Simpsons' first trip to Canada. We're at the point now where I remember some of these episodes airing for the first time, and I distinctly remember them advertising the heck out of that one specific idea - which is undoubtedly a good one. There's limitless material they could run with in Canada, and while the jokes they had from it were some of their best of the season (mostly poking fun at Canadian sports) it didn't connect the way it should have. That's because they only made it to Canada 17:45 into the episode. I felt cheated. "The Bart Wants What It Wants" ended up mostly being another Bart love interest storyline, in which he's had several. (Come to think of it, Bart is kind of a player considering he's ten years old.) It wasn't bad, but it could've been so much more.

The whole season could best be explained by a shrug. The bad episodes aren't even that bad (with one exception) and the good episodes aren't particularly strong. It's a consistent stream of twenty one minutes of mediocrity, one to the next.

Worst Episode:
This is a no-brainer. "The Frying Game" is the reprehensible conglomeration of a number of bad story arcs sloppily mashed together in one unholy episode.

Let me explain the plot.

 Homer has been a good husband lately. He decides to buy Marge a koi pond for the backyard. (Not bad so far!) They find a "screamapillar" (uh oh) a nearly extinct animal who has a name that is matched in obviousness only by Judge Constance Harm of "The Parent Rap" episode. They are charged with protecting it. (I'm sure Homer won't accidently kill it!) Homer accidently kills it. He is then sentenced to community service working for Meals on Wheels. Homer and Marge then become housecleaners for an old lady who pressured them into staying. (At this point the episode has changed direction so many times by now I don't know whether to puke from rage or dizziness.) Homer and Marge witness a break-and-enter and a subsequent murder. Homer becomes a suspect, allowing him to extort the town with vague threats of violence. (Oh, Homer. Identifiable family man turned extortionist.) Homer and Marge are tried and convicted of that murder. Homer takes the blame and is sentenced to death. But wait! It was all just a game show!

If you can honestly read that paragraph and believe that that could be a potentially decent episode, I question your merits as a human being.

Best Episode:
For the best, I would go with the pretty good "I am Furious Yellow", or the easier to identify, Angry Dad episode. There are a lot of cheap laughs, mostly Homer just getting
upset with things, but... at least I was laughing.

Best Quotes:
"This town will no longer be known as 'America's Sorrow.'"
-Mayor Quimby

"Every house has a bathroom."
-Marge's fortune cookie

"But West Springfield's three times the size of Texas!"
-Lisa

"Canada? Why leave America to visit America junior?"
-Homer, humorously not realizing that Canada is the far superior country