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I feel like writing a new post for my blog, but no topic
currently inspires me so let me take on a perennial question that has never
been conclusively answered: what happened to The Simpsons?
This is a well-known trope in the TV analytics biz: The
Simpsons were possibly the greatest TV show in the history of the medium for
eight, maybe ten, seasons. I own seasons three through five and as much
as you might want to gripe about how every commentary track calls that episode
a “classic” the truth is, they almost all were classics. It’s an
incredible level of quality control that would make NASA blush. Of
course, one irony is that during the heyday of The Simpsons it never won the
Emmy for Best Comedy because, as an animated show, it wasn’t eligible. By
the time the Academy got around to changing the eligibility criteria the show
was no longer in its prime, and as a result it is zero-for-30 in Best Comedy
Emmys (I am confident that whenever it chooses to hang up its hat it will
certainly get a lifetime achievement nomination, if not win). It has
still managed to win a boatload of statutes for voice performance, animated
episode, and best song (a category that is less competitive than its Oscar
counterpart).
Part of the problem is that, after 30 seasons, continuity is a
bitch. Bart has been in the 5th grade for 30 years, so
what school-related hijinks could he possibly get into that he hasn’t already
done? Episodes in the 1990’s established that Bart grew up in the 1980’s,
but to be consistent recent episodes have to show him growing up in the
2010’s. Homer and Marge have been married for 35 years, despite being in
their mid-30’s, so what new marital strife could they encounter for the first
time?
Sitcoms aren’t known for character development, but what new
facet of Lisa’s personality could they develop after 30 years? After 30
seasons of sloth and gluttony, how could Homer’s personality subtly
change? It’s like the joke from the episode “The Boy Who Knew Too Much”
where Bart picks up the paper and says, “Oh look, Charlie Brown said, ‘Good
Grief’; hah, I didn’t see that coming.”
I can’t possibly deconstruct what is wrong with the Simpsons
better than the clip "The
Fall of the Simpsons: How It Happened." But let me look at the
most recent episode, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).
The AV Club review notes that the
episode takes a while to get going, with several false starts about what the
main plot will be about. But that is a standard Simpsons gimmick from its
“glory years,” possibly a way to pad episodes out to 22 minutes which,
according to several commentary tracks, they had trouble doing (the extended
“rake gag” in Cape Feare was created for the same purpose). For example,
Boy Scoutz ‘n the Hood starts off with Homer on the couch eating peanuts, then
has Bart and Milhouse finding $20 and going on a sugar bender, then Bart joins
the “Junior Campers,” then, at last, the show settles on the real plot of Bart
and Homer going on a father/son camp out.
What dooms the false starts in I Want You is that the dots are
too connected; it’s not random shifts of perspective, but something that someone
tried to make it make sense and did too good of a job. Why do Homer and
Marge have to go to mandatory drug counselling led by Superintendent Chalmers
at a hotel? Would buttoned-up Marge really suggest crashing a wedding
convention? Would they really have access to so much champagne they’d get
drunk? And all this plotting just sets up a scenario where Homer gets a
hernia and Marge sprains her ankle.
Then Homer’s hernia starts speaking to him, urging him not to do
anything other than lie in a hammock. Since when did Homer need to find a
reason to be lazy? If anything, the hernia is a validation of him lying
around and not exercising. Meanwhile, Marge’s trainer urges her to treat
her sprained ankle with exercise, which sounds dubious to me. The “exercise”
Marge chooses is kite-surfing, which consists of standing by the ocean until a
strong breeze catches your kite and lifts you into the air. How is this
exercise? And if it is, how could Marge do it on a sprained ankle?
The whole thing ends when Homer kite-surfs with Marge without
having any training, and then the kite-surfing trainer turns out to be a
Russian spy whose plan was to gain access to the Springfield nuclear plant via
Homer. Huh? Russia has nuclear power plants so I’m not sure what they
could learn from one as old (and incompetently run) as Springfield’s, and once
again, huh?
Meanwhile there is a bunch of filler about the bad babysitter
Homer and Marge get for Lisa and Bart (remember when Lisa was able to babysit
Bart? I guess the writers don’t), Bart and Lisa going to Ned Flanders’
for coconut milk (and he wouldn’t give them cocoa why?), and Patty and Selma
dragging Homer into the woods for no reason (other than they don’t like
Homer). No one expects realism from The Simpsons, but a half dozen plot
points that are dead-ends makes no narrative sense at all.
I don’t understand the economics of The Simpsons staying on the
air for another two years. The vocal cast is expensive, they can’t make
as much off merchandizing as they used to, and the lack of quality has been a
running gag for TWENTY YEARS. Maybe the tie in with FXX eliminates the
need for aggressive syndication and allows Fox to recoup its expenses in a way
that will result in future litigation by Matt Groening.
Once upon a time The Simpsons were the epitome of how great a
quality television show could be. That was a long time ago, and now it is
the epitome of a once-great show churning out more episodes because everyone
wants to cash more paychecks. Modern Family is going through the same
phase now; when it began it was fresh and innovative, now it’s just an excuse
for writing about how Haley is dumb and Manny is odd. Ditto Big Bang
Theory. It is the nature of television that too much of a good thing is never
enough.
But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an
end. Even The Simpsons.
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