One thing that amuses me is watching older works and seeing proto-examples of ideas that have taken over the public consciousness. I watched Seinfeld for the first time this year, and was deeply amused by how much George Constanza’s actions … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Seventeen, “Dumbbell Indemnity”

I talk all the time about how The Simpsons has travelled so far and lasted so long in the public consciousness because it shoots for universal emotions and themes, and this is a rare counterexample – though not an unprecedented … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Sixteen, “The Last Temptation Of Krust”

One of the most consistent undercurrents to The Simpsons is how well it captures the strange, limited worldview of children and how well it exaggerates that attitude into absurdity. Living on a deserted island is a common children’s fantasy, because … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Fifteen, “Das Bus”

I feel like that, as the show is starting to run out of steam, so are my essays – they keep getting shorter, for one thing – so it’s a massive relief to watch a genuinely great episode that goes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Fourteen, “The Joy Of Sect”

I don’t normally talk about the writers in the main body of the text, because I don’t normally have much to say about them beyond a few sentences. Professional television writers are often the first to observe that individual personalities … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Thirteen, “Bart Carny”

Look, I was dreading this one too, but let’s just get through it. I remember that era dubbed the “Golden Age of Television” – a period that began and ended with Breaking Bad for some reason – and perhaps its … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Twelve, “All Singing, All Dancing”

This is the last example of a Simpsons episode I found difficult to watch as a kid, and in fact it’s the most extreme example – I could always at least get through “$pringfield”, “Marge Be Not Proud”, and “Scenes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Eleven, “Miracle On Evergreen Terrace”

You know, I think I prefer the straight-up bad episodes of this season to the blander entries like this. This episode’s concept isn’t even too far out from other Golden Era episodes – it reminds me a lot of “The … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Ten, “Realty Bites”

I always enjoy playing the contrarian, so I’m disappointed to admit that I fall in the general consensus of finding this episode really, really annoying in conception; I was kind of hoping that it would turn out to be more … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Nine, “Lisa The Skeptic”

From one perspective, this is the most interesting episode we’ve had in ages, because it’s the usual tug-of-war between Apu’s offensive creative foundation colliding with the show’s warmth and intelligence combined with the new tug-of-war between that same warmth and … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Eight, “The Two Mrs Nahasapeemapetilans”

This is the first episode of the show I’ve gone through that felt like they wrote the plot around good lines they came up with rather than letting lines evolve from the plot. Something I’ve been saying since about midway … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Seven, “Bart Star”

The Simpsons has always been better at capturing the foibles of everyday human thinking than taking on broad social trends, ideas, and policies, and this episode is a great demonstration of that. As a commentary on American gun culture, it’s … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Six, “The Cartridge Family”

It never occurred to me until watching this to consider the prequel episodes in the context of the discussion of Hollywood prequels; ever since the Star Wars prequels came out and we had a glut of prequels and reboots of … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Four, “Lisa’s Sax”

Here is an episode that I react to in much the same way many of you reacted to “The Principal And The Pauper”. I’ll start with the good: I always found the broad idea of Lisa’s frustration in this episode … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Three, “Lisa The Simpson”

I admit that this episode is a big part of why I wanted to continue on into season nine. How could you not talk about the single most controversial episode of the show? Much like “Homer’s Enemy”, its controversy comes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode Two, “The Principal And The Pauper”

It’s very nice of The Simpsons to see me talking about the decline of the show being quite visible at this point and then throw us an episode that’s not only great, but a genuine advancement in some respects. The … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Nine, Episode One, “The City Of New York vs Homer Simpson”

I’m not really a critic that reviews pop culture – I’m one of those people who generally finds whether or not I liked something to be the least interesting thing to talk about when it comes to pop culture. You … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Eight, Episode Twenty-Five, “The Secret War Of Lisa Simpson”

I get why there are people who don’t like this episode, because their views are very straightforward: this is almost too good an impression of shitty, lowbrow TV shows. But that’s exactly what I like about it, because I have … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Eight, Episode Twenty-Four, “The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase”

There’s a consistent pattern where I tend to love the controversial Golden Era episodes because they always have something really interesting to say, whether or not I agree with what they’re saying or whether or not the end result is … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Eight, Episode Twenty-Three, “Homer’s Enemy”

One of the overarching things about this season is seeing different variations on the feeling “bad Simpsons is still better than 99% of TV”. In this case, a genuinely good and thoughtful idea ends up with a payoff that’s uninteresting … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Eight, Episode Twenty-Two, “In Marge We Trust”