The Simpsons has never really struck me as a cynical show. I think of a cynical story, I think of something like The Shield or a Fincher film, where bad shit simply happens as a matter of course, and there’s no expectation on … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode Two, “Mr Lisa Goes To Washington”

Welcome to season three of The Simpsons! Looking forward, I recognise every single one of these episodes (for those coming in now, I was born two days after “Dancin’ Homer” first aired, so there were a lot of season one and … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Three, Episode One, “Stark Raving Dad”

An undercurrent to The Simpsons that’s been there since the first episode is the conflict between the desire to be a good, hardworking American citizen and the desire to sit around drinking beer, eating like a pig, and watching TV – or … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty-Two, “Blood Feud”

Despite the name, this episode isn’t actually fairly split between Bart, Milhouse, and Martin – it’s a Bart episode, start to finish. We begin with an early example of the show parodying nerd culture when the family visits a comic … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty-One, “Three Men And A Comic Book”

This is yet another “Marge And Homer In Crisis” episode – we’re far enough in that we can say “yet another [x] episode”! – but it finds new nuance, not just in the final emotion of the episode but in … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twenty, “The War Of The Simpsons”

This is one of those classic episodes I have never actually seen, though I heard so much about it, and when I got to that famous moment I felt my soul leave my body. Holy shit, you guys. And this episode … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Nineteen, “Lisa’s Substitute”

The weird thing about not only revisiting The Simpsons from the start, but having to think about each episode in detail, is discovering how much I actually like Marge and her stories. Marge, at least to me, feels like a forgotten Simpson, … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Eighteen, “Brush With Greatness”

Nowhere does The Simpson’s cynicism look more bleak and unhappy than in the prospect of aging. Grampa Simpson has been presented as a bitter, miserable old man who is treated as a nuisance whenever he’s obligated into family affairs and forgotten … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Seventeen, “Old Money”

This isn’t a great episode. Granted, it doesn’t have Lady GaGa in it, but it’s clearly from early in the production schedule, almost a holdover from the first season – in fact, with both the many references to earlier episodes … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Sixteen, “Bart’s Dog Gets An F”

The Simpsons presents the eponymous family as the Worst Family In America, and has consistently done so from the very first episode. This is an early example of the family being a corrupting influence, destroying everything in its path. When cantankerous … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Fifteen, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Three firsts at once! This is the first time we focus on characters outside the family, with our title characters almost entirely on the fringes of the story, and thus the first time we focus on Patty, Selma, and Principal … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Fourteen, “Principal Charming”

We’ve discussed what makes something Classic before – if I recall correctly, Ruck made the case that seasons one and two were part of Classic Simpsons because they laid the groundwork for the brilliance that followed, both in terms of … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Thirteen, “Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment”

I confess, as much as I was looking forward to this episode, I was a little wary of it too. Romance stories from the 80’s are notorious for not exactly aging well, with stalking, Nice Guy Syndrome, and other fun … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Twelve, “The Way We Was”

Here’s a first for us: the earliest episode I recall with perfect clarity – obviously, I didn’t see this live, seeing as how I was barely a year old when it aired, but it is one of the earliest that … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Eleven, “One Fish, Two Fish, Blow Fish, Blue Fish”

HELL YEAH PHIL HARTMAN HELL YEAH So, this episode throws in another flavour of meta-gag: after twenty-two episodes where the title was never revealed, the writers decided to show this episode’s title half a second before the eponymous event happens. … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Ten, “Bart Gets Hit By A Car”

In season one, I criticised the muddled politics of an episode, and Ruck observed that surely a good story is more important than a coherent (or politically correct) message. I think this episode is the kind of thing he was … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Nine, “Itchy And Scratchy And Marge”

Well, here it is. Matt Groening’s favourite Simpsons moment, Homer failing to leap over Springfield Gorge on a skateboard, a moment referenced so often that the show eventually made a joke out of how often it was referenced. It begins with a … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Eight, “Bart The Daredevil”

Season two is not part of Classic Simpsons. Generally, the main argument seems to be either season three or season four as the beginning of the Simpsons Classic era, where every episode was solid gold. Personally speaking, I skipped the entire first … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Seven, “Bart Vs Thanksgiving”

I’ve written before about Flanderization – the gradual transformation of a character as one element completely takes over. It was named after Ned Flanders as religion and niceness completely took over his personality, especially in the post-classic era when he … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Six, “Dead Puttin’ Society”

A lot of the time this early, I’ll be watching episodes I’ve never seen before. Once we reach season four, that will definitely pass, but for now I’ll still be seeing a few for the first time, including “Dancin’ Homer”. … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Five, “Dancin’ Homer”

This episode is simultaneously a throwback and a gigantic leap forward – a throwback because it’s the first episode that was made for season two, so the whole thing is a little rough around the edges in terms of voice … Continue reading The Simpsons, Season Two, Episode Four “Two Cars In Every Garage And Three Eyes On Every Fish”