1. Which seasons do you think are best?

  2. What episodes are best? If you like episode Such-and-Such and it's not in a good season - I can download just that episode.

  3. [𝙻𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐...]

I thought I had a third question. Maybe I'll edit that later.

  • peppersky [he/him, any]13•1 month ago
    1. I'm going to be one of those people and say that peak simpsons was seasons 3-7. Afterwards they try to get too clever for their own good, lampshading everything and mostly not even bothering to write actual endings to episodes. Sometimes it works, but often times it just doesn't. You could kinda feel they were running out of stories they could fully realize within 23 minutes. But it's very lofty criticism, very few shows manage to be as consistently excellent as the Simpsons were for its golden age. It's still the greatest show of all time.
    2. There's too many to choose from: "Lisa's Substitute" might be as heartfelt as the show ever got, "Last Exit to Springfield" is just a completely irreverent joke parade for 23 minutes, "Bart's Comet" somehow goes from ridiculous spectacle and chaos to quiet and poignant, "Treehouse of Horror III" (and IV and V) are peak pop-culture parodies (the kind you can't make anymore).

    I really really love the Simpsons, don't think there is any other show that's as dear to my heart as it. Still remember the first time I ever saw it, when my dad watched "Faith Off", the episode where Bart becomes a miracle faith healer on his PC with a TV tuner card.

    • CloutAtlas [he/him]11•1 month ago

      I forgot where I learned this, but I remember hearing that after The Simpsons were renewed for their 7th season, most of the writers assumed that would be the last so they went a bit more outlandish and less grounded.

      This is because The Flintstones only lasted 6 seasons and they didn't imagine their show would get that much more than the cultural cornerstone of US TV animation at the time.

      Also, as seasons 8 onwards were being produced, fewer and fewer of the original writing staff remained, and the new blood included people who watched the Simpsons growing up or as young adults. As you may know, the vast majority of fans of any franchise, be it video games or sports or fiction have absolute dogshit ideas and should not be in charge of the media they're a fan of. It slowly devolved into "episode concepts I thought would have made a good episode when I was 16" like what if there was a Harry Potter parody or what if there was a celebrity cameo that was cringe?

      For example, the baseball episode of the Simpsons was a good use of celebrity cameos as themselves because they were can still be replaced with a fictional in universe parallel without much issue. Another example is Leonard Nimoy's cameo. If it was a weird one off character saying the things he said, it would still work as a gag (outside of being beamed up Star Trek style)