Half an hour of animated suck

[yendi]

I just went back in my LJ, and found my entry from last year discussing the '05 season premiere of the Simpsons:

Unlike many other folks, I've been defending the show for years, as I've quite liked the surreal trips they've gone on, the self-referential stuff, and the exploration of some of the minor characters. But this episode was by-the-numbers and bad as anything.

My rant back then also contained the phrase, the ball was dropped right from the opening scene.

Both of those statements apply to last night's season premiere, as well. The opening few minutes, featuring Otto unable to deal with not having his hard-rock music, was about four minutes too long, and was painfully unfunny. The fact that it set up a repeat situation (the kids having to carpool) didn't exactly add to the thrill.

The good news is that the entire show didn't suck as much as the first five minutes. The bad news is that it still did, indeed, suck. A lot.

Comments

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched a first-run Simpsons episode in its entirety in, oh, probably about six or seven years, and I haven't lost a single wink of sleep about it at all.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

I thought they lost it about 4 years ago, and haven't watched new episodes religiously for a while. I did set my TiVo for it this year out of an over-inflated sense of positive hopefulness that you have now dashed :-D

It's a shame - back in the day it was f'ing brilliant.

[laurel]

In my picks for yesterday, I said: "I’ve enjoyed The Simpsons off and on over the show’s entire run (I haven’t seen every episode, but watch occasionally), so it made me very sad that I found the beginning of tonight’s season premiere of The Simpsons (FOX, 7pm) so painful to watch that I turned it off after 5 or 10 minutes or so. I hope the episode improved as it went on, but . . . man. Very disappointing. Here’s hoping future episodes are better."

And I was being kind. I can't be the only critic (or viewer) who couldn't even watch the whole thing. I'm glad to hear it improved as the episode went on, 'cuz it couldn't get much worse.

[lurkerwithout.livejournal.com]

Everything after Season 10 has been just a steady downhill slide. Its why I'm not terribly excited about rumors of a return of Futurama. I don't want to see that show descend into the suck as well...

[thelastrobot.livejournal.com]

Man. I disagree with all of you.

[curt-holman.livejournal.com]

I laughed at two things: "My macaroni and cheese has a triple-AAA battery in it!" and "It's the [Italian name], my arch-enemies in waste management."

It's a weird dynamic because 'The Simpsons' of the 1990s is probably my favorite show of all time. Sometimes one will air that doesn't suck (I thought the Marge-Has-Amnesia one was pretty good) , but otherwise, it's a shadow of its former self.

I did see a scene-in-progress from 'The Simpsons Movie' (with Homer and a dog sled team) that's pretty funny.

[the-nightguy.livejournal.com]

The big problem with The Simpsons is that the writers have done almost everything they can with the characters as they are. I think the only way they'll revive the energy of the show is to shake things up a bit. Let's move Bart and Lisa into the next grade. Maybe have Marge run for mayor and stay mayor. And they really need to do something with Homer and Maggie. That's just my two cents.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I remember thinking the producers were going to do that when I saw "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 1," because of the spree of destruction involved (the contamination of Moe's, the school's damage, Bart's tree getting blown up, the Retirement Castle at a 45-degree angle into the ground)...and then came Part 2, with ALL of the damage repaired. I kind of wish there at least had been a self-referential joke then about hey, it's animation, it always resets to status quo by the next show...though at least they've acknowledged that before...