I completely disagree.
If you don’t like the new episodes of the Simpsons then stop watching. This whole open letter is the author crying that the Simpsons isn’t as good as it used to be and that they don’t enjoy it anymore. They’re honest enough to point out that some people do enjoy it. Yes, are there fewer people that enjoy the show now than used to. Yes, the best seasons and the “golden age” are over. But honestly if you don’t enjoy the show just stop watching.
I like The Simpsons. I like the newer seasons. I laugh at the newer episodes.
I loved the Simpsons. To me there’s about 10 seasons. I can go back and enjoy it whenever I want.
The fact that it keeps going doesn’t affect that. It is keeping lots of people employed, and entertained. I hate the new Simpsons and that’s my problem to deal with which I do by not watching.
I watched some of the newer episodes out of boredom. I was really surprised! They’re pretty good.
They’re not all incredible or anything. But they have a lot more soul to them than a lot of the obvious celebrity circle jerk episodes of the mid 2000s.
omg yes. its been painful to suffer marges poor voice quality and the diminishing cast list.
its like watching your favorite great aunt who used be the life of the party slowly disappear under layers of age and dementia. a foggy apparition of what they used to be.
I don’t know. During the lockdowns, it was comforting to know that if I ever ran out of stuff to watch, there was always 20 years of The Simpsons waiting to be watched.
I mean, did you ever watch it, though? Most of the stuff in that time period is arguably unwatchable.
The great thing about media is that you can just not watch it.
To me, the Simpsons already died 20 years ago.
An Open Letter to Matt Groening
I may be misremembering, but I could have sworn Groening created the Simpsons for the Tracey Ullman Show specifically because he knew he wouldn’t own them and he didn’t want sign over his Life in Hell characters. They’re sort of just doing what they were created to do. I doubt he could stop the zombie husk of the show if he tried.
He created it, but I would be shocked if he had actual say in the show any more. He’s moved into other projects. It’s like when you were working something you cared about a job and then left. Sure you might grab beer with someone you used to work with and they may take your advice, but it’s not really yours anymore. There’s probably a scrap of paper somewhere that proves it, but you’re off doing your new thing, and they have it running themselves.
In fact, I doubt Groening would care to intervene, it’s just not his baby anymore. I don’t think it has been for almost 2 decades.
This was the reason he created Futurama, because he retained all the rights to it unlike the Simpsons. That’s also why FOX killed it.
Every other year the sentiment towards The Simpsons swings from “I don’t mind, they’re having fun with what they have, the show is even getting a little introspective” to “They should’ve ended 20 years ago, which is coincidentally when I stopped watching TV in general” either relative indifference or wishing the medium of television didn’t make it through the 00s.
or make them grow up like they shouldve been, instead of remaining 10years old for the last 35years. shows like supernatural and ISAIP suffered severely after season 10, it got so bad and cringey…
Definitely this; just how many new stories could they tell with Bart and Lisa in high school, or university even.
Spiderman apparently had him age over the course of the original run, and that was awesome. New stories you couldn’t have told otherwise.
iSIAP while it was still ok til s12, everything after that it was clearly a money grab by the actors, they largely given up on the show, you been there 10+years of course your tired. Rob the cofounder/founder apparently is addicted to being in hollywood elite circles so hes collaborating people that fans find questionable, like ryan reynolds, a football star,etc, and thier cosmetic surgeries reflect that.
SPN is just wierd, they decided to cater to fanfictions fantasies.
Honestly I think I only liked sunny until…season 12…? And even then it was getting noticeably less funny after season 7 or 8. They’re also making a lot of reactionary jokes in the latest seasons.
I didn’t know anyone was watching it.
They got too pc ages ago. No edgy. No stereotypes. It got boring.
After season 40? He wants the show to keep going for another 4 years after this season? The Simpsons has been dead for years already, barely held together like Weekend at Bernie’s.
He said at one point he’d never stop on his own accord and I think we see that playing out.
I went to the live show back in 2000-something, and he made it very clear, in plain words, that he was just in it for the money from the start.
He doesn’t want it to keep going for four more seasons, but it’s already been renewed up to season 40 so that’s a done deal.
“Of course, I can’t speak for The Simpsons’ legions of fans, but at 43 years old, I haven’t met or even spoken to anyone who champions the new episodes”
Wouldn’t champion them but still watch them with pleasure so I disagree
the old ones are golden age, and foreshadowing of current affairs. the news ones are just to cringe, just like family guy the most recent ones i heard 1 of them just copied the previous plot. american dad did something similar with thier recent episodes, but they were cleverly done so it wasnt an issue.
when both stan and francine both had thier own horror-type episodes.
I agree that old ones have more “political and world issues” flavour and the new episodes I think are more about general fun/funny and feel-good stuff about family dynamics. I wouldn’t put it no where near family guy in terms of using cringe humour. Just because it is less prophetic and political does not make it automatically worse in my opinion, it just makes it different. I still enjoy it.
Yeah it’s time to let it die before the entire main cast dies first. It lost its relevance a long time ago. Please end it on proper terms
