I think the show is heading back into terrible territory again, if it's not already there. I think it went through a really long period of Meh (Seasons 13 - 22-ish or so), but now it's going back to being terrible again, but not for the same reasons it was terrible in 10 - 12. It's terribleness now seems to be mostly…

"not at all a fresh take on the series. "

eh, I think 24 was when the show started moving back down in quality, but I found those episodes much less annoying than the current crop.

I don't think current season is bad for the same way seasons 10 - 12 were and not just because of the dramatic drop in quality. I thought seasons 10 - 12 had their moments, but a lot of it was really aggressively terrible, but mostly because the plots were largely terrible. After that, the show improved, but was never…

I thought the first half of the episode was pretty good, but then once Marge got the glasses -and this is a on-going fault of the show lately- it seems like the writers mostly forgot about the initial premise of the episode.

You guys forgot McGruff the Crime Dog's foray into music:

it should also be noted that Disneyland opened in the 50s; though this presumes the Disney reference was a clue and not hamfisted advertisement (and ignore that Epcot is in Disney *World*, which opened in the 70s)

I somewhat agree, but not because I think it's moved away from being a kids' show; I'm generally in agreement with the idea that was brought up in the review: that the show is maybe not so much lost up its own ass, but has moved a bit too far away from its central focus and creating whole stories out of C-list…

I liked the Radioactive Man opening sequence, but everything fell apart fairly quickly after that and completely fell through during the Miyazaki sequence. The sequence was good, but it yet again came off like the writers completely forgot the plot midway through.

C+

I don't know if it was the strongest episode of the season, but I did find it to be the most consistent episode in quite some time, at least in terms of the story arc: No completely unrelated b-stories, the plot didn't completely disappear by the third act, etc. I also found that the first portion of the show pretty…

I don't mean that the other finales were bad, just fairly weak episodes overall.

I'm hoping that as well. I think the show got a little too up its own ass towards the end of season 3. For all its faults, I never got thought that S4 that was pandering for praise for attempting to be both smart and funny.

that's pretty much my thoughts on S4. People let the drama surrounding Harmon taint their opinions on the matter. Granted, S4 wasn't good, but I thought the complaints about that season being "Community fanfiction" were rather baseless when the show frequently rehashes its own plot devices.

I honestly didn't really think a Harmon-led S4 would be much better than the S4 that we got. I thought a lot of the latter half of season 3 was a lot of silly shit that just spun out of control and I didn't see it getting much better with Harmon on board. So even if Season 4 was bad, I think a Harmon-led season 4…

I thought both were overall good, but I thought "Intro to Teacher" petered out a bit towards the end with the A- riots.

Episode: A-

maybe it's because I thought the last episode was easily one of the show's best, I was a bit disappointed in this episode. It had quite a few funny moments, but too much of it struck me as "Meet the Parents" type humor where the jokes rely too much on people just acting like dickheads towards the straightman (Ben…

of all the problems the Simpsons has, I think its problems with pacing is easily the most frustrating as it would fix the cobbled-togetherness of the show.

is it just me or did the goodwill towards this season completely drop? And now season 2 is not only better, but the best of the series? Season 2 had a lot of really good moments, but mostly because it seems like the writers were throwing every horror trope against the wall to see what would stick; even then it…