(And I Liked it).
it’s been a long while since I watched a current season of The Simpsons episode. Look, I never got to a stage of hating it (for the record, vintage The Simpsons remains one of my favourite shows) but I was finding the episodes lacked a lot of what once made them great. The plots weren’t as good, the jokes were not as sharp and things felt a bit flat and too linear overall. And the modern character voices didn’t sound as good (something to do with the recording method rather than the talent itself).
I had seen comments that the show might have got some of its sparkle back, since the ongoing run with Disney has found its feet. (So far the Maggie short was the only Disney episode I had watched-it was cute and as you would expect as a Disney Simpson short).
The Star of the Backstage. (2023, June 1). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_of_the_Backstage
Anyways, so me and my partner selected the first episode of the newest season (33rd) to watch: The Star of the Backstage. If you want to know the plot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_of_the_Backstage
And the verdict? We both enjoyed it and if the rest of the episodes since Disney took over are on a similar level, it won’t be the worse thing to happen. Don’t get me wrong, this did not feel like an all-time great, but I never once found myself losing interest, and the gags were good enough for some slight laughs.
One thing that may either win over or put people off is the show’s ‘Disneyfied’ nature. Naturally, you can expect many more Disney references with modern Simpsons. Take this ep, which has Marge’s singing voice being that of Anna. The episode pays tribute/parodies Disney musical numbers but it does it well.
This episode has heart, which the latter seasons started to lose from what I recall. Marge’s feelings are justified and I like how the episode uses a lot of different characters.
My interest, even in this modern age of spoilt-for-choice streaming, has been renewed for modern-day The Simpsons and it’ll be interesting to see if it holds up into the next ones I watch!
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