Are the Simpsons waning?
Recently(past several months), I have noticed that one of my favorite tv shows, The Simpsons, is changing. Unfortunatly, I believe this change is not only for the worse, but also this change could be fatal. As some may noticed, the quality of the writing has dropped. Alot of my friends agree, but not in the same way. Their excuse is that Matt Groening has been doing this for almost a decade and he is running out of ideas. Not so I say. The show has always been a fairly realistic show, with the occasional off the wall story(Astronaut Homer, the halloween episodes, etc). The newer story lines are taking more to the off the wall story style, which IMO, is perfectly fine. My problem is that it no longer has the same edge it did. For instance, in the episode where the family goes to Brazil, the last scene features bart being eaten by an Anaconda. That screeched by barely, but is fine, if it had been left at that. Instead, the writers chose to have Bart respond with some inane comment about Carnival(SP?). The thing that made the show funny originally was the wide open humor. There didn't have to be a word spoken, it could be simply an awkward silence. Next example, In a more recent episode, Homer accidently switches "mixes" with Maggie(Homers mix was a romance mix, and maggies as a baby mix). When he turns on his mix for marge, he realizes his folley and the scene goes to Maggies crib with Maggie dancing to the romance mix. This is everything the simpsons originaly tried not to be.
The show was based on a premise of putting the family and friends through adventures and the entertainent was from how they reacted. Homer was stupid. Marge was worried. Bart was mischevious(and stupid). Lisa was smart and complained. Maggie was just a baby. Everybody was a relatively realistic type character. They responded to situations the same way a normal person would react, but a dash of comedy was thrown in. Today though, these attributes are blown wide open. Homer is depicted as so stupid it is surprising that a crayon is the only reason. Marge is just ridiculous all together. Bart is now some generic comic relief character who could be placed in any tv show without really altering the story. And Maggie, she is supposed to be a baby, but somehow she has more character than some of the other members of the house.
The reason the show was so funny was because the responses were somewhat real, even if the story wasn't. Characters were unique. Now, the writing is so generic and unlifelike that it isn't funny.
I'm sorry, but I am losing faith in the show. I used to get mad if I missed the Simpsons on Sunday night. Now I don't care because I know the humor is so generic that if I miss an episode of the Simpsons, I can just put it on Friends or something stupid like that and hear the same jokes.
I digress.
The show was based on a premise of putting the family and friends through adventures and the entertainent was from how they reacted. Homer was stupid. Marge was worried. Bart was mischevious(and stupid). Lisa was smart and complained. Maggie was just a baby. Everybody was a relatively realistic type character. They responded to situations the same way a normal person would react, but a dash of comedy was thrown in. Today though, these attributes are blown wide open. Homer is depicted as so stupid it is surprising that a crayon is the only reason. Marge is just ridiculous all together. Bart is now some generic comic relief character who could be placed in any tv show without really altering the story. And Maggie, she is supposed to be a baby, but somehow she has more character than some of the other members of the house.
The reason the show was so funny was because the responses were somewhat real, even if the story wasn't. Characters were unique. Now, the writing is so generic and unlifelike that it isn't funny.
I'm sorry, but I am losing faith in the show. I used to get mad if I missed the Simpsons on Sunday night. Now I don't care because I know the humor is so generic that if I miss an episode of the Simpsons, I can just put it on Friends or something stupid like that and hear the same jokes.
I digress.
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