How much steam does The Simpsons have left?

 

The Simpsons has had an odd few years. The consensus seems to be that it has "gotten better" (I'm a religiously season 1-8 man so I'll have to take everyone's word for it) but with that has come a pretty substantial cultural reckoning following complaints about non white characters being voiced by an exclusively white cast.

I will sit firmly on the fence on this one. I have neither the perspective nor the intellect to offer anything that hasn't been said already and better (from both sides of the discussion). Hari Kondabolu's The Problem with Apu makes the case against, and while I generally dislike contemporary audiences judging thirty year old TV shows by today's standards... this thirty year old TV show is still on. It's a very unique situation and Fox don't seem to really know what to do, with responses from the Simpsons camp ranging from admirable to very disappointing.

What I will say from my atop my fence is that simply yanking Apu from the show and recasting Carl Carlson isn't going to cut it. There has been much fanfare about the white cast stepping back from voicing the BAME characters, but while everyone has been nodding in woke approvement the number of black or asian characters in Springfield has increased by exactly zero. It doesn't really feel like anyone has won here.

Time will tell how Fox deal with this, but what is certain is that the show has been renewed for a 33rd and 34th season and there doesn't appear to be any signs it's wrapping up.

I lied earlier when I said I'm exclusively season 1-8. I recently watched the 15th episode of Season *sigh* 32. This wasn't by chance, it was following a text from a friend despondently informing me that the show has once again retconned how Homer and Marge met. In "Do PizzaBots Dream of Electric Guitars?" we learn that Homer was in fact a teenager during the early nineties. We know this because he has a Tone Loc poster and wears a TShirt that says "Hip Hop". It's just awful and not even the first time the show has done this. Season 19's "That 90s Show" had Homer and Marge in their late twenties meeting in the mid nineties. (I consider this a new episode and IT'S THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!)

I realise complaining about a lack of narrative continuity in the Simpsons in 2021 is like complaining about the fly in my bowl of flies but for crying out loud. If the well is that dry just end it...

Or...

Tear up the script and take a chance on something new. In all likelihood the series won't last indefinitely, it feels like it's in its death throes so why not change the format and have the family age in real time? Bart has been ten years old for thirty two years! It's no wonder they have no idea what to do with them. It was in 2002 that South Park pointed out that The Simpsons had done everything. Isn't there more drama in seeing Bart and Lisa becoming teenagers? Seeing Maggie grow? How would the family deal with Grandpa passing away? Alright that last one might be a bit too far. 

I don't want the Simpsons to become a Terence Malick film but anything to drag the series away from "zanniest possible situation" and back to something resembling the funny, touching family drama that made the series the gold standard of TV has to be worth at least trying right? 

Or we could do an episode where it turns out Professor Frink is actually Lisa's grandson or something.

Got Me a Movie: The Podcast. Episode 2: Zach Snyder's Justice League

 

Dan and I watched Zach Snyder's Justice League in 48 ten minute sessions and give our thoughts on the film, Warner Bros handling of the franchise and whether or not fish need universal credit.

Spotify and YouTube links below!

Game of Thrones is ten years old. Hands up who cares...

Yesterday HBO announced the 'Iron Anniversary', a month long celebration commemorating the ten year anniversary of the Game of Thrones series premiere. 

“This April, to mark the 10th anniversary of the hit series’ premiere, HBO has launched The Iron Anniversary, a month-long celebration to commemorate the series, engage passionate fans, and ignite audiences’ excitement for the next iteration of the franchise, with “House of the Dragon” slated to begin production this year. A custom spotlight page on HBO Max with personalized curations, a binge-watching marathon, special-edition products, and more, will launch throughout the month,” HBO said in an official press release."

You have to admire their courage. Naturally the Internet hasn't quite gotten over that whole 'the last series was a dumpster fire' thing and like an angry crowd turning on a struggling comic Twitter had something to say.

It's not surprising that HBO would want to drum up a bit of buzz to celebrate their global phenomenon, and while I wasn't expecting a month long apology tour, I think "misreading the room" is the phrase that applies here.

It's pretty incredible just how definitively the last six episodes of Game of Thrones undid it's legacy. Not since Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films had a fantasy series so dominated popular culture. Game of Thrones was everywhere. In the final years you'd have struggled to find someone who wasn't engrossed, and while it had its ups and downs the series had the kind of momentum and audience that most shows could only dream of.

During its run the show garnered a staggering one hundred and sixty Emmy nominations, taking home fifty nine, it's finale drew close to twenty million viewers and critics would regularly name it in the same breath as The Wire, Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.

But for all that acclaim and feverish devotion from legions of fans ... no one talks about it anymore. No one revisits it. No one dresses as dothraki. People have certainly stopped calling their daughter Khaleesi. My wife and I regularly try and decide if Dexter or GoT had the worst finale, but Dexter's decline was so protracted the finale barely registered, and frankly it was so bonkers it's at least good for a laugh. Even Lost, with its baffling final season still generates some discussion. Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof arguably face planted that finale but there was at least ambition there.

Game of Thrones by contrast shat the bed in the worst possible way. It's no secret that by the sixth series the show had surpassed the books, leaving show runners David Beniof and D.B. Weis to cobble together the last third of this epic saga from notes and half finished ideas scribbled down by George RR Martin. Rather abruptly all the character work and personal relationships took a back seat to the plot lurching forward at a breakneck speed culminating in a finale that felt rushed, truncated and deeply unsatisfying. 

Even the most forgiving fans would be hard pushed to defend it. 

At the time of writing there are currently four hundred and eighty two spin offs and prequels currently in development and I just can't see where the appetite for any of it is. Even decades long fans of George RR Martins A Song of Ice and Fire book series seem to have lost their enthusiasm for his remaining books with some wondering if he'll even bother finishing them at all now.

Maybe "House Stark: Ned's Revenge" or "Arya: Fury Road" will be runaway successes but the chances of lightning striking twice are slim to none. Game of Thrones was almost one of the best television shows of all time. Ten years later, no one cares.