When you look back at season 24 of the Simpsons, what is it that springs to mind? While many would argue that it has been years since the show has been relevant, it felt like season 24 sums up their complaints. The show isn't necessarily on level of awfulness with Family Guy, but compared to even season 23, the episodes lacked the muster that made the series worthwhile. However, it feels like whenever the show got coverage, it was for the couch gags that introduce most episodes. From Bill Plympton to the Harlem Shake to a Breaking Bad parody to a Robot Chicken created segment, it seems like the show's only strengths are in the first three minutes.
Compiling thoughts for the season as a whole, I am more inclined to everything that happened behind the scenes. As fans of the show were aware, the voice actors faced contract and payment problems that put the show in jeopardy of returning. With everything squared off, the show has been renewed up until season 25. While it may seem like the show will go on forever, I feel like we're in for some unexpected news in the upcoming year.
It is possible that as the stalwart show of Fox's Animation Domination, it could last another year or 15 years if they wanted. However, season 24 gives off the impression that everyone just wants to put things to a close. This isn't a complaint on quality, which we'll get into later, but just the themes of episodes. Some are redundant and sometimes the plots come up short in length. I admire a show that tries to pull off Logorama parodies and gives a fascinating back story to the least likely character, but in the Simpsons cannon, the only way for some of these to feel relevant is if this is leading to a season 25 finale.
I don't want to imply that we're putting the voice actors out of work. I would love to see this show continue. Still, it has been a rough year for the Simpsons as they try to adapt to the modern culture. Besides the contract dispute, they lost writer Don Payne, whose last episode "Dark Knight Court" turned out to be one of the stronger episodes. The show also received an Academy Award nomination for Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare." This segment alone suggests that the show only works in small doses now. Very few episodes nowadays are seen without gags or filler that while varying in quality, suggest that the stories are rushed in a way. It is just my speculation, but with the success of that short, we may be seeing the Simpsons jump shark and move into creating theatrical shorts much like Toy Story did to oddly lesser success.
If the season was suggestive on where things were going, they didn't take long to say it. In the premiere episode "Moonshine River," Bart (Nancy Cartwright) chases down his girlfriend to New York City. Along the way, there are cameos by Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Sarah Silverman, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Zooey Deschanel, all of whom played his girlfriends in the past few years. Still, the very idea of New York City should remind fans of the infamously banned episode "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," in which Homer (Dan Castellaneta) goes to New York only to leave angry over a series of mishaps. It seems like he has since forgiven the city, as he manages to just take in the sites and catch up with the foreign food man (sorry, I cannot figure out how to pronounce or write it).
It is quickly sidetracked by Bart's main story, which is to convince his girlfriend (Deschanel) to come back to Springfield. This leads to numerous gags about New York, including a song number by Deschanel. What is striking is that Bart tries to "rap" over the song for five seconds, but is quickly interrupted. This suggests already that they have no idea how to use him, even if he was game for these shenanigans in "All Singing All Dancing." There are also numerous shout outs to cultural icons like Woody Allen.
Despite being an overall good episode and one that paints New York in a nicer light, it reflects what went wrong with the show. Bart isn't the rebel character so much as the awkwardly placed misfit. The special guests were massive, yet many were just momentary and lacked the authenticity that they used to. True, there are some performances this season that could be added to cannon, but in general as characters, they just seem forced. Also, I miss when the show used to do really good song numbers. It seems like they had to get Deschanel for this particular one.
But the series continued. I am still a little disappointed with what happened to the Treehouse of Horror series. With last year's being completely abysmal, things could only get better. In fact, some of it is repaired here. While "UNnormal Activity" was particularly useless in the modern era of Paranormal Activity parodies, the other two segments reflected a show with some creativity still in them. "The Greatest Story Ever Holed" managed to turn a black hole into a great comedic gag in which tossing everything into the black hole resulted in something humorous. It also helped that the payoff was pretty inspired. True, the show has long since been good at making satirical horror, but this felt like a return to some form, at least of entertainment. "Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure" was yet another time travel episode. Not amazing, but overall contributed to season 24 having a promising return to form.
Then the rest of the season unfolded. From "Adventured in Baby-Getting" in which Marge (Julie Kavner) wants another baby to "Hardly Kirk-ing" in which Milhouse (Pamela Hayden) discovers that shaving his head makes him look like his father, this really felt like the show was running out of ideas. Where the show once suggested "Have no fear, we have stories for years," it almost seemed like that meant grasping at straws. There was even the episode "A Test Before Trying" in which Springfield Elementary was going to shut down from low test scores. Stop me if you have heard that one before.
Still, there were a handful of episodes that added some redemption. The show hadn't yet tackled the hipster culture, which made "The Day the Earth Stood Cool" as a promising installment. With Portlandia actors Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, the show attempted to parody the culture in ways that they have other ridiculous behaviors before. It was somewhat successful, if just because it was different from the other episodes, which offered a lot of the same and very little of the new.
Still, there may have been nothing that suggested the show's downfall more than a particular guest star. What is amazing is the lack of publicity surrounding bigger guests like Benedict Cumberbatch and Danny DeVito returning as Herb (in an episode I sadly can't recall for this piece). However, nothing quite stopped the show from promoting a cameo by Justin Bieber, as if he would single handed save the show. The same could be said for finale guest star Seth MacFarlane, who was surprisingly mellow though eventually pointless.
But the Bieber cameo reached levels of offensiveness for a show that was trying to remain relevant. Besides all of the advertisements, the show itself broke something beyond the fourth wall. I am not even sure what level it goes to, but during the episode "The Fabulous Faker Boy," there was a card during the episode that warned people about the Bieber cameo. It gave off the impression that what he was about to do was beyond forgivable. All of these promotions, that little blurb. What did it lead to? Bieber being simply upset that he couldn't attend a piano lesson because of Bart. No real gag. Still, to close everything out, another card came up telling audiences that this horrible moment in the Simpsons episode was over.
It may have been a gag, and the show has talked to the camera before, but what made it offensive was that the show seemed to recognize that it was a bad idea. The show has always had a sense of self, pointing out when dumb ideas are about to happen. Still, there's incorporating it into the plot, and then there's simply telling us there's a lackluster cameo and then stating that it was lackluster. There isn't any merit to creativity within that very concept, especially in a show that usually works in characters better than that. I was a sucker for Lady GaGa's cameo last season simply because it recognized it was over the top and just ran with it.
The undisputed attraction of the season had to be Grampa Simpson (Castellaneta). While the family had their own stories and hi-jinks, it seemed like the Grampa quotient was bumped up with two particularly bizarre episodes. "Gone Abie Gone," which also can be cited as one of Marvin Hamlisch's last pop culture appearances, romanticized his past. He worked in a diner with Hamlisch and dated a black singer. I must admit that I miss the days when Grampa was simply known for being in the Flying Hellfish. His crazy stories since have varied in overall quality and almost seem to exist just to justify his crazy behavior. Still, the romanticized nature is a particularly interesting approach, as it is something we haven't seen with the character before.
Then there was "Gorgeous Grampa." While I can never judge the show based on continuity, it was a rather enraging episode simply by execution. Billionaire Mr. Burns (Harry Shearer) discovers that Grampa was once an old wrestler. This is of course after suggesting that a box full of old clothes meant that he was gay, which would have lead to an equally preposterous story. Still, the initial mystery was worth a good episode. However, if you remember the Flying Hellfish, Mr. Burns and Grampa were in the same group. These would have been around the same time. Still, the episode managed to turn into a lesson on how Bart shouldn't be a brat in order to please audiences. The show definitely has become more blatant with their morals, but the continuity is still an issue.
Of course, that can be brought into question. After all, at over 500 episodes, the show can repeat itself all it wants. However, when the show updates "Moonshine River" with having Bart's girlfriend move back home in "Love is a Many-Splintered Thing," there is really no excuse for a jump in logic akin to "Gorgeous Grampa." Even though Mr. Burns himself got a bogus superhero story with "Dark Knight Court," there is still the idea that this man can regale on his past with exquisite detail, but he forgot about his commanding officer being a wrestler at one point.
What is amazing though is that as they tried to give Grampa Simpson a back story and eventually failed, they managed to do something similar for another person. I have always associated Carl (Hank Azaria) with the line "See, this is why I don't talk much." He was always secondary to the cast and I rarely felt the need to know more about him. He worked as a character. Then "the Saga of Carl" happened and I was immediately miffed, then very much intrigued.
This episode alone justifies why the show should be allowed to exist. While it is debatable on how long a season should be, especially with so much filler, they managed to create a modern gem. Carl, who is mysterious to begin with, disappears and it is up to Homer and the Moe's Tavern group to find out where he went. Through an intricate plot, they discover that he went to Iceland, where he is a native from a family that has had a terrible legacy. It may not be the funniest, but it was the most clever and interesting exposition that the show had done all season. At very least, it made Carl a far more endearing character.
I wish the same could be said about the rest of the season and characters, but this is a show that is at the end of its life. The fact that it still manages to be hit and miss is impressive. Maybe the misses aren't always great, but the hits reflect a show that is just as much about pop culture references as it is about the characters and making an endearing story. True, a lot of the stories this season are forgettable, but for episodes like "the Saga of Carl" and "The Day the Earth Stood Cool," this show is still worth checking out.
Of course, I don't know how culturally relevant the show is anymore. It feels like the last thing it was groundbreaking on was gay marriage and characters. Even that was upwards of over five years ago. None of this season's episodes will live forever in the pantheon of discussion. Even the pathetic Justin Bieber cameo means nothing. What will live on is the couch gags, which this season felt like they were better written than most of the episodes.
The most obvious one to start at is the Harlem Shake parody. I know it was so long ago, but think back to a few months ago before Macklemore took over your radio. There was this brief song that causes people to do innocuous dancing. It created a meme. Then for some reason, the Simpsons did one with all of the characters doing ridiculous things. It makes no sense and I am sure that by August, it will already be hard to figure out the reference. Still, tagging the scene with the line "Homer did a rip-off" only suggests that the show is trying to be relevant through, as he said, ripping popular things off. This isn't so much a reference as it is realization that the show also tries to just get attention by doing dumb things. Remember when Ke$ha's "Tik Tok" became a Simpsons intro? Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Then you get to far more interesting ones. I admire the show for going beyond the traditional-looking couch gag. While I feel like nobody got it, I do think that the choice to bring back Bill Plympton for animation on one really was an interesting choice. While it looked creepy, it was a nice change of pace and saw a show that many have considered to be cruising to not be cruising entirely. Even the choice to have the final gag be one created from a Create-a-Couch Gag submission contest showed some signs of promise.
While the Harlem Shake one is probably the most notorious at this point, I think that the Plympton one stands out. I hope that they do more like that in season 25. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Breaking Bad one, even if it broke the fourth wall and I doubt anyone who doesn't watch Breaking Bad would get it or the use of "Crystal Blue Persuasion." Either way, despite being a really solid parody, I feel like it was more created as a fond farewell to one of TV's greatest shows. Whether that is super meta for the Simpsons or just coincidence is yet to be seen.
And finally, there was the Robot Chicken one. While the extensive couch gags can be seen as eating up the show's time, it was rather interesting. As a casual fan of the show, it was great to see the stop motion animators bring their madcap sense of violence to this world and make an interesting story in a very short amount of time. With this and Plympton, I could only hope that they invite more people to create a new version of the credits in the future.
In closing, season 24 was probably one of the lesser seasons for me. As a devoted fan, I will support the show in any form that it takes. Where I came away from season 23 with a few new favorites, this one doesn't strike me nearly as interesting. It does feel like the show trying to maintain relevance while also sacrificing some of what made the show worthwhile in the first place. For all of the inspired couch gags, there are those references that already feel dated. It also feels like the creators admitting that they are running out of time and simply want to move on. I will be sad when that day comes, especially as the show continues to find occasional gems. Still, the show has proven itself and while season 24 doesn't do anything to win people over, it just feels like its attempt to become part of an ADHD generation with madcap references and a really dumb Justin Bieber cameo is just pathetic. Still, despite being underwhelming, the show does still strike a solid balance at times, which is enough to keep this show afloat, if just for another year. Though please, stop messing with Grampa.
Overall rating: 2.5 out of 5
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