Another great season of the Simpsons seen. My pace has dropped a bit but I'll try to pick it up. Fourteenth season was good and if the ratings I posted have any truth in them, show will keep improving till season sixteen until there will be next dip in quality. Season Fourteen ended with a real classic in form of Moe's Baby Blues.
We've also entered into an area beyond what I've seen. My most active season watching Simpsons was seasons 11-13, ie. the shows probably worst period. Yet I still liked it very much back then (I didn't watch much tv on the whole so that's why I didn't watch even the Simpsons too much).
But about my watching pace again.. When I started this blog 2nd of May I was in the seventh season, now I finished 14th season so seven seasons in 27 days. There's still seven seasons to go so it looks as if it's going to take another month before I can start all over again and start posting the reviews.
lauantai 29. toukokuuta 2010
perjantai 21. toukokuuta 2010
Seasonal Ranking
Found this seasonal ranking from nohomers.net. It's compiled with the averages of public ratings for the episodes.
4 - 4.463
5 - 4.396
3 - 4.381
6 - 4.334
7 - 4.327
8 - 4.319
2 - 4.213
9 - 3.858
16 - 3.718
1 - 3.717
15 - 3.699
14 - 3.581
17 - 3.580
13 - 3.517
18 - 3.484
20 - 3.457
19 - 3.415
21 - 3.340
10 - 3.321
12 - 3.230
11 - 3.033
It seems to support my observation that around 10-12 seasons there were slight dip in form and now while in 13th season there has been improvement again. Seasons 2-8 seem to be a class of their own, though. It'll be fun in few months to compare my chart with this, we'll see how much I disagree with the public.
4 - 4.463
5 - 4.396
3 - 4.381
6 - 4.334
7 - 4.327
8 - 4.319
2 - 4.213
9 - 3.858
16 - 3.718
1 - 3.717
15 - 3.699
14 - 3.581
17 - 3.580
13 - 3.517
18 - 3.484
20 - 3.457
19 - 3.415
21 - 3.340
10 - 3.321
12 - 3.230
11 - 3.033
It seems to support my observation that around 10-12 seasons there were slight dip in form and now while in 13th season there has been improvement again. Seasons 2-8 seem to be a class of their own, though. It'll be fun in few months to compare my chart with this, we'll see how much I disagree with the public.
torstai 20. toukokuuta 2010
No Real Decline
I'm now near halfway of the thirteenth season and to be honest, I have not noticed yet any real decline in the series. There's still eight seasons time for that, but so far it's been great stuff. There was a slight dip around 11-12th seasons, but it was nothing drastic as the quality episodes still come in good numbers and the episodes that you can honestly call bad are still countable with one hand's fingers.
In other words, it's great stuff. The seasonal rot has so far been minimal, but I'd expect it to come. It's obviously hard to keep up good quality after so many years, coming up with new ideas that haven't yet been done. Though like I've said before, if you can't think of anything good, just give new swing for an old idea. It might be a bit stale, but it will not be downright bad. But for thirteen seasons they've at least kept the bar consistently high and I have my hopes up.
On another note, it's also interesting to learn what season the episodes that I've seen on tv were. I've right now been hitting mostly familiar episodes. It's to be expected as I probably watched the Simpsons most around 2005 and the episodes aired couple of years late in Finland (and rerun variable amount of times) . From season eleven onwards I've seen most episodes to some point, I don't know how late on I kept watching the episodes. My Simpsons watching prior to this project in last couple of years was very random. I also had seen some first season episodes, though seasons 2-7 were more or less a blank spot for me. I've only seen few episodes from those seasons.
But enough yabbering, I'll keep pushing onwards in this project.
In other words, it's great stuff. The seasonal rot has so far been minimal, but I'd expect it to come. It's obviously hard to keep up good quality after so many years, coming up with new ideas that haven't yet been done. Though like I've said before, if you can't think of anything good, just give new swing for an old idea. It might be a bit stale, but it will not be downright bad. But for thirteen seasons they've at least kept the bar consistently high and I have my hopes up.
On another note, it's also interesting to learn what season the episodes that I've seen on tv were. I've right now been hitting mostly familiar episodes. It's to be expected as I probably watched the Simpsons most around 2005 and the episodes aired couple of years late in Finland (and rerun variable amount of times) . From season eleven onwards I've seen most episodes to some point, I don't know how late on I kept watching the episodes. My Simpsons watching prior to this project in last couple of years was very random. I also had seen some first season episodes, though seasons 2-7 were more or less a blank spot for me. I've only seen few episodes from those seasons.
But enough yabbering, I'll keep pushing onwards in this project.
sunnuntai 16. toukokuuta 2010
Finished Eleventh Season
I've now watched eleventh season of the Simpsons and there hasn't been many bad episodes. Season Eleven finaled with "Behind the Laughter", an episode from which have been said that it would've been fitting ending to the series. While I agree with that, I'm still glad that it wasn't. I'm not going to much more detail yet, but I feel that the series was still pretty high quality at this point. I'd guess there's slight dip in episode quality, we'll see when I write the 'official' reviews, but it's still great stuff. The golden age was such high quality that there's room to go down while still mantaining decent quality.
I'm over halfway for the first run and I'm keeping up a good pace. Only ten full seasons to go, yay!
I'm over halfway for the first run and I'm keeping up a good pace. Only ten full seasons to go, yay!
lauantai 8. toukokuuta 2010
Observations
I'm now little over eight seasons in and have already started to notice some things that needs to be said. First off I've noticed that unlike South Park there seems to be lot more variation among the fans in episode reviews. That's understandable considering The Simpsons are different kind of show to South Park, where emotions take at times the front seat. Still some reviews, for example in The Simpsons Archive, are just plain ridiculous. There really are the comic book store guy-styled guys who'll call every other episode worst episode ever. It's also very polarized - it seems that only ratings to those guys are either A or F. There's no middle ground.
It's a little silly considering that Simpsons have mantained pretty high quality for the time I've watched episodes. I only remember one or maybe two bad episodes. The rest of them are consistenly at least decent. Luckily not all reviewers are like that.
I've also noticed, that Lisa is the Cartman of The Simpsons. No, she's not jew-hating ignorant racist, I mean that she's Cartman in the sense that episodes centered to her seem to be consistently good. Same thing goes for South Park - have Cartman taking the central role and you're pretty much quaranteed to have a good episode. Though the comparisons end there and Lisa makes episodes good in completely different way than Cartman does in the South Park. Lisa is the deepest of the characters, she isn't stereotype and all the episodes she's in tend to be character-driven and emotional. If they manage to combine enough good jokes into that equation, it's great.
I also love how the Simpsons is not afraid to openly say "fuck you!" to it's fans (not literally, of course). There has been many episodes already which prove that. Just the kind of mentality I hope from the series. But that's probably all that my sleep-deprived mind have observed so far, so see ya.
It's a little silly considering that Simpsons have mantained pretty high quality for the time I've watched episodes. I only remember one or maybe two bad episodes. The rest of them are consistenly at least decent. Luckily not all reviewers are like that.
I've also noticed, that Lisa is the Cartman of The Simpsons. No, she's not jew-hating ignorant racist, I mean that she's Cartman in the sense that episodes centered to her seem to be consistently good. Same thing goes for South Park - have Cartman taking the central role and you're pretty much quaranteed to have a good episode. Though the comparisons end there and Lisa makes episodes good in completely different way than Cartman does in the South Park. Lisa is the deepest of the characters, she isn't stereotype and all the episodes she's in tend to be character-driven and emotional. If they manage to combine enough good jokes into that equation, it's great.
I also love how the Simpsons is not afraid to openly say "fuck you!" to it's fans (not literally, of course). There has been many episodes already which prove that. Just the kind of mentality I hope from the series. But that's probably all that my sleep-deprived mind have observed so far, so see ya.
keskiviikko 5. toukokuuta 2010
Season in a Day!
..actually one episode over. Seven seasons gone, 14 more to go. I'm not calling myself junkie for nothing. Now I gotta go to sleep.
tiistai 4. toukokuuta 2010
The Simpsons Junkie
Hi, I'm The Simpsons Junkie aka. South Park Nerd from my earlier blog. Last year I watched every single episode of South Park and then gave a short review for them. Now I'm doing the same project on The Simpsons.
I stated back in the South Park blog that "I love South Park, think Simpsons is good also". Wow. I only said that? I remembered that I had said more about the Simpsons, but apparently that's all I said on the whole blog. But now that I'm seven seasons in watching all of the episodes, I think that what I said is the understatement of the year! The Simpsons fuckin' rule!
It's actually funny that my activity peak for the South Park blog was May. What is it with this month that get's me doing nothing but watching cartoons all day everyday? And I mean it. That's pretty much having been it for the past few days. I've literally been junkiefied (is that a word?) by The Simpsons. I watch them constantly, feel physically bad when not watching them, think about them all the time and can't sleep because of that This happened during my first time watching through the South Parks too. I just have some weird trait of becoming obsessed about cartoons once I start watching them. Whenever I manage to fall asleep, I dream of the Simpsons. I'm not kidding, I've had dreams about The Simpsons for four nights in a row. That never even happened with the South Park!
Watching all the South Parks was a breeze. I watched all the 12 seasons that were out in late 2008 in about a week. That was pretty intense time, I would sit watching South Park for hours and hours.. Now some is happening with the Simpsons, but no hope that I could get them watched that fast. I mean, there 461 episodes! South Park just barely hit 200. Even if I'd watch a season in a day which would take around 10 hours it would still take over three weeks. Since I'm going to follow the self-inflicted rule of reviewing episode only after watching it twice, I won't be posting reviews any time soon. I'd say it will take at least a month before that.
Anyway, I felt forced to start this blog already because my head is just bursting if I'm not writing any of my thoughts down. So let's examine the differences of The Simpsons and South Park shortly.
Whereas South Park is a very funny show with good, plot-derived humor and a barrage of funny shit, The Simpsons is much more emotional show. I don't remember becoming very emotionally involved ever while watching South Park, so my main focus when reviewing it's episodes was plot-composition and jokes. With The Simpsons I've already got my eyes wet multiple times which will probably make the review process more complex. You can have an episode with only couple of good jokes, pretty standard plot but yet it can feel like you're witnessing best moments of tv-history because they manage to put so much emotion into it. When The Simpsons pull it off, they pull it of good I'm already considering on some of most memorable episodes, whether I'll rate them 10. I'll be using the same weird rating system I used for South Park. Here it is for reference:
1 = Pretty bad episode. If I remember correctly, there's only couple of these.
2 = Still bad for a South Park/The Simpsons, but If I have 22 minutes and nothing better to do, I might as well give it a watch and be entertained.
3 = Fairly decent episode. In my head, this is the lowest "positive" rating. If I liked episode overall it will be 3 or over.
4 = Good episode. Might ever be a minor classic, but doens't quite life to it's potential.
5 = The bar for "average" was set pretty high, since rating 5 episodes are all very good already. They just lack little something to make them really great.
6 = Great episode, unique or just so funny that's it's really either a classic, or I just liked it really, really much.
7 = I'm not finding enough superlatives and there's still few ratings left. This it definitely an excellent episode, and a clear classic.
8 = One of the best episodes ever.
9 = Absolutely amazing episode, that I can't get enough.
10 = Perfect episode - so far to be seen and I doubt any will ever get this rating.
If I'd be forced to convert them to normal ratings, it would probably seem like this:
1 = <5
2 = 5-6
3 = 7
4 = 7.5
5 = 8
6 = 8.5
7 = 9
8 = 9.5
9 = 9.99
10 = 10!!
Or something. So.. Yeah. Anyway, it's very top heavy rating system and rewards for the great episodes.
So which one is better show? I would not touch that with a ten feet clown pole.
I'll be back, now gotta watch some Simpsons.
I stated back in the South Park blog that "I love South Park, think Simpsons is good also". Wow. I only said that? I remembered that I had said more about the Simpsons, but apparently that's all I said on the whole blog. But now that I'm seven seasons in watching all of the episodes, I think that what I said is the understatement of the year! The Simpsons fuckin' rule!
It's actually funny that my activity peak for the South Park blog was May. What is it with this month that get's me doing nothing but watching cartoons all day everyday? And I mean it. That's pretty much having been it for the past few days. I've literally been junkiefied (is that a word?) by The Simpsons. I watch them constantly, feel physically bad when not watching them, think about them all the time and can't sleep because of that This happened during my first time watching through the South Parks too. I just have some weird trait of becoming obsessed about cartoons once I start watching them. Whenever I manage to fall asleep, I dream of the Simpsons. I'm not kidding, I've had dreams about The Simpsons for four nights in a row. That never even happened with the South Park!
Watching all the South Parks was a breeze. I watched all the 12 seasons that were out in late 2008 in about a week. That was pretty intense time, I would sit watching South Park for hours and hours.. Now some is happening with the Simpsons, but no hope that I could get them watched that fast. I mean, there 461 episodes! South Park just barely hit 200. Even if I'd watch a season in a day which would take around 10 hours it would still take over three weeks. Since I'm going to follow the self-inflicted rule of reviewing episode only after watching it twice, I won't be posting reviews any time soon. I'd say it will take at least a month before that.
Anyway, I felt forced to start this blog already because my head is just bursting if I'm not writing any of my thoughts down. So let's examine the differences of The Simpsons and South Park shortly.
Whereas South Park is a very funny show with good, plot-derived humor and a barrage of funny shit, The Simpsons is much more emotional show. I don't remember becoming very emotionally involved ever while watching South Park, so my main focus when reviewing it's episodes was plot-composition and jokes. With The Simpsons I've already got my eyes wet multiple times which will probably make the review process more complex. You can have an episode with only couple of good jokes, pretty standard plot but yet it can feel like you're witnessing best moments of tv-history because they manage to put so much emotion into it. When The Simpsons pull it off, they pull it of good I'm already considering on some of most memorable episodes, whether I'll rate them 10. I'll be using the same weird rating system I used for South Park. Here it is for reference:
1 = Pretty bad episode. If I remember correctly, there's only couple of these.
2 = Still bad for a South Park/The Simpsons, but If I have 22 minutes and nothing better to do, I might as well give it a watch and be entertained.
3 = Fairly decent episode. In my head, this is the lowest "positive" rating. If I liked episode overall it will be 3 or over.
4 = Good episode. Might ever be a minor classic, but doens't quite life to it's potential.
5 = The bar for "average" was set pretty high, since rating 5 episodes are all very good already. They just lack little something to make them really great.
6 = Great episode, unique or just so funny that's it's really either a classic, or I just liked it really, really much.
7 = I'm not finding enough superlatives and there's still few ratings left. This it definitely an excellent episode, and a clear classic.
8 = One of the best episodes ever.
9 = Absolutely amazing episode, that I can't get enough.
10 = Perfect episode - so far to be seen and I doubt any will ever get this rating.
If I'd be forced to convert them to normal ratings, it would probably seem like this:
1 = <5
2 = 5-6
3 = 7
4 = 7.5
5 = 8
6 = 8.5
7 = 9
8 = 9.5
9 = 9.99
10 = 10!!
Or something. So.. Yeah. Anyway, it's very top heavy rating system and rewards for the great episodes.
So which one is better show? I would not touch that with a ten feet clown pole.
I'll be back, now gotta watch some Simpsons.
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