Season Nine - Episodes 21-25

Episode 21: Girly Edition
An entertaining episode. There's good Bart & Lisa conflict going on and I think both of them are characterized well enough. Lisa has a jealous side in her that is the main cataclyst for action today. It might have used a little more deveploment though, but the b-plot was there to completely waste time. It could've been a bit funnier too, but it was fair in that department anyway. Premise was interesting and the plot well-built, but needless b-plot and average humor bring it down. 6/10 though.

Episode 22: Trash of the Titans
This episode was a mess and not just metaphorically. The plot is completely unsatisfying, you're not rooting for Homer at any point as he is more of an antagonist and in his most jerkass behaviour. Astounishinly some people actually like this episode. There wasn't enough fun shit to save it. There's something metaphorical about old Springfield under the trash - the Springfield of classic era. Makes you sad, even if I don't view show as terrible even as of current. The fact that compounds it's badness is that it was chosen to air as 200th episode. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? 1/10.

Episode 23: King of the Hill
An okay episode, but I feel that the potential of Homer getting in shape -plot wasn't used fully. Humor was pretty average overall and those sleazy Powersauce people weren't very memorable sidecharacters. It wasn't exactly a memorable episode, but it's not bad. I still feel I have to give this 4/10, but only for good premise executed averagely.

Episode 24: Lost Our Lisa
I don't there's really nothing wrong with this one. Premise isn't anything too ambitious, but it's still good and interesting. We see good characterizations and Lisa and Homer bond beautifully once again. Add to that decent amount of good gags and especially the painful Homer between the bridges part and we've got a very solid episode. I would say that this goes to excellent range, just because it's so well executed. Besides Homer's advice is pretty good. 7/10.

Episode 25: Natural Born Kissers
First episode written by Matt Selman who is probably the best of current Simpsons writers. And this one was great one - great premise, good plot and a truckload of fun gags. There was plenty of visual joy in this one and great subversions of normal Simpsons traditions, like Moe going "Think of the children!" There was nudity and sex-oriented stuff, but it managed to stay tasteful (not that I really care though). The subplot was fairly useless, but it didn't take up much space anyway and it did give Bart & Lisa something to do. But yeah, it's a great episode, definite 8/10 for me.

That concludes Season Nine. No matter what happens, whether or not I make it to the end, I'm happy with the pace I'm watching these. 2 days a season so far, that's pretty good. Anyway, the Season continued the downhill that started in Season Eight. The number of great episodes kept dropping and they managed to hit new lows in worse episodes. Still, it was better than Season One with average of 4.88 - but nobody ever claimed that this was the low point - this was start of the downturn that peaked during Scully era before Jean steadied the ship again. The number of quality episodes was six, significantly lower than earlier seasons. In fact it too beats only Season One.

So let's take a look on the lists again.

Averages:
Season Three 6.21
Season Four 6.18
Season Six 6.12
Season Seven 5.88
Season Five 5.73
Season Two 5.59
Season Eight 5.40
Season Nine 4.88
Season One 4.69

Great episodes:
Season Seven 13 (52 %)
Season Six 12 (48 %)
Season Three 11 (46 %)
Season Four 10 (45 %)
Season Eight 9 (36 %)
Season Five 8 (36 %)
Season Two 7 (32 %)
Season Nine 6 (24 %)
Season One 3 (23 %)

Season Ten next as we go towards the darkest era of Simpsons history - but it won't be devoid of great episodes.