Season Two Episodes 20-22

Episode 20: The War of the Simpsons
Decent episode, nothing special but it has few laughs and good plot. The marriage crisis plot is one we've seen million times since so it doesn't feel very fresh, that said it should be given the benefit of the doubt as this was an early episode. The scene in the retreat with the three pairs was a decent one. The kids subplot was somewhat funny aswell, but I don't think even it used it's full potential. Both plots were pretty straightforward, but ending was decent anyway. In all it's averageness it is good enough to get rate 4/10. It's just another well-made episode. I guess "basic" is the word I'm looking for.

Episode 21: Three Men and a Comic Book
Another pretty basic episode, but once again made pretty well. It satirizes comics well and the Comic Book Guy makes his first appearance - though his voice still sounds a little off, but that's acceptable. I loved Bartman and there was some decent stuff when Bart worked his ass off to get two quarters, but in the end it got a little out of hand. That said even then it had some funny stuff like Homer's "they're fine". It's also loaded with references - most of which I didn't get, so I guess I should re-review it on some point in the future. For now, it's solid 4/10.

Episode 22: Blood Feud
Perhaps there's no moral to this episode. But it certainly was a memorable 20 or so minutes. It's a season finale for a great season, so in a sense it perhaps should been even a bit better, that said it was a good episode. I don't know.. There isn't anything particularly excellent about the episode, but it isn't mediocre on any front either. Just pretty well-rounded episode to finish season twenty. The stand-out moment perhaps for me was the Marge's remembering of everything about her family - in fact it got me thinking if this was some of the classics, but then it just turned out an isolated moment. Funniest bit on the other hand for me was the hilarious Smithers playing banjo. The ending was surprising - or would've been if this weren't my second viewing. It was too memorable to forget in five months. It's a solid 5/10 for this one and that's the Season Two for you.

So in the end that's Season Two - I'm actually amazed how quickly the show got great. For South Park it took few seasons to got off and it wasn't really until fourth season before they hit the golden era. I knew that Season Two was already considered golden era for Simpsons, but I thought it would be lower end of the golden era.. Well, perhaps it is, but it still averaged astounding 5,55 average. It's already better than South Park ever got to. What makes it even more impressive is the fact that they churned out 22 episodes for second season and still managed to maintain quality. There's only one mediocre episode and others are high class stuff. On the other hand, since my ratings reward extra from great episodes, having more episodes in a season mean more chances to get the rating up. I guess I'd need to investigate how it really changes the dynamic or does it change it at all.

Let's start building a list like in the other blog:
Season Two 5.55
Season One 4.69

Season Three next. I don't remember much of that season, there's a few classics that I recognize instantly and I know that they put out quality during golden era - I simply don't remember much of the individual episodes barring few exceptions. I expect close battle with Season Two - with normal curve it should just edged it. We'll see in next few days where my rating peak is, but it's the consensus that Simpsons peaked around seasons 6-8, so there should still be loads of room for improvement.