Simpsons Season 26 Review: Clown in the Dumps

"All animals can scream"

"Clown in the Dumps"

     Welcome, welcome! I'm here to talk about season 26 of The Simpsons. I am a huge Simpsons fan. Perhaps you didn't know that? Well, I've loved The Simpsons for a long time, since I was probably five-or-six years old. I would religiously watch them every Sunday night. It was the best thirty minutes of the week. As the years went on, and as I got older, I started to realize something: The Simpsons, a show which once could absolutely do no wrong, was starting to do some wrong. As the season numbers climbed, the quality fell. I watched every season in its entirety, every Sunday, until probably season 16 or 17. Since then, I've only seen a handful of new episodes from those seasons onwards. I know they haven't been great. Some I've seen have been downright BAD. It sucks when a beloved show starts to show its age. Unfortunately, they started showing their age ten years ago. However, I've decided to tune in to the newest episodes. I know I'm very late, but I'm going to do a weekly write up of the newest season of the Simpsons, its 26th. I believe I can give an interesting perspective on these episodes. So, if you're jaded on the Simpsons, but you want to know what's going on with them recently, tune back in weekly (most likely the Mondays after they air). Since I'm I think seven episodes behind, I will try to post several this week, to try to catch up. Anyway, enough jibba-jabba. Let's watch this shit (that was harsh. It's probably not shit, right? Right?)



    It seems, as the Simpsons go on and on, they feel the need to make their couch gag segments longer and longer. Not just longer, though, but more obnoxious and dumb. This episode, the premier of season 26, has an incredibly long couch gag. In fact, I timed it. From the start of the couch gag, until the opening credits (before the episode starts), is 1:43! Remember when couch gags were four-or-five seconds long? And sometimes they were creative and funny? Well, at any rate, I actually really like this opening. It is incredibly long, but it's so UNBELIEVABLY  bizarre and nonsensical, it's pretty entertaining. It's The Simpsons in the far future!




Marge Simpson!

    Let's get down to the real meat of the episode: it centers around the death of a Springfield resident. Apparently, this fact had really been played up, and a lot of hype was created in the days and weeks before the premier. Who could it be? A main character? Wouldn't that be exciting? Even an integral side character? Character deaths have worked, to varying degrees, on the show before. I was unaware of any of this hype, however. I didn't bother paying attention to season 26 until a few weeks after it started. So, who died?

... 

... 

... 

..? 

 Ugh, Krusty's dad, Hyman Krustofsky. What a huge letdown. This is a character that has only been in a few episodes, and I personally find him to be a very weak character. Hardly worthy of the hype, pre-episode.
    Okay, so a character dies. A barely-there character. How is the episode itself? Unfortunately, it's not great. The main story of Krusty grieving his father's death while also trying to figure out who he himself is, and if his father ever respected him, is DECENT at very best. It really just screams of retreading old ground. It's very hard for the Simpsons, in their 26th year, not to retread old ground, but at least do it with a better character. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Krusty. One of the show's strongest characters. However, episodes that focus on him I generally don't like. And episodes that focus on him and his father's relationship I really don't care for. Even going back to the "golden era", season three episode "Like Father, Like Clown", where Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky is introduced, is bereft of many laughs. One of my least favorites of that season. Back to the current, the main story has a little bit of heart at least. The B-story, which shows Lisa being very concerned for her own dad's health, really just sucks. There are no laughs, or real emotion, to be had.
    This is a pretty crappy premiere. I'm not sure what I really expected from this episode. Honestly, not much. I expect very little from The Simpsons these days. It's damn tragic, actually. I'm hoping maybe the upcoming episodes will be a little better than this one (I've watched two others so far. I will say the Halloween episode is actually fairly decent and creative). I mean, a bad premiere doesn't spell disaster for the entire season, does it? I personally dislike the premier to season five, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet". Perhaps one of my least favorite "golden era" episodes. [Note: I'm going to continue using quotes around the phrase "golden era", because I don't think anyone can completely agree exactly what era that was. For me, personally, I'd say seasons 3-9 are my "golden era". Seasons 1 and 2 are good, and 10 is good (11+ have good episodes as well, but that's definitely when the downturn happened), but 3-9 are basically all gold. They could do no wrong in that time.] So, with all this rambling, I'm going to summarize my feelings in a brief few words: few laughs, sub-par story, really bad B-story, lame character death. Bam, that's all you need. I'm going to actually rate these episodes, so I'm going to give it a...

4/10

    But, have no fear! All is not lost. There were actually a few good things about this episode! Here is a rundown of the random notes/quotes I wrote about this episode:

• Firstly, isn't Krusty illiterate? How does he read the teleprompter in the beginning?
• I also thought it was funny that Krusty laments that everyone thinks he's past his prime. Sure sounds an awful lot like a certain TV show past its prime in its 26th season...
• Sideshow Bob has a very brief, but good, cameo. I liked it
• I actually laughed a bit at Krusty solving the Rubik's cube in like three seconds, hoping it would occupy hours of his time
• Also, Bart trying to show Krusty every episode of his show was funny. Especially Krusty's decades-long running gag (unintentional running gag, that is) about celebrities sitting on people
• The Jewish Heaven segment is kind of clever.
• Also, Rodney Dangerfield sitting next to Jesus in the Super VIP section of Jewish Heaven was a nice touch.
• The only quote I thought was worthy of including:
• Krusty: "No no no no, I don't deserve the pre-recorded applause of children long-gone."

    I hope you've enjoyed reading about the premiere episode of the 26th season of The Simpsons. Hopefully we can have some fun this year. That's a big HOPEFULLY, unfortunately, but what the hell, I'll give them one more benefit of the doubt!

The sign reads, "The Whole Store Is a Complaint Department"