Toon Zone Talkback - "The Simpsons" Season 12: Not the Worst Season Ever, But Far From the Best

H

HanT

New member
This is the talkback thread for "The Simpsons" Season 12: Not the Worst Season Ever, But Far From the Best.
splash-simpsonss12.jpg


How ironic that what's called "Worst Episode Ever" is actually one of the better outings in that season.
 
Yeah but couldn't you level that criticism to some of the other episodes in the classic era?
Like in Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment where the guy reading Springfields laws just simply forgot to read more of it?

Or like in Bart's Comet everybody thinks there's no way out because the only bridge is out of town?:rolleyes2:
Couldn't they had flown by plane out of Springfield or by boat? Or I don't know, just cross the river?

For the record I find the "logic flaw" in HOMR much easier to accept then say, Springfield ditching the real Seymour Skinner, and then just deciding to illegally declare Marvin is Seymour Skinner again.

All I'm saying is it hardly seems fair to treat that kind of logic in the classic era as irrelevant. But treat it as relevant in the non-classic era.


I don't hate Mike Scully either, I actually think Season 9 is actually better then Season 8 was. But I don't put him on a pedestal either.

Also I miss the individual episode reviews you used to do for the DVD sets.

On one more note, how were the commentaries with David Mirkin and Lauren McMullen?
 
I haven't seen much of these episodes for me to fully agree or disagree, though I think I mostly can see where Speedy is coming from for the most part. I think the only one I outright disagree with is "Insane Clown Poppy". Sure, the Mafia bit may be cutting it over the edge, but Krusty's overall devotion to his daughter and his risky encounters with said Mafia to get her violin back is no less heartfelt.
 
I disagree with the topic title, actually. Though sometimes I flip and think season 11 is the worst.

I'm currently watching this season on loan from a friend, and I'm very glad I didn't pay full price for this. Other than a handful of really good episodes (and some really out of nowhere endings on otherwise good episodes) the majority just seems to be jokes thrown against a wall to see what sticks.

The commentaries are boring except for the random appearance of David Mirkin on one of my favorite eps of the season, but it was really just the same as season 10 and 11. Hopefully it changes in season 13 when Al Jean comes back as the show runner.
 
Who says I didn't have problems with those? ;) I always thought the ending to "18th Amendment" was sloppy and deus ex machina-ish, even though I loved the rest of the episode. And the "Bart's Comet" thing you mentioned also confused me. I wasn't aware Springfield was an island and nobody could swim or boat off it.

To me, the difference between something like "Bart's Comet" and "HOMR" is that the latter reflected an entire facet of Homer's personality that we've known since the beginning of the show: His intelligence. That's much harder to accept, especially since it flat-out contradicts why Homer's dumb from "Lisa the Simpson": Due to the Simpson gene (only affecting males). (And in case anyone asks, even though "Principal and the Pauper" also had a backstory that changes a character as we knew him, I thought it was more plausible and executed better than "HOMR", convenient ending aside)

For the record, I don't outright hate HOMR; act one has some good jokes at the animation convention, and some of the scenes in act three where he gets less happy as he gets smarter were well-done (I especially liked the theater scene where everyone is angry at Homer for not laughing at badly-done comedy), but that change to Homer's backstory of why he's so dumb always clouds my ability to enjoy it.

I also thought it was less than satisfying that he deliberately decided to go back to being dumb by having Moe stick the crayon back IN his nose. It's convenient wrap-up plots like this that make me see where people come from when they say one of the disadvantages of sitcoms is the characters never change, especially when the characters themselves force things back to the status quo every time.

EDIT: That practice pretty much stopped after season 8 because it was making the review too long. I suppose if you wanted, I could do some in this thread, though...
 
One thing you just gotta love about HOMR though is the statement the writers are making in it; which is basically that in order to be content with society the way it is, you really cant think to much about it, or else you break down by constantly being reminded of how messed up and just plain stupid it is. "Simpsonian" satire at it's sharpest!
 
Well I bought season 11 a good nine months after it was released, so it wouldn't have been relevant by that point. As for season 9, IIRC, I had a lot on my reviewing plate at the time (late 2006), so I wasn't going to add Simpsons on top of it.
 
One annoying trend I noticed is that The Simpsons doesn't seem to respect the intelligence of its viewers. Like in "Simpsons Safari" when Homer says that hippos are afraird of water and Lisa tries to correct him only to get interrupted. That isn't funny to me.

The joke would have worked better had Lisa not talked after Homer's hippo comment. Obviously, everyone knows that Homer is wrong and is saying something incredibly stupid. We don't need it pointed out to us by another character.

Regardless, Seasons 9-12 are still MUCH better than 13-today but don't hold a candle to 1-8 either.
 
I disagree with that. Season 14-16 in particular have a lot of underrated episodes that beat pretty much anything in season 11 and 12. Mainly because there isn't anything as brain insultingly bad like Simpson Safari or Kill The Alligator & Run in them.
 
I thought Lisa The Simpson was contradicted by the fact that Homer has a brother that is a pretty successful businessman. And by the fact that in the future, Bart becomes a supreme court justice. I wouldn't call either of them failures. Though that doesn't stop me from finding enjoyment in Lisa The Simpson. Same thing with HOMR.

I thought Principal and the Pauper was good to a certain point due to the fact that it handled the entire situation with an air of seriousness. But the ending kills it for me as it conveniently tosses the air of seriousness out the window, because they couldn't figure out how to end it properly.
Of course convenient endings became a crutch used in Scully & Jean's era too many times. But stuff like that started with Oakley & Weinstein. Though to be fair, the later didn't fall back on it as a crutch the way the former did.
 
I stopped watching after the first half of Season 15. Everyone has their breaking point and that was mine. I give credit to those who hung on longer.

Except for the movie, I haven't seen any full Simpsons episodes or material produced in the last four years.

EDIT: It was actually Season 17 when I stopped watching. My mistake.
 
Very well, you guys asked for it. :p Since I don't feel like repeating myself, I'll only address the episodes I didn't bring up at all in the review.

* Treehouse of Horror XI: Ghost Dad had some mildly amusing bits ("No, you're thinking of Santa Claus", "It tries to warn you itself with its terrible taste!", "I'm pretty sure she was gonna be the next Hitler."), but remains largely forgettable. "Scary Tales Can Come True" feels tired. "Night of the Dolphin" is probably the strongest here (I did like the dolphin chirping but then clearing his throat and speaking normally, as well as The Birds parody), but admittedly that's not saying much. Better than THOH X, but not by a whole lot. At least we didn't have Bart and Homer exploding in space.

* Tennis the Menace: It has some good jokes ("We have all the latest brands of anti-stink spray"; "Never ever ever. EVER.") and is actually better than such a plot would suggest (THE SIMPSONS GET A TENNIS COURT! HILARITY ENSUES!), but doesn't feel particularly inspired. And Homer's incredibly dumb in this one. Not bad, though. And it looks miles sharper than any episode this season, though, thanks to the digital coloring.

* New Kids on the Blecch: I used to like this one a lot, but not quite as much now. The boy band stuff seems kind of dated now that NSync and Backstreet Boys aren't relevant, and now that I think about it, the so-called subliminal messaging isn't even that subliminal: Anyone could see that it was just "join the Navy" spelled backwards, and the songs were pretty obvious propaganda. I think even the young kids they were targeting would question, "Why are so many of their songs about the military?" So it's not a GREAT satire on that kind of thing. Still, I do enjoy some jokes in this one, like "We're not signing anything.... unless it's a contract" and "Orange drink?! What, do you live with your mama?", as well as Lisa being seen walking on the street after Lt. Smash says he can't let Lisa leave. B-/C+ range.

* Hungry Hungry Homer: Strangely, I can never remember much about this outing. It's not particularly awful or flat-out hilarious; it's just kinda there. Which is a shame, considering it was supposedly penned by Swartzwelder. I did like the random kid's reaction to Blockoland on the ad, though: "It was all right, I guess..." What a ringing endorsement.

* Bye, Bye Nerdie: A noticeable improvement in dynamic direction, thanks to Lauren MacMullan. Many of the jokes are timed well, like the bus just inches away from the bus stop sign, then scooting ahead to reach the sign. And the baby proofing subplot is quite amusing, especially "Get 'er outta here..." and the saleswoman's pitch ("Your baby is DEAD!"). The third act drops the ball, though, with the quite implausible theory that jocks are angered by a chemical on all nerds. Yeah, it has nothing to do with psychology, nothing at all.
 
One of thing that's turned me off of newer Simpsons episodes is how gross the show has become. The last episode I ever watched featured a scene where Skinner is rubbing some sort of cream on his mother's open eye. *barf*

What's the point of a scene like that? It's not funny and just makes the audience at home want to lose their dinner.
 
That part and the "Superliminal advertising" were hilarious, but I agree with you. I actually used to like this one, but it's dated horribly since Boyband popularity has nosedived.

Still, L.T. Smash had some great moments.
 
For me, the one thing that comes to mind about him was when Lisa revealed that he was Lt. Smash instead of L.T. Smash. He responds with, "That's right, Lt. L.T. Smash." I don't know why, but I find that hilarious...
 
I believe that was from "Marge's Son Poisoning", season 17.

I have a high tolerance for gross humor, but as I mentioned in my review, I still hate the gag where Homer's scab heals around Ralph's hand. Gag me. They even acknowledged on the commentary that a lot of fans hated that joke. Yeah, just another good "screw you" joke. I don't know if The Simpsons was the first show to use that kind of humor, but they arguably perfected it.
 
The only thing that really bothered me about season 12 was that they started doing more "gross-out" humor/gags (granted,they've always had some,especially in the "Itchy and Scratchy" cartoons,but these just seemed like overkill)...I hated Homer's scab growing over Ralph's hand,but the grossest thing for me was in "A Tale of Two Springfields",where after a badger attack,Homer lifts up his shirt to reveal that his stomach/chest has been ripped open and his internal organs are visible....
I also didn't like the episode about the Comic Book Guy...I dunno,he's just always kind of annoyed me,so I didn't really like it...

As for likes,I did like this season's "Treehouse of Horror"...The first part,where Homer dies after eating broccoli and has to perform a good deed in order to get into Heaven still makes me laugh....

Homer: MAAARRRGEEE SIIIIMPPSSSONN....

Marge: Oh Homie,I thought I'd never see you again...

Homer: Youuu were wrooonnng Maaarrrge...DEAD wronnggg...

Marge: Do you really have to talk like that?

Homer:.... No,not really...
#####
after performing said "good deed"

St Peter: Sorry,I wasn't looking

Homer: Hey,I thought you guys could see everything

St Peter: No,you're thinking of Santa Claus

Homer: Well,I'll be damned...

St Peter: Yes,I'm afraid so...

Most of the other episodes were alright,enjoyable if not laugh out loud funny ( though HOMR,New Kids on the Blecch,and The Computer Wore Menace Shoes also make me laugh alot)...
 
I was introduced to the Simpsons during Seasons 10-12, but thanks to seeing them jumbled around with syndicated episodes (I never realized I was watching new episodes on Sundays), I pretty much viewed anything between Seasons 2-12 as one giant pile of episodes rather than from specific seasons, so I pretty much love these episodes as much as, say, Seasons 4 and 5. I think there's still a few more seasons before I had noticed a dip in quality, so I'll definitely be buying the next few sets.

I always liked the scab gag. :sweat: "It knows you're afraid..."
 
Back
Top