I was hesitant to give this the rating I did, but from reading other audience reviews, my review actually will come across as far more... lenient. What can I say that hasn't been said already, the golden age of The Simpsons (seasons 3-8) is flawless television. Going through it again, it was awe inspiring to me how they manage to structure joke upon joke upon joke upon joke, something that must've been a complete breath of fresh air considering the boring, lifeless, milk-toast excuses for comedy shows that were coming around at that time. Yeah, those ones using canned laughter which relied completely on actors and people being loud as an excuse to be funny with a roaring laughter every 5 seconds spoon feeding the audience of when to laugh, with an exception of Seinfeld these were just boring shows for boring people, The Simpsons was intelligent, heart felt, structured and most of all... FUNNY.
However, all good things must come to an end. In an ideal scenario, The Simpsons ended on season 10 and season 9 didn't include the infamous 'The Principal and The Pauper', it lives its legacy as one of the greatest TV shows of all time and is passed down from generation to generation. Sure, the season 9 and 10 weren't golden age material, they were still solid entries in The Simpsons canon but then from season 11, things started to drastically change, we were getting episodes which would've been some of the weaker episodes in a golden age era season that were the best episodes of the season they were actually in. Sure, season 13 was pretty good but the show was tanking in quality almost directly after, pretty much season 14 onwards was terrible (not to mention the really bland movie). Now we're on the 31st season, the show is just completely unwatchable, the best episodes are mediocre and boring and the worst episodes are... 'Lisa Goes Gaga' (if you know what I mean). The show, at this point, is almost completely unrecognisable, a mere slight resemblance of what it once was (even the animation sucks nowadays), that's why it's so damn difficult to rate this show, at the same time it's one of my favourite and least favourite shows, the show should've ended 20 years ago, you can't keep lightning in a bottle for that long, it's not a show that is relevant to today's cultural landscape, it would be so much more respected if it had ended on its 10th season. That's why I can't in good conscience rate this show the 9 or 10/10 that I want to... but the only reason I'm giving it a 7 over a 5 is because even though there is more bad than good of The Simpsons (more signals for it to just end), the golden age is some of the best television to have ever been constructed and cannot be ignored.
Here's how I'd rate the seasons: Season 1 - 8/10 Season 2 - 8/10 Season 3 - 9/10 Season 4 - 9/10 Season 5 - 10/10 Season 6 - 10/10 (best season) Season 7 - 9/10 Season 8 - 8/10 Season 9 - 8/10 Season 10 - 7/10 Season 11 - 6/10 Season 12 - 6/10 Season 13 - 7/10 Season 14 - 5/10 Season 15 - 4/10 Season 16 - 5/10 Season 17 - 4/10 Season 18 - 4/10 Season 19 - 4/10 Season 20 - 6/10 Season 21 onward - 2/10
However, all good things must come to an end. In an ideal scenario, The Simpsons ended on season 10 and season 9 didn't include the infamous 'The Principal and The Pauper', it lives its legacy as one of the greatest TV shows of all time and is passed down from generation to generation. Sure, the season 9 and 10 weren't golden age material, they were still solid entries in The Simpsons canon but then from season 11, things started to drastically change, we were getting episodes which would've been some of the weaker episodes in a golden age era season that were the best episodes of the season they were actually in. Sure, season 13 was pretty good but the show was tanking in quality almost directly after, pretty much season 14 onwards was terrible (not to mention the really bland movie). Now we're on the 31st season, the show is just completely unwatchable, the best episodes are mediocre and boring and the worst episodes are... 'Lisa Goes Gaga' (if you know what I mean). The show, at this point, is almost completely unrecognisable, a mere slight resemblance of what it once was (even the animation sucks nowadays), that's why it's so damn difficult to rate this show, at the same time it's one of my favourite and least favourite shows, the show should've ended 20 years ago, you can't keep lightning in a bottle for that long, it's not a show that is relevant to today's cultural landscape, it would be so much more respected if it had ended on its 10th season. That's why I can't in good conscience rate this show the 9 or 10/10 that I want to... but the only reason I'm giving it a 7 over a 5 is because even though there is more bad than good of The Simpsons (more signals for it to just end), the golden age is some of the best television to have ever been constructed and cannot be ignored.
Here's how I'd rate the seasons: Season 1 - 8/10 Season 2 - 8/10 Season 3 - 9/10 Season 4 - 9/10 Season 5 - 10/10 Season 6 - 10/10 (best season) Season 7 - 9/10 Season 8 - 8/10 Season 9 - 8/10 Season 10 - 7/10 Season 11 - 6/10 Season 12 - 6/10 Season 13 - 7/10 Season 14 - 5/10 Season 15 - 4/10 Season 16 - 5/10 Season 17 - 4/10 Season 18 - 4/10 Season 19 - 4/10 Season 20 - 6/10 Season 21 onward - 2/10