Everyone always says to only watch the first 8 seasons of The Simpsons, but I gave 9 a try and it’s my favorite by a mile. It’s hit after hit, and way funnier than 7 & 8. Just because some blogs and video essays say it’s the beginning of the end doesn’t mean you should be an npc and agree with them. If Harry Shearer wasn’t so pissy about The Principal and the Pauper, an episode that doesn’t even retcon anything we knew about Skinner, Season 9 would be in everyone’s Top 3.
I loved it up to ~14 t-b-h, people will be heavily biased based on their initial watching experience
It's good for a couple more seasons after 8.
I think Lisa Goes Gaga is the most hated episode and then one that drove off even the people watching it on inertia alone.
That's well into season 23.
You could make it up to there, but you won't have a good time most of the way to that episode though,
You only need to watch until season 11.
I guess the more exaggerated tone and less character nuance put off some veterans back then, but it really is a damn good season in its own right (and what's come since makes it look like even more of a comedic masterpiece).
I've always wondered what makes 12 so much worse that some prevent against it while still pushing for 10 and 11 which are almost exactly the same in hit/misses ratios and tone.
I remember Tale of Two Springfields for having a joke I didn't get until I was older (something like "Thanks to mayor Simpsons, tonight we'll all be taking GOLDEN showers!"), New Kids on the Blecch has Yvan Eht Nioj which was kinda cute,
That's 2 episodes out of 20+ and they're not actually episodes I recommend, but just 'there was this thing in that episode that was kinda neat'
Valid, appreciate the direct reply. Season 12 as a whole just seems almost interchangeable with 11 for me far as its humor, tone, overall quality and such. 11's one victory is that 12 doesn't have any episode as good as Behind The Laughter
Why the hell did I think that Behind the Laughter was season 12? Yeah stop at 11 then. Season 12 has no actual good episodes aside from Trilogy of Error, just a lot of unremarkable mediocrity. The only other jokes I can remember from that season are Yvan Eht Nioj and superliminal.
>I've always wondered what makes 12 so much worse
Panda rape?
Dignity is bottom of the barrel for sure but so are Florida alligators and elf disc jokeys
Once the show switches to digital coloring in season 14 is usually my cutoff point.
>Season 9 would be in everyone’s Top 3.
You're a fricking Redditor who unironically likes Bob's Burgers, aren't you?
What is it between this manufactured hostility with Redditors and b/tards?
I don't get it. >(Double spaced to annoy you.)
9 is the end of golden age. Show is still good for a while after that. And well after that there are episodes I like. I have a soft spot for the episode when Milhouse's parents are lost at sea or when Flander's move out.
* 8 is the end of golden age. 9 starts the silver age.
Sounds like you just have no taste.
Homer starts out as a semi-normal dad who cares a lot about the family being "normal" and successful, and kind of transitions into a more relaxed fun-loving and emotional guy who doesn't sweat that stuff. "Homer's Enemy" is basically the culmination of this character arc, and also is the beginning of "Jerkass Homer", so it's a good endpoint for the Golden Age.
Jerkass Homer lasts from season 9 to the movie. There are good bits, but the show is cleared past the golden age.
The show bottomed out in the mid 20s, with Lisa Goes Gaga. That was the era with the most episodes people actively hated
It's been on an "uptick" (in that there's a lot less rage-inducingly bad episodes but it's still meh) in season 33 and 34, which is starting to be the Niceass Homer era, as new writers make the show less about inter-family drama and more about them sticking together in a cruel and uncaring world.
there is not one standard, lots of people say watch til season 9, or til 12 or 13.
i also point out that the show got briefly better between 2010 and 2015 or so. not good enough to keep watching, just an anomaly.
"Remember The Simpsons, seasons one through nine?" is a lyric in the satirical Ready Player One song, so I'm pretty sure season 9 was "canonized" all along, despite what you were told.
I had no idea what you were referring to so I just looked it up and its simultaneously extremely awful and extremely awesome.
I think people say to stop at 8 because if you do, you will never see a bad Simpsons episode (unless you count the clip shows). Season 9 has a couple stinkers, but you're right, there's some really great ones, too. Imagine missing out on The Cartridge Family, New York vs. Homer Simpson, or Das Bus because someone on the internet told you to stop watching a show even though you currently liked it.
I remember for a while there everyone was missing out on NY vs. HS albeit not because the internet said so
Is not in a top 5 but the seething of S9-12 has a reason
>Nerds spent since S5 that the show stop to be good
>It has too much status quo changes
>Weird pacing and sometimes too homercentric
>South park was the cool series to like
>Writers like Ian weren't simpson fans(he also said woman shouldn't be in the writers room)
Scully era Simpsons is like the back half of King of the Hill in that it's still watchable but it's a noticeable decline in quality and far more inconsistent. I don't think I'd ever tell anyone to just stop after season 8 but simply know that for every good or great episode, you're getting at least one unremarkable one with a few outright bad episodes per season, including some of the absolute worst in the pre-zombification era (Homer vs. Dignity, Kill the Alligator and Run, Saddlesore Galactica, etc.). I WOULD insist that you stop watching with Behind the Laughter which is the last Scully episode and probably the best ending that the show could have had, plus season 12 has one of my favorite gags (The Christmas That Almost Wasn't But Then Was).