I watched the Simpsons a lot as a kid. Not sure if I've seen 5 episodes from this century. I just don't find it funny. BUT, I will poke in to Season 6 or 7 and see what's going on.
I didn't watch much Frasier, perhaps I was too young to appreciate it.
I don't list any sitcoms among my favorite shows. Or liked shows, really. I absolutely love Curb Your Enthusiasm, but not even a Seinfeld guy.
Ended up being a great show that holds up well on rewatches. It might even be better on watch #2. One of the few shows that didn't decline significantly between any seasons. Ended strong. A big part of that is their willingness to end the show when they told the story they wanted to tell instead of stringing it along. Would recommend.
10/10
2. Community
I remembered the later seasons not being good and it made me think back on the show as being only ok. Rewatch reminded me that the first three seasons were excellent. Season four was a steep decline but not as bad as I remembered. I actually liked it a lot more than seasons 5-6. Falls victim to the common problem of characters that start off with depth being pigeonholed into one specific character trait which makes the later seasons lose a lot of the charm. At least they acknowledge it with a joke or two down the stretch. Chang specifically goes from a pretty fun crazy in the first season to just not very entertaining or funny by season 4. The show lost writers (the Russo Brothers were part of it) and cast members throughout (Don Glover the biggest loss but Chevy Chase was solid in his role as well) so it's hard to really blame them but if you stopped watching after season 3 you wouldn't miss much.
Seasons 1-3: 9.5/10
Seasons 4-6: 5/10
Overall: 8/10 (the good far outweighs the bad and it's never quite unwatchable)
3. Parks and Rec
Sometimes a show you enjoyed when it aired just doesn't hold up on rewatch years later (hi friends!). This isn't one of those. Leslie and Ron are excellent characters. Plenty of hilarious moments. Despite losing parts of the cast throughout the seasons it still stays strong. One of my favorite episodes is in the later seasons (the bachelor party) and it really sticks the finale (both the actual finale and the "unity concert" one from the next to last season that could have been a finale). Definitely glad I rewatched this one.
9/10
Now I'm working through Arrested Development again.
When I find myself taking the negative side of a Simpsons argument, even while trying to heap praise upon it, it’s hard to shake the feeling that mistakes were made.
Yeah we golden years fans have issues. I personally watched 4 episodes a day every weekday for about 8 years straight, because I was in a city with two stations that ran them in syndication twice nightly.
I'm quite confident I can follow along during an episode and recite 90% of the episodes from S3-S8 from memory. I had to have seen those 150 or so episodes anywhere from 10-35 times each.
They wouldn't have been in that spot if not for the called strike 1!
I realize this would be the counter-argument. I can’t summon the energy to find it on emulator and strike out swinging on each pitch on purpose, but I’m fairly sure he yells at the ump in that spot too.
I realize this would be the counter-argument. I can’t summon the energy to find it on emulator and strike out swinging on each pitch on purpose, but I’m fairly sure he yells at the ump in that spot too.
So from the first 16 episodes of season 6 of The Simpsons (and I guess just ignoring the existence of a clip show in E03):
Bart of Darkness, Sideshow Bob Roberts, Treehouse of Horror V, Homer Badman, and Homer the Great are elite episodes.
Lisa's Rival, Itchy & Scratchy Land, and Bart's Girlfriend are great.
Homie the Clown is good.
Lisa on Ice, Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy, Fear of Flying, And Maggie Makes Three, and Bart vs. Australia are varying degrees of fine.
The above is a really strong resume of a 16-episode run of TV. It has still felt like it has represented something of a drop-off from the prior seasons (at least once the show hit its stride in season 2).
Favorite single moment or line is way tougher. "And then I'll pull my arms out with my face" quickly comes to mind, but I think I may have laughed harder at, "But ice cream cake."
If anyone gets the chance to try St. Elmo's cocktail sauce, it's pretty much life-changing. Beyond the Elmo-owned restaurants in Indy, you can get it in stores around here, though I'm not sure if it has national distribution.
I'm generally anti-spicy, but this stuff is great. You get a pretty epic initial bite of spiciness and then it passes quickly. I don't recommend paying the ransom that Amazon asks since it's twice what I pay in the store, though I see a six-pack can be had that equals out to about a store price per bottle.
Alright, I'm through two seasons of Veep, and I've gotta say...I don't get the raves. It's fine. It's kind of funny (with infrequent isolated moments of being truly hilarious). I don't think it's a bad show, but I sure don't see many signs that it's a great one.
Color me disappointed that we never got around to arranging that fistfight in the Foxwoods parking lot after all the back and forth vitriol being spewed at each other across several different threads
Mainstream groupthink has people believing the Simpsons jumped the shark way earlier than they actually did.
Simpsons were still making elite seasons through 11 for sure, and you can find amazing stuff sprinkled in through season 14ish. And the misses aren't even terrible.
Great s10+ episodes worth watching if you haven't seen them. Those bolded I especially love, and think they are some of the best/funniest of the series.
10:
When You Dish Upon a Star Mayored to the Mob
Wild Barts Can't be Broken
Homer to the Max
Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo
11:
Beyond Blunderdome
Eight Misbehavin
Grift of the Magi
Pygmoelian
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge Behind the Laughter
12:
Homer vs Dignity
Computer wore Menace Shoes New Kids on the Blecch Trilogy of Error
13:
Hunka Hunka Burns in Love Jaws Wired Shut
Weekend at Burnsie's