Welcome back to our season-by-season look at the official Greatest TV Show of All Time. Every month, I track The Simpsons‘ development, in an attempt to identify whether each season has its own character, and whether the show really does have a clearly-defined ‘Golden Age’.
This month, change is afoot – so what does that mean for everyone’s favourite Springfieldians, and does it push The Simpsons closer to the kind of jokes and episodes we all remember?
Welcome back to our season-by-season look at the official Greatest TV Show of All Time. Every month, I track The Simpsons‘ development in an attempt to whether the show really does have a clearly-defined ‘Golden Age’. How does the second season hold up to criticisms of racist stereotyping, and how does that sit alongside the show’s burgeoning interest in politics and morality? Plus, what’s with all the fish?
After dissecting the pilot episode in the inaugural edition of Welcome Back to The OC, it’s time for us to slip into the comfortable pink tracksuit that will be our regular publication rhythm, taking in two episodes every month. This time, after the noticeably plot-light pilot, events start to heat up – quite literally in some cases…
While Alex’s first major solo project under the Tim+Alex banner concerns one of the fundamental pillars of modern pop culture, I’ve chosen something that, while perhaps not the opposite of that, is certainly diagonal from it. I’m going to be revisiting The OC, a teen drama that ran for four seasons about 15 years ago, and that is now primarily remembered for launching the career of the guy who plays Young Commissioner Gordon on Gotham and its insanely catchy theme song.
Why The OC? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself as I say down to begin this project. It’s a show I have fond memories of, certainly, but it wasn’t something that I watched religiously, certainly not past season one. The show is neither an underappreciated one season gem that was ignored at the time, nor a cultural behemoth that is still revered. It came, it kick-started the careers of some young actors, revived those of some older ones, and then it left after the appropriate amount of time. It’s not exactly crying out for a critical reappraisal. Yet here we are.
There aren’t many things in pop culture as huge as The Simpsons. In the sense of how dominant the show became as a cultural force, but also just the sheer amount of it that exists. 629 episodes as I write this, quite probably more by the time you read it.
It’s an impossible thing to hold in your head all at once, even if you have seen all of those episodes, but I reckon most people have a very specific idea of what the show is. The types of jokes, the structure of episodes, all the stuff that makes it The Simpsons.
Most people also have an idea of when it stops being, in any meaningful sense, that show. You’ll hear people talking about the Golden Years, and the darkness that has followed. No one quite agrees on the exact boundaries of this golden age, but the rough agreement seems to be seasons three to nine.
I’ve never been exactly clear on my own canon. It’s my favourite TV programme of all time – possibly my favourite thing of all time – but I’ve never watched the episodes in anything even approaching the correct order. I can reel off favourite jokes, episodes and characters, but I couldn’t pin down the era when the show feel most like The Simpsons to me.
Hence, this here project. I’m going to watch through all of the seasons in order, one a month, and report back. Starting here, now, with…
Sparkling water should have the same kind of warning labels as cigarettes so people don't buy it by accident
— Tim Maytom (@trivia_lad) June 18, 2018
But enough about my sex life... pic.twitter.com/iMmt37Ifl8
— Tim Maytom (@trivia_lad) June 16, 2018
By the end of 2018, I will have painted @AdlaiM midnight blue #PaintAdlaiBlue2018
— Tim Maytom (@trivia_lad) June 16, 2018
Tim + I have launched an eBook! A collection of all @trivia_lad's 6,000 Years of Murder pieces – an illuminated history of both #WicDiv and human civilisation. Grab it from our Patreon for $1! https://t.co/uUjEr8Ow7I
— Alex Spencer (@AlexJaySpencer) June 19, 2018
God of War is going to take me a billion years to finish because I can't stop fiddling with its Photo Mode. pic.twitter.com/ei9kzjSb6x
— Alex Spencer (@AlexJaySpencer) June 18, 2018
Finally listened to the first ep of @comicbookclass, a comics explainer podcast in the vein of @XPlaintheXmen & @JiMPodcast. Friends are involved so I was prepared to say nice things but... It's a remarkably tight 20 mins that sounds great and taught me loads about Black Panther.
— Alex Spencer (@AlexJaySpencer) June 18, 2018
In honour of #FathersDay, finally playing God of War. Discovered early doors that the camera mode lets you pick facial expressions. Not entirely sure this is how its portrayal of a father-son relationship was meant to be experienced. pic.twitter.com/ACHASIacrO
— Alex Spencer (@AlexJaySpencer) June 17, 2018
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