I watched a new episode of The Simpsons (a 2010? a 2012?) last night. I have never seen this episode before, but I'm sure I've seen at least 2 other episodes exactly like it. The plot was: Homer disappoints Lisa who rejects him, so Homer has to redeem himself. Didn't they do this in an episode involving a museum and another episode involving Lisa's Saxophone? Of all the episodes that did this story idea, this episode did it the laziest. The writers just didn't care to tell a story. The conflict was established too late, and the conclusion came too easily. I imagine some writer just had a lot of ideas for jokes and built a story around it. In fact, for the first half of the episode, Homer had his own story which had no plot of its own and was irrelevant to the main story wherein he helped people to breakup with their boy/girl friends.
I'm actually very good at calming my busy mind and getting to sleep at night, but last night I couldn't help myself. Here is the solution to The Simpsons' sucking.
STORY, STORY, STORY (or fire ALL the current writing staff and/or whoever is in charge!). What is needed is a new spark of passion for the series.
It's all about the story. Even in comedy, the humor should take a backseat to the story. People will only care about a interesting character with nothing going on for so long before losing interest. You need to write good stories again. That's what made The Simpsons so damn good to begin with. At this point, The Simpsons are as bad as M. Knight Shyamalan who is still pathetically coasting on "...from the creator of The Sixth Sense." The Simpsons was conceived to satirize the traditional American family. How about changing to reflect the changes in our culture? Now that the you've already satirized the traditional American family, now let's satirize something else.
How about satirizing what it's like to be a middle class American family in a slowly deteriorating culture?
It's one thing to make jokes about how little Americans care about disaster victims, but how about actually trying to make your audience empathize with disaster victims? What if a volcano sprouted out of the ground in Springfield. No, it doesn't have to be reasonable or permanently effect The Simpsons setting. How does Bart handle this? He'd initially he happy about not having to go to school, but then he finally understands what it's like to go without food, water, clean clothes, privacy, etc. How does Bart deal with this? Does he grow stronger, wiser, more mature? Does he become compassionate? Is he scarred for life? What if Maggie and Lisa get separated from the rest of the family and each other? What if Homer get's injured and is temporarily disabled?
Remember when Mr. Burns made a giant disc to block Springfield off from the sun? How crazy was that? When was the last time you did something so creative or surreal? What if a new restaurant opened up and the owner begins deliberately poisoning everyone just because he's a sick wacko? Which characters can we still learn more about? What are some character combinations we've never seen before? What if Seymour Skinner, Mr. Burns, and The Comic Book Guy discover E.T.s together? Paranormal stuff is the new Magic in our society. What if grandpa Simpson dies and is brought back to life by mad science?
How about inserting new, permanent change? How about some story arcs? Maybe the kids should finally get promoted in school? What if Lisa breaks her nose and gets an embarrassing, disfiguring bump in the bridge which she has to live with for the rest of her life? In a forgotten series called Mission Hill, Andy was supposed to get a new job every 14 or so episodes. Maybe Homer should finally get fired from the nuclear plant for good and have to go on a permanent series of job transitions. What would that be like for Homer? Would he be able to tell his family? If so, how many episodes would he hide it? Who finds out and when? How does his family react? Does Marge have to get a job and also have to begin a series of job transitions? This reflects the state of our economy and country. Tell the story of how Abe Simpson is getting by in our economy. What is is like for people living in his position?
Tell some stories, please. If not, I'm sure there's a few prospective TV writers who would appreciate a turn. Take a page from the book of Kevin Smith who has given up movie making because he lost his creative passion, because that's the time to do so. How about we try creating a brand new American classic?
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