Data Is Beautiful

I agree with the graphic.

However, I recently completed a straight watch-thru of every Simpsons episode, and while watching the lackluster episodes from seasons ~20-~30, I have to acknowledge one thing:

Quality of the show and its writing have noticeably improved since around Season 32.

The most recent episodes feel more centered on the family and much less on bizarre cameos and really outrageous situations. It actually feels like a show about the Simpson family and treats the characters more age-appropriately.

I don’t like that they lost/recast established voices of minority characters (Apu, Carl, Dr. Hibbert, etc), I do think the quality and the focus of the show is much better than it has been in almost 2-decades.

I'm not disputing that The Simpsons declined in quality, but I do kind of question the high scores for the first season or two.

I'm not a superfan or anything, but my perception of the show was that it took 3 or 4 seasons to really get good?

For anyone wondering the top rated episodes here, all at 9.2 are:

S5E2 Cape Feare
S6E6 Treehouse of Horror V
S6E25 Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part One
S8E2 You Only Move Twice

And just as I was finishing that, I noticed that one episode has a 9.3, d'oh!

S8E23 Homer's Enemy

The first two sub-6.0 episodes are clip shows.

wiki S06E03:

"Another Simpsons Clip Show" is the third episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 25, 1994. In the episode, Marge reads a romance novel in bed, and it prompts her to have a family meeting, where the Simpson family recall their past loves in form of clips from previous episodes.

wiki S09E11:

"All Singing, All Dancing" is the eleventh episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 4, 1998. In the fourth Simpsons clip show, Homer claims he hates singing, so Marge shows family videos of musical numbers from previous seasons. The episode is in the form of a sung-through musical, featuring spoken dialogue only at the start and end of the episode. The original material was directed by Mark Ervin and written by Steve O'Donnell. It was executive produced by David Mirkin. It features guest appearances from George Harrison, Patrick Stewart and Phil Hartman, although these are all clips and none of them recorded original material for the episode.

I'm just nitpicking but why are 7.7 and 6.6 arbitrary the thresholds for the colour change? Also, why is one 6.6 red while another two are yellow?

Comedy has changed in 31 years. So has humour in general, and so has writing.

The Simpsons is never going to be the same as it was over the seasons because that's not how culture works. Meanwhile, the reviews are mostly coming from long time viewers who lament that it's not like it "used to be".

Shows change. Get over it.

Isn't it also just because it's old and people get bored of it? People crave new things, and even if it's just as good as in the beginning, it'll get lower ratings because it's not new anymore.

I remember quite some years ago i was like "i'm finally going to watch southpark". And people were already complaining about how the latest seasons were worse than the first seasons. Watched a ton of seasons in a short period, and honestly can't say the later seasons felt any worse than the first ones when you're not bored of the series yet. Now so many years later when i watch some more southpark, it's not as fun as when i started watching it since the "it's new and exciting" feeling is long gone.

The last few seasons had a big jump in plot quality imho, with some exceptional episodes. But also yes, 10 years ago entire seasons felt comparatively bland & empty. I also feel like I would rate early seasons a bit lower today than at the time.

What's up with that one bad episode in season 6?

What happened at episode 23.22?!

Would love to see this mapped to who the primary writers and producers are on each episode. I wonder if there are patterns.

A very nice wave seeing the series decline... The only problem with it is it seems a little skewed to have 5.5 in strong red...

Homer no!! That's Elon Musk! One of the world's greatest inventors!!

Actual line from the show.

my pirate collection stops exactly at season 9

i guess i can now call it my "criterion collection of the simpsons yaaaar"

The Simpsons started as a parody of the (back then) dominant family sitcom that reinforced traditional values, where the family is led by a wise man who maintains the family and everyone else follows along in a traditional patriarchal hierarchy. Once that era got buried and they swallowed the thing they were mocking, The Simpsons slowly became self-referential, which made it a much harder show to write.

Losing a point or two over decades isnt bad entropy.

If copyright protection legnth wasn't so insane, the Simpsons could be in the public domain soon (if not already) and others could take up the quest for better simpson episodes.

Why was 9/11 such a poorly rated episode in an otherwise solid season. Hmmm 🤔

I was a major adult fan in my twenties who worked with people who could finish a Simpsons joke when anyone started a line from the show. I remember coming in and sadly announcing that I thought I didn't like the show anymore. That was in the oughts. It had been in decline for a while at the time.