Season 22 Final Analysis/Rating

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Alright I didn't see a thread like this yet so I guess I'll ask, how would you rate season 22? This can be as a whole, episode by episode, compared to other seasons of the series, etc...

[Nauru-1]

I've gone back into losing track of the present show a bit much like I did around season 18. Not really correlated to quality as from what I saw it was probably a little better than 20 and 21, but that isn't much of a compliment and things continue to feel like they're coming out of an assembly line. Nothing new, and perhaps I'll like some of what I missed along the way this year, but the HD era hasn't been able to sustain anything of value for any extended period of time from what I can tell.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

This season had 5 episodes which I really enjoyed and consider on par with the current era of the show:
Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life
Homer the Father
The Great Simpsina
Homer Scissorhands
500 Keys

It had 5 decent episodes which had enough likable things for me to say were pretty good all things considering:
How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?
The Fight Before Christmas
Flaming Moe
The Blue and the Gray
The Ned-Liest Catch

The rest, to me, range from meh to downright terrible. I still think the season is above 11 or 12, but the worst we've had in a while...

[The Wiggs]

Season 22 was better than 21 for sure. 21 was just bad. If I had to rank the seasons now with 22 in the mix, this is how I'd do it:
Best to worst,
4
5
6
7
3
8
2
1
9
13
15
14
10
12
16
20
19
22
17
18
21
11

[Financial Panther]

Darn, I was planning to make this, but forgot! Oh well.

Compared to the last few seasons, this was really good! Let's see, If I had to rank the episodes, they would be as follows:

1: Donnie Fatso
2: Homer Scissorhands
3: The Blue and the Gray
4: The Great Simpsina
5: The Fool Monty
6: The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
7: MoneyBART
8: Moms I'd Like to Forget
9: Homer the Father
10: 500 Keys
11: Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life
12: Treehouse of Horror XXI
13: Loan-a Lisa
14: Love is a Many-Strangled Thing
15: The Ned-liest Catch
16: A Midsummer's Nice Dream
17: How Munched is That Birdie in the Window?
18: Angry Dad: The Movie
19: Flaming Moe
20: The Scorpion's Tale
21: Elementary School Musical
22: The Fight Before Christmas

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Ironically(or perhaps just coincidentally) Panther I'd have Donnie Fatso as this season's worst episode pretty easily, and even though you gave it 2 spots you're still underrating Homer the Father

[Financial Panther]

Whoops! Thanks for the heads up! (That's what I get for continuously editing my rankings). Let's put MoneyBART at 7.

Why didn't you like Donnie Fatso? I find it absolutely perfect.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Mediocre story + Mediocre Jokes + Fit Tony= Episode I'd Like to Forget

[Financial Panther]

I thought the story was quite original, and Fit Tony was one of the most creative things they'd done in a long time. I was sure they'd just have him come back to life somehow, but I never saw Fit Tony coming, and I found it very, very clever.

[zartok-35]

"Loan-a Lisa", "Homer the father", and "Lisa Simpson, this isn't your life" were all great episodes, and episodes like "Flaming Moe" and "The great Simpsina" weren't as good as that, but not too bad either. All in all, atleast half of this season was decent.

[Old painty-can Ned]

I thought the story was quite original, and Fit Tony was one of the most creative things they'd done in a long time. I was sure they'd just have him come back to life somehow, but I never saw Fit Tony coming, and I found it very, very clever.

Fuck where's the thumbs down when you need it.

[Semaj]

Very unremarkable season. About on par with the past several seasons, as there was only one episode out of an ocean of mediocrity that was truly memorable.

[noaizuma]

I've gotta watch the whole season again over the next 2 days and give my ranking, but I really want to weigh in on this one.

[The Governor]

Fuck where's the thumbs down when you need it.

The higher-ups wanted a more POSITIVE board, so they removed the Thumbs Down feature. Damn Socialists!

Anyway, here's how I'd rate the episodes:

Elementary School Musical (1/5)
Loan-a Lisa (3/5)
MoneyBART (2/5)
Treehouse of Horror XXI (3/5)
Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life (3/5)
The Fool Monty (1/5) <---- Worst of Season 22
How Munched Is That Birdie in the Window? (3/5)
The Fight Before Christmas (2/5)
Donnie Fatso (1/5)
Moms I'd Like to Forget (4/5)
Flaming Moe (3/5)
Homer the Father (5/5) <--- Best of Season 22
The Blue and the Gray (4/5)
Angry Dad: The Movie (2/5)
The Scorpion's Tale (1/5)
A Midsummer's Nice Dream (2/5)
Love Is a Many Strangled Thing (2/5)
The Great Simpsina (4/5)
The Real Housewives of Fat Tony (3/5)
Homer Scissorhands (4/5)
500 Keys (3/5)
The Nedliest Catch (3/5)

Well, this seasons worst wasn't as bad as S21's worst (Thursdays with Abie and The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed), but the number of painfully boring episodes increased. The Fool Monty started out great, but three minutes in, the story collapsed on it's own stupidity. Sadly, only one episode stood out, imo, that was Homer the Father and possibly "The Blue and the Gray."

Overall, this season is a 2.5/5, or a D+.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Fuck where's the thumbs down when you need it.

Stupid positive atmosphere!

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

The Simpsons: Season 22

So, Season 22 came and went after 22 episodes, well mediocracy... and a general feeling of disrespect. This season is the turning point in where the writers (even though they're smart as hell.) disregard everything they know about The Simpsons and turn it into mainly a showcase for their comedy work. That's not to say that there are some good episodes in this season but most of it is just showcase work.

The poor opener "Elementary School Musical" just goes to show how simple plot has really gone a long way; with many of the elements falling flat, many of the characters being... well out of character and the overusage of guest star, which is a consistent trait this season. Sure, things somewhat get better as the season goes on but for most of Season 22, this is what you'll be getting. That's not to say there are some episodes that do deserve a spot in your Simpsons collection "Homer Scissorhands" but regardless most of the episodes are like that.

If there is something that is obviously present, it's the fact that there's way too much Over the Top humor going on. I get that this is supposed to be a cartoon but we've seen The Simpsons in the past and well, those Simpsons managed to combine humor with a down-to-earth family mechanic that just worked. This Simpsons just throws anything at the wall and sees what sticks (or laughs), completely disregarding the character for most of these parts and turning these characters into vessels for the plot and joke. There are points where the characters feel like themselves but these moments are far and few inbetween.

In fact, The Simpsons tries it's best to stuff up the episode with jokes that they think is funny; it stops becoming a sitcom and becomes like a comedy club were various comedians try their hand at making you laugh; sure there's plot but for the most part it's trying hard to make you laugh, and it somewhat succeeds in most parts but again, you feel disconnected from the show and you think of it as generic animated sitcom #2584, something that you watch and laugh at but you never truely remember.

That's the feeling when I watched through Season 22, one long big blur except for a few good episodes. And it's a good thing that it's one big blur because The Simpsons writers pull some pretty poor parodies here; ones such as the very outdated Chris Hansen, Glee, Inglourious Basterds, those various film parodies in "Angry Dag: The Movie", the constant Pixar shoutouts, you get what I'm hinting at here? I've known the Simpsons are able to pull off amazing parodies but this just manages to make them look stale and pathetic in the parody/satire development (save for "Homer the Father"), and let's not forget those puns now shall we?

Anyway, while there are some good episodes. Season 22 is just a big box of boring mediocracy that will not resonate with you nor will you remember it 20 years from now when the show is canceled... Season 23 looks to be no different either. I understand that the people here are very talented people but they seem to give The Simpsons (and us fans) very little respect at all, and if they continue to produce season after season after season like this then they may see their viewership drop off.

5/10

Best Episodes: "Homer Scissorhands", "The Nedliest Catch"
Good Episodes: "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life", "The Great Simpsina", "Homer The Father"
Worst Episodes: "The Fool Monty", "Love Is a Many Strangled Thing", "Treehouse of Horror XXI", "Elementary School Musical"
Overrated Episodes: "The Blue and the Grey", "Moms I'd Like to Forget", "Flaming Moe", "MoneyBART"

[Old painty-can Ned]

Elementary School Musical D
Loan-a-Lisa C-
MoneyBART C+
THOH XXI C
Lisa Simpson, This Isn’t Your Life C-
The Fool Monty D
How Munched Is That Birdie In The Window C
The Fight Before Christmas C
Donnie Fatso D
Moms I’d Like To Forget C-
Flaming Moe C-
Homer The Father C+
The Blue and the Grey C-
Angry Dad: The Movie D
The Scorpion’s Tale C-
A Midsummer’s Nice Dream C-
Love is a Many Strangled Thing F
The Great Simpsina C
The Real Housewives of Fat Tony C+
Homer Scissorhands C+
500 Keys D
Nedliest Catch C


Best episode:The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
Worst episode:Love is a Many Strangled Thing

Thoughts on the season:Average post classic era season.

[Jesse Pinkman]

elementary school musical- 3/5
Loan-a Lisa- 5/5
MoneyBART- 4/5
THOH- 1/5
Lisa Simpson, this Isn't Your Life- 3/5
The Fool Monty- 5/5
How Munched is that Birdie in the Window- 2/5
The Fight Before Christmas- 3/5
Donnie Fatso- 3/5 (would be lower but i actually liked the first half of it)
Moms I'd Like to Forget- 3/5
Flaming Moe- 5/5
Homer the Father- 5/5
The Blue and the Gray- 3/5
Angry Dad: The Movie- 4/5
the Scorpion's Tale- 3/5
a Midsummer's Nice Dream- 3/5
Love is a Many Strangled Thing- 1/5
The Great Simpsina- 4/5
The Real Housewives of Fat Tony- 3/5
Homer Scissorhands- 5/5
500 Keys- 4/5
Nedliest Catch- 5/5

I'm not going to place them in order from least to favorite, A. because it would be hard to do so and B. because i haven't seen some of these in a while, so my scores for them might change. I feel I'm going kinda easy on this season. Maybe because last season was so atrocious, for me. The worst this season had to offer was old people's eyes dangling from their sockets (in an otherwise OK episode), and 'fit tony' (again, in an otherwise OK episode), whereas season 21 had Greatest Story Ever D'ohed, Judge Me Tender, Bob literally ripping his face, etc.

This is probably my favorite season since 19, which isn't saying much. It's so very clear they aren't trying because they know, no matter what, they'll still have fans watching. Look at the lame parodies- from this season we have 'Mixar', 'Condiments', 'You've got An enemy', etc. And we've had the Zii, the Mapple, myPod, Steve Mobs... come on. It's like they're telling us to laugh and they think they are coming across as clever. I really never thought I would see the day when I was criticizing The Simpsons, but wow. Somehow though, for me at least, this season is better than the previous two, which i consider two of the worst seasons in the show's history. But i don't know if i was tired of watching with a negative view and altered my opinion as to find things funnier which i normally would not laugh at. I'm not telling the audience to 'dumb themselves down', which i admittedly might have done more than a few times this season (it makes some episodes more fun to watch, imo), i'm just saying why i liked it. I know 'dumbing yourself down' is not great advice to watch a TV Show, but it helps in this case. Another case is Family Guy. When i want to sit down and just laugh, not really thinking about what i am laughing at, Family Guy is pretty funny sometimes. I could turn Simpsons into that show, that show I watch sometimes when I am bored and laugh at hysterically (which i might have to).

I'm hoping next season is better. Even though I like s22, I'm not saying it's one of the best of the show, it's not. That ship has sailed. There's no way they will ever make another season, or even episode, i would like enough to place in the 'classic era.' I'm all hoping the show gets better, but that goal is plain unrealistic, i think. s22 might be best, or one of the best, imo, of the post-classic era, but it's nowhere near the golden era. But i do hope next season is better, or at least if not better, i hope it is not as bad as i found s21 or 20 to be.

i just remembered, back before this season started i said 'if i don't like this season more than the previous ones i'm done with the show.' so maybe subconciously i gave a lot of the episodes good scores so i wouldn't have to quit with the show. makes sense

[Veganpunk]

I enjoyed this season for the most part. I think it was better than S21, but not S20. 20 gets a lot of flak, but it's one of my better post classic seasons. 22 had some outstanding (by post classic standards) episodes in it. This show will never get back to what it was, but as long as it makes me laugh, I'll keep watching. The show hasn't sunk as far as S11 again yet, so that's good I guess.

[Mira]

Just listing the episodes I found to be above-average, I'd say it's been a clear improvement over seasons 17 to 21, which all very rarely produced an episode I really liked (only about 3 or 4 per season):

Loan-a Lisa
Lisa Simpson, this Isn't Your Life
The Fight Before Christmas
Flaming Moe
Homer the Father
The Blue and the Gray
A Midsummer's Nice Dream
The Great Simpsina
The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
Homer Scissorhands
Nedliest Catch

I think either Homer the Father or Homer Scissorhands would be my favorite.

[Chew My Shoe]

I was like "Meh!" most of the time but it was decent. My biggest disappointment was the Halloween episode.

[Blobulle]

Homer Scissorhands : 19/20
Loan-a Lisa : 18/20
Donnie Fatso : 17/20
The Blue and the Gray : 16/20
MoneyBart : 15/20
The Ned-Liest Catch : 15/20
Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life : 15/20
Angry Dad - The Movie : 14/20
Homer the Father : 14/20
Treehouse of Horror XXI : 14/20
The Fool Monty : 14/20
The Scorpion's Tale : 13/20
How Munched is that Birdie in the Window? : 13/20
The Real Housewives of Fat Tony : 13/20
500 Keys : 12/20
The Great Simpsina : 12/20
A Midsummer's Nice Dreams : 12/20
The Fight Before Christmas : 11/20
Love is a Many Strangled Thing : 8/20
Moms I'd Like to Forget : 8/20
Elementary School Musical : 7/20
Flaming Moe : 5/20

Finally a good season, but very uneven.

[hughes]

I enjoyed this season for the most part. I think it was better than S21, but not S20. 20 gets a lot of flak, but it's one of my better post classic seasons. 22 had some outstanding (by post classic standards) episodes in it. This show will never get back to what it was, but as long as it makes me laugh, I'll keep watching. The show hasn't sunk as far as S11 again yet, so that's good I guess.

ding ding ding! we have a winner!

seriously, just replace 11 with 18 in that post and it's pretty much exactly how i feel

[The Governor]

Season 22 makes the list of the bottom five seasons:

1. Season 21 (yes, it's worse than 11)
2. Season 11
3. Season 22
4. Season 12
5. Season 10

The ranking of the seasons are:

7 - 4 - 6 - 2 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 1: The show's best.

9 - 14 - 15 - 13 - 16: The so-so seasons.

19 - 17 - 18 - 20: Yawn.

10 - 12 - 22 - 11 - 21: Should be erased from existance.

[Wavy Gravy]

I popped in to check on Season 22 a few times this year. I caught "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life" and "500 Keys", two-thirds of "Treehouse of Horror XXI", the first half of "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony", and the final 30 seconds of "How Munched Is That Birdie In The Window". And even from the tiny glimpses that I saw, I could tell this season was lame. Even the "best" the show had to offer felt flimsy and detached from the show as I know it. As I mentioned in another thread, the writing feels forced - not one line that any character says feels organic or realistic, existing only as a stilted setup for a weak joke. I can't feel for the characters if they aren't genuine. For instance, Selma and Fat Tony getting married had none of the weight or substance that her marriages to Sideshow Bob or Troy McClure had. Every line in that episode feels forced, like they're just trying to hustle the plot along to its predetermined plot points and not letting it unfold naturally.

And then there's the parody aspect, which this show used to be so good at. For this, I direct your attention to the "Tweenlight" segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXI". How hard is it to fuck up a Twilight parody? It's a ridiculous series that's practically custom-made to be torn apart. In the golden years of the show, this segment would have been a ruthless spoof, hitting all the major points of the franchise and riffing on everything about it. Instead, it turns into a lame story about Homer meeting Dracula with a couple of generic vampire jokes thrown in. Yet another parody written by 40- and 50-somethings who don't know what they're making fun of.

I know I should watch the whole season before I judge, but what I did see didn't give me a lot of hope. Every time I try to come back to The Simpsons, it reminds me why I left in the first place.

[The Governor]

You have to realize the new way to parody something on the Simpsons is to just retell the same story with Simpsons characters.

[Mc_Lovin667]

A large step down from Season 21 (I don't understand the hate), but not completely horrible. There were some very funny and memorable scenes this year, and a few memorable episodes. For the most part though everything felt half-baked or completely messy, and wildly inconsistent.

5/10

[Comicshow MolemanBob]

"500 Keys"
"The Great Simpsina"
"The Blue and the Gray"
"The Nedliest Catch"
"Homer the Father"
"Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life"
"The Fool Monty"
"Homer Scissorhands"
"Treehouse of Horror XXI"
"Loan-a Lisa"
"Flaming Moe"
"The Scorpions Tale"
"Donnie Fatso"
"Angry Dad : The Movie"
"Mom's I'd like to Forget"
"How Munched is that Birdie in the Window?"
"Love is a Many Strangled Thing"
"MoneyBART"
"The Fight Before Christmas"
"Elementary School Musical"
"The Real Housewives of Fat Tony"
"A Midsummer's Nice Dream"

A very forgettable season, so forgettable I'm not even going to bother to write a brief summary of it...

[pocketfox]

There were certainly some enjoyable episodes, but generally speaking, this was a rough season. What bothers me isn't that the show is well below classic era standards, it's that in this season I don't think there was even a single epsiode that could've held its own the classic era, with the possible exception of Homer The father or maybe 500 Keys, and even those would've ranked pretty low. When you take the episodes for what they are, they weren't bad though. One good thing was the lack of any really awful ones. Nothing came even close to being as bad as Greatest Story Ever Doh'ed, which is pretty much in a league of its own for crap. The worst epsiode had to be Elementary School Musical, which was just boring as hell, and the most uninspired subplot ever. Basically, it was a watchable season but it didn't give me much hope for the future.

[Reverend Lovejoy]

Honestly? The only episode I really liked was "Homer Scissorhands." (although "Homer the father" wasn't too bad, I suppose.) 3rd worst season for me, right after 19 and 21.