Season Review: The Simpsons Season 34

I tried to put off this review as long as I could because I still have a real foul taste in my mouth from “Clown V. Board of Education” which was basically like a terrible cover song of “Homie the Clown”. After doing another re-watch of the season courtesy of Disney+ and going through the season’s reviews, I felt better knowing that even after 34 seasons, overall, The Simpsons really is in the upper-mid level tier of adult animated sitcoms on television.

The writers right now are taking part in a WGA strike where one of the complaints has to do with staffing on television shows and the changes in the numbers of episodes in a series. Right now, seven seasons with ten episodes a season is probably the average for an American-produced adult animated series, though even that is dropping. Consumers have too much to watch now whence compared to the early days of The Simpsons when you only had a couple of TV networks available on a broadcast spectrum designated by Uncle Sam. Nowadays, you have content coming from social media channels, FAST channels, paid-streaming, cable, broadcast, and the growth of web3 technologies making it easier for producers to break in in the areas of production, voice-acting, and even development and financing. Hell, if I wanted to watch The Simpsons, I don’t even have to watch it on FOX, I can stream it on Disney+ or Hulu here in the United States or watch it on FXX. Because of this, there are fewer eyeballs, attention spans wane over time, and there’s only so much time in the day when people are still adjusting to a post COVID world. Advertisers know this and are looking for alternatives like 1:1 marketing solutions to really hone in on their buyers more effectively rather than hope someone sees an ad on USA network at 1 am ET/PT.

I’m not so sure The Simpsons is as social media friendly as says Family Guy which features numerous cutaway gags that are then illegally sliced up and shown on loops all across the various social channels, thereby promoting an aging franchise to new generations. But, good content is good content, and The Simpsons is still delivering. We got quite a few quality episodes this season and I think that’s a credit to a quality influx of new and exciting talent both behind and in front of the “camera”. Writer Broti Gupta comes to mind as someone who seems to be bringing in an influx of solid ideas, two of which became full-fledged episodes this season alone. Somewhat newer writer Cesar Mazariegos checked in with an episode so good, it forced the season to have TWO Treehouse of Horror weekends featuring both the anthology episode that has been tradition for decades and a full-fledged parody of It entitled “Not It”. Finally, newer writer Jessica Conrad contributed to the 34th season of the longest running animated sitcom in primetime with THREE episodes.

I’m still not a fan of most of the new voices of classic characters on The Simpsons. I happen to like Jay Pharoah anyway, so his contribution as Drederick Tatum has me conflicted on my personal views on white voice actors’ PoC characters being recast versus replaced. And no, this isn’t a racist view because I’m never going to embrace Grey DeLisle as any of the kids’ voices. Again, this isn’t taking away from the voice actors, but I’d rather see both of those talented voice actors voice new characters. I get the fact that a job’s a job, and beggars can’t be choosers, but perhaps that’s more of a failure on the producers of the show on not being more creative with developing new characters despite rave reviews for some of the few times that HAS happened in the show’s attempt to leverage DEI. Kerry Washington voicing Rayshelle Peyton was a welcome recurring appearance that I hope happens even more in the future and we’ve must have seen Joe Mantegna a half-a-dozen times as Fat Tony showing up this season which is just fine with me. By the way, why the hell did Pam Hayden give the role of Sarah Wiggum to Megan Mullally? That’s not to say I don’t enjoy Megan’s contributions, but why did that switch happen? Also, watch out for this new Matt Friend kid. He already had an episode premiere earlier this season, and we can expect more in the coming seasons, and I think he’s going to be a great addition to the cast.

That’s not to say that The Simpsons don’t have a habit of repeating themselves. I mentioned before, Springfield’s constant run-ins with the mob must have had an all-time record this season, and we got multiple glimpses of The Simpsons in the future both in the excellent season finale “Homer’s Adventures Through the Windshield Glass” and in “When Nelson Met Lisa”. I appreciated the fact that when it came to China, The Simpsons have no problem being a bit on the controversial side, but worry about the fact that the show is now afraid to do the same with the US of A. The show’s heyday was filled with constant barbs thrown at everyone and anyone regardless of their background, but nowadays, The Simpsons seems almost tame by comparison. That’s not to say the show isn’t churning out good quality episodes, but to quote Inception, “this is great, but if you keep changing things”, the show may not recognize itself anymore.