Season Review: The Simpsons Season Thirty-Three

The Simpsons has been a part of my life since the 2000s. Even though it’s aimed towards an older crowd, my younger self has constantly enjoyed the show for its wacky scenarios and memorable characters. Even while watching my favorite cartoons from that decade, I would often turn The Simpsons on just to get more of some animation goodness. However, shortly after the release of The Simpsons Movie back in 2007, my love for the show started to wane until I stopped watching it entirely. Some may argue that it was due to the show’s declining quality in the later seasons, a problem that continuously plagued SpongeBob SquarePants following its first movie. But, in reality, I just found the other shows that interested me the most.

Several years later, I had the privilege to revisit one of my childhood memories with the release of its thirty-third season. Yes, it’s been on the air for that long. It always fascinates me to see specific shows lasting this long through popularity despite their declining quality, with the primary examples being SpongeBob and this show. It shows that either the creators have many stories to tell or the studios want to milk their cash cows as much as possible. The recent seasons of The Simpsons have been hit-and-miss regarding their episodes, as far as I’m aware. While some episodes are better off forgotten, the others provided enough decent elements to make our stay in Springfield more welcoming. Fortunately for me, the show’s thirty-third season is no exception.

This season consists of a series of misadventures involving the family and their friends, including Marge reviving an old high school play, phone scammers, cancel culture, and Bart’s new teacher Ms. Peyton (voiced by Kerry Washington). Additionally, the season has two special episodes to fill their fans’ hunger for Simpsons goodness. One of them is the thirty-second Treehouse of Horror episode, which satirizes Bong Joon Ho’s modern classic “Parasite” and the horror film “The Ring”. The second special episode is the series’s fourth two-part special, “A Serious Flanders”, which is inspired by the television series “Fargo” and satirizes prestige premium drama on cable and streaming.

If this season isn’t remembered for some of its regular episodes, I think it should be recognized for its special ones. While the Treehouse of Horror special is another fun series of chillingly humorous satires, “A Serious Flanders” is a great two-parter that makes excellent use of its satirized humor and character development, mainly for Ned Flanders. However, the continuity is non-existent, with Fat Tony somehow returning from the dead following the special in “A Made Maggie”. Nonetheless, it continues the show’s booming trend of two-part specials that offer engaging plots too big for just one episode.

As for the regular episodes, some of them may not be as memorable as the show’s earlier seasons. However, the season contains several good ones that cleverly explore modern trends and provide entertaining plots through storytelling and comedy. One of the standard episodes I enjoyed the most was its seventeenth episode, “The Sound of Bleeding Gums”, which has Lisa befriending Bleeding Gums Murphy’s son Monk (voiced by deaf actor John Autry II). Its representation of the deaf community and a solid storyline centering on Lisa were enough to highlight the show’s achievement in providing deaf characters voiced by deaf actors and having them perform American Sign Language despite having four fingers.

But, of course, there were also specific episodes that struggled with the season’s consistency with their plots and humor. One of them is its eleventh episode, “The Longest Marge”, in which the comedy didn’t hit as hard as a muscular football player. Another episode that I wasn’t a fan of was “Girls Just Shauna Have Fun”, which saw the return of Chalmers’ daughter Shauna (voiced by Tress MacNeille). This was my first encounter with the character since I hadn’t watched her other appearances in its twenty-third season, and I must admit that my feelings towards her weren’t good. Her personality was difficult for me to endure, and the episode’s portrayal of high school tropes didn’t help make it better.  

Revisiting The Simpsons in its thirty-third season is like reuniting with old friends after a decade or so. They may have changed a bit since I last saw them, but they’re still the same humorous yellow-skinned family I remembered years ago. While its latest season may not match the iconic family’s glory days, it still delivers plenty of giggles and surprises in its episodes to continue the show’s long-running success. Even its special episodes, mainly “A Serious Flanders”, are strong enough to make my visit to Springfield more fun. Hopefully, my next visit during its upcoming thirty-fourth season will be just as amusing.