Most television shows live and die off their ratings, season to season, hoping to stave off cancellation at the end of every season. It’s why most shows don’t last a full season and few make it past three. Getting a certain amount of viewers is the name of the game… except for The Simpsons.
The Simpsons is past it’s thirtieth season and trying to figure out if the show will ever end is about as meaningful as discussing it’s ratings.
The Simpsons is a juggernaut in a way we have never seen in television before and probably won’t see after. Generations don’t know what it’s like to not have the show on the air; it is a cultural institution like no other.
Season 19 is one that wasn’t expected to happen; after the movie, which long had been posited as the final thing related to the show that would happen, the show came back for another season in the buildup to the 2008 Presidential election.
It’s a solid season watching it again. Some of the comedy has aged but the show has settled into being good but not amazing on a consistent level. The idea that another episode with something like iconic happening, like “You only move twice,” is a decade dead at this point and another decade from it only reinforces that the best of the show is long behind. It doesn’t have that “holy god” level of craft anymore; it’s good but you can’t expect it to be the one of best things on television anymore.
You just expect it to be good and mostly it delivers on that.
Nothing of substance.
20th Century Fox presents The Simpsons (Season 19). Created by Matt Groening. Starring. Run Time: 506 minutes. Not Rated. Released on DVD: 12.3.2019
