While the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons are considered to be some of the greatest television ever created and a significant milestone in the history of comedy, the series has since fallen from grace. The timeless classics are still laugh-out-loud from start to finish three decades later, but in its current incarnation, The Simpsons is yet another hit-and-miss sitcom with a couple of chuckles an episode at best.
Fox keeps renewing the show for more seasons, but it’s no longer the ratings hit it once was. Just enough diehard fans are still tuning in each week for the network to justify keeping it on the air – and as long as the cast and writers are game, they might as well keep going – but this once-groundbreaking comedy empire is long past its prime.
For the most part, recent Simpsons seasons are a hodgepodge of episodes built entirely around their celebrity guest stars and half-baked premises scraped from the bottom of the barrel (like the origin story of Moe’s rag) stretched razor-thin across a half-hour runtime. But it’s still The Simpsons, after all. A couple of times a season, the writers pull a doozy out of the bag that proves the show still has the ability to connect with fans – even if it only does it occasionally these days.
Anything past season 20 is considered unwatchable, but there are a couple of great episodes hiding in the weaker later seasons of The Simpsons that are worth checking out. The great thing about every episode of the show streaming on Disney Plus is that fans of the show’s “golden age” are able to cherry-pick all the hidden gems from the later seasons without having to sit through all the duds that reaffirm why they stopped watching years ago.
Strangely, some of the show’s strongest recent installments have been the ones that seemed the most like a cheap gimmick. “Brick Like Me” (season 25, episode 20) was animated with Lego bricks, set in an alternate Springfield made out of plastic construction toys, and could’ve easily fallen into this category. But it surprisingly turned out to be one of the season’s most substantial episodes. The traditionally animated framing narrative creates a touching dynamic between Homer and Lisa – one of the series’ most adored character pairings – as they bond over building Lego sets together.
Bart goes through a painfully relatable arc in “A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again” (season 23, episode 19), as his life becomes boring and monotonous and he raises money for a family vacation to escape from his mundane everyday activities. The family goes on a cruise and Bart has the time of his life, but he starts to worry that the cruise is almost over and he’ll have to go back to his mundane life before he knows it, so he fakes a crisis to keep them stranded at sea.
In the end, Bart learns a very important lesson: to embrace life and live in the moment. Throughout the episode, Bart worries about the regrets he’ll have when he’s on his deathbed. The episode ends with a poignant flash-forward in which, after learning the key to enjoying life, an elderly Bart seems content on his deathbed as he looks back at a bunch of framed pictures capturing a lifetime of memories and says, “What a great ride.”
The show’s first non-“Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episode, “Halloween of Horror,” (season 27, episode 4) is a genuinely chilling pastiche of the movie The Strangers in which Homer clashes with the employees of a Halloween pop-up and they arrive at the house to terrorize him and Lisa as they cower in the attic. A common complaint about recent “Treehouse of Horror” episodes is that they’re not spooky anymore, whereas the early specials had plenty of authentic frights. Fans who made those complaints had their prayers answered by “Halloween of Horror.”
While South Park often centers its episodes around a certain issue and fits its characters into the narrative surrounding that issue, The Simpsons tends to avoid overt commentary and instead focuses on relatable family situations. But it’s also come out with its fair share of thought-provoking episodes tackling intellectual issues. “The War of Art” (season 25, episode 15) is a prime example, examining the value of art and the legitimacy of art forgers. Homer and Marge buy a painting from Kirk and Luann Van Houten at a yard sale for $20. When they discover that the painting is worth $100,000, the Van Houtens feel entitled to some of the money, opening up an interesting debate.
Similarly, “Steal This Episode” (season 25, episode 9) tackles a contemporary issue: movie piracy. Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, and Judd Apatow all guest-star as themselves in this episode, which satirizes the FBI focusing its resources on prosecuting movie piracy instead of the much more pressing threats to national security. Homer faces the long arm of the law when he’s caught hosting screenings of pirated movies in his backyard – and he’s eventually played in a movie by Channing Tatum.
Easily the greatest episode from The Simpsons’ recent seasons, and one that holds up next to the show’s “golden age” installments, is “Holidays of Future Passed” (season 23, episode 9). While The Simpsons’ best flash-forward episode will always be “Lisa’s Wedding,” “Holidays of Future Passed” is a close second. Set 30 years in the future, the Christmas-themed episode sees Bart and Lisa bringing their own kids to Homer and Marge’s house for the holidays.
It’s a hilarious episode filled with memorable gags, but it’s also one of the show’s most emotionally resonant installments, with scenes like adult Bart and Lisa frankly reflecting on their lives in their old treehouse effortlessly tugging on the heartstrings. The episode was written as a potential series finale, and in retrospect, it would’ve made a perfect definitive ending for The Simpsons’ historic run.