2020 marks the “official” 30th anniversary of The Simpsons, seeing as how “Bart the Genius” aired in January 1990 and was promoted as the series premiere. Additionally, 2021 will bring the 10th anniversary of Me Blog Write Good. I started this blog partially as a distraction to occupy my mind during a really terrible period in my life, and after stopping and starting it up again multiple times over the course of many years, it’s become almost like a comforting ritual. And along the way, I was always so surprised how many people would comment to create further discourse about the show, or to compliment how much they enjoyed my writing. To anyone who’s read this blog and enjoyed it over the years, I thank you, and as long as there’s new Simpsons episodes being made, I’ll be there to say something about it. Something pissy, no doubt.
Anyway, during our prolonged period of quarantine here in the United States, I’ve ended up doing a rewatch of a lot of different shows that I love. Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Community. The Powerpuff Girls. But I haven’t touched The Simpsons yet. I’ve seen an episode here and there within the last couple years, but as for a lot of the classic run of episodes, I haven’t watched them since I was reviewing them for the blog, now almost ten years ago. That’s way too long, isn’t it? And once I thought about how we’re upon not only a notable milestone for the series, but for this blog as well, a series rewatch seems to make perfect sense.
So, over the course of the next year, leading up to the blog’s 10-year-anniversary in June, I’ll be rewatching the series and writing about it. Again. But this won’t just be me repeating the same bullshit (hopefully). I plan on doing one post per season, noting down whatever sporadic thoughts or observations I have during each episode, similar to my miscellaneous tidbits below my main reviews (or what Charlie Sweatpants of Dead Homer Society used to do with his drunken season marathons). Also, I’ll only be covering seasons 1-11. Those are the seasons I keep in my “permanent” collection on my Plex server. Seasons 9-11 have their rough patches, of course, but having “Behind the Laughter” serve as an unofficial series finale feels right to me.
I’ll be posting about season one in a week or so, and then revisit a new season every month. Hopefully this will serve as a jolt of positivity throughout what is sure to be a dismal season 32.
Me Blog Write Good 
So, with each season, you’re going to talk about it as a whole and then write observations afterwards? Something like this:
“Season one isn’t the best season of The Simpsons, but many of the episodes still hold up today.”
“Observations of note:
-Homer’s voice sounds weird.
-Thirty years later, the show seems tame and unassuming. Why were people complaining?
-If they still wrote Lisa like this, maybe I would enjoy new episodes. Not really, but I can lie to you guys, can’t I?”
They’ll be episode-by-episode observations, with summation thoughts on the season as a whole.
Okay, cool. Seeing as how you’re including seasons 9-11, I guess you find more merit in them now than before? Because looking back, the tone of your reviews noticeably changed after season nine. I guess it’s because of “Behind the Laughter,” but I figured you wouldn’t want to rewatch seasons where there are way more bad episodes than good ones.
Would you be willing to maybe compile and write about a ‘hypothetical’ season consisting of episodes you like after season 11? I’d be curious to see what that would look like and how you would feel about it. It would certainly maintain the positive angle.
I don’t really have much interest in rewatching anything past season 11, even episodes I didn’t totally hate.
After slogging through the empty void that was season 31, you deserve to crack a bottle and enjoy some good ol’ 90s nostalgia. “Behind the Laughter” sounds like the perfect drop-off point. (Personally I like to call Season 12 “Zombie Simpsons Season 0”)
A retrospective on your retrospectives….this blog is getting way too meta for me, man…
Looking forward to it, though
I am absolutely down for this. You deserve it at this point 🙂
To give it a new twist, you could watch production seasons in production order. The actual premieres and finales might make a good contrast to the broadcasted ones
Just came back to see if there was any post on the new season and found out about this. I’ll have to read through your thoughts. I’ve actually been rewatching some of the early years myself. Recently watched Season 2 back in like May, watched half of Season 3, the first disc of Season 6, and will probably watch Disc 3 of Season 5. Don’t ask why I’m doing it like that, I just am for fun. 🙂