The golden years are definitely over now and we are in a new era of ‘The Simpsons’ but that doesn’t necessarily mean the show has started a real down hill trajectory, it just means it no longer lives up to the ‘best ever on TV’ levels of some of the past seasons.
The opening episode is not a laugh riot (and certainly feels weird with everything we know about Mel Gibson) but it’s packed full of film and pop culture references that I personally appreciated and found it an enjoyable start to the season.
“Alone again, Natura-Diddly” is a strangely mournful and yet unnecessary episode where Maude Flanders is killed off and the episode focuses on Ned struggling to find someone else to love. It could’ve better explored his loss and how it effected his faith, so I feel this episode was a missed opportunity.
The meta finale “Behind the Laughter” is a strange choice as the finale of the season but it is a really fun and well made episode, completely turning the show on its head and giving the writers and voice actors the chance to really have fun.
Rating = 3.5/5
Howe's World of Film and TV 