Rarely are we afforded clarity on when we were "out" on a given show, it tends to be a slow erasure - but I remember the exact moment I stopped actively watching The Simpsons.
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There's a cavalcade of guest rock stars and the episode is honestly super funny. Hell, I STILL say the line "Rule number one, there are no rules!" Rule number two, no outside food!" But I know the exact early moment it lost me.
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It's actually the moment the premise appears. Homer's sad and complaining about his life in a taxi taping, where he actually resents his family and is being kind of a monster... but when they find out... they gift him a trip, citing the reason "well, we did ruin your life!"
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It's not just that there are two layers of non-functional irony under this, it's that it reflects so much about how the core DNA of the show changed. Not that it got too over the top or ironic, it's that it because utterly loveless.
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Because grounded under everything in early Simpsons was this baseline grounded humanity. No matter how callous, the family cared about hurting each others feelings and lessons and all the stuff that makes sitcoms function. But it was just... gone now.
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And so Homer went from a goofy, clueless, sensitive, twee dimwit, to an outright asshole; one who lashed out at his family with this spiteful, lackluster core. Something deeply hollow was happening here, made clear in the way the show has pressed on and on and on and on...
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Every once in a blue moon I'll look to see if anything's changed in that mutated DNA, but it really hasn't (especially in the movie). Once they lost the ability to take pain seriously... There was nothing left to be vulnerable about. <3
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