The Simpsons Season 38 Review: FOX’s Animated Behemoth Trudges Forward

At this point, it is hard to argue with the cultural currency of The Simpsons. Not only does the property occupy theme park space on both coasts, but we even have another movie coming in the next year. We decided to use this opportunity to check out The Simpsons Season 38, in hopes of gaining some insight for where the movie may lead us. Considering the prime era of the series dates back to the 1990s and early 2000s, The Simpsons still has some juice. However, it’s rare for a series to maintain its highest levels of comedy, and that still shows.

What is The Simpsons Season 38 about?

Despite several cast members and characters leaving the show over the years, The Simpsons remains about the larger city of Springfield. The premiere largely focuses on Marge (Julie Kavner), who is made PTA president but is told that Springfield Elementary is due to close.

To save the school, Marge decides to invite a popular children’s author to Springfield. Constance Clavinger (Emma Thompson) is known for being a recluse but decides to take Marge up on her request. However, when Constance meets Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) at the airport, a simple visit goes off the rails.

The Simpsons still works on an episode-to-episode basis but does not reach the heights it once did.

The sitcom setup to Season 38 is how The Simpsons has run for decades. It helps bring in fun guest stars (including Colin Jost), recurring characters, and gives the audience a chance to dip in and out of the show. There’s no doubt that the comedy still has some general plot mechanics and evolving relationships over the years. However, as creator Mike Schur once noted, the expectation for procedurals and sitcoms is that the audience will tune in once every four episodes for big plot developments. That thinking might be old, but it’s obvious that it’s the approach of most major television.

Yet for The Simpsons, even the four-episode rule feels flawed. After all, it has been on television longer than nearly every running continuous program in America. The exceptions, SportsCenter and 60 Minutes, do not cover the same content. If you’re looking for narrative connections to The Simpsons, it stands on an island of its own. While The Simpsons is not trying to reinvent the wheel, it has the advantage of our love and devotion to these characters. When Groening and company want to turn up the emotion, even those of us who stopped watching the show years ago can still get emotionally invested.

The bits throughout the episode of The Simpsons do go down like a warm meal. Homer makes big mistakes; the wholesome author is not so wholesome when given the opportunity; yet things wrap up nicely by the end of the 23-minute episode. The ending, in particular, is very sweet. There’s also a showcase scene after Homer hits his head, leading to an homage to a half-dozen children authors like Richard Scarry and Eric Carle. Moments like these give the animators some challenges while still allowing the cast to do the heavy lifting.

Yet the ways in which the writers continue to dive into the material are better than any of the other long-running adult cartoons, with South Park really proving its only peer. While Family Guy can still land big laughs, and Bob’s Burgers does an approximation of The Simpsons, neither can quite reach the heights of a standard episode of The Simpsons. For all of our questions about when the series and characters are going to take a final bow, the truth is that we’re spoiled. It’s not going to reinvent TV again, but The Simpsons has earned its place on the Mount Rushmore of TV for a reason.

The truth is that Groening and his writers are far from doing karaoke for their characters. The Simpsons feels formulaic on some level because it set the rules. It’s rather impossible to run for nearly forty years and still invent new ideas and concepts out of whole cloth. Springfield remains one of the richest worlds imaginable. While the series might not reach the peak of comedy as it might have in 1998, it is still a very good show.

Is The Simpsons Season 38 worth watching?

Yes, across the first few episodes The Simpsons remains a very funny show. The animation and storytelling keep getting tested, but Springfield faithful will find little wrong with the approach. While The Simpsons no longer defines “cool” on television, anyone with a cursory knowledge of the franchise can hop in after a FOX Sunday football game and have a great time. Some things never change, and watching Homer and his family continue their adventures is something I refuse to take for granted.

The Simpsons airs on Sundays on FOX and Hulu.

The Simpsons Season 38 Review: FOX’s Animated Behemoth Trudges Forward