The Simpsons- Season 34

7/10

This is the thirty-fourth, 34th!, round of the misadventures of the Simpsons family and the other residents of Springfield.

This is another of the recent Simpsons quality revival seasons. (To lay out the timeline, there was the first two or three seasons where the show was finding itself, the next five or six seasons that was the golden age, the Jerka** Homer era where the show lost its magic and focused on celebrity appearances and shenanigans happening, plus Homer'd gotten too dislikable, then we got the reform seasons where Homer (voiced by Dan Castalenetta) was made nicer than he has ever been, and remains that to today, and focused more on character-based storylines which started strong but then felt at a loss for new emotional situations to put the characters in, and finally now.) No, this season isn't as good as the classic years, but it has better stories than it has had in a long time. There's a bigger emphasis on trying new stuff and not doing the same-old, same-old and giving other characters than the Simpsons more of the spotlight. There's also a lot more satirical episodes with solid targets. 

We even get one of the strongest Treehouse of Horror episodes in a long time (it's been a string of diminishing returns up until now), plus a bonus Halloween episode that's pretty good. I also highly recommend Lisa the Boy Scout, one of the funniest things they've done in a while. Even a lot of the less stand-out episodes aren't too shabby.

There are a few things I disagree with. I found Lisa's storyline in One Angy Lisa to be a terribly one-note to the extreme Lisa-can't-catch-a-break story. There are two Fat Tony (voice by Joe Mantegna) episodes that feel too similar to each other. Flanders is still too, well, "flanderised" with him being a religious conservative and less of the nice guy he'd been, and Skinner is too much of a mama's boy and the complete opposite of where the character started.

Animation remains strong. There's nothing complex about the look of the Simpsons, but I love the color usage in recent seasons. There's an anime style sequence in the Treehouse of Horror episode that is pretty sleek looking.

Recommended. Show's still no longer the king of comedy, but this is a solid and fairly entertaining season.