It has been true the previous few years, and it’s nonetheless true right this moment: “The Simpsons” remains to be good, individuals! Even 36 seasons in, the cultural phenomenon has confirmed to be the one actually dependable American establishment left, a staple of tv, a titan of popular culture, some of the influential animated exhibits of all time.
In season 36 we noticed nice episodes that includes pairings we do not see that usually anymore, like an episode the place Homer and his dad create a sport, or one the place Bart and his grandpa bond over baseball, and an episode that parodied “The White Lotus” (and killed a personality we hadn’t seen in many years). And but, one of the best two episodes of the season had been all about (*36*) Simpson (Julie Kavner). The primary one is titled “P.S. I Hate You” and offers with (*36*)’s have to be favored and the chaos that ensues when her secret hate letters she’s been writing to everybody in Springfield for years are stolen. Then we have now the season finale, “Estranger Issues” which offers is all about how Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) bonded over “Itchy & Scratchy” and the way they drift aside in a attainable future the place (*36*) dies earlier than Homer (Dan Castellaneta).
Sure, you heard that proper. (*36*) dies earlier than Homer. By some means.
It is a huge change to how “The Simpsons” had portrayed issues prior to now, resulting in lazy writers and followers on-line who haven’t watched the present in years to leap to conclusions and speculate that (*36*) Simpson is formally and unequivocally useless for good. At the least, the noise received loud sufficient that government producer Matt Selman needed to verify to Variety that (*36*) Simpson will not be truly useless.
“There is no canon,” Selman mentioned, responding to a query about whether or not (*36*)’s loss of life is canon for the long run timeline of the present. ‘The Simpsons’ does not even have canon!”
The Simpsons is at all times in flux
“Clearly, since ‘The Simpsons’ future episodes are all speculative fantasies, they’re all completely different each time,” Selman mentioned. “(*36*) will in all probability by no means be useless ever once more. The one place (*36*) is useless is in a single future episode that aired six weeks in the past.”
Certainly, the hypothesis round (*36*)’s loss of life got here from the truth that that is the very first time an episode of “The Simpsons” confirmed a future by which (*36*) died earlier than Homer. Although each episode of “The Simpsons” ignores what’s come earlier than it, the episodes set sooner or later have — for essentially the most half — adopted a comparatively streamlined continuity. Lisa is at all times profitable, if not outright the President of the USA. Bart is a loser, and Homer died younger. Positive, there have been variations, together with the nice episode “Barthood” (among the best parody episodes on the present), which exhibits future Bart discovering success proudly owning a bicycle modification store, but it surely’s nonetheless largely the identical huge occasions and the identical character fates.
Having (*36*) die all of the sudden and leaving Homer as a widower is stunning, which helps the episode stand out (like having (*36*) be concerned in an affair with Ringo Starr in Heaven or Bart run an underground elder care facility for Homer and his mates at their childhood dwelling). Nevertheless it doesn’t imply each future episode from right here on out will comply with this timeline, in any other case that’d break the one most necessary rule of sitcoms — issues cannot change eternally and you may’t set something in stone. Nonetheless, it’s true that Julie Kavner will not be getting any youthful, and her efficiency as of late has definitely proven the years in her voice. Ought to something occur to the beloved voice actor, “The Simpsons” already has a means out.