“The Simpsons” is an establishment. It is a present that modified animation and tv, influenced numerous different collection, and created a typical for sitcom cities that really feel like actual locations populated by dozens of aspect characters. Even when it isn’t the cultural phenomenon it was within the ’90s, there is a cause “The Simpsons” is just not solely nonetheless going after 35 years however can be going sturdy, even serving up a faux collection finale — one that would have labored because the present’s precise finale — as a mere season premiere.
Irrespective of how a lot time passes, “The Simpsons” remains to be very a lot a sitcom. It is also a collection the place actual change is unimaginable, blissful endings are fleeting, and penalties are by no means lasting as a result of there all the time needs to be extra of the present. The characters stay static, even when time passes round them, that means the previous can’t be introduced again. Bart is all the time 10 years previous, even when it means he was not born in 1979 however as a substitute born in 2014 and even when Maggie is now a post-lockdown child. Positive, there have been marriages, infants being born, and deaths, however these are fairly hardly ever (if ever) referenced once more after the actual fact. In any other case, it could imply that point has really handed, and time by no means passes in Springfield.
Besides, it lastly did in “O C’mon All Ye Devoted,” the brand new Disney+ Christmas particular that celebrates the present’s thirty fifth anniversary. In it, British mentalist Darren Brown involves Springfield to attempt to raise up the city’s vacation spirit by way of some intelligent psychological magic methods. Within the course of, he by accident makes Homer consider he is Santa (resulting in a hilarious joke concerning the Grinch that had, admittedly, already been carried out on “Household Man”), and in addition makes Ned Flanders lose his religion in God.
This is not only a spur of the second disaster of religion introduced upon by a British man; reasonably, it is the fruits of, as Ned places it, “issues rattling round in my noodle,” like the truth that God took from him not one, however two wives. That is proper, “The Simpsons” lastly referenced Edna Krabappel and Maude Flanders, and it made for essentially the most emotionally highly effective Flanders episode in practically 30 years.
Ned Flanders will get a surprisingly emotional episode
Ned Flanders has had crises of religion earlier than, most notably within the 1996 episode “Hurricaine Neddy.” In that episode, a hurricane solely destroys Flanders’ home, prompting him to lose his religion in God and go on a livid and crude tirade of profanities (nicely, for Ned’s requirements anyway). It is a implausible episode, and never one which wanted a follow-up or a remake, which makes the method taken in “O C’mon All Ye Devoted” so efficient.
As a result of it isn’t simply that Flanders has a disaster of religion or goes towards his picture by throwing insults at folks. What makes this specific disaster highly effective is how emotionally uncooked it’s. Harry Shearer delivers his greatest voice efficiency in years, making Flanders extremely susceptible in the best way he talks to Marge concerning the injustice of dropping each Maude and Edna regardless of not solely following the ten commandments, however even developing with two further ones on his personal. There’s additionally the truth that Flanders does not lash out on the city; as a substitute, he falls right into a deep melancholy and replaces all of the non secular imagery in his home (together with taking out a bible from his medication cupboard and placing precise medication in it).
“The Simpsons” is a hilarious, foolish, inventive present, nevertheless it may also be fairly heartfelt and emotional. It is becoming {that a} celebration of the collection’ thirty fifth anniversary would give us not only a nice Homer Christmas story, but additionally one of the best Ned Flanders story in a long time — after he already had acquired a beloved non-canon episode parodying the nice “Fargo” TV present.
“The Simpsons” is streaming on Disney+.