Chris Turner (1) (1973–)

What starts as a nice little exploration into the history and impact of The Simpsons, turns into the authors attempt to explain everything wrong and right with the time period under review. His knowledge of Simpsons seems to be quite extensive, and it all starts out fun as he discusses episodes in the context of what was going on.

And then two things happen.

The first is that, while I’m sure the author has seen every episode (and probably knows every episode quite well) he keeps coming back to the same ones. In fact, he goes back to the same scenes, writing as though each entry was the first time he talks about it. This gets old quick. And it means that individual episodes (in some cases, individual scenes) are used to support various contentions. These cannot be all things to all people

The second is that the author just tries to dang hard to make The Simpsons the Zeitgeist of the times, to the point where he seems to be saying the times are the Zeitgeist of The Simpsons. Apparently, everything that happened in the 90s (and other times when The Simpsons aired) can be viewed through a Simpsons’ lens. And it is as if The Simpsons drove the time, not the other way around.

Which is all too bad. Because, at the outset, I was really enjoying this book. And then it made its nasty turns. And it went on and on. And I got really tired of it all.… (meer)