...so yeah, still watching Simpsons every week. And yeah, I've been defending it as Still Usually Pretty Good, even over its long slow decline. But even a diehard like me has to look at this last season and proclaim it as the Worst Ever.
It DID have its flashes of brilliance -- the Banksy couch gag I mentioned in the previous post is the best thing the show's done in years (and possibly the best thing ANY show's done in years), and all the spoofs of different cartoons in Angry Dad: The Movie were wonderful. But it's telling that my examples are brief one-offs that don't follow the usual format of the show.
So, okay, the season ended with the series' second ever cliffhanger, with the audience left to vote on whether Flanders and Krabappel should be a regular couple or not. And while the episode was mediocre and the online voting thing isn't particularly inspired, I think there's actually a pretty good idea in there. The Flanders/Krabappel coupling seems, like most of the supporting cast's romances, like it was selected via dartboard (or when one of the writers realized you could combine their names into "Nedna"), but it actually makes a kind of sense that, say, Selma and Fat Tony doesn't. Or really Selma and Troy McClure or Sideshow Bob. Or Patty and Skinner. Or Krabappel and Comic Book Guy.
At any rate, Ned and Edna are vastly different characters but actually complement each other nicely; she's got the assertiveness that he lacks, and he's the knight in shining armor she's always wanted (and while he may be meek and prudish, he's more man than Skinner or CBG will ever be -- there's probably a point here about a schoolteacher who always dates overgrown children). But most importantly, it takes them both outside their comfort zone and challenges them. Flanders has become
literally synonymous with a character who has lost all depth and turned into a one-note caricature; the most interesting Flanders moment of the past decade was when, given an apparent sign from God, he decided it was okay to sleep with a woman he wasn't married to. Maintaining a relationship with Edna would challenge his dogma and force him to reexamine the true meaning of his religion.
Of course, in practice, even if the "pro Nedna" side wins, none of these things are likely to happen at all. We probably won't see any deeper examination of their relationship, we'll just see occasional sight gags to remind us that yes this is still a thing, the writers haven't forgotten it. Like Selma's adopted baby. Or, for a few years there, Barney's sobriety. Or, for that matter, Krabappel and Skinner.
But dammit, a fan can dream.
