My general rule is that any show or movie is better for having Darby in it, and this is no exception.

Take Episode 2, 'Heartbreak Hotel,' in which Marge and Homer try out for a Survivor/Amazing Race type show hosted by Tad Tuckerbag ( Rhys Darby). 'The Simpsons' Season 30: Making the Case And while this allows them to take a lot of sharp jabs at Trump or other current events, most of their ire, or at least its most consistent target, is television itself, as well as the entertainment industry at large.

This is also why episodes about a city buying a monorail or Prohibition coming back to Springfield still work just as well today as 25 years ago.īut today's Simpsons are able to be edgy in a way they weren't. Early seasons of The Simpsons took over a year from script to screen, so they could never be topical but had to be more broadly satirical. This is, no doubt, thanks to the increase in speed of the animation process. And just so you don't think I'm being uncritical of an aging show to puff up its bona fides, I will also say that one of the things that seems to separate the humor of today's Simpsons from the 'classic' seasons is how timely and topical the humor can be.

The simpsons season 30 episode 17