The Simpsons Movie

Has it really been three and a half years since this movie came out? Where has the time gone? Actually, The Simpsons first aired three days shy of twenty-one years ago; the movie "only" took place one sixth of the show's lifetime ago, and perhaps that's why it feels so recent to me. Now, most shows that I watch with regularity are shows I own on DVD. And thus if I watch a series regularly, I'm more likely than not to have seen every episode. But I'm terrified of owning every season of The Simpsons on DVD. Absolutely petrified. Can you blame me? They're on their twenty-third season and only fourteen of them have come out on DVD (and one of those is Season 20 - go figure). Maybe someday. Anyway, my point is that I haven't seen all 473 episodes of The Simpsons. I probably haven't even seen half of them. Hell, 150 sounds like a stretch. And yet, I've watched it on and off - both new episodes and reruns - for something like fifteen years. I'm by no means a hardcore fan, but I'm certainly a long-time fan. So I was just as skeptical as anyone that The Simpsons Movie would finally be the straw that tapped the well completely dry. But it was a good movie. The focus was primarily on the Simpson family itself, where it belonged, rather than all the secondary and tertiary Springfield townspeople as has been the case with so many of the 473 episodes. It was funny from beginning to end with just the right amount of epic adventure and moving tale. In short, it was very well done. I would totally watch another Simpsons movie in theaters were Matt Groening to make one. (I had heard at one point that they'd try to make a total of three, with the third being the be-all end-all franchise ender, but that sounds a whole lot like fan speculation and Internet hearsay.) Anyway, because I won't be purchasing any Simpsons seasons for a long, long time, and because no second movie has even been confirmed, this is both the first and last time you'll hear me talk about The Simpsons on this blog.