Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation

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 show more 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. show less

I enjoyed this book far more than I thought I would and I'm not even that much of a Simpsons fan (Futurama on the other - marvelous!). The book is well written and still relevant today, the only real change to the world since then is the rise of religious fundamentalist idiocy (of all varities), and is quite thought provoking.

The key to this book is the admission early on that Fox would not allow anyone connected to the show to be interviewed for outside book projects. What follows, then, is a string of, "and then, in that one episode, Homer did something funny" interspersed with "analysis" that reads like someone's senior thesis. I got bored after the second chapter.

I've found some unpolished gems on the remainders table at my local bookstore - this was most definitely not one of them. Unauthorised and relying on stale secondary research, Planet Simpson offers nothing in the way of fresh insights. Chris Turner's "analysis" includes the fact that Homer Simpson represents voracious Western consumerism and white male privilege, Mr. Burns unchecked corporate greed and Lisa the aims and limitations of social activism. In other words, nothing that hasn't already occurred to any halfway serious Simpsons fan long ago. It is kinda fun to relive some favourite moments of the show, but Turner often rehashes the same scenes two or even three times. He also mistakenly assumes that reflections on his childhood show more in Kingston, Ontario or a Wilco concert he once attended (among other inanities) are of interest to complete strangers. Terminally self-indulgent. show less

Detailed book that analyses the television programme to the nth degree. I agree that the Simpson's is a great show but somehow found his contant references to its greatness put me off somehow.

Umm, why did I buy this? I felt like I was just reading some guy telling me his favorite Simpsons moments and than explaining the meaning behind each episode. Nothing that I did not already know. I enjoyed the Simpson quotes, but that's why I have every season on DVD. D'oh-dee!

Quite academicy & big. Managed to persevere through all of it, but I'm a dedicated Simpsons fan with lots of time to read. It put me off analysis of the show though, and I was weary towards the end of it - I wouldn't really touch it unless you are an academic, and even then I'd probably not bother either bar a cursory glance through.