Greater Definition

My friend Nick points out the new intro sequence and the new High Def-ness of The Simpsons. He also makes quite possibly the understatement of the year in just saying he's "a big fan" of the show. That's not even the tip of the iceberg.

Anyway, that's not my point. My point is that something even bigger changed with last night's episode of the animated series, and that's the narrative structure of the show. For years and years and years, The Simpsons would start with a scene that then segues sort of tangentially into the main plot, and then is typically never heard from again. I can remember one episode -- might have been around the time The Who appeared on the show -- where Homer yelled at a porcupine or some other animal that they didn't need him anymore.

This time, however, they had a single storyline from start to finish. Homer attends ceremony with his high school senior class president, wonders what would have happened had he won the election, and everything follows logically from that. No tangents. I don't tend to find myself in places where the show is debated online, so I don't know if this was seen as a big deal, but it feels like a big deal.