When I was in college, I watched The Simpsons three times a day. My school was located at a nexus of affiliates, meaning that our free broadcast stations included two different local Fox stations, one from New York and another from Connecticut, and the two channels scheduled their syndicated Simpsons reruns at slightly different times. If my roommates and I were industrious – perhaps more industrious than I was in some of my actual classes – we could plan our trip to the dining hall to follow one 6PM Simpsons and get done in time for another 7:30PM airing. Then, of course, there also was an 11PM airing, far better than any weeknight party (or so I assumed). Sometimes the vagaries of scheduling meant that one night’s 11PM episode had just aired at 7:30PM on the other affiliate a week or two ago, but was that really a problem for a 10-season series we had all seen multiple times anyway?
Now, there are vastly more seasons and episodes of The Simpsons, with vastly easier (if pricier) access. Disney+ has the show’s 35 complete seasons (the 36th is in-progress and, as such, new Simpsons episodes stream first on Hulu), so subscribers can watch whatever episode whenever they need to hear a rousing chant of where’s my burrito? But sometimes the sheer number of episodes can be overwhelming; even a question of which Treehouse of Horror Halloween special to watch can feel daunting. (I’ve found myself feeling gratitude for my daughter, who chooses episodes to watch at random, skipping around seasons with impunity.) Fortunately, Disney is offering a solution: a dedicated streaming channel that will be airing all Simpsons episodes chronologically, on a loop.
Now, waning cable subscribers (especially those who work at home) might be familiar with this model; they would call it FXX, the FX spinoff channel that shows Simpsons episodes, usually chronologically, in three-hour chunks. But FXX does technically show other stuff, too. This Disney+ Simpsons 24/7 stream, which is now live, is the Simpsons-only channel of your childhood dreams, and it’s not exactly unwarranted; cycling through everything will take approximately two full weeks.
It’s basically an ongoing version of the “Every Simpsons Ever” marathon that FXX first ran about a decade ago – and which, as writer A.A. Dowd explained, was one of the last collective experiences of the linear-TV era. When we think of TV’s second golden age, it tends to be more about the high quality of cable drama series like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. But damn, the high quality of a cable marathon is up there too with the lean-back pleasures of television.
Though there are both elements of continuity and notable changes over 35 years of Simpsons episodes, running the episodes in a way that allows viewers to catch them by chance can help reacquaintance them with a new-yet-old way of enjoying television that’s less dependent on how a season or episode drops, and more interested in how you drop in. And fans who dropped out of The Simpsons years ago may be pleasantly surprised – or, hell, maybe horrified! – by what they’re able to discover. Call it the d’oh/woohoo! theory of TV.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
The post Disney+’s Brand New 24/7 ‘The Simpsons’ Stream Brings Back The Easygoing, Lean Back Pleasures Of Cable TV Marathon-Viewing appeared first on Decider.
