Some Enchanted Evening

There is a later episode of The Simpson where Troy McClure shows clips from the original short cartoons from which this show came and he forces a laugh in response to a clip that is really way below the standard the show had reached by the time that clip show came around. I mention that because to a certain extent that is how I felt watching the very first season again, because this really is its first steps and it is still far from being the fully fleshed out, hilarious and clever show that it would soon become.

It is still good for what it is though and it isn't that it doesn't know what it is doing, just that it is taking its first steps as a show. The weekly plots are good but they tend to focus on one strand rather than several, as a result they seem more straightforward and perhaps a little slower than I expected. They tend to have good messages and be delivered in a way that avoids the usual sitcom sentiment, but they are still pretty direct in terms of what they are doing. The animation shows a big difference as well of course – although everything has stepped up from the original shorts, it still looks pretty rough and the characters and their voices are all not quite where they need to be (which is easy to say retrospectively I know). The supporting character base has a few in there but again the show hasn't had time to really bring anyone on and there are only a few characters that have more than a small amount to do in support.

It is still funny though and pretty smart with it, though it should be read that I dismiss it but just that the heights it went onto make it harder to look back on its humble beginnings and see them as anything else. I look forward to seeing the rough edges being taken off in the next few seasons and the whole thing being brought up to the shine I know it will achieve.