Do some characters from The Simpsons depress you?

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I love the Simpsons and I am a huge fan, but I've noticed in the later seasons (14+), some of the characters have become very weird.

Principal Skinner is a good example. He's forever single and lonely, and has a strange relationship with his mother. In the earlier seasons his relationship with his mother made sense, but in the later seasons it's rather creepy.

Another example is Milhouse. He's always been a bit of a wimp, but still an ordinary kid. In the later seasons he seems to be very insecure, has psychiatrists, and seems extremely naive and backward.

And the bullies act more like preschool bullies who don't really know how to bully yet, where as before they behaved like proper teens (except for season 8, in "Lisa's Date With Density" when the teenagers make fun of Nelson for kissing a girl, when normally teenager boys are very much into girls).

I still love the Simpsons, and I want to collect all the box sets, but the way the characters have become are rather far-fetched. Anyone agree?

Hi, Simpsons special interest here. You might be referring to what is known as "Flanderization," where characters who once had multiple traits now have only one defining characteristic. Flanders is a good example; he used to be a religious guy but had other characteristics as well. Now all he is is an extreme right-wing religious nut. Same with Otto; all he's used for now is drug jokes.

I wouldn't say these changes depress me, but it's certainly disappointing to see what happened to these previously deep characters whose flaws have been magnified, like you said with Skinner and Milhouse. But that's usually what's going to happen when a show has been on for almost 28 years.

They don't bother me. I still enjoy the show & find the characters funny

The Simpsons used to disturb me because I couldn’t tell whether it meant to criticize all the antisocial, dysfunctional or corrupt behaviors it depicted or to condone them. Autistic literalness and all that, combined with a very sheltered—hence spoiled—and isolated upbringing.

Another character that has begun to annoy me too is Cletus, and his wife Brandine, and how stupid they are just because they are country people. I don't believe country people are that stupid.

Whilst I do not have any interest in the recent series (in my view, The Simpsons has been on the decline for over a decade now), I still watch episodes from the earlier seasons.

Even though I acknowledge that they are supposed to be humourous characters, the lives of Barney, Moe and Grandpa Simpson have always been rather depressing in my mind.

Barney is an overweight alcoholic, who is portrayed as a hopeless drunk in many episodes.

Moe is a lonely barman, who is exploited by his customers and seldom finds love in what appears to be a rather meaningless existence. He feels so worthless that he even attempts to take his own life in one episode.

And is Abe is a senile old guy, who is seen as a burden to his family and is clearly starved of attention.

The characters have gotten so flanderized (including Ned Flanders, who inspired the word), that nearly all of them are now pretty depressing. Moe has been shown to be depressed and attempted suicide several times, but the other characters think its funny and he's just being a drama queen, Apu was a cheerful, lovable Indian stereotype but then he got married and had octuplets and his life was ruined and cheated on his wife. And of course, Ned Flanders went from being just an annoyingly happy-go-lucky neighbor whose life seemed perfect and he just happened to be a faithful Christian that everyone loved except Homer (they even had a song about it), but then now he's a bigoted Bible-thumper widower who now believes the Simpson's lives are better than his. Lisa used to be one of my favorite characters on the show because of her high intelligence and her female strength and standing for what she believed in, but then she became a Mary Sue or whatever they call it. And that Lady Gaga episode, ugh! Mr. Burns let Homer get raped by pandas. Bart wanted to get his parents divorced just so he wouldn't have to do his homework, and don't even get me started on the Prince and the Pauper episode, which even the cast of Springfield at the end wouldn't accept as canon.

But they're still not nearly as bad as Family Guy.

I grew up on the Simpsons. I never thought about the characters in depth like that though.

I used to be obsessed with the show when I was younger (Seriously), but I grew out of it and now I don't really watch the new episodes, not because of the characters (Although I agree they have been exaggerated a lot) but because the plots aren't like how they used to be. The older episodes, while they did have references to famous movies or shows, did it quite well, but these days, it feels like they're just putting in references to new movies and shows and other things in the news just for the sake of it.