I finely got a Simpsons box set

[Ghoulish Delight]

I'd go one step further and say the show has been positively unwatchable (with a RARE palatable episode with 0 repeat value whatsover) for at LEAST 4 seasons, and was on the decline for at least a couple of seasons before THAT. Bad bad bad bad. The characters are all pale characatures of their former selves. What passes for a plot is nauseus. Every episode is so formulaic I just want to smash things.

We too just bought our first box set, season 1. It's telling that the earliest episodes, where the writers had no idea who these characters were and the animators had no idea how to animate (or, more accurately, how to properly instruct the Korean animation house as to what they wanted), are STILL a million times better than the garbage they put out now.