The Simpsons fans’ TVNZ torment is over as new episodes finally debut on Disney+

James Croot is the editor of Stuff to Watch.

OPINION: Simpsons fans rejoice! Your TVNZ torment is over.

After years of treating the longest-running scripted US TV show of all time shabbily, the state broadcaster has been usurped as the home for the New Zealand debuts of new episodes.

No longer will those keen to see the latest Springfield-set adventures have to wait months and then scour EPGs and printed listings for the inconsistent and inexplicable one-off broadcast times TVNZ has cooked up (everywhere from Friday and Saturday nights to 6pm on Mondays), now all you need is a Disney+ subscription to watch Season 34 episodes just weeks after their US debut.

READ MORE:
* The Simpsons: Why, despite TVNZ, you shouldn’t miss the best new episode in years
* The Simpsons: TVNZ’s disrespect means it must choo-choo-choose to let them go
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* Is it time for The Simpsons to end?

Even better, you can watch an episode as many times as you like. One of the great frustrations of the TVNZ deal was they had no online rights. Miss that one-off airing and you’d have to wait at least a year for it turn up as part of their weekday TVNZ 2 or daily Duke cycle.

Plus, you can choose whether you want to watch all the end credits, instead of having to hope they didn’t substitute in generic ones, or render them unreadable thanks to a promo for the next show, something that made it incredibly difficult to catch who the celebrity voices were, let alone any end-credit Easter Eggs.

Efforts to ask TVNZ if they had finally let their contract lapse went answered, the only response from their programmers, vague mumblings about currently being “in discussions” and announcements being made at their annual Auckland-based puff-fest next month. Maybe they just didn’t know what Disney+ were up to.

In all fairness, the opening episodes of this latest run aren’t exactly vintage. Habeas Tortoise is a fitfully funny look at what happens after Homer is publicly humiliated at a town meeting (“Just like they shot down the Titanic”).

In an effort to lift his spirits, the rest of the family take him to the Springfield Zoo, where he’s keen to see his favourite exhibit, the 150-year-old Slow Leonard. Distressed when he’s unable to relocate him, he launches an online site which attracts the attention of a smattering of like-minded locals.

Buoyed by their support, he begins hosting – and catering – their meetings, as they try to work out what’s happened to the beloved reptile. “Mom, are you worried that this group are crossing into the conspiracy theory zone?” asks Lisa. “Mmm, as long as he’s got a heavy hand of the saffron, who cares?” Bart retorts, while munching on paella.

Modern day mores and concerns also feature heavily in the second episode One Angry Lisa, which offer dual narratives of Marge becoming obsessed with an online exercise bike guru and Lisa somehow being summoned for jury duty – despite only being eight years old. While the latter offers a searing indictment of America’s justice system, the former sees Marge consistently denying that she’s been caught up in a cult, even as the evidence mounts up against her. “I love drinking that Kool-Aid,” she enthuses.

The best line though belongs to Homer back in Habeas Tortoise, casually observing that as well as various theories about what calamari really is, “I hear there’s a cartoon show that predicts the future [an in-joke of the highest order, thanks to The Simpsons’ reputation on the ‘net] – we’ll have to check that out”.

Thanks to Disney+ now Kiwis can, much, much sooner than previously.

The first episode of Season 34 is now available to stream on Disney+.