The previous season shifted location to a fantasy noir world, and it more or less worked because the laughs and wit were all there; the rhythm of the delivery, the sharpness of the writing, and the personalities of the characters. In the ninth season, they try to continue this approach by shifting the action to a 1930's island of seaplanes, treasure, and danger. The plot doesn't really matter, and doesn't particularly do much more than provide a frame, but what matters is that the show is a lot less funny than in previous.
At first I wondered if I was not in the mood for one or two of the episodes, but as it went on it was clear that I was still laughing - just not as often as I should. The delivery and writing of the dialogue seems off, as there are fewer of those classic lines and wit that has carried the show this far. Fewer though, not none, and the season does just about do enough to keep you watching, even as the waits between good laughs seem too long. The change of location and change to characters perhaps is part of that, as it changes the interactions too much for much of the original humor to occur. This can be best seen in the way that many of the best laughs are from Krieger, because he is pretty free-form as a bird, so gets lots of the type of line and interaction that he would have in previous seasons.
While the ninth season does enough to entertain, it isn't great, and unfortunately it does continue a marked overall downward trend for the show.
