The Simpsons: Season 10
Eats shorts
Tags: Simpsons Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 25th, 2007
 |
Amongst Simpsons fans, it is generally agreed upon that the show lost much of its charm some years ago. Some point to the original creators’ exodus to other projects (most notably, Futurama), and some just think that it happened over time, as The Simpsons began to seem less fresh, edgy and controversial. Oh yeah, there was a time when The Simpsons was actually controversial!
While it’s difficult to pinpoint just when the show lost its funny (especially because no two fans seem to agree), I’d venture that Season 10 of the show makes for a strong argument that the show’s decline is at this point well under way. This is, of course, not to say that the show isn’t good or funny anymore, but that it just seems to be missing some of what made it so special as recently as seasons 8 and 9.
So let’s go over the good, here. The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace has Homer on another one of his wild quests – in this case, to become a famous inventor like Thomas Edison (honestly, that makeup gun would revolutionize the art of domestic abuse). Lisa Gets an “A” is great if only for the B-story involving Homer getting a pet lobster. Mayored to the Mob has Homer becoming a bodyguard (with a memorable guest appearance by Mark Hamill at a sci-fi convention). Viva Ned Flanders has Homer and Ned going on a road trip to Vegas. I’m With Cupid focuses on Apu’s attempts to woo his beloved for Valentine’s Day (with Springfield’s male population getting up in arms when he starts to make them look bad). Mom and Pop Art has Homer inadvertently becoming the latest art phenom. Finally, Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo is essentially “The Simpsons Do Japan”.
As for the not-so-good? Lard of the Dance is a ho-hum Lisa story about peer pressure and “being cool”. Bart the Mother plays Bart against type by making him care after two orphaned eggs. When You Dish Upon a Star is a shameless attempt to work the voices of Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger and Ron Howard into a story. D’ohin’ in the Wind is a jab at the hippie culture (a quarter century too late). Homer Simpson in: Kidney Trouble, a story about Grandpa Simpson needing his son to donate a kidney) runs out of steam after the first act. Wild Barts Can’t Be Broken is a pointless kids Vs. Adults story that ends with one of the worst musical numbers in Simpsons history. Sunday, Cruddy Sunday is a Superbowl episode so jam-packed with guest celebrity voices that they ran out of room for a plot. Or humor.
Homer to the Max starts strong with Homer feeling threatened by a TV character with the same name. Unfortunately, it somehow gets warped into some sort of joke about environmentalists that isn’t anywhere near as funny. Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers has Marge getting road rage, with a lot of material that seems a rehash of earlier episodes (and it seems like a missed opportunity that they didn’t re-use the Canyonero theme song). Make Room For Lisa also retreads old ground, telling yet another “Homer and Lisa don’t see eye to eye” story. Maximum Homerdrive sees Homer as a trucker, which may have been a fairly decent episode but for the fact that something similar was done (and done better) on King of the Hill. Simpsons Bible Stories fails to be funny because it strays too far from the source material – seriously, have you read the bible? That stuff’s funny enough in and of itself.
The Old Man and the “C” Student has Bart and Lisa looking after the geezers in the old folks home (by this point, this show has expended just about every old folks joke there is, although “I want some taquitos” never grows old). Monty Can’t Buy Me Love has Mr. Burns and Homer attempting to capture the Loch Ness monster to endear Burns to Springfield (the story takes too long to get going). They Saved Lisa’s Brain has Lisa joining MENSA (great if you think palindromes are funny. Anyone? Anyone?).
Finally, even the latest Treehouse of Horror is a bit lame, with two dumb segments (Homer gets an evil toupee transplant and Maggie becomes the focal point on an international paternity struggle on Jerry Springer) and one that’s at least conceptually interesting (Lisa and Bart get zapped into a cartoon with Itchy and Scratchy, who try to kill them).
So that’s four paragraphs (sixteen episodes) of unremarkable episodes versus one paragraph (six episodes) of great ones, which seems to me like a pretty poor ratio. Granted, people are bound to differ in opinions, and I want to be absolutely clear here – I’m not saying any of this stuff is bad. However, I strongly feel that this year the show fell off of its A-game.
At least the show continues to have DVDs jam-packed with extras. Especially in light of the shamefully bare South Park Season 10 set, The Simpsons continues to set the bar for excellence in TV-to-DVD releases. You have audio commentary for every episode, as well as in-line deleted and extended scenes in every episode. You have an intro by Matt Groening, a few “multi-angle animation showcase” features (to see the animation at multiple stages of completion), a collection of crank calls, a language featurette, commercials, a “A Glimpse Inside” featurette, and a sneak peak into the Simpsons Movie DVD. Outside of getting the celebrity guest stars to return for the commentary, there’s just about nothing these guys could have added to make this a more complete package.
So there you have it – the extras in this season of The Simpsons continue the series’ tradition of excellent DVD releases, but this season itself isn’t quite as entertaining as those that preceeded it. Definitely not a must-buy like, say, season eight, but certainly still worthy of a spot in a Simpson collector’s library.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Still full of Simpsony goodness + This set is just as jam-packed with extras as previous season sets. There’s tons of content here to enjoy |
7.8 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Season 10 quite frankly just isn’t as good as previous seasons. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This isn’t the best season the show’s had, but it’s still been given a really great DVD set. For those that pick and choose which Simpsons sets to get, this is one to skip, but for series collectors, this is a no-brainer that continues the show’s tradition of excellent DVD sets. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Simpsons
Posted by Jake McNeill on Sep 25th, 2007 and is filed under DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
