SIMPSONS, THE (TV SERIES) - Blu-ray review

Season twelve of the legendary animated series "The Simpsons" was released onto video on August of 2009. The show has been averaging just over one season released onto video a year and fans were probably figuring it would take at least a half dozen years until the twenty year anniversary season would see light of day on home video. The show has been anything but typical and nobody would ever have expected it to become the longest running sitcom of all time. A typical show doesn't need to follow typical thinking for video releases and Fox has decided to throw a curveball to the show's fans and the 20th season is now being released out of order so that fans may enjoy the recent episodes now. Those waiting to watch the teenage years of the show will have to wait longer.

Some could argue that "The Simpsons" are no longer relevant and that the writing has become stale over the past countless years for Matt Groening's creation. There is a reason that this season tied "Gunsmoke" as the longest running primetime television show and that is simply because "The Simpsons" are still fun and there is still plenty to poke fun at for Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie. In twenty years, nobody has aged an ounce in Springfield and while I once thought they could extend the show by letting everybody grow up a little, there is still plenty of life left in these characters that have become part of the national lexicon. I haven't followed the show religiously as I do "Lost," but I found a few of these episodes to be just as good as shows from days when I was still in high school.

Season twenty is the first season where the show was released in high definition and it is the first season released onto Blu-ray and the first season where the voice talent is all under new contract. The transition didn't occur till the season's midway point, but "The Simpsons" are at least evolving behind-the-scenes. There is guaranteed to be a twenty second season and the twenty first season is now long underway. The show garnered five Primetime Emmy Awards and Dan Castellaneta won for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for the episode "Father Knows Worst." This twentieth season is also the first where the voice of Homer Simpson is now given credit for being a consulting producer on the show. While the cast and general theme of "The Simpsons" hasn't changed, Groening and crew are taking steps to guarantee the show has many years ahead of it.

"The Simpsons" have always found success in poking fun at current social topics and parody the latest and greatest in pop culture. Season Twenty is no exception and the season spoofed "Transformers" in the annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode and made light of the presidential voting when Homer was forced to vote for John McCain thanks to a rigged voting machine. The world's financial woes are echoed in "No Loan Again, Naturally" and the economic crisis is again covered in "Coming to Homerica." Internet dating is a topic of one episode where meeting somebody online doesn't always deliver what is promised. Films are often inspiration and "The Da Vinci Code" is the basis for the episode "Gone Maggie Gone." The "Great Pumpkin" even makes an appearance in the nineteenth Halloween special.

Guest stars have always been a strength of "The Simpsons." The show has had a large number of movie stars, musical acts and other personalities appear in animated form on the show. Sports figures Joe Montana, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Marv Albert appeared in episodes. Actress Emily Blunt and band Fall Out Boy appeared in the episode "Lisa the Drama Queen." Anne Hathaway and Ellen Page are other actresses who took time out to provide voice talent to the twentieth season. Former "Cheers" and "Frasier" star Kelsey Grammer provided the voice of Sideshow Bob again during this season. The season's first episode, "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scraps" featured Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Robert Forster and Joe Mantegna. Other familiar voices can be heard, but the biggest name to appear in this season was Jodie Foster in a female take of Ayn Rand's novel "The Fountainhead."

The following is the full list of episodes in "The Simpsons: 20 Years: The Complete Twentieth Season":

•Sex, Pies and Idiot Scraps
•Lost Verizon
•Double, Double, Boy in Trouble
•Treehouse of Horror XIX
•Dangerous Curves
•Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words
•Mypods and Broomsticks
•The Burns and the Bees
•Lisa the Drama Queen
•Take My Life, Please
•How the Test Was Won
•No Loan Again, Naturally
•Gone Maggie Gone
•In the Name of the Grandfather
•Wedding for Disaster
•Eeny Teeny Maya Moe
•The Good, the Sad and the Drugly
•Father Knows Worst
•Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh
•Four Great Women and a Manicure
•Coming to Homerica

I enjoyed revisiting the twentieth season and catching up on episodes that I had missed when they were originally televised. For me, Sunday nights is often a football night and I'm not much of a television person to begin with. I do enjoy Groening's creation, but I typically do not watch it on the night the show is broadcast. The annual "Treehouse of Horror" is an exception and when I have nothing else to do I will watch the show. I do look forward to the releases on video and was excited to dig into these episodes. I feel a little ashamed that I do not try to watch "The Simpsons," because I do place the show as one of those I actually do like. It is such a refreshing break from the fecal matter we call "Reality Television" and for a show that continues to entertain millions of people, I should be one of them.

The episodes contained on these discs are not quite as good as the second and third years of "The Simpsons" and I will always consider those the golden years. The first year they were trying to figure everything out, but now that "The Simpsons" is a polished experience, the show is one of the better made products on television. The writing is still very good and Homer is just as lovable twenty years later. It has come to a point where it would almost seem wrong to know that "The Simpsons" are not on television and the day the show comes to a close will be a sad day in the world. Watching these episodes without the nuisance of commercials reminded me of just how good this show is and while the truly great years of "The Simpsons" are long behind it, the show is clearly still in its ‘good years.'

Is "The Simpsons" starting to run out of fresh ideas and feel like rehashed episodes with roughly 450 episodes now finished? I don't think so. I was once one that felt the show needed a new direction and maybe a couple years added to the family. Let Bart go to college. Let Lisa reach the dating age. Let Maggie become Lisa's age. Now, I see that would be a travesty and as long as the writers and actors are having fun making this show there will always be hot social topics and other things to parody and "The Simpsons" can continue to entertain audiences and tickle our funny bones for years to come. It's a wonderful cartoon comedy that manages to teach us little lessons about ourselves in a way that these lessons aren't even noticed. "The Simpsons" are pertinent and continue to be so after twenty years. Nobody would have thought back in December, 1989 that this little comedy would succeed and I know nobody expected the show to continue long enough to see a "Twentieth Season."

Video:

The menus for the Blu-ray are the first indication this is the best way to watch "The Simpsons." They are clearer, animated and better looking by a large amount. The standard definition episodes are clearly more stable and coloring and detail is noticeably better. The palette and resolution is still dated looking and compared to far newer animated series, this is almost a travesty. Where the benefit comes in is the reproduction of the high definition episodes. They do look better in comparison and are more detailed. "Take My Life, Please" was the first episode broadcast in 720p high definition widescreen. From this point on the episodes are on the second disc. Nine episodes are in 1.33:1, while the twelve high definition episodes are in 1.78:1 widescreen. The higher resolution episodes are easily the best the Simpsons have ever looked and in comparison are night and day to the standard definition DVD release.

Audio:

A bump in channels and resolution for all supported languages is on hand for "The Simpsons" on Blu-ray. English moves into high definition with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio mix that really drives home Danny Elfman's theme song. Spanish, Portuguese and French are now supported with 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes that are better than the 2.0 matrix mixes on the DVD. This is a very clean sounding release that is improved in high definition and showcases perfectly clear dialogue of the voice actors. "The Simpsons" sound design has always been fun and there are some nice, if not over-emphasized, sound effects throughout the show. However, this is still an animated television show and it is a front heavy mix. It isn't the most exciting mix, but it is good and "The Simpsons" haven't changed much in 20 years.

Extras:

The packaging and presentation of "The Simpsons" on Blu-ray is a tremendous improvement. The horrible accordion-styled cardboard packaging is gone and all the episodes are included on just two discs for this release in a standard-sized Blu-ray case. The first disc contains the standard definition episodes, while the second disc has the high definition releases. A "Set Up" menu is provided and you can just set up your preferences for all the episodes instead of having to do it by episode. The first disc of the two disc set features an "Extra" menu. This implies there is just one bonus item and this is entirely true. This is the very brief The 20th Anniversary Special Sneak Peak by Morgan Spurlock (3:32). This is just a quick introduction by the "Super Size Me" filmmaker about his involvement and I was upset to see the special was not included on the disc.

Closing:

While there aren't any new bonus items included on the Blu-ray release, the slimmer and more streamlined packaging is a huge improvement over the DVD release and the high definition episodes are leaps and bounds better in high definition than the anamorphic widescreen versions of them. Fox could have thrown in a bonus item or two for the Blu-ray, but the visuals and the packaging make purchasing the Blu-ray over the DVD a no-brainer. Bart writes "HDTV IS WORTH EVERY CENT" with chalk during the opening sequence of the first high definition episode and this is the case with the Blu-ray release of the landmark twentieth season. I really hope that Fox releases all of the previous seasons for an attractive price on this format for just the smaller size they will take on the bookshelf. HDTV was an improvement for the show and I love how it looks in widescreen.