The Simpsons: The Fourteenth Season Blu-ray Review

Matt Groening’s The Simpsons was once TV’s most buzzworthy show. Hilarious, outrageous, and daring, it was the show people were always talking about the day after it aired: the very definition of a water cooler entertainment. Around season six or seven, however, the show lost some of its coolness factor. It was still as delightful and hilarious as ever, but times change and some folks began drifting away to other programming. The Blu-ray season box sets of earlier seasons of The Simpsons now brought to us in high definition enable many viewers to refamiliarize ourselves once again with the show, and this latest edition brings us the show’s fourteenth season broadcast in 2002-2003.

The Simpsons: The Fourteenth Season (Blu-ray)
Directed by Jim Reardon et al

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2002-2003

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1   1080p   AVC codec
Running Time: 483 minutes
Rating: TV-G
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish

Region: A

MSRP: $59.99

Release Date: December 6, 2011

Review Date: December 11, 2011

The Season

4/5

The world’s most dysfunctional cartoon family that started out rather inauspiciously on The Tracy Ullman Show all those years ago enters its fourteenth season in a comfortably confident manner: the show still has the wherewithal to be hysterical, to be biting, to be topical, often within the same episode. From parodies of The Island of Lost Souls and The Godfather trilogy to digs at the tabloids, spelling bees, female bodybuilding, the Beatles, dude ranches, plastic surgery, music camps, and South Park, The Simpsons continues to be sometimes diabolical but always lovable even with the occasional dud episode.

What kind of ritual sacrifice had to be offered up to the gods of inspiration for the brilliant casting of the show’s core actors?  The fourteenth season proves yet again what masterful, versatile actors they are and how lucky the show is to have them. Dan Castellaneta’s well meaning but often befuddled Homer, Julie Kavner’s steadfast Marge, Nancy Cartwright’s mischievous Bart (who seems a little more controlled this year apart from the penultimate episode), Yeardley Smith’s incisive Lisa, and the versatile Harry Shearer (Burns, Smithers, Skinner, Flanders) and Hank Azaria (Moe among so many others and this year’s Emmy winner for voice actor in an animated series for the season finale episode) create brilliant characterizations show after show and manage to find new nuances in these personas that keep audiences coming back season after season. The writing, of course, by a crackerjack team of artists manages to keep the show timely on the one hand and effortlessly respectful to its television forefathers on the other. And the guest stars who come in and do voices, sometimes as themselves and sometimes playing outrageous characters, are always memorable. This season, Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Adam West, Burt Ward, Jan Hooks, Larry Holmes, David Lander, Kelsey Grammer, Little Richard, Elliott Gould, Tony Hawk, George Plimpton, Marisa Tomei, Eric Idle, Scott Thompson, Weird Al Yankovic, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Stacy Keach, Steve Buscemi, and Joe Mantegna are only some of the masterful guest actors and well known personalities who have lent their talents to this inspired show this season.

Each of the core actors gets episodes that spotlight his or her specific character, everything from Marge’s addiction to bodybuilding to Lisa’s search for a lasting respect by winning the spelling bee, Homer’s misunderstanding over Marge’s reasons marrying him that drive him to rooming with a gay couple and the complicated consequences which ensue (the season’s sweetest episode and an Emmy winner for Best Animated Program), Edna’s search for commitment, Moe’s enthusiasm over his startling fondness for Baby Maggie, and the usual spotlight start to the season with the “Treehouse of Horror,” a three short story premiere episode featuring clever parodies of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Island of Lost Souls as only these characters could enact. The Simpsons at its best is as strong as ever.

Here are the twenty-two episodes contained on three discs in the thirteenth season box set:

1 – Treehouse of Horror XIII

2 – How I Spent My Strummer Vacation

3 – Bart Vs. Lisa Vs. the Third Grade

4 – Large Marge

5 – Helter Shelter

6 – The Great Louse Detective

7 – Special Edna

8 – The Dad Who Knew Too Little

9 – The Strong Arms of the Ma

10 – Pray Anything

11 – Barting Over

12 – I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can

13 – A Star Is Born – Again

14 – Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington

15 – C. E. D’Oh!

16 – ‘Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky

17 – Three Gays of the Condo

18 – Dude, Where’s My Ranch

19 – Old Yeller-Belly

20 – Brake My Wife, Please

21 – The Bart of War

22 – Moe Baby Blues

Video Quality

4.5/5

The Simpsons didn’t switch over to widescreen presentation until the middle of its twentieth season, so here the aspect ratio is 1.33:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. As always, the show is wildly colorful, and the deep, rich hues and impressive line structures of the animation come through with excellent clarity and impressive levels of saturation and without any problematic aliasing (though there was a slight instance of some line shimmer once or twice). You’ll occasionally see some minor banding, too, but again, it’s only there sporadically and not as a general rule. Each episode has been divided into 6 chapters.

Audio Quality

4/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is surprisingly immersive for a television cartoon series. The music is constantly filtered throughout the soundfield, and the sound design makes sure that occasional sound effects and incidental dialogue pan out through the fronts and rears as appropriate, often to impressive effect. You’ll also be impressed with the power of the LFE channel on occasion when things blow up or when music takes on a heavy bass beat.

Special Features

4/5

Every episode contains an audio commentary with a large number of the episode’s creative personnel in attendance. This doesn’t make for the most organized or informative of discussions, but the comments are occasionally enlightening. Some feature discussion during the entire episode while others find lots of moments where the participants just watch and laugh at their show. Only occasionally do actors such as Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Scott Thompson, Stacy Keach, or Joe Mantegna take part.

All of the featurettes unless otherwise noted are presented in 480i.

“A Haunting Invite from Matt Groening” is a throwaway introduction to the season by its creator. It runs for 2 ¼ minutes.

“In the Beginning” offers thirteen years of introductions to the premiere “Horror” episode of the show. This runs 12 ¾ minutes.

“It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll” shows the rock stars (Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger, and others) in the recording studio for their parts in episode #2 in this behind-the-scenes vignette that runs 9 minutes.

“Sketch Gallery I” shows a succession of sketches for the “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation” episode presented in 1080p and lasting for 2 ¼ minutes.

“The 300th Episode Featurette” features Tony Hawk behind-the-scenes in the production of “Barting Over,” the three hundredth episode of the show (though a running gag has them claiming it may be #302). It runs 2 minutes.

“Sketch Gallery II” features a succession of drawings from “Barting Over” presented in 1080p and running 2 ¼ minutes.

“The Halloween Classics” offers more focus on some of the horror movie parodies the show has achieved during their years on the air. This compilation of memorable scenes runs 8 ¼ minutes.

Two bonus “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are offered in 1080p: installments V (23 minutes) and VI (22 minutes).

“Animation Showcase” allows the viewer to watch select scenes from the season finale “Moe Baby Blues” in either storyboard or animatics format. It runs 5 ½ minutes. The user may push the “angle” button on the remote to switch from one view to the other.

“Special Language Feature” allows the user to watch a clip from “Three Gays of the Condo” in one of four languages: German, Italian, Portuguese, or Czech. It runs 6 minutes.

“Foolish Earthlings” is 3 ¾ minutes of compilations of the twin monsters interacting with various characters over the seasons.

The menu for each episode offers the viewer the option to view the episode with deleted scenes which had been completed added back into the show. (Fourteen episodes contain deleted scenes. A scissor icon appears in the episodes to denote the cut footage, usually only seconds long.) Deleted scenes have also been collected in a bonus feature on disc three and can be viewed with optional commentary by Al Jean. They run a total of 11 minutes.

The enclosed 30-page booklet makes a welcome addition to the set here and is chock full of information about each episode.

In Conclusion

4/5 (not an average)

The Simpsons is in the midst of its twenty-third year, an industry record for a prime time entertainment series (and it’s been renewed for a final two seasons already). It’s gratifying that the show is now being offered in high definition looking close to its best. America’s favorite cartoon family gets a nice Blu-ray box set with an eclectic selection of bonus material and a helpful and most welcome booklet to guide the viewer through each episode. Recommended!

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC