The fourteenth season of America’s longest-running sitcom gets a high-def upgrade.

CRITIQUE

I stopped watching The Simpsons at some point in the ‘90s. The final straw for me was the episode where Principal Skinner was revealed to be an imposter. I’d noticed a serious decline in quality prior to this (many of the original writers and producers had left [presumably to work on sitcoms about sassy robots], and I’m pretty sure creator Matt Groening had turned his focus to getting Futurama off the ground), but that episode proved to be too much for me.

That was both an incredibly stupid idea (even for an animated series) and an insult to longtime fans, a group I was definitely a member of, as I’d been watching the show since the very beginning (I’d even followed the shorts that originally aired on Tracey Ullman’s Fox show).

Not counting those in this set, I’ve only seen two or three episodes since I called it quits (and I’ve yet to see the movie). Not coincidentally, all of these episodes featured guest appearances by some of my favorite authors. I watched animated versions of Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen get into a fight, and just recently I watched as Neil Gaiman got involved in a scheme to contrive a new series of books for children. Had this set not arrived for review, I’d have been perfectly content never to watch another episode from this decade (unless the producers somehow managed to talk James Ellroy into lending his voice).

If you’re expecting all of this to lead into my expressing regret or saying I thoroughly enjoyed the episodes presented here, sorry, that’s not going to happen. This season (which first aired in 2002-03) isn’t as bad as I’d feared (I’d assumed the show’s downhill slide would have reached its inevitable end by this season), but it’s moderately entertaining at best, dismayingly awful at worst. The show’s not completely worthless, but it’s a pale shadow of what it once was.

It has to be hard to keep fresh any show that runs this many seasons, and it has to be even harder for this show to stay fresh, as the characters don’t age and there’s no real opportunity to bring in any new blood (being able to add to the cast made a big difference in the longevity of King of the Hill). There’s a big air of familiarity here, with many story elements recalling plots of previous episodes.

For example, “Pray Anything” finds Homer attempting to improve his station in life, which he attempts to via incessant prayer. The episode ends with Springfield being flooded and God seemingly intervening to save everyone. This is sort of an inverse of Season Four’s “Homer the Heretic,” in which Homer stops going to church and at one point almost burns down his family’s home, the fire briefly spreading to the Flanders residence before God sends a rain shower to douse the flames. Homer installs a satellite dish and spends the next several days in front of the television, which is exactly what he did the time he got the family an illegal cable hookup.

Another episode finds Marge getting mugged and deciding to beef up in order to ensure it never happens again, and in a way this reminded me of the time she became a cop after foiling a petty crime. And when Bart joins the Pre-Teen Braves (this episode, “Bart Goes to War,” is one of the worst the show’s ever produced; I think I laughed once), it brings to mind the classic episode in which he and Millhouse downed an all-syrup Squishee and ended up in the Junior Campers. I think the show has reached the point where many of its writers grew up watching it, and they’re essentially ripping off their own memories; they don’t have any other point of reference, so the show’s eating its own tail.

One way the producers have dealt with the show’s perpetual motion is by turning what was once a savage satire of sitcoms into a through-and-through sitcom. At times the series is dangerously close to becoming something that wouldn’t have been out of place in ABC’s old TGIF lineup. The plots now don’t mean jack; now you’re turning in because you’ve been turning in for years, and you’re perfectly content to get a couple laughs (used to be you got a good, often smart plot and jokes that ran the gamut from dumb to brilliant but were almost always funny).

There’s also a disappointing over-reliance on guest stars. Whereas in the old days you’d get Dustin Hoffman doing a voice simply because the part was funny, here you get the writers hoping the guests will compensate for the dearth of originality and wit (although you’re not likely to get too much help from the likes of Blink-182).

Although this season in no way makes me regret my decision to stop watching the show, I do have to admit that I laughed more than I expected to. The first episode here is another “Treehouse of Horror” installment (I’m assuming baseball pushed the season’s start date back), and it’s quite good, especially the segment with Homer’s increasingly stupid clones. The next episode, “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation,” finds Homer attending a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy camp; Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards guest star, and this is one instance where good use is made of celebrity voices. The ending is weak, but most of the episode is damn funny.

Things start to decline from there on out; there aren’t any particularly memorable episodes along the way, but there are still some good jokes. “Three Gays of the Condo,” yet another episode in which Homer and Marge have a spat and one of them moves out, takes the obvious scenario of Homer befriending a couple of gay men (didn’t he once start palling around with John Waters?) and milks it for not quite all it’s worth but still manages to be quite funny (Hank Azaria’s killer voice work does a lot for the episode, and the brief shot of Homer’s old Mr. Plow jacket doesn’t hurt).

There are more than a few outright misses. Despite a good Mannix joke and a cameo by Bender (it’s the aforementioned episode with the satellite dish), the episode in which Bart gets sent back to the third grade on the same day Lisa gets bumped up to the third grade goes nowhere. “Brake My Wife, Please,” in which Homer loses his license and must walk everywhere (kind of like the time he got a DUI and had to start riding a bike) is ho-hum. And as I mentioned above, there’s a single laugh in “Bart Goes to War.” The rest of the episode is painfully unfunny, so unfunny it’s hard to determine what’s supposed to be a joke.

So I laughed more than I expected to, but still not as much as this show should make me laugh. I don’t think any other series I once loved eventually came to disappoint me as much as this one has (not even Lost). Maybe that’s caused me to be harder on the show than it deserves, but in my defense, it’s a long way to fall from Spinal Tap to Baha Men.       

THE VIDEO

These episodes aired long before the show switched to a fully high-def production, so they were presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio; encoded at 1080p with AVC, the twenty-two episodes here have been spread across three 50GB discs. The image here looks like the result of a very, very good upconvert, which I suppose is exactly what it is. Colors get a significant boost, looking far better than they ever did on the show’s DVD releases or standard-def broadcasts.

Little things like signage in the backgrounds are now easier to make out. The softness that usually accompanies what passes for establishing shots here is slightly more pronounced than it would be in standard-def presentations; whether this is exacerbated by the higher resolution or is made more evident by the higher resolution (i.e., high-def makes shortcuts in the original animation more obvious) is debatable. Some aliasing is also present, but it’s mild compared to what you often get with hand-drawn animation.

THE AUDIO

The audio has been upgraded to a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation, and the only problem with it is the somewhat restrained nature of the original mix. There’s a decent amount of surround action (both effects and music spillover), but it’s not completely seamless or refined. The spread across the front channels is surprisingly wide. Dialogue sounds very, very good. The amount of low-end action is startling, as is its impact; it adds weight and reinforcement to everything from effects to music (Mick and Keith’s first appearance is accompanied by the opening riff of “Start Me Up,” and it’s explosive).

Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs are also included; English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

A commentary is included for every episode. Executive producer Al Jean appears on each, and he’s joined by a host of writers, directors, and voice talent. Typical of the commentaries for these sets, they’re fast and funny.

A Haunting Invite from Matt Groening (2 minutes, HD) is a short introduction to the season.

It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll (9 minutes, SD) is a behind-the-scenes featurette that offers a look at the creation of “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation.”

The 300th Episode Featurette (2 minutes, SD) features short interviews with Groening, Tony Hawk, and the members of Blink-182, who talk about the show’s 300th episode.

In the Beginning (13 minutes, HD) is a montage of the opening sequences of the first fourteen “Treehouse of Horror” episodes.

The Halloween Classics (8 minutes, HD) is a collection of clips from the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes.

Foolish Earthlings (4 minutes, HD) is a collection of clips featuring everyone’s favorite aliens, Kodos and Kang.

Two bonus “Treehouse of Horror” episodes (50 minutes, HD video and DTS-HD 5.1 audio) are also included. These are the ’94 and ’95 episodes; the former features the famous parody of The Shining (“Do you wanna get sued!?!”), the latter the bit where a CG version of Homer gets sucked into the real world (“Mmmm...erotic cakes.”).    

Several deleted scenes (11 minutes, SD and HD) from various episodes are collected; you also have the option of watching a few of the episodes with the deleted scenes spliced back in. Al Jean provides both an introduction and optional commentary for these scenes.

Multi-Angle Animation Showcase (5 minutes, HD) allows you to compare one sequence of storyboards and animatics from the season finale, “Moe Baby Blues,” with the finished animation.

Two sketch galleries (4 minutes, HD) feature character concepts and production drawings from a couple episodes.

The standard Simpsons special language feature allows you to watch “Three Gays of the Condo” dubbed into a variety of languages. 

An episode guide is also included (the guide is so thick the Blu-ray case won’t close properly); it contains a short text piece by Groening, offers a plot summary and credits for each episode, and lists the extras.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fans likely won’t share my disappointment. As for non-fans, they’re probably not even reading, so who cares what they think? (I kid, I kid.)