Blu-ray Review: The Simpsons - The Complete Twentieth Season

Release Date: January 12th, 2009
Running Time: 456 minutes

The Show

The Simpsons is a pop-culture goliath. It is synonymous with animation and paved the way for countless other shows to gain popularity. Do you really think Seth MacFarlane would have found the same level of success had The Simpsons not existed? For twenty years the show has been a staple in my life; the reason to turn on the TV on Sunday nights. Yet the DVD releases have trickled out so slowly that the show has never been able to catch up with itself. Celebrating its 20 years of success, The Simpsons: The Complete Twentieth Season brings the famous family into the beauty that is the HD generation but loses its trademark extra content in the process.

After over four hundred episodes, The Simpsons has clearly exhausted the core, iconic storylines that most shows explore. For the past few seasons a new formula finds random events leading into one another before settling on an overall story. While this new style may have faltered and alienated viewers in the past, this season is one of the show’s most entertaining in many years. Genuine character moments are balanced with ludicrous antics while keeping the trademark wit and levity. All of the family members are highlighted and go on their own misadventures.

Homer kicks off the season by becoming a bounty hunter with Flanders. He also suspects Bart’s new friend of being a terrorist. Marge gets into erotic baking, renews her vows with Homer, and rents an apartment in swanky Waverly Hills so the kids can go to a better school district. Bart swaps places with his rich doppelganger while Lisa enters a cross word puzzle competition and finds herself entranced in a fantasy world after making a new friend. Maggie, never left out of the chaos, gets lost and winds up in a convent, leading Lisa on a quest for a hidden jewel in Springfield. Other plot lines include: a Great Pumpkin parody in the Treehouse of Horror; Moe trying out Internet dating only to find out his love interest is vertically challenged; the entire family traveling to Ireland so Grandpa can drink at an old favorite pub; and spoofs of Snow White and Macbeth in a stories episode. The season ends with Homer putting together a border control group once the unemployed citizens of Ogdenville begin to flood into Springfield.

I find it strange that die-hard fans of the show seem to constantly complain about the quality of the newer seasons. The storylines may not be as iconic or emotional as they once were, but after so many years on the air you can’t repeat what you’ve already done. The plots will never have the classic nature they once did—those storylines have been mined to death, but it doesn’t mean the show isn’t funny. The show has evolved with the times and people have to accept that. The Complete Twentieth Season proves that The Simpsons has found new life, and the consistently entertaining show has a long, bright future ahead of it. If nothing else, the visual improvements brought on by the show’s transition into HD (featuring a brilliant all-new title sequence) is more than enough reason to invest in this set.

The two-disc set contains all 21 episodes from the twentieth season: “Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes,” “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,” and “Coming to Homerica.”

The Disc

While the entire season is presented in 1080p High Definition, the first half of the season is in 1.33:1 Full Frame and the second half is 1.78:1 widescreen. Colors are bold and vibrant with only very minor banding. The animation lines are thick and clear. The first batch of episodes is noticeably softer with inconsistent clarity and some aliasing. However, once the show goes full-on HD, the art is crisper, the animation is sleek, and the detail is noticeably improved. The HD episodes are the best the show has ever looked outside of the movie.

The audio is offered in an English DTS HD 5.1 master lossless audio track and French/Spanish/Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound with English/Spanish/Portuguese subtitles. The show has never had very robust sound design, so the mix is really limited by the source material. It is very front heavy with rare rear channel ambient effects. There are panning and directional effects at various times, but they are very basic. The score, important for musical numbers and what not, sounds fantastic. Most importantly, the dialogue is perfectly crisp and clear.

The Extras

The Simpsons DVD sets have always been known for their consistently impressive special features, including commentaries on every episode, deleted scenes, featurettes, animatics, and more. While I am elated to have the show on Blu-ray for the first time, this set has NONE of the extra content fans have come to expect. Not even in the traditional Matt Groening introduction!

The only special feature offered on the set is a 4-minute preview of Morgan Spurlock’s 20th Anniversary Simpsons special that already aired. I could have accepted it if they put the entire special on the disc, but a preview of something that has already passed? Unacceptable.

Final Thoughts

The Simpsons: The Complete Twentieth Season is a solid batch of episodes and marks the show’s first foray into HD. Fox finally got the right idea with releasing the current seasons so the older DVD sets can catch up, but ignoring the traditional special features that have made the season sets great is a gross oversight. Of course I recommend that all fans of the show buy the set, but be just aware about the lack of content.