Mmmm urinal fresh...

"The Simpsons Season Six" DVD Review

I swore I wouldn't buy this season of The Simpsons as my vague recollections were that it had started to go down the toilet by this year. Renting and watching it now I can say I was wrong. Other than a couple of duds, this is as good as year as any previous and I'd probably pick this up if it ever went sub-thirty odd dollars.

My only real complaints are the clip show, which in defense of the show they've had clip shows most years gone by, the Australia episode which I still can't tell if they're taking the piss out of us, they're taking the piss out of themselves in how they see us or if it's just unfunny. Maybe it's all three. The only other misstep they make is the generally unfunny and miscalculated Who Shot Mr. Burns Part One - since when did the show become a soap opera? If they were taking the piss, fair enough, but they seem to take the whole whodunit? crap too seriously. I wonder if this was the shape of things to come?

Luckily, the season is mainly a goldmine of comedy greats. I don't think there are any bonafide classics like say Duffless or The Last Temptation Of Homer, but generally the season is probably an improvement over the previous season, which seemed a little tired and lacking in ideas. There are some almost classics, though, such as "The Shinning" episode of "Treehouse Of Horrors V", Homer's gummy Venus de Milo incident in "Homer Badman", the Stonecutter's song in "Homer The Great", Homer as Krusty in "Homie The Clown", Barney's art film in "A Star Is Burns" and Mr. Burns' singing "See My Vest" from "Two Dozen And One Greyhounds".

As usual, the animation is of a high standard and some of the highlighs include the exploding candy convention in "Homer Badman" and the ice hockey game in "Lisa's Rival".

The guest stars are an important part of the show and this year's crop seem to have been better utilized than previously - Kelsey Grammer's annual appearance as Sideshow Bob in "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Meryl Streep's amazing turn as "Bart's Girlfriend" Jessica Lovejoy, the entire cast of Cheers (barring strangely enough Kelsey Grammer) in "Fear Of Flying" (which also features Anne Bancroft and to whom the DVD episode is dedicated), Patrick Stewart as the Number One Stonecutter in "Homer The Great", Mandy Patinkin as Lisa's future fiancee in "Lisa's Wedding" and Tito Puente in "Who Shot Mr. Burns Part One".

The DVD special features are generally of a high standard, though I can't help but think that there are some more substantial behind the scenes out there to what has been included. As with previous years, the highlights are the commentaries. They have come a long way from the quite boring early commentaries and have learnt a thing or two from the superior Futurama commentaries - the actors still provide very little anecdote, and it's left up to David Mirkin to provide the majority of the laughs and information - he's like a slightly more arrogant David X. Cohen (who appears on a few commentaries). Matt Groening pipes in every now and then. The commentaries aren't perfect - Brad Bird gets a mention every now and then, but no real importance is placed on his role, Sam Simon is never mentioned and David Mirkin carries on constantly how great The Graduate is (any fool already knows that). I guess when you commentate on 500+ minutes of television every six months, you'd probably be jaded and/or repeat yourself as well.

The deleted scenes are ok, but the rest of the extras are either animatics and storyboards that only the most hardcore animation buff might watch or really bad fluff pieces like a special on Who Shot Mr. Burns, the Simpsons plane and some advertisements. I guess because they do the commentaries they feel they don't have to do anything else. That's a shame.


One of the few decent uses of the technology as Matt draws Bart on top of an animatic as he commentates.