The Simpsons The Fourteenth Season now on Blu-ray

     Now out on Blu-ray is The Fourteenth Season of FOX's The Simpsons. Since it's been a few years since these episodes ran on television, although this Blu-ray is a new release, it's worth noting a number of things about season fourteen. These episodes broadcast from November 2002 through May 2003. Five episodes were actually left over from the previous season. This season won the Outstanding Animated Program Emmy for "Gays of the Condo," as well as a handful of other awards, including one for voice actor Hank Azaria's work in "Moe's Baby Blues" and the show's first Golden Globe nomination for Best Musical or Comedy Series.

     Year fourteen got off to a late start, with "Treehouse of Horror XIII" serving as the season premiere. It is a memorable one, featuring clones of Homer (Dan Castellaneta), the ghost of Billy the Kid taking over defenseless Springfield, and Dr. Hibbert's (Harry Shearer) freaky island. The season continued with a number of great installments. Among them, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," where Homer rubs elbows with rock stars, "Bart vs. Lisa vs. the Third Grade," where the siblings end up in the same class, and "Large Marge," wherein Marge (Julie Kavner) gets breast implants. The Simpsons also live in a 1895-esque settlement, Marge takes steroids, Homer finds religion, Ned (Shearer) dates an actress, Krusty (Castellaneta) is elected to Congress, Santa's Little Helper's original owner tries to reclaim him, and a suicidal Moe (Azaria) finds meaning in his life because of Maggie (Nancy Cartwright). In this year, Skinner (Shearer) even proposes to Edna (Marcia Wallace), though we all know that didn't work out!

      There is also controversy surrounding season fourteen, in the argument over what the 300th episode of The Simpsons actually is. "Barting Over" was promoted heavily as that landmark, but actually ended up being the 302nd broadcast. There is a joke in the episode that references this, showing how timely the series can be. But it caused quite a stir among fans and suits alike at the time.

     If you're looking for guest stars, Season Fourteen certainly has them. I could list them all, but it would be an extensive list, and readers' eyes will begin to glaze over, so there seems to be little point. Rest assured, they are present, and in droves.

     Best of all, The Fourteenth Season is packed with extras! There are more bonus features than one would inspect, but a great many of them are actually very good. Audio commentary is provided for all twenty-two episodes, giving the die-hard fans hours of audio content to pour over. Many, many people stop by these commentaries, so there is no change of boredom or monotony. Even better, deleted scenes are included with commentary, too, so it's easy to find out why they were cut, something that isn't often included. They can also be added back into the episode, with a small icon indicating the cut material.

     Included are various featurettes. Of course, one looks at the 300th episode. Another interviews the rock stars from "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." There is an introduction by creator Matt Groenig. The multi-angle animation showcase is fantastic for anyone curious about the animation process, taking fans through the various stages of design. There are also sketches on each disc. Really cool is the booklet that comes with the set, which features a full page of information from each and every episode, and a humorous letter from Groenig.

     Season six and seven's "Treehouse of Horror" episodes are included in this Blu-ray set. As these have not been on Blu-ray before, that's kind of nice, though one does wonder why these particular entries are chosen. Continuing with the Halloween theme, "Foolish Earthlings," "The Halloween Classics," and "In the Beginning" present clips from various scary specials, the latter putting together the openings over the years, though don't add that much to the discussion.

     At last, in season fourteen, The Simpsons joins the world of digital coloring. That is not a slam on The Simpsons; it's not like it was behind the curve. But it's great to see such crystal clear pictures, sharp images, and color deviations, even on an animated series. The show is not in widescreen, nor was it ever at this point. As a basic television show, audio does not benefit substantially from surround side. But the dialogue and music is mixed nicely, and everything sounds as good as one might expect. Certainly no problems.

     Buy The Simpsons The Fourteenth Season on Blu-ray today.

     Watch The Simpsons Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

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The Simpsons presents "The Ned-Liest Catch"

     FOX's The Simpsons presents their 22nd season finale, "The Ned-Liest Catch." In it, Edna Krabappel (Marcia Wallace) does the unthinkable - she slaps Bart (Nancy Cartwright)! The teachers' union will not allow her to be fired, so instead, she is forced to report to a holding room every day, with full pay, to await a hearing in fifty-seven years for her actions. Bart feels bad and springs Edna, who falls into the arms of Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer). The two begin dating, but Ned is disturbed when he learns that Edna has slept with nearly every guy in town. Homer (Dan Castellaneta) does his best to salvage the relationship, and as the episode ends, viewers are asked to vote for whether the pair should stay together, promising the answer in next fall's season premiere.

     The idea to have fans vote on whether a couple should stay together is hokey and lazy. It is nearly completely unheard of in network television circles. While normally something original would deserve kudos and applause, in this case it comes across as a cheap gimmick to get people to the show's web page. It is the ultimate disappointment at the end of the finale, worse than the standard cliffhanger because it is known that there is no current plan on how things will resolve. There is also no listing for when voting ends, which is important, because obviously the shows' writers will need some lead time to work on the season premiere, no matter which way the voting goes.

     Also worth complaining about is the way the power of the teachers' union is portrayed. There is no real dingy holding room, of course, and it doesn't take six decades to get a hearing. The union is nowhere near that powerful, nor is the school board that mean. Edna slapping a child should be enough to get her fired, end of story. The governor dissolving the union is a neat resolution, though quite sad, because it rings true in several states at the moment. But then Edna is fired, only to be rehired immediately, as long as she agrees to take some prison guard shifts on the weekends. It's a really bleak outlook at the whole school system, and perhaps a little too painful, regarding current events, to be very amusing.

     Other than that, it's a pretty good episode. Ned needs some love, as does Edna, and while she has sometimes been shown to be a bit of a partier, she seems to enjoy the calm stability that Ned offers. There is some real emotional pain present when Ned speaks of his wife, the only Simpsons recurring character to be killed off and stay dead during the run of the series. It would be nice to have the two of them as a permanent couple, and also welcome that some characters undergo serious change after twenty-two seasons. So, admittedly, I did go and vote for them to stay together, despite my better judgement about the whole stunt.

     Bart also shows remorse, something always welcome. When he doesn't, he just comes across as an unlikeable brat. His willingness to admit he deserves the slap, as well as help make Mrs. Krabappel's suspension more tolerable, is heartwarming and a good twist. Of course, Bart is merely a kid, so he can be forgiven for later complaining about how Edna's dating life affects him, as she begins hanging out next door. Should the relationship continue, this plot offers at least a couple episodes of story.

     The Simpsons has been renewed, and will return to resolve the cliffhanger, pending viewer votes, next fall on FOX.

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Article first published as TV Review: The Simpsons - "The Ned-Liest Catch" on Blogcritics.

The Simpsons has "A Midsummer's Nice Dream"

     It was high time Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong, better known as Cheech and Chong, got to guest star as themselves on FOX's The Simpsons. I was stoked to see them. They were smokin'! OK, enough with the pot puns. This episode has enough drug references for a season's worth of episodes. But they weren't just stereotypical chariactures, thank goodness, so it ended up being a fairly funny.

     Apparently Cheech and Chong are from Springfield, go figure. They began life as local broadcasters, until a strange smell wafted in and made them who they are. So, this week, they return to their hometown to do a show. Homer (Dan Castellaneta) takes his family, because, of course, they will certainly be putting on an appropriate performance. But Chong decides he is tired of the classic bits, and wants to do something more daring. With Cheech left on stage by himself, Homer is encouraged by friends and family to step up to the plate, since he knows all of their bits by heart. Cheech is so impressed, he invites Homer to go on tour with him as Cheech and Chunk.

     Cheech and Chong are merely the latest in a long line of famous celebrities willing to bring a bit of themselves into the small town supposedly bursting with connections to funny people. Funnily enough, the stereotypical image of the two of them gels much better with the denizens than the reality. This episode played up the latter, so the fit was a little uneven.

     Homer is a drinking man. As referenced in the episode, beer has always been his thing, not pot. As such, I find it odd that Homer would know and enjoy stoner comedy so dang much. Wouldn't this be a better role for a side character? I understand that the Simpson family is the heart of the show and are usually central to the main story, but I can't help but feeling that Homer was the wrong man for the job. However, since Homer has gotten himself into many situations he probably shouldn't ever have been in over the years, it can be sort of excused, because it has become a common conceit of the show.

     Chong also interviews replacements for his own new act. For no apparent reason, he thinks the unfunniest man is the right one, so he hires Skinner (Harry Shearer) for Teech and Chong. My biggest regret in this episode is that we didn't get nearly as much of Teech and Chong as Cheech and Chunk. I find the principal's antics far more entertaining than Homer's in this case, and wish there was a better balance.

     The B plot involved Marge (Julie Kavner) venturing into the Crazy Cat Lady's (Tress MacNeille) lair and discovering why she is so crazy: she is a hoarder! Once Marge removes all the junk, the cats begin to wonder away, and the woman finally finds her speech after twenty years of appearing on the show. Remarkably, she sounds just like a number of other women in Springfield! Yeah, that last comment is sarcastic. But the temptation of the junk is too much for Marge, who becomes a hoarder herself.

     Setting aside how unrealistic it is that the Simpson household completely fills with junk so quickly, I don't think it is in Marge's nature to ever be a hoarder like this. She is concerned with a neat house, and prides herself on her homemaking skills. As such, I don't see her actually falling into this trap.

     But, I admit, I am overanalyzing. The Simpsons is meant to be enjoyed without question, and have apparently earned the right for that to be the case after more than two decades on television. I personally don't think that is an excuse to rest on their laurels, but I'm not a fraction as successful as Matt Groenig, so who am I to judge?

     It just makes me sad when they don't try just a tad bit harder sometimes. There have been many brilliantly funny episodes of The Simpsons over the years. I feel like when guest stars are stuck into characters that would have worked for any voice actor, they are more successful than when the show is worked around the guest stars. This episode was definitely in the second category, and that may be why I was a little less than satisfied with it, even though I delighted at the concept.

     That being said, my favorite sequence is the A Midsummer Night's Dream reference of Bart (Nancy Cartwright) as Puck at the end, tying everything up neatly. Only incredibly loosely did this episode resemble the Shakespeare work about two couples confused in the woods by fairies, but at least the bit tied in the title.

     The Simpsons airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET on FOX.

Article first published as TV Review: The Simpsons - "A Midsummer's Nice Dream" on Blogcritics.

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The Simpsons - "Flaming Moe"

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     How far we've come! Remember how a few short years ago, FOX's The Simpsons made a big deal about outing one of their supporting characters as homosexual? There was a huge dramatic build up as people debated which beloved favorite was actually gay and had hidden it for all those years. Yet, this week, it seemed like half the town of Springfield was gay, and the outing of the other characters was done quietly and gradually over the past few seasons.

     Like many episodes of The Simpsons, this one changed course about halfway through the half hour. At the start, the story was about Smithers (Harry Shearer) setting out to earn the respect of his boss, Mr. Burns (also Shearer), who left Smithers out of his will in favor of his pet turtle. Smithers decided that a good way to do that was to help Moe (Hank Azaria) turn his failing pub into a happening night spot for the less-desirable homosexuals. Then, suddenly in the second half, Moe was thought of as gay, the mother hen of the motley crew. He was even encouraged to run for office as the town's first openly gay city councilman. That is, until Smithers outed him as being straight. Cruel irony.

     But why should that have stopped the gays from supporting Moe? Yes, he lied. But so did many of them until he came out of the closet. He was yearning for acceptance, and they gave it to him. If anyone should be able to understand that feelings Moe was experiencing, it was the gay crowd. It makes me sad they didn't stand behind him, merely dispersing as soon as Smithers revealed the truth. However, the episode was almost over, so a real Moe campaign would have required a second part and additional continuity changes in future episodes, something The Simpsons steadfastly avoids.

     Changing the course of the A plot is a Simpsons trademark, and it seems to have worked for them just fine over the years, so I will stay out of criticizing that, though I do still wonder if Burns added Smithers to the will. However, no one bothered to ask Moe if he was gay, they all just assumed? A neighborhood staple who has been in their community for decades? Also, a man who has never really shown any signs of homosexuality up until now? Again, plot holes are something Simpsons fans just overlook, so perhaps I'm over analyzing. After all, there was plenty of great, trademark humor of the series in evidence, and I did enjoy the episode.

     Even more confusing was the fight among the two shifts at Mr. Burns's factory. It was the opening of the episode, but rather than explore that plot, which could easily have been a main arc, it was abandoned as soon as the camera focus moved to Mr. Burns. Was this a clever fake out? A red herring designed to throw viewers off track? If so, I'm a little disappointed. I hope they come back to the whole Day Shift vs. Night Shift battle in the future.

     The B plot started late in the episode, but was also pretty funny. Principal Skinner (Shearer again) fell in love with the substitute music teacher, Ms. Juniper (guest star Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live). Skinner roped Bart Simpsons (Nancy Cartwright) into a double date with Juniper and her daughter, but when Bart later rejected the child, Juniper moved away. Skinner went with her, only to return three months later, dumped.

     Part of me wants to jump all over the show for the major time skip, especially as Bart has not aged at all in twenty-two years, so where was that big chunk of his perpetual school year that Skinner was not involved in? Are we expected to believe that there have just been no Bart-in-school episodes during that time? It's a cartoon, but just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean it can't have continuity. Look at Futurama. And that's by the same guy as this show.

     But after this long, it would be silly to think The Simpsons would fix their mistakes now. And would I really want them to do it? Part of the charm and the humor is what is wrong or missing. "Flaming Moe", this week's episode, not to be confused with a previous story about Flaming Moe's, was a nice example of a good episode.

     What would be really neat is someday, during an extra long series finale, all of the residents of Springfield realized they were stuck in some sort of time warp, where no one got older, no one noticed, and situations frequently repeated themselves. Also, many of the town's residents look and sound awfully similar. I think this tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment would be a perfect ending for the successful show, and do nothing to sully its memory.

     The Simpsons airs at 8 p.m. Sunday nights on FOX.

Article first published as TV Review: The Simpsons "Flaming Moe" on Blogcritics.

The Simpsons "MoneyBART"

     Last Sunday, FOX's The Simpsons faced controversy over their opening credits.  For a show that is still good, but is far part it's days of reigning supreme, the attention certainly can't hurt.  The anger arose over the end of the opening sequence, wherin was depicted a maximum security FOX studio, presumably in Asia, where slaves toiled over animating The Simpsons in squallid and dangerous conditions.  The scene then went lower into the factory, where kittens were tossed into a woodchipper to create filling for stuffed Bart (Nancy Cartwright) dolls, and a unicorn, chained to a wall, was used to punch holes in Simpsons DVDs.  It was dark and depressing, more so than most Simpsons openings.  But it was also pretty funny.  It was created by international graffiti artist 'Banksy', whose tag also appears in the Springfield portion of the song.

     And then what followed was a normal episode.  Lisa (Yeardley Smith), concerned that she wasn't being enough of an overachiever to earn her way into an Ivy league school, decided she needed more extracurriculars.  After a disasterous attempt at fencing with Maggie, she senses an opporunity when Flanders (Harry Shearer) quits as Bart's baseball team's manager.  At first she is horrible, since she knows nothing about baseball.  But then she learns how to apply mathematics and statistics, and ends up being an awesome manager.  However, Bart, no longer having fun, rebels, and gets thrown off the team immediately after scoring a game-winning home run.  Eventually the siblings make up.

     There was no edge to anything that followed, and so, a controversy was wasted.  The team reacted pretty passively about Bart and Lisa's struggle for power.  No one seemed to care one way or another about the game and what was going on besides the two main characters.  Their parents were barely involved.  There was no great subplot.  I was amused at the time, but as soon as I started to analyze it, realized that there wasn't really anything there to speak of.

     The Simpsons was once the most talked about animated show around.  Now, over a decade after South Park and Seth MacFarlane joined the arena, it seems tame by comparison.  I hate to say it, but it may be time to let Bart, Lisa, and the rest retire in peace.  The show continues Sunday nights at 8pm, including tonight, on FOX.

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Animation Domination certainly decks something

     Sunday marked the end of 2009 episodes of Animation Domination (or, Seth McFarlane & The Simpsons Night) on Fox.  Let's look at the results.

     The Simpsons, the only holdout against giving the entire night to McFarlane's series of practically the same shows, absconded the Christmas theme for an episode about Bart wanting a baby brother.  Homer (Dan Castellaneta), of course, would have none of it, and all of Bart's (Nancy Cartwright) attempts to trick his parents into it failed horribly.  So he went and adopted an orphan.  The episode had some of the best gags in a long time, from the boys dressed as the South Park kids, to the montage of famous brothers (many voiced by the actual celebrities portrayed).  For those who argue that the show has passed its prime and it so longer as good as it once was, I think this episode joins the ranks of recent ones proving them wrong.  Besides, without Simpsons, could we really take another McFarlane clone?

     All kidding aside, McFarlane's latest creation, The Cleveland Show, is actually fairly funny, just like his other shows, although some of the novelty of the original has long worn off.  This episode went all out for the holidays, even adding a new theme song, with a few fun throwbacks to the show it spun off from.  Cleveland does get to deal with reality of a broken family, though, and for the Christmas drama, Cleveland (Mike Henry) had to find his new stepkids' father and get him to come home to restore the yuletide spirit.  This show tries to be edgy, with Cleveland's boss proclaiming "Hide the silverware!" when his dark skinned employee arrived, but ends up being a bit too silly to be offensive.  My only real complaint about this episode was letting neighbor, Arianna (Arianna Huffington), an uber-religious bear, drop character to enjoy letting the reindeer watch her have sex with her husband, Tim (McFarlane).  Continuity, people!

     Family Guy really kind of skipped the holiday, too, but was ok for it.  Peter's (McFarlane) father-in-law, Mr. Pewterschmidt (also McFarlane),  lapses into a coma, Peter gets to take over his multi-billion dollar company.  Like most episode, the main plot isn't what makes the show.  This one was full of great gags.  For instance, while the town's bar is called the Thirst Clam, apparently it's strip club is the Fuzzy Clam.  When Mr. Pewterschmidt collapsed, he said he was having a "heart attack-ack-ack-ack-ack-ack, you oughta know by now", reference to legendary Mr. Billy Joel.  The doctor at the hospital, as well as a surprise pop up at the end, was none other than Hugh Laurie playing his popular fox character House, from the television show of the same name.  Jim Parsons also made a guest appearance as his character, Sheldon, from The Big Bang Theory.  Plus, there were some great Scooby-Doo moments.  And let's be honest, moments are what Family Guy is all about.

     The best of the night was probably American Dad.  It felt like a bizarre series finale for Stan (guess who?  McFarlane), though the rest of the cast didn't get the same payoff, and the series isn't ending.  This episode apparently takes place outside of the show continuity.  Stan and Francine (Wendy Schaal) had sex in a church on Christmas, and so are left behind as the rest of the congregation, including their children, are raptured into heaven.  Stan blames Francine for seducing him, and she leaves him and ends up as Jesus Christ's girlfriend.  Seven years later, as the end times come to an end, Jesus asks Stan to help him rescue Francine from the anti-Christ, and we see what is really in Stan's heart.  It was incredibly trippy, weird, and wonderful.  One of the best episodes of the series thus far, which is saying something, as Dad is probably consistently the best of the Sunday night lineup at present.