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Simpsons: The Complete Twentieth Season (The)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (17th February 2010). |
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The Show
 Wow, 20 years and it's gone so fast. Like many I recall watching the original shorts on "The Tracy Ullman Show" (1987-1990) then sitting down to the very first episode of the series in 1989. Flash forward 20 years and "The Simpsons" is still going strong as the longest running TV show of all time. Over the years we've seen some greatness and the not so great. If anything the series has been like a roller coaster ride, of late the quality of the episodes slipped, seasons leading up to the 20th were sorely lacking, but the writers and creative team behind the series managed to pick it up in the 19th and into the 20th season, delivering some solid episodes and some memorable moments. It's certainly not the best season of this landmark series but it's a decent return to form. The 20th season is a landmark for many reasons, not just the obvious one of being the 20th season, but this year "The Simpsons" went HD, (well at least halfway through) and as a result we have some of the cleanest animation the series has seen... ever. The jump to HD has not only helped the color saturation, crispness of the image but the show feels new and fresh. More on this in the video portion of the review. Sadly although the series looks fresh, the writing doesn't always land on the hilarious side of things. My main problem with this season of the show is that it's just not as memorable as previous seasons. There are highlights from certain episodes, like the Mardi Gras opening from "No Loan Again, Naturally" and the couple from "Once" (2006) showing up briefly in "In The Name of the Grandfather" and aside from that I struggle to recall anything worthwhile, and I've seen these episodes at least twice, and most recently only a few hours ago... The usual schtick is still here, Homer (Dan Castellaneta) gets up to his various adventures, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) is still a menace, Lisa (Yeardley Smith) is the focus of a couple of episodes, I did like her arc in both "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" and "How The Test Was Won", Marge (Julie Kavner) hasn't really changed over the last 20 years and Maggie continues to remain mute. If anything this 20th season is on the inconsistent side, with some episodes that really work and every joke finds its punch line naturally, while other episodes don't work so well, jokes that fall flat and some pop-culture reference that'll date in a year or two. This season set includes all 21 episodes: - "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes" (21:58) - "Lost Verizon" (21:38) - "Double, Double, Boy in Trouble" (21:37) - "Treehouse of Horror XIX" (21:53) - "Dangerous Curves" (21:57) - "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words" (22:00) - "Mypods and Broomsticks" (21:51) - "The Burns and the Bees" (21:37) - "Lisa the Drama Queen" (21:26) - "Take My Life, Please" (21:04) - "How the Test Was Won" (21:29) - "No Loan Again, Naturally" (21:28) - "Gone Maggie Gone" (22:01) - "In the Name of the Grandfather" (22:00) - "Wedding For Disaster" (21:48) - "Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe" (21:59) - "The Good, the Sad and the Drugly" (21:48) - "Father Knows Worst" (21:38) - "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'Oh" (21:58) - "Four Great Women and a Manicure" (21:59) - "Coming to Homerica" (21:28)
Video
The first nine episodes on the first disc of this set are presented in 1.33:1 full screen high-definition 1080p 24/fps and uses AVC MPEG-4 compression, while the remaining episodes on the second disc are presented in 1.78:1 high-definition 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 compression. The first disc episodes feature the pre-HD supped-up opening so first impression of the credit sequence are of a tired and dated show. The animation features jagged lines, colors that aren't as bold or flashy, the episodes themselves fare much better, with solid colors, rich blacks while some blurring is seen and jagged lines are still a problem overall the quality is fairly solid. The second disc sees a significant improvement overall with the HD episodes in widescreen. The image in these episodes are crisp, colors are much brighter, bolder and more rich especially blacks which appear deeper. Lines aren't as wobbly or jittery, the images are nicely detailed and clean.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included on these episodes in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view these episodes with their DTS-HD tracks. The overall mix is fairly front heavy, with clean and distortion free dialogue, some sound effects and music cues use up the surrounds but it's not as immersive as I'd have liked. The audio mix for this show can be improved with greater depth and range, there's not much difference between this audio track and a standard 5.1 mix. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, Portuguese and Spanish.
Extras
Fox really dropped the ball on this release, for a series celebrating their 20th season fans should be expecting a ton of features including audio commentaries plus a plethora of featurettes and supplements covering this landmark achievement in television, but alas there's nothing of the sort. The only extra Fox has included is on the first disc and it's an all too brief featurette "The 20th Anniversary Special Sneak Peek by Morgan Spurlock" featurette runs a paltry 3 minutes 31 seconds, this is basically a promo for the hour long special, seriously? How about including that special on the disc Fox? This is the most disappointing extras package I've seen on a TV series for a while.
Packaging
This 2-disc set is packaged in a Blu-ray case housed in a plastic slip-case.
Overall
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