DVD: The Simpsons Season 5 Reviewed

I originally wrote this for http://www.snpp.com/news.html, but I thought I'd post it here too, as with the S4 one. Enjoy :)

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"The Complete Fifth Season" DVD set, featuring all 22 episodes from the series' fifth season (1993-1994), was released in the USA and Canada on December 21st, 2004. It will be released in other countries around the globe throughout the first half of 2004.
This quick release was a pleasant surprise for fans who were expecting to have to wait a year but got away this time around with a mere six months. Many would argue season five of the show is a slightly weaker season than season 4, just prior to it, and whilst that may be true - certain episodes seemed to rely more upon wacky outrageous gags than strong satire and well-written wit - there's no denying this season contained several of the greatest episodes ever, and every 23-minute animated masterpiece here will satisfy a fan's appetite for the show. All-time greats "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", "Cape Feare" and "Deep Space Homer", are present and correct, alongside other favourites like "Treehouse Of Horror IV", "Bart Gets Famous" and the 100th episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". This set brings a few weaker episodes with it - some purists cite "Bart Gets An Elephant" and "Lady Bouvier's Lover" as cases of the wacky outweighing the clever, so to speak, but to all intents and purposes, every episode here is simply great.
Also among this season's events were Marge's infamous addiction to gambling in "$pringfield"; Bart managing to con a radio station out of an African elephant in the cleverly-titled "Bart Gets An Elephant"; and Homer's befriending of Ned Flanders - much to the latter's dismay - in "Homer Loves Flanders". We also see Bart become Burns' heir, Lisa take on big business with her feminist Lisa Lionheart doll, and Apu coming to live with the Simpsons; not forgetting Homer's unforgettable antics teaching an adult education class on how to build a successful marriage and the entire town getting in touch with their inner child. To say season 5 was an eventful year for the show would be a gross understatement. This season also featured its fair share of guest stars, with big names such as Conan O'Brien, George Harrison, The Ramones, Robert Goulet, Sam Neill, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ernest Borgnine, James Brown, Buzz Aldrin, Kathleen Turner and more all popping up in Springfield, as well as regular special guests Kelsey Grammer and Phil Hartman also stopping by.
This season's packaging follows the trend of the past four seasons, as you might expect. The four discs are held in a five-panel fold-out digipak enclosed in a cardboard slipcase - this time a lovely metallic deep red - with one panel holding the detailed episode booklet, featuring titles, synopses, original airdates, guest stars and details on episode-specific extras (including commentary participants). The booklet is 10 pages long.
The packaging art this season is even more goregously detailed than the previous four seasons'. It shows a display of the Simpson family seemingly taking part in a circus, a la the well-known extra-long couch gag, complete with trumpeting elephants, a magician, and scanticy-clad dancers. The discs as usual tie in with the artwork behind them. On the back of one of the panels is the letter from Matt Groening we've become accustomed to, in which he addresses this DVD set and the episodes it contains.
The menus in the Simpsons' series are seemingly improving with each season set: these discs have the best navigation yet! When you insert a disc, after copyright warnings, the screen is divided into two. The top half contains a moving image featuring a Simpson family member; which after you have waited for a while will animate in one of several different ways - for example, on disc 1, we see Homer sleeping at the power plant; one of the animations sees him falling off of his chair. The bottom half of the screen lists the episodes along with the lovely Play All option, and an "Extras" button. Each episode has two small buttons next to it: choosing the first, featuring a triangle similar to a Play button, will play the episode; the other, with a "+" mark, will open a sub-menu (of which there can be several in a row) featuring scene, language, commentary and deleted scenes options. There is a chapter stop after the opening of the show for quick skipping.
Once again, the principal extra is the commentary on every one of the 22 episodes in the set, featuring a vast array of contributors. Matt Groening, creator of the show himself, is present on a whopping 20 of these; other regulars throughout the set David Mirkin, Mark Kirkland, David Silverman, James L. Brooks, Conan O'Brien, Jon Lovitz, Wes Archer, Jon Vitti and Josh Weinstein. A few cast members also pop in – Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria – and previous commentary heavyweight Al Jean gets away with just two this time around, as he was not a major staff member in season 5, and thus only appears on the season 4 holdover tracks.
One complaint many Simpsons fans have had with the sets has been the lack of a really complete, comprehensive documentary. But these 22 commentaries, totalling over 8 hours, are surely even better. Think of them as 23 minutes full of anecdotes, jokes and inside stories from the production of the episode – they're really the most comprehensive collections of background information on the shows you could ever hope to have. With up to 7 or 8 contributors a time, there's rarely a quiet moment, and whilst the occasional sections of indecipheral information are present when more than one person is talking at a time, for the most part we get to hear some really interesting people discuss a really interesting show. The commentaries also prove just how funny the guys really are, even when not writing for the show: occasionally a commentary will go a little off-topic and we'll be treated to hilarious banter from the participants. The all-important interesting tidbits are also present: how else would we find out about Conan's antics backstage, or the cast's ad-libs?
It's no surprise to learn that Fox have yet more up their sleeves for this package, though. Kicking off the additional bonus features is the "Word From Matt Groening" on disc 1, a short two-minute reel of quick season five clips over which Matt discusses the DVD. It's very similar to the printed letter on the package itself, and is in the same vein as his season 4 "Word". There's also a short three-minute featurette from James L. Brooks on the last disc, looking back at the creation of the show and the first 100 episodes.
This time, the boat has really been pished out when it comes to deleted scenes. There are 40 of them, from 14 different episodes, totally a whopping 22 minutes. All are entertaining, and are in the later stages of production - the only thing really missing is some voice cleanup and sound effects. You view them inserted into their respective episodes, or as a reel with optional commentary by David Mirkin on the final disc.
As well as all of this, there are great "Animation Showcases" for four episodes – "Treehouse Of Horror IV", "$pringfield", "Bart Gets An Elephant", "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" - which feature multi-angle animation comparisons from different stages of the animation and original sketches - and some great commercials featuring the Simpsons from 1993 and 1994. There are several "Illustrated Commentaries", each of which last an act of the original animatic, which feature several participants with the ability to "draw" on the screen; and finally, there is a James Taylor audio outtake from "Deep Space Homer", and an option of watching all of "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" in four different languages, including Italian and Czechoslovakian. Whew!
The audio-video quality on this set is excellent – it's improving with each successive season, and whilst we're not quite up to the impressive digital quality we'll be expecting with the later seasons, we're getting a lot closer. This time round, the DD5.1 remaster is even better than last time, and whilst largely front-focused, directional effects sometimes do make their way to the back, and the overall clarity makes for an improved listening experience. French and Spanish DD2.0 soundtracks are also included, as are French, Spanish and English DHI subtitles. I extensively tested the English subtitles; they were very accurate and mostly in sync, but for some reason "dropped out" (disappeared) occasionally for a few seconds.
Video quality is also improving. This time around, there are no digital defects to speak of at all. The full-frame presentation is bright and fully detailed; it's only marred by the limitation of the source material. There is minimal grain and shimmering, colours are vivid and there's no edge-enhancement to speak of.
Once again, Fox and the team have done themselves proud. Everything that could have been improved with this package has been, and with such a brilliant collection of episodes and expansive extras, only a fool would pass up on the oppurtunity to pick up this fantastic set. Highly recommended.

The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season

EPISODES: A+ - Classic collection - one of the best.
PRESENTATION: A - Perfect packaging and menus; the best AV quality yet.
EXTRAS: A+ - Extensive and entertaining once again.
OVERALL: A+ - The best boxset yet.