DVD: The Simpsons Season 6 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 and S5 ones. Enjoy :)

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"The Complete Sixth Season" DVD set, featuring all 25 episodes from the series' sixth season (1994-1995), was released in the USA and Canada on August 16th, 2005. It will be released in other countries around the globe throughout the later months of 2005.

Eight months after the Christmas release of season 5, Fox brings us the long-awaited complete season six of The Simpsons, a season generally considered by fans to be among the very best of the show's sixteen (so far). The sixth season featured many fan favourites among its' 25 episodes, which are spread out over 4 discs in the ration 7-7-7-3, with the last disc holding most of the extras.

Among this season's notable events were Sideshow Bob's Republican mayoral compaign against Mayor Quimby, the family's trip to Itchy and Scratchy Land, Homer's enrolment in the elite Stonecutters, Lisa's battle with an even more intelligent child than herself, Homer's brush with a sexual harrassment suit, Bart's trip to Australia, Spingfield's film festival, Lisa's vision of her future husband, Bart's new rebel girlfriend, the fifth addition to Treehouse canon, the tale of the Springfield lemon tree and Marge's new job on the police force. Not to mention that historical event of Mr. Burns being shot, leaving the season on a cliffhanger as the world asked "who did it?". This season also featured a wide array of guest stars, with big names such as Winona Ryder, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Earl Jones, Meryl Streep, Dennis Franz, Anne Bancroft, Patrick Stewart, Mel Brooks, Jon Lovitz, Susan Saradon, Ron Taylor, Tito Puente and the entire cast of Cheers as well as regular special guests Kelsey Grammer and Phil Hartman also stopping by.

As has been well-publiscised already, the sixth season does not follow season one to five's tradition of a cardboard cover holding a foldout digipak; rather, this set comes in the form of a plastic clamshell package in the shape of Homer's head. Thankfully the set is no taller than prior releases, meaning it will fit on your shelf, but the package is undeniably harder to open and access than prior seasons, a forfeit myself and many other fans are not willing to pay in return for cheap novelty packaging. However, all is not lost: included with the set is a (witty insult-laden) insert that directs you to a phone number and website from where you can order a 'standard' box and digipak to store your DVDs. Rejoice, collectors - and kudos to Fox for offering such a compromise to those who may not want the new style package. Note that for the region 2 UK release in October, the Homer's head box will be restricted to a run of 50,000, and other sets will be shipped in the standard digipak. Included in the box are the four discs in a plastic book-type design, thankfully entirely removable from the Homer head for easier and quicker access, as well as the standard booklet (this time smaller, but allowing for an episode per page) detailing the episodes and extra features included, featuring a "Who Shot Mr Burns?" -themed design and background pictures.

This is also the first set not to feature an entirely different menu system to the prior set, but this is probably more a of a blessing than a curse: the menus are laid out in a similar fashion to season 5, with the screen divided into two, enabling easy navigation with an excellent animted design. The top half of the screen contains an intermittently animated screen featuring a variety of Simpson characters revelant to the episodes on that particular disc in a police line-up, referencing the "Who Shot Mr Burns?" cliffhanger that ends the season; 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, also "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" -themed, 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.

As ever, the principal extra is the commentary on every one of the 25 episodes in the set, featuring a vast array of contributors. Matt Groening, creator of the show himself, is present on a whopping 19 of these; other regulars throughout the set include David Mirkin, Mike Scully, David Silverman, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Mark Kirkland, David X. Cohen, Greg Daniels, Jim Reardon, Susie Dietter and cast members Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner and Yeardley Smith. The commentary tracks are simultaneously hilarious and informative, and often feature interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories that we would otherwise never know. The commentary on "Another Simpsons Clip Show" is particularly good, as it details the making of an episode from start to finish rather than comment on the clips being shown, as are the commentaries on ""Homer The Great" - laden with references to the nerdy internet fans - and "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 1", in which the commentators point out all the clues they left as to who did shoot Mr. Burns. As ever, throughout the full-length commentaries there is barely a dull moment with every episode featuring multiple contributors, and ny fan of the show will regale in the trivial tidbits being passed on.

As ever, though, Fox have been much more generous than merely including commentary on every episode - no, there are many more interesting bonuses to check out. Kicking off the additional bonus features is the "Word From Matt Groening" on disc 1, a short two-minute reel of quick season six clips over which Matt discusses the DVD in the same vein as the "Word" featurettes on seasons 4 and 5.

Once again, deleted scenes are supplied in great numbers. 21 episodes feature deleted scenes, totalling around 20 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 can view them inserted into their respective episodes, or as a 27-minute reel (in which the scenes are preceded by 10 seconds or so of contextual animation actually used in the episode) with optional commentary by David Mirkin on the final disc.

Additionally, there is a very in-depth "Animation Showcase" for the episode "Lisa's Wedding" featuring multi-angle animation comparisons from different stages of the animation and original sketches, as well as several "Illustrated Commentaies", each of which last an act of the original animatic, which feature several participants with the ability to "draw" on the screen. There is also a 2-minute featurette on "The Simpsons Plane" with commentary, and a variety of commercials featuring the Simpson family.

The bulk of the non-commentary extra features, however, are focused on the season finale, "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part 1". The episode features a 55-second introduction by James L. Brooks detailing how the idea came about, an Animation Showcase in a similar vein to "Lisa's Wedding", an illustrated commentary, an animatic, a special language feature enabling you to listen to the episode in a variety of four additional languages and the 22-minute TV special "Springfield's Most Wanted", a parody of "America's Most Wanted", focusing on who they believe shot Mr. Burns.

The audio-video quality on this set is once again excellent - it's continuing to improve with each successive season, and whilst we're still not quite up to the impressive digital quality we'll be expecting with the later seasons, we're getting a lot closer. The full-frame presentation is bright, sharp and fully detailed; it's only marred by the limitation of the source material. There is minimal grain and shimmering, and colours are vivid. The DD5.1 remaster is again excellent, 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 SDH subtitles. I extensively tested the English subtitles, which appeared accurate and true to the spoken word. Unfortunately, the commentaries and extras are not subtitled, a let-down for fans with hearing impairments.

As ever, Fox have done an excellent job on this set, outside of the mediocre-at-best packaging, which marrs an otherwise oustanding set. A classic set of episodes and extras, not one to pass up over a few minor quibbles. Highly recommended.

The Simpsons - The Complete Sixth Season

EPISODES: A+ - Among the very best seasons.
PRESENTATION: B+ - Excellent AV quality and menus, mediocre packaging.
EXTRAS: A+ - Cover all the bases; as much fun as the episodes.

OVERALL: A - Recommended to old and new fans alike; a thoroughly enjoyable set.