DVD: The Simpsons Season 8 Reviewed

I originally wrote this for http://www.snpp.com/news.html, but once again, I thought I'd post it here too, as with the S4, 5, 6 and 7 ones. Enjoy.

The Complete Eighth Season DVD Boxset Reviewed
By Wesley Mead (wesley@snpp.com) - August 20th, 2006
"The Complete Eighth Season" DVD set, featuring all 25 episodes from the series' eighth season (1996-1997), was released in the USA and Canada on August 15, 2005. As ever, releases will follow in Europe, Australasia and Asia in the near future.

After another eight month wait, Fox delivers the goods once again in this four-disc set of the complete 25-episode eighth season. The season that 'sought to focus on secondary characters' according to Josh Weinstein's commentary, sees Bill Oakley and Weinstein himself take the helm as showrunners and the result is what is debateably the last truly classic season, and one of the series' finest. The twenty-five episodes are spread across the four discs 6:7:7:5, are presented in the best AV quality yet and sit alongside another stellar set of bonus features.

Season 8 is home to home to many of the most memorable Simpsons episodes of all-time. A personal favourite of mine is the excellent "Simpsoncalifragalisticexpiala-D'oh!-cious", which sees English nanny Shary Bobbins ("an original creation, like Rickey Rouse or Monald Muck") babysit the kids when Marge is feeling stressed - with help from extensive use of the medium of song, leading to the finest 'musical' episode in the series' history. But it's far from the only notable episode on the set. "The Springfield Files" sees The X Files' Mulder and Scully investigating Homer's extraterrestrial sighting; while in Homer's Phobia Homer grows concerned over Bart's exhibition of homosexual behaviour traits. The Itchy and Scratchy Show gets a new character, Poochie, voiced by Homer. Frasier references are rife when Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer) meets his long-lost brother, Cecil (David Hyde Pierce). Marge gets a job as a pretzel vendor. Prohibition of alcohol is reinstated in Springfield; Lisa helps a bankrupt Burns to become environmentally-conscious; Ms. Krabappel and Principal Skinner get together on school grounds and Bart nearly gets killed while being babysat by Lisa. Oh, and Milhouse's parents get divorced. Talk about a jam-packed season.

This season's guest star list is probably the longest yet, with voices from every field of celebrity showing up at some point or another. Throughout the 25 episodes, Paul Winfield, Michael Buffer ("Let's get ready to rumble!", Rodney Dangerfield, Johnny Cash, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Leonard Nimoy, Jack Lemmon, John Waters, Bret Hart, Sab Shimono, Willem DaFoe and the aforemetnioned Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce all guest star, alongside recurring guests Phil Hartman, Marcia Wallace, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna, Frank Welker and Albert Brooks, amongst others.

Once again, consumers have a choice over which box style they wish to have with season 8; the Maggie plastic 'head' or the standard box right off the bat by issuing both in stores and online. The downside is that there's no way to get both without buying two copies of the set, but to most fans this won't matter too much. I recieved the head box; included in the package are the four discs in a separate disc trays that can be opened like a book design (known as a digibook), thankfully entirely removable from the Marge head for easier and quicker access, as well as an excellent booklet set out like a photo album - entitled "Memories 1996-1997", it details episodes, chapter stops and extra features. Unfortunately, while in the past I have been comparatively lenient on the head boxes, finding them a reasonably decent way to store the discs, this time I'm not being so generous. The strong, clear tape used to hold the 'digibook' together has been replaced by a terrible cardboard strip, which not only looks very weak but makes it hard to even open the digibook very well at all. I've no idea why Fox changed this, the one aspect of the design which was absolutely fine with me - suffice to say I hope they go back to the clear tape for season 9. I may come across as being too picky, but it honestly is a pain to get the discs out and the coardboard creases ridiculously easily. Fix it, Fox.

For the fourth season in a row now, the menu system remains the same - they must be happy with it; I know I am, as right now they are both easily navigable and beautifully designed. The top half of the screen contains a animated screen featuring a variety of Simpson characters revelant to the episodes on that particular disc posing for photographs, talking and generally playing around; it's frequently worth playing through the menu a couple of times to check what's going to happen. 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, displaying a triangle similar to a Play button, will play the episode; the other, with a "+" mark, will open a sub-menu, also themed, of which there can be several in a row, featuring scene, language, subtitle, commentary and deleted scenes options. There is a chapter stop after the opening of the show for quick skipping.

As usual, 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 almost all of them; as is showrunner Josh Weinstein. Other regulars throughout the set include crew members Bill Oakley, Ken Keeler, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Wes Archer, David Silverman, Al Jean, Mike Anderson, David S. Cohen, Mark Kirkland and Bob Anderson; and cast members Dan Castellaneta and Yeardley Smith. There are also many other commentators who appear just on one or two episodes, such as Kelsey Grammer ("Brother from Another Series") and Ian Maxtone-Graham ("Burns, Baby Burns"). Josh Weinstein's children, Molly and Simon, even show up on two episodes! Each commentary track has anything from three to eight participants. The commentary tracks are, as ever, simultaneously hilarious and informative, and often feature interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories that we would otherwise never know - or care to find out! - and they often go in-depth on the philosophical, mathematical or scientific side of the show, as well as detailing inspiration inspiration for parodies, plotlines and characters. This season, they even answer questions posed by members of the online No Homers Club, which for members of the "Club" and non-members alike should prove very interesting. I won't reveal any particular tidbits from the commentaries, as the fun is really in listening for yourself, but I will say that Dave Thomas's role as "Contest Winner" in "Mountain of Madness" helps to make it one of the best Simpsons commentaries yet, while Kelsey Grammer and Hank Azaria (in a rare commentary spot) help make the commentaries they respectively feature on among the season's finest.

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 "A Memento From Matt Groening" on disc 1, a short three-minute reel of quick season eight clips over which Matt discusses the DVD set a great pace, in the same vein as the similar featurettes on seasons 4, 5, 6 and 7.

Once again, deleted scenes are supplied in great numbers. 21 episodes feature deleted scenes, again 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 via a branching feature, or as a 20-minute reel (in which the scenes are preceded by 10 seconds or so of animation actually used in the episode, to give the scenes context) with optional commentary on the final disc. The finest is undoubtedly Patty & Selma's "We Love to Smoke", an outtake from "Simpsoncalifragalisticexpiala-D'oh!-cious", which fans may have heard previously on the Go Simpsonic soundtrack.

Additionally, there are two in-depth "Animation Showcases" for the episodes "Treehouse of Horror VII" and "In Marge We Trust" featuring multi-angle animation comparisons from different stages of the animation (though this time we cannot compare with the final material for some reason). There are also original sketches, as well as several other animation-related bonuses such as the brilliant "A Bit From The Animators" on "Treehouse of Horror VII", "Lisa's Date with Density", "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" and "In Marge We Trust", in which show animators and staff commentate on part of the episode with the ability to freeze-frame, rewind, draw on the screen and the like. Between them, they make a very entertaining 40 minutes, but I'd like to see even more in future sets.

Finally, we have a 3.5-minute "The Simpsons House" featurette; "Original Sketches" and "A Few Promos", pretty much self-explanatory; and a Special Language Feature enabling us to view "Homer's Enemy" in German, Parisian French, Japanese and Czech.

The audio-video quality on this set is 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 very close now. 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. Dialogue and music alike come through clearly, if not quite as loud as you might hope. French and Spanish DD2.0 soundtracks are also included, as are Spanish and English SDH subtitles. I extensively tested the English subtitles, which appeared accurate and true to the spoken word. On occasion, the subtitles "drop out" for about 5 seconds, and then quickly catch up - I believe it is to do with the deleted scenes branching option, which also prevents manual switching of subtitles during the episode. Unfortunately, the commentaries and extras are still not subtitled, a let-down for fans with hearing impairments; note that the UK R2 release does feature subtitles on the bonus features.

In his introduction to the set in the aforementioned booklet, Groening states "It's been an honor selling these formerly free TV shows to you". And it's been an honour buying them. Despite this set's problems, it's an excellent buy, no doubt. But as good as this season is, it cannot be denied that it's all downhill from here. Still, for now, go pick this up, and revel in the last truly classic season, complete with the continued supply of excellent extras Fox so generously include.

OVERALL

EPISODES: A+ - The last classic season, brimming with Simpsonic excellence
PRESENTATION: A- - Minor box problems drag this down; AV and menus remain excellent
EXTRAS: A+ - More supplements that inform and entertain consistently.
OVERALL: A - If you've come this far, no further recommendation is necessary. Purchase this; you won't be disappointed.