It seems like The Simpsons have been around forever. For a good chunk of the world, it’s been on the air for their entire lives. Homer and the gang have been a rock in their Sunday nights and reruns have been a ritual for as long as they been able to turn the channel. Gearing up for season 21 (yes, Maggie could go to Vegas and buy a beer if the characters aged), it does seem a little odd that the DVD releases are only up to the twelfth season. It’s not like the show is hard to find any day of the week, but still.
To say that season 12 of The Simpsons has passed its prime might not be totally fair. While not at its best, it’s still a smarter and funnier show than nearly everything else you’re bound to find on TV, DVD or some basement box holding some slowly rotting bootleg VHS tapes of a show that lasted six episodes back in 1986. In case you crawled out of a Kennedy-era bomb shelter yesterday, the show focuses on the Simpson family, a perfectly extraordinary average family and their life in the non-descript town of Springfield. They’re surrounded by the best cast of supporting characters ever assembled in a television show.
Most shows are long forgotten by the time they reach the twelfth anniversary of their premiere. But The Simpsons is in a different spot. As a cartoon, it can last indefinitely because its characters don’t have to age like their voice actors do. Therefore the premise never changes for more than an episode as the Simpsons’ exploits provide plenty of fodder for contemporary observations.
During the early seasons of The Simpsons, the show was looking for its voice. Somewhere around season four that voice was found, one with a sharp eye for satire of current events. It also became one of the most referenced shows. Anywhere you went and you were bound to run into some line or nod to the show. In fact, I’ve had friends who have prided themselves in becoming the gatekeepers of knowing the most obscure lines and moments. The show prided itself on drawing from pop culture and poking fun at it, rewarding viewers for being bigger geeks than the show’s creators (and I mean that in the most respectful sense).
By the time the twelfth season rolled around, the voice had long been found, refined and mastered. Most of the timeless aspects of family and community life have been explored and communicated to no end. What’s left is commentary, pop culture winks and more of what has already been done. It’s still immensely funny in small chunks but the stories are often ridiculous and not entirely focused. There’s many instances I found the first five minutes were merely a diversion or extended launching point for the episode. So no matter how good it is, these beginnings could just have easily been taken out.
Technology changes at a rapid pace. Culture, not so much. We often need time to sit and digest the meaning and consequences of events. It takes time. And in the twelfth season of The Simpsons, it shows the creators are moving faster than the culture they’re referencing because altough it’s timely for its original release, it’s not as deep as when The Simpsons first aired and they had an entire history to play catch-up with.
The Simpsons: Season 12 DVD Review
Man, is Fox ever slow at getting these seasons out there. But at the same time, when I see all the stuff that’s packed in with these sets, I begin to understand at least partially why that is.
Each of the season’s 22 episodes are shown in their original full screen format with English 5.1 Dolby Surround audio (option dubbed stereo tracks are also offered in stereo Spanish and French). Every episode also has a commentary track with various crew members. Listening to them, I couldn’t help but think how much fun it’d be to work on the show. The four-disc set also includes deleted scenes galore, glimpses of various episodes from various stages of development, a greatest hits collection of Comic Book Guy, highlights from the Global Fanfest held in October, 2000 and commercials.
