For many Simpsons fans, the perennial release pattern of their favourite show is more than a little frustrating.
There was a time when two seasons a year were being released but with the exception of the shamefully bare-bones Season 20 release, it has been over 18 months since the last sighting of everyone’s favourite yellow family.
With the advent of Blu-ray there seems to be some resistance from Fox to fill the gaps of the true fan’s DVD collection (even this release has been bounced down the roster on more than one occasion) but with the discs as full as they are I guess we should be grateful for the continuing output of Groening and co., especially when their show is still in production and recently renewed for a further two seasons.
Another argument is that perhaps the quality of said output declines quite rapidly as the show enters and continues through its teenage years.
The highlights of this season are perhaps more sparse than earlier ones but there are still many quality moments, even though there are more than a few gimmicks aimed to shoe-horn celebrities in at any juncture (Homer’s attendance at the Rolling Stones rock-camp being perhaps the most blatant, though the couch gag of the family jumping a shark perhaps suggests that the writers are one step ahead of us!).
There was once a time that South Park forever had to stand in the shadow of its more popular and widespread animated predecessor, especially with the episode ‘Simpsons Already Did It’ which acknowledged the sheer wealth of themes and madcap flights of fancy that the staff writers had managed to cram into the 15 years of output.
However, when The Island of Dr Moreau is featured so heavily in the ‘Treehouse of Horror’ opener for this season, you can perhaps think that the pinching of ideas goes both ways; but the superb lampooning of Peter Griffin and co in the same episode shows that imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery.
Released on DVD on Monday 10th October 2011 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
“THE SIMPSONS” TM & © 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
© 2011 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved.