The Simpsons: The Thirteenth Season

 

 

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"When did the Simpsons start to lose its steam?" Such is a timelessly debated question amongst nerds, and the responses couldn't vary more over the years, from assertions that Mike Scully turned the series into a 'cartoon,' that episodes like 'The Principal and the Pauper' nailed closed the coffin of the show, that once Dave Mirkin rolled in, the series began moving away from emotionally centered stories, even the infamous quote 'Worst episode ever," came from a blogger scribing his hatred for the episode 'Itchy and Scratchy: The Movie," from season 4; but these days most fingers start to point to Al Jean's tenure as showrunner for a clear illustration of the family's fall from demanding adventures that commanded viewing. In 2004, during the series' 15th year, Harry Shearer was infamously outspoken at what he saw was a declining quality within the series over the previous three years. With Season 13, you can judge for yourself, as that is year one of Al Jean's tenure, and would be the first of those declining shows.

Truly the Simpsons has never stopped offering funny adventures for our classic characters, however its tone has surely shifted as time has passed, but as such it has managed to keep itself capable of renewing its palate of comedy and expanding its universe. It has managed to produce great episodes even during this past decade, but in contrast to the consistency within the first ten years, the show has certainly given justification to comparative criticism. Season 13 is filled with humorous offerings and many explore mature and inspired themes like spirituality, medicinal marijuana, reality television executions, and the infamous skewering of Rio. There is a lot to like here. Many episodes are wonderful examples of the series thumping its chest with refined wit and social criticism, and most are creative continuations of various setups that have worked to great effect in the past. Apu gets a nice infidelity tale, Homer takes on the role as the new Moe, Lisa flirts with adulthood, Bart falls in love again, a clip show, and the three act offering 'Tales from the Public Domain,' which is a nice alternaverse collection of re-purposed classics, even Homer and Ned's Vegas wives return.

While the 22 episodes included here are a certain source of mirth and continued adoration for the series, there is certainly more than enough room for reflection on the seasons' illustration of fans' indifference towards the show. The series has, since season 12, began to air the Halloween adventure, a long standing tradition of the holiday, on the first Sunday in November due to Fox's broadcast pre-emption by the World Series. This seemingly inane action has sadly influenced the perception of the show's urgency. Fortunately, season 21 has rectified this error, but nine years too late. Also, many episodes here feel to be the antithesis of the series' usual approach to storytelling, with nearly every episode using a broad setup that feels like traditional sitcom territory. While in said territory, the series was once reliable for reflexive comedy and biting satire, here the comedy seems to be relying on physical humor and passing sarcasm more than usual. Many episodes feel light in laughs, and our characters all seem to engage in scenarios where they learn lessons they've learned before.

While there are signs that things are becoming much more mechanized in the creation of episodes, and that perhaps the days of the show as the forefront for cutting edge animated humor are now behind them, this season still manage to charm. The many voices behind the past genius of the series continue their contribution to this season. John Schwartzwelder credits five episodes to his writing credit, Jon Vitti offers two, Simpsons 'brain' George Meyer even gets in an episode with now former show-runner Mike Scully, and Ian Maxtone-Graham too. But most of the writing is credited to the new staff at the show who have since established themselves as giants in their own right. Dana Gould begins his credit on the show, and has since become perhaps the most visible of Simpsons writers, and one of the greatest comedic contributors to the series. Current regulars Matt Selman, John Frink & Don Payne, Matt Warburton, Carolyne Omine, all contribute episodes that further establish a new tone for the series. What you get here is exactly a reflection of the transitioning writing staff: many episodes have a quality that feels reminiscent to the previous six seasons but are often next to ideas and comedic passages that are distinctly new to the series. That doesn't mean that this dualist approach hurts the series, it merely creates a new atmosphere within the show, one that some may not like, but that others may find perfectly suited to the series.

There is something about these episodes that makes the series feel as though it has entered a new age of sorts. What that may mean in the long term historical context of the series is uncertain. Many would say it is the beginning of the long winter before the Simpsons Movie, while others may say it is the continued illustration of the already declining urgency of the series. Certainly season 13 is a mixed collection of tales, but it is worth owning for any fan of the Simpsons. There is still a renewed energy from having a new voice in charge, and from a new writing staff excited to make its mark. There are great examples of the continued quality the series has been able to exude despite the occasional recycled plotline or brazen trudging out of a guest star. It may not be legendary, but it's better than most shows after 291 episodes.

An Episode Listing:

-"Treehouse of Horror XII" : Homer is cursed by a gypsy, Pierce Brosnan is a murderous computer, and the kids riff on Harry Potter. Definitely one of the better 'later' treehouse entries.

-"The Parent Rap": Homer and Bart are tethered together. Marge and Homer are put in the stockades for being bad parents. And Judge Constance Harm makes her first of many appearances. The KBBL Party Penguin!

-"Homer the Moe": Moe's swanky repurposed bar 'M' turns off his regular customers, so homer opens a bar/hunting club in his garage. R.E.M. guest star. It's a good Homer/Moe adventure.

-"A Hunka Hunka Burns In Love": In a strange entry in the pantheon of both Mr. Burns and Snake, Mr. Burns falls in love with a cop named Gloria, who later turns out to be the ex-girlriend of Snake. Enter Homer to his aide, to help Burns win the heart of Gloria, armed with an extremely potent aphrodisiac (which leads to a truly hysterical shot of combined horror later on). Gloria has since made several returns as Snake's love.

-"The Blunder Years": After Homer starts freaking out for no reason, an investigation leads to a truly wonderful flashback homage to Stand by Me with the roles recast as Moe, Lenny, Carl, and Homer.

-"She of Little Faith": A Christmas episode about Buddhism that takes some nice swipes at the commercialization of Xmas. Plus this episode continues the show's trend of wonderfully sweet Lisa-centric stories.

-"Brawl in the Family": Homer and Ned's Vegas wives return, Delroy Lindo guest stars as a moderator attempting to wrangle the dysfunction out of the family. "Another case of Monopoly related violence."

-"Sweets and Sour Marge": Homer tries for a world record and the town gets one: World's fattest town. Sugar is banned, Homer becomes a sugar smuggler. Ben Stiller stars as a corporate junk food executive.

-"Jaws Wired Shut": Homer's jaw is, you guessed it, wired shut. He communicates by chalkboard and becomes a much better father and husband because he learns to listen. Popeye parody included.

-"Half Decent Proposal": The Return of Artie Ziff, and he's a billionaire (which was aluded to in season 4's the Front). Artie tries to buy off Marge's love, to which leads to a recreated prom night love triangle quite cleverly. Then Homer joins an Oil Rig with Lenny, whose heartbroken over Carl for some reason.

-"The Bart Wants What It Wants": Bart falls for Rainier Wolfcastle's daughter (voiced by Reese Witherspoon). Bart then find himself in a love triangle with Milhouse. Plus, see Skinner at an open mic night.

-"The Lastest Gun in the West": Dennis Weaver of Gunsmoke guests as an aging cowboy whom Bart helps to revive his career on the Krusty the Clown Show.

-"The Old Man and the Key": A Grandpa Simpson episode that revolves around him getting his license to impress a hot new woman at the Old folk's home. A solid episode.

-"Tales From the Public Domain": An inspired take on three classics: The Odyssey, Joan of Arc, and Hamlet.

-"Blame it On Lisa": The Rio episode full with rainbow rats and roaming monkey gangs.

-"Weekend at Burnsies": The Homer as a pothead episode. A classic.

-"Gump Roast": An uneven clip show, that doesn't stand well on its own, like most of the later clip shows.

-"I am Furious Yellow": Greetings True Believers! Stan Lee guest stars as an insane version of himself. Bart creates a comic book based on Homer's angry life and becomes a poor successful writer in the process, paid only in worthless stock. One of the best this season.

-"The Sweetest Apu": Homer catches Apu cheating on Manjula and walks backwards in shock all the way home. Another great one from Schwartzwelder.

-"Little girl in the Big Ten": Lisa pretends to be in College so she can be challenged and Bart becomes a Bubble Boy.

-"The Frying Game": Homer is accused of Murder and sent to death row with a 'shocking' revelation.

-"Papa's Got a Brand New Badge": Homer and his cronies become the law enforcement in town when the police are once again deemed inept to handle crime. A very funny episode with a great ending.

Don't avoid season 13, there's too many bright spots of hilarity.

Ever since season 9 there have been complaints from the fans about what they see as a decline in quality of The Simpsons. I'm sorry but I have to agree, I love the earlier Simpsons episodes and seasons but that doesn't mean the latter ones don't have any value. Actually I still find enjoyment in watching the show even today but you can't just ignore that the show is not as good as it once was, and that' being objective. I loved the first 9 seasons, 10-12 are still good to me, season 13 less so but is still watchable. Season 13 definitely has some good moments and provides laughs. As it turns out, I enjoy those episodes much more now than I did when they initially aired. The thing is, after so many seasons it gets incredibly hard for a television show to stay fresh and keep all viewers happy, season 13 struggles with this. I like season 13, I do not LOVE it like I did earlier season but that's normal, I'm just glad it's still watchable and entertaining. There's no real problem, a show changes and sometimes it's not as good as it once was. No one is forcing you those buy anything as far as I'm concerned.

Some episodes I particularly enjoyed from season 13 were "A Honka Honka Burns In Love" which had Mr. Burns falling in love, the three story episode "Tales From The Public Domain" was particularly a good and clever one in my opinion, and "I Am Furious Yellow" in which Bart makes a comic based on Homer called "Angry Dad" and gets successful. I thought this season's Halloween episode was average, the Harry Potter story was a great one thought. Interesting to note, this season brought back Homer and Ned's Las Vegas wives and Marge's admirer Artie Ziff, also from this season on the Halloween shows would not be shown in October but rather in early November. I don't hate any episodes in season 13, for a letter season there's plenty of good in it, I'm just being objective an expressing my feelings towards this season (please don't see this as bashing!). If seasons of the show are still being released on DVD there must be fans who want them right?

Now an issue I feel is important to address; the packaging. The first season of The Simpsons was first released on DVD in 2001, since then they've kept coming and now, in 2010 season 13 was recently released. The history of the packaging seems to interest many here but the reality is that it is not all about packaging, there's the content as well. Season 6 introduced the "limited edition" character set, there is also the regular edition of season 13, this year it's Ralph that's on the cover (One has to wonder who's next? Bumblebee man or Kent Brockman perhaps?). Season 11 introduced bad packaging; season 12 continued this trend but season 13 aims towards perfecting the art of bad packaging.

At this point if you're obviously going to have an opinion about the quality of the show, good or not. There are good episodes in this season and the show is still worth watching if you're a fan. If you can live with the fact that it's not as good as some of the previous season, and the packaging that comes with it, I bet you'll find plenty to like from season 13. 3/5.

Being that season 13 was about the time I started to lose interest in new episodes of The Simpsons, I was looking forward to this release, but with some reservations. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the episodes are not nearly as bad as I remember them being, and in some (most) cases are actually pretty good. Yes, the plotlines are generally ridiculous, and the episode flow is terrible, but there are still some very funny moments and lines throughout the season.

Maybe over the past ten years or so, I've come to accept that we can't have Season 6-8 over and over again. Maybe my sense of humor has changed. Whatever it is, this season was definitely worth the purchase for me.

Of course, there's the recurring issue with the poor packaging that has to be mentioned in every review. I thought the packaging for Season 12 was a step up from Season 11 (at least the discs didn't scratch in the casing), but Season 13 is far below both of them. They've reused the disc storage idea from 12, but for some reason put the discs in a flimsy box that has to be opened, instead of just sliding out. All of the boxes at Best Buy were already damaged. I also opened the case to find that the booklet for this season was bent and folded, damaged beyond belief for a new product. I see from other reviews that this was not unique to my set. Disappointing.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Bloomberg is like Mr Burns......he hides the night sky instead of Sun
you cant see the sky in manhattan or NYC....like a las vegas casino and strip club, separate us from nature and normality.... Read more

Published 2 months ago by sammy

5.0 out of 5 stars Simpsons - what else can you say
Another great season of the Simpsons - Just another addition to our collection. We received exctly what we ordered and it arrived quickly.

Published 3 months ago by Chris Campbell

3.0 out of 5 stars Worst. Packaging. Ever.
The packaging on this particular season of the Simpsons is, without exception, the worst packaging I have ever seen on any DVD. The exterior box is just that... a box. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Adam Philpott

4.0 out of 5 stars What a laugh!
As normal good laugh was had by me and my brother. We have watched it a few times and still laugh.

Published 4 months ago by Morgs

4.0 out of 5 stars Is it all over...?
Not only is this the last season of The Simpsons that used original animation, it seems as if the joy and comedy has faded too! Read more

Published 5 months ago by Midan "The Reviewer"...

5.0 out of 5 stars simpsons
If you're a Simpsons fan pick it up. Tons of funny episodes and nice packaging that you've come to expect

Published 6 months ago by A. Toninato

3.0 out of 5 stars Hello Principal Skinner, Hello Super Nintendo Chalmers
And so it begins!

It's no secret that The Simpsons fell into a steep freefall about ten years ago. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Inspector Gadget

4.0 out of 5 stars Still good!
I was ready to see a decline in overall quality of writing at some point in here, especially after reading the featured Amazon reviews............ Read more

Published 12 months ago by Stuart Gibson

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining season
I've always been a Simpson's fan, and Season 13 was a pretty entertaining season. The Treehouse of Horror for this season was really great.

Published 12 months ago by xleenbeanx

1.0 out of 5 stars Where Did The Comedy Go?
We witnessed The Simpsons losing steam last season (S12); As we enter season 13, it is painfully obvious that the producers have abandoned the tried and true techniques which made... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Mr. Howell

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