Simpsons Season 15 DVD Review (Kirk Haviland)

Simpsons Season 15 DVD Review

With the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria

Created by Matt Groening

The longest running primetime show in American television history, the Simpsons, is world renowned and beloved. They also produce some of the most influential and feature packed DVD sets on the market place. New to DVD from Fox Home Entertainment comes the 15th season of the series. So how does season 15 stack up with their already impressive library?

In Season 15 the show welcomes guest voice performances from Jerry Lewis, Jennifer Garner, and Oscar De La Hoya in this season’s hilarious Treehouse of Horror episode. Tony Blair, Jane Leeves, Sir Ian McKellan and J.K. Rowling in the vacation episode of the season as the Simpson’s clan head to England. Glenn Close makes a return as Homer’s Mom and Jackie Mason as Krusty’s Dad. Sarah Michelle Gellar as Gina, the girl Bart meets and escapes juvenile hall with, in the classic ‘The Wandering Juvie’ and Matt Groening himself in the also classic comic-con episode. Among some of the subjects of season 15 we have Robot Fighting, a watch that stops time, Homer becoming the grim reaper, Lisa running for Class president in a take-off of the film ‘Evita’, Maggie scoring higher SAT scores than Lisa and the story of Homer’s first kiss.

As much as the show has lost some relevance over the decade and a half run, and perhaps even more now that it has hit year 25, the show is still hilarious when it is at its best. By season 15 the show had really shifted its focus almost completely from Bart to Homer as the focal characters, something the show had been moving towards for a while at the time. The show remains one of the most sought after vocal guesting jobs on television, even non-traditional vocal performances like this season’s turn from Prime Minister Tony Blair are almost common place for the show. Homer seems to be getting less and less coherent the more the show continues. Bart and Lisa seem stuck though, the best episode seem to involve them growing in some sort or the full out flash forward to them as older versions of themselves that show up from time to time.

The 15^th season set is jammed packed and stuffed with all sorts of special features and hours’ worth of material to follow up on. Every episode features a commentary track from members of the cast and crew, one of the few shows that do a commentary on every show. Featurettes include ‘All Aboard with Matt’, ‘The Unusual Ones’ and ‘Living in the Moment’. Deleted scenes and original animation sketches along with commercials and new animation for the menu screens also appear on the set. The collector’s box also features an embossed picture of school bus driver Otto. There is enough fascinating and engrossing material here for hours of distraction for the whole family.

The Simpsons may be a show that is more hit and miss that its boundary pushing beginnings, but the box sets for the DVDs remain some the most masterfully crafted and satisfying sets on the market. For fans of series, no matter what the level of interest, the Simpsons season 15 box set is a solid recommend. And for die-hard fans of the show, The Simpsons Season 15 is a must buy. Let’s hope the folks behind the Simpsons continue to show the same dedication to their following seasons for years to come.

Movie Junkie TO

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