Product ReviewsSimpsons, the : Season 4 | Boxset (DVD, 1992)

Good product

I love the Simpsons. I'm not on either end of the spectrum, either the fans who think the show used to be great and now it's terrible, or the fans who think it is still as great as ever. I'm somewhere in the middle. I think, for awhile it was the smartest and funniest writing on TV. It is no longer at that level, but it is still more clever than most of what's out there. That's a pretty good accomplishment after all these years.

I am biased towards the early episodes. I even like the first season. I'm not bothered by the cruder animation or the fact that Homer's voice had not yet settled in to its eventual timbre. I like the early episodes, because back then Springfield was a parody of any small town or suburb in the United States. As the show went on, it became more and more clear that Springfield was Hollywood. Celebrity pals of the producers started showing up in episodes to be shamelessly flattered, there were more and more in-jokes about the world of entertainment, and then Matt Groening started making cameos. It was a sign of a decline. The show became too self-conscious, and eventually came around to be extra mean-spirited, meanness for the sake of meanness, as if that was the only the writers could prove they were still edgy. But enough about what started going wrong.

For the best of the Simpsons, I think the third and fourth seasons are it. The fourth season in particular has some episodes which are funny from beginning to end, funny no matter how many times you've watched them. There are more than a few episodes in this season that could arguably make a list of the ten bests. The episode Last Exit to Springfield, where they srike at the nuclear power plant, is as dense with comedy as the Marx Brothers at their finest. The episode displays a full-range of emotions. Lisa plays a moving protest song on the guitar, we get Mr. Burn's and Smithers at their most exuberant, we get the psychelic Yellow Sub sequence with Lisa on nitrous oxide, and some moments of true comedic courage, really pushing how long we can listen to Homor ruminate over the same thoughts.

This is the season that has Homor the Heretic, where Reverend Lovejoy categorizes Apu's religion as "miscellaneous." There's also A Streetcar Named Marge, Mr. Plow, Marge Vs. the Monorail, and many other solid episodes.

There are some early signs of the impending slide towards mediocrity, such as the first Simpsons clip show, and Krusty Gets Kancelled, an early example of nauseating kissing-up to celebrity guests. The extras don't add a whole lot to this set either. Like on the earlier seasons, the audio commentary can be interesting but is mostly the amimators talking about the animation. If that is your interest, you might like it. I'm more interested in other aspects, such as the writing, myself. But I'm hard to satisfy, because I actually find it disappointing when I find out where something is from. For some reason it seems more impressive when I think it's original.Read full review...