The Simpsons - Season 15 [DVD]

The 15th Simpsons Season (2003-2004, 22 episodes) was a season that had another turning point. Al Jean, who was made showrunner replacing Al Jean after Season 11, did to his credit restore some creditably back to the Simpsons for Seasons 13 and 14 and the show was slightly getting better again. But this season was where that run would cease and the show began getting worse again. As of again, I repeat, I am no Simpsons hater or a "3-8 seasons was the best" snob but one who have to admit that the show at this was getting incredible stale and was reaching the era of stagnation.

Maybe Fox's attitude of the show at this point being "uncancelable" didn't help (if that is even a word) but the other problem is the direction the comedy took at this point. With Family Guy being the hot show, the days of witty, gentle humour of a typical family had to go and the era of wacky, over-the-top and characters being parody of themselves came in. Some writers also began insisting on random humour which made fans alienated. The writers insulting the fans at times also didn't help.

Anywho, this season is not a total loss. On the contrary, there are a handful of worthwhile and enjoyable episodes here but none of which are exactly memorable. "The Regina Monologues" in which the family visit England is probably the best one for British viewers (anything do with us is a treat) but also for everyone else it is a good episode as it is well-written. "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", "Tis is the Fifteenth Season", "Simple Simpson" and "The Treehouse of Horror XIV" were also good. "My Mother the Carjacker" and "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" were also good to decent. However, the others were just very forgettable and some were real duds, there is also too many celebrity cameos and too much parody. Some also started considering this the "Homer Show" at this point.

Season 15 began the era in which the Simpsons entered an era of stagnated mediocrity. This season is not at all the most memorable by any means but, at times, it is still watchable. I just wish that the Simpsons either kept with what they were good at and didn't have the need to compete with Family Guy at every opportunity or someone else just pulled the plug in the late 90s or early 2000s, "Behind the Laughter" would have been a worthwhile finale.

This season might not be wanting to buy if you are a casual viewer but Simpsons fanatics will certainly want this to add to their collection and the packaging is decent.

I've loved The Simpsons for many years. I've bought every DVD box set and continue to watch the show on television, and despite the decline in quality, The Simpsons is still one of the best reasons to own a TV. And as a superfan, I believe that this, the fifteenth season, was where OFF started to lose it.

Although there are a lot of good episodes here, they never really get any better than just "good". None of them are as bad as I remember, although like the season before it, perhaps mainly because they aren't as Lackluster (Video) as they are now.

The decline begins with the episode "Catch 'Em If You Can". I never liked this episode originally, and having rewatched it, my opinion hasn't changed. In this episode, Homer and Marge ditch the kids to spend some intimate vacation time together. Fair enough. But Marge, particularly, in this episode behaves extremely out of character. Portrayed as a mother desperate to escape her children, it totally destroys her loving nature. What happened to the woman who couldn't bare to be separated from her children in the seventh season episode "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily"? In this episode, Marge also uses language which is usually absent from her vocabulary such as referring to sex as "sex", whereas in earlier episodes (seasons) she would have normally used a euphemism such as "snuggle". Maybe I'm looking into it too much, but this isn't how classic Marge would act. It's almost as if they were trying to turn her into a poor man's Lois Griffin at this point. On a related note, in the following episode she refers to contestants on a Bachelor-type TV show as "skanks".

What you're getting with the fifteenth season is the beginning of the end. A strong start for a season, and a series that perhaps in some opinions should be put out to pasture, and a mediocre end.

It's The Simpsons, Jim, but not as we know it.

From the beginning the packaging of The Simpsons has been poor. This latest season carries on that less than proud tradition. This week another crumpled cardboard package arrived to rest on my shelves next to all the rest. Slightly more robust than the chatty plastic "special" cases but still spitting in the faces of the many fans who want a permanent library. It is not as though these sets are low priced or that Fox are not aware of fan dissatisfaction. Other box sets maintain a much higher standard so why can't Fox be bothered? They should be ashamed of themselves. The series is fine, we know what we are getting, but as a product it has the whiff of rip-off about it.