Introduction

In its ninth year on air, "The Simpsons" entered what is commonly referred to as the 'Scully era'. With previous executive producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein bowing out after a sub-par season eight, the series' reins were handed to Mike Scully, which rapidly proved to be a dangerous decision. Although any show's output is the responsibility of a number of writers, Scully's appointment to top position saw his predilection for zany plotlines, pointless surrealism and character assassination taking full flight. While it must be stated that season nine isn't a complete failure, it also possesses a number of massive flaws that arose from poor planning and a distinct lack of discipline. Whereas previous episodes would be judged on a scale of how good they were, this year shows evidence of major delineation between the strong and weak episodes, with the entertaining and intelligent offerings getting few and far between. I never quite understood the parental railings against the early seasons of "The Simpsons" over concerns of its impact, but I have to say that all criticism of the Scully era is well warranted – it's stupid, crude and lowbrow, and season nine is but the tip of the unpleasant iceberg.

Episode List
(Highlights in bold, lowlights in italics)

1) The City of New York Vs Homer Simpson ; 2) The Principal and the Pauper; 3) Lisa’s Sax; 4) Treehouse of Horror VIII; 5) The Cartridge Family; 6) Bart Star; 7) The Two Mrs Nahasapeemapetilons; 8) Lisa The Skeptic; 9) Realty Bites; 10) Miracle On Evergreen Terrace; 11) All Singing, All Dancing; 12) Bart Carny; 13) The Joy of Sect; 14) Das Bus; 15) The Last Temptation of Krust; 16) Dumbbell Indemnity; 17) Lisa The Simpson; 18) This Little Wiggy; 19) Simpson Tide; 20) The Trouble With Trillions; 21) Girly Edition; 22) Trash of The Titans; 23) King of The Hill; 24) Lost Our Lisa; 25) Natural Born Kissers

Brief Discussion

Season nine was the year in which “The Simpsons” truly simplified, transforming into the kind of show that could be played as a Saturday morning cartoon. There’s a proliferation of toilet humour and other really cheap sources of jokes, coupled with a general dumbing down of the characters that has them behaving in the manner required by the plot, regardless of previous actions. Although a few episodes do feel like attempts at capturing the old style of the show (such as the entertainment industry satire of “The Last Temptation of Krust” or the strongly story-driven “Realty Bites”), they end up plodding blandly, feeling like vague facsimiles of what was once a superior series. Similarly, a lot of the attempts made at eliciting an emotional response from the viewer fall flat (“Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”), and even the simple “Lord of the Flies” parody of “Das Bus” fails to be consistently entertaining. With notable failures occurring in all of the areas that used to be “The Simpsons”’ core strengths, season nine is a painful reminder of just how low the series could stoop, exchanging the bitter incompetence of season eight for half-baked craziness.

Detailed Discussion

Despite my misgivings about the majority of this season, there are a handful of episodes I do enjoy. "Lisa's Sax" suffers from a slightly silly framing device, but at its core is an excellent flashback exploring how the brightest Simpson obtained her beloved instrument, with wonderful characterisation of Homer as his bumbling yet loveable self. "Lisa, The Simpson" is another hit, working with the very interesting premise of Lisa losing her intelligence and establishing respectable levels of pathos and humour as she undergoes a downward spiral. Of particular note is a hilarious fantasy where she imagines herself as the wife of Ralph Wiggum, "watchin' mah stories" and needing a prying board to get out of her hammock. The ending revelation about the 'Simpson gene' does take the family gender divide a little too far, but an episode as well-characterised as this one is a definite rarity for season nine, and deserves to be applauded.

Away from those two good Lisa shows, I feel that the year is accurately summed up by its finale, "Natural Born Kissers". Although it encapsulates a lot of the lowbrow laughs that pepper the season, this tale of Homer and Marge rekindling their love life with a little public intimacy is surprisingly fresh and funny, with a trashy yet brilliant moment where a group of parishioners rue the day their church got a glass ceiling. Elsewhere, "This Little Wiggy" is a pleasantly grounded effort that sees Bart forced to spend time with the somewhat 'special' Ralph, while "Lost Our Lisa" has some charming Homer/Lisa interaction at its climax that helps make up for several over-the-top, wacky shenanigans (like Homer getting his head caught in a closing drawbridge).

Other episodes have a few strengths I can extract, but are spoiled by poor characterisation. "Lisa the Skeptic" has a very intriguing plot about the discovery of a fossilised 'angel' in Springfield, but its discussion of science versus religion is amateurish at best, with Lisa portrayed as a whiny activist incapable of understanding anyone else's viewpoint. Particularly bad is a scene where she implies her own mother’s a moron for believing in angels, ignoring the fact that in the past, she’d expressed her own belief in souls, the afterlife and related issues. It's irritating to see a complex character over-simplified for a cheap plot point, but such writing is highly prevalent here. Ditto for "The Cartridge Family", which has a good story about Homer purchasing a gun, but puts the weapon in the hands of a brain-dead stereotype of the character rather than the real thing. As such, its satire on gun culture weaves all over the place, saying nothing important or relevant about either side of the debate.

As for the other episodes, they're usually a mixture of good and bad elements. I like the satire on sensationalist news reports in "Girly Edition", but season six's "Homer: Bad Man" did it much better (and managed to keep the characters sympathetic too). Both “Realty Bites” and “Dumbbell Indemnity” score points for plotting but lose them immediately by being incredibly tedious, while "Bart Carny" and "Bart Star" feature reasonable first acts that soon collapse into a bunch of cheap gags. "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" is just as bad; being a messy and witless attempt at satirising arranged marriage that changes Apu for the worse. "The Principal and the Pauper" is also rank, with a needless retcon of Principal Skinner's history and an intelligence-free script that led series creator Matt Groening to dub the episode one of his least favourites.

Still, even the weaker, 'bad sitcom' episodes are preferable to the three episodes penned by Ian Maxtone-Graham. An infamous writer, Maxtone-Graham has a rather shocking interview credited to him (where he insinuates, among other things, that women are too incompetent to write for "The Simpsons"), and dishes out three pieces of garbage. "The City of New York Vs Homer Simpson" gets season nine off to a very bad start, with a flimsy plot used as an excuse for a bunch of disconnected sight gags revolving around Homer needing to urinate. The character once again devolves into a one-dimensional stereotype, being loud, coarse and angry all the time, to no comedic value whatsoever. 200th episode "Trash of the Titans" is even worse, with all its humour coming from Homer being a loudmouth jerk, while "The Trouble With Trillions" boasts a ridiculous plot about Homer becoming a snitch for the IRS that climaxes with a stupid, witless trip to Cuba. No wonder so many fans have dubbed Maxtone-Graham "Hackstone-Graham" - it's a nickname he's earned all the way.

Overall, I can say that season nine mixes two or three good episodes with a whole lot of uninspired nonsense, most of which crosses the line of taste far too often. Hardcore fans will love it, but any of the previous eight Simpson DVD sets are more worthy of a purchase than this one.

DVD Extras

The DVD box set spreads out the season's 25 episodes across four discs, with packaging available as either a plastic Lisa 'head', or a burgundy box showing the Simpsons waiting outside a jazz club. Brief synopses for all of the episodes are included within a small booklet parodying Rolling Stone magazine, together with a number of postcards celebrating the show's two hundredth edition. The DVDs themselves are sturdily kept within a digipak book. Menu-wise, they follow the same formula as previous sets, with the upper half of the screen depicting various characters queuing outside a club (and making sneaky attempts at getting in) while the lower half lists the episodes with the options to play them separately or all at once. Every episode has an additional commentary track, and these usually provide some interesting insight into what little thought was being put into the show at this point. Aside from that, you also get the typical sets of animatics and Simpson-featuring advertisements from the era, making a pleasantly full set of additions.

Conclusions

Season nine of “The Simpsons” is a slap-dash mixture of poor plotting, lousy humour and tasteless jokes redeemed only by the occasional moment of spark and creativity. Even the most dedicated Simpsons aficionados tend to recognise this year as a drop in quality from the classic era, and I can’t see much here appearing to older viewers or those whose comedy preference extends beyond shouting and toilet humour. “Lisa’s Sax”, “Lisa, the Simpson” and “This Little Wiggy” save the year from the lowest rating, but only just. 2 stars.

***
"The Simpsons" on DVD:
Season One; Season Two; Season Three; Season Four; Season Five; Season Six; Season Seven; Season Eight; Season Nine; Season Ten

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age