Introduction

Well, it had to drop in quality at some point. After four stellar years on air, 1993 saw the bulk of the original writers of “The Simpsons” moving on to new pastures, leaving only the stalwart John Swartzwelder behind. As such, a large amount of new blood had to be injected into the series’ production - but it soon became very clear that the new recruits had precious little connection to the characters they were writing for. Although season five maintained a significant joke rate, it’s also the first year where plotting and characterisation began to be discarded. If “The Simpsons” was a bottle of wine, this was the point at which its cork was carelessly disposed of. Without forces in place to protect the original, realistic and human conception of the show, it would be only a matter of time before something rich and textured decomposed into bland, tasteless vinegar.

Episode List
(Highlights in bold, lowlights in italics)

1) Homer’s Barbershop Quartet; 2) Cape Feare; 3) Homer Goes To College; 4) Rosebud; 5) Treehouse of Horror IV; 6) Marge On The Lam; 7) Bart’s Inner Child; 8) Boy Scoutz ‘N the Hood; 9) The Last Temptation of Homer; 10) $pringfield; 11) Homer The Vigilante; 12) Bart Gets Famous; 13) Homer and Apu; 14) Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy; 15) Deep Space Homer; 16) Homer Loves Flanders; 17) Bart Gets An Elephant; 18) Burns’ Heir; 19) Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadassss Song; 20) The Boy Who Knew Too Much; 21) Lady Bouvier’s Lover; 22) Secrets of A Successful Marriage

Brief Discussion

Season Five is what you get if you place the previous four years of “The Simpsons” in a pan, add water and boil until all of the subtlety and depth evaporates. While there is at least one great moment per episode, the ratio of hits to misses rapidly starts levelling out, with just as many jokes reaching the level of embarrassing obviousness as sharp wit. This is best evidenced in the increased use of meta-humour, where the show breaks the fourth wall and refers back to itself. One or two of these gags are funny, but they appear in almost every episode, and soon grate.

Humour issues aside, the biggest problem for season five is definitely characterisation. Marge and Lisa are relegated to one episode apiece (“Marge On The Lam“ “Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy“), with Bart getting more airtime, but sadly taking a back seat to Homer. Although he’d been great before, this season began to jettison the original Homer character for a cruder model - much of his dialogue and behaviour sounds like the product of someone who’d never seen the show before, but had been given a brief outline to work with. As such, if Homer was dim-witted in early seasons, he’s now stupid beyond belief (“Homer and Apu“; “Homer Loves Flanders“). And if he was previously thoughtless, he’s now decidedly nasty, even being cruel to those he’s supposed to care about (“Boy Scoutz ‘N the Hood”; “$pringfield”). Although he’s certainly not at the repulsive depths he would reach in seasons nine through twelve, this was definitely the start of his slippery slope to awfulness.

With the supremely annoying Homer Version 2.0 being on hand to irritate for a good half of season five, it’s a trickier prospect to recommend this DVD box set. The good episodes are very enjoyable, but the number of merely average ones takes a notable increase, so I can’t see myself suggesting this one above seasons two, three or four. If you love ‘Wacky’ Homer, you’ll love this, but anyone looking for a little more sophistication from “The Simpsons” should check out the earlier years instead.

Detailed Discussion

Season Five opens with two holdover episodes from its predecessor, entitled “Homer‘s Barbershop Quartet“ and “Cape Feare“. I was a little surprised to see that these editions were intended for season four, and am glad they didn’t get aired then, as their numerous problems would have single-handedly dropped my rating for that year. There’s definitely an irony present here, as the two episodes not written for season five prove a microcosm of all its flaws. For example “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” is a simplistic Beatles parody with no depth, nothing insightful to say about the characters, and jokes that are based less on wit and more on seeing how many references you can spot. Even worse, the episode glibly acknowledges its flaws (such as not making any sense in the series’ established canon) but then ignores them, all for the sake of a cheap laugh.

“Cape Feare” highlights the other major humour issue, with an extended pastiche plot boasting a number of hilarious segments, but an equal number of stupid and unbelievable ones. Part of the episode involves the psychotic Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes and getting hit in the face repeatedly, and it goes on and on for almost a minute of dead time. His breaking into a full length rendition of the “HMS Pinafore” towards the episode’s climax is equally dumb, and tosses away any kind of character sense in favour of a marginally funny joke.

Although there’s certainly some merit in the ’pop culture reference’ type of humour so prevalent here, it just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, especially when repeated ad nauseum. In the first six episodes alone, five are based upon parodies, with only the Citizen Kane-referencing “Rosebud” bothering to include anything meaningful or emotional (and thanks to those elements, it ranks as the best outing of the season by far). But for every “Rosebud”, you have two or three episodes like “Marge On The Lam”. This one is an extended take on “Thelma and Louise“, and gets the requisite gags in before shuffling to a close. There’s a minor attempt to say something about the challenges of single parenthood, but the story has no depth, and any real meaning is quickly lost. Still, at least it attempted a plot - “Homer Goes To College” doesn’t even bother with that, stringing together a bunch of gags upon a foundation of Homer acting like a moron. There are a few great moments (such as power plant boss Mr. Burns’ attempt to do away with some safety inspectors with his office trapdoor), but it’s simply ‘Sponge TV’ - leave your brain at the door, it’s not welcome here. Ditto for “Bart Gets An Elephant”, whose entire (stupid) story is summed up by its title.

Aside from “Rosebud”, a few other episodes are notably strong. The fourth “Treehouse of Horror” amusingly manages to be more cohesive and interesting than the bulk of the ‘real’ episodes, while “The Last Temptation of Homer” is one of the only editions to get Homer’s character right. Excellently penned as his usual bumbling self, a story about his attraction to co-worker Mindy Simmons (nicely voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer) is engaging and humorous, with a warm ending that helps wash away a few minor issues (such as the episode’s similarity to season three’s “Colonel Homer”). Less strong but still good are “Secrets of A Successful Marriage” and “Lady Bouvier’s Lover”, which are entertaining, have the characters behaving in a believable manner, and provide a good mixture of wit and reference-based gags. Finally, “Lisa Vs Malibu Stacy” makes a few sharp points about the questionable images young girls are provided with in fashion dolls, with a solid guest turn from Kathleen Turner that makes up for the massively overstated theme.

Away from those highlights, it just becomes rather hard to care about the season. Episodes like “Bart’s Inner Child” and “Boy Scoutz ‘N The Hood” jerk unconvincingly from their plot set-up to the main story, to the extent that everything feels half-baked. “Boy Scoutz…” is particularly obnoxious, with Homer in full-on jerk mode and an undeveloped investigation of his relationship with Bart that says absolutely nothing about either character. A similar story about Bart becoming Mr Burns’ heir also fails in its attempts at development, providing no real exploration of Bart’s feelings about his family and having a massively predictable climax. Likewise, Marge’s sudden addiction to gambling is poorly handled (“$pringfield”), while the much-hyped 100th episode “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadassss Song” is as forced as the title would suggest. Its opening act is fine, but the first major plot point derails the episode as Bart and his much-loathed principal become good friends. There are some interesting ideas there, but they just aren’t written well enough to be fully worthwhile - as is the case for far too much of the season. As it rolls to a close, you realise that what you’ve just watched is perfectly competent, but nowhere near the level of quality the show used to have.

DVD Extras

Much like season four, the extras presented on this box set are strong, with every episode supplemented by an entertaining commentary that provides interesting bits of information. Away from the talks, the usual array of animatics and special language features are included, and the general quality of the additions helps amplify the worth of the set beyond the hit-and-miss episodes.

Conclusions

When it comes to season five and beyond, “The Simpsons” becomes a much harder proposition for this viewer. At this point in its history, the show began its metamorphosis into a free-for-all joke-fest, and sadly did this by doing away with its depth and humanity. The majority of people will likely enjoy everything that’s here, and most fans of the show wouldn’t hesitate to call the year a bona fide classic. However, I certainly cannot, as it’s only a week or so ago that I was watching the earlier seasons, when the show was both aiming and scoring higher in its humour, themes and characterisations. Five or six episodes stand up to previous levels, but the rest are only really enjoyable if you don’t wish to think about the validity and consistency of what you’re seeing. As a result, I can recommend this box set, but it’s done with a sigh and a wish that it could have been done better. 3 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:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older