"The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season" DVD Talkback (Spoilers)

I'll give you "The Principal And The Pauper" but "The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson"!? Come on! That episode was a total classic!

Well, anyway, I seem to be one of the few putting it high on my favorites list so I don't know. Watch "The Joy Of Sect".
 
I must be one of the few that actually LIKED Pauper. I mean, it's not my favorite episode of all time, but I thought the way they revealed Skinner's REAL backstory was well-written, in the sense that they didn't just reveal in a half-assed way, "Oh yeah, I'm a fraud." They made a whole backstory that actually made sense, in a twisted way. The whole idea that Agnes and Skinner both sorta knew the truth but that the lie made both happier was kinda real- sorta like denial. The episode also brought out a lot of interesting viewpoints on how the townspeople would react if someone they knew for years turned out to be fake, like when Apu says, "Just call yourself whatever the hell you want."

The episode's also very funny. I love the car scene, where more and more people are revealed to be in Homer's car ("Because Jasper didn't wanna come by himself!"). Chalmers being "kind" and letting Skinner sleep on the floor that night was good, as was Skinner's "Up yours, children!" and "All my dreams involve combing my hair."

Anyway, I think it's pretty much agreed upon that season 9 is the best of the Scully years. However, I don't think that season 10 is an atrocity like some do, since it's still very funny, so I'll be picking that season up whenever it gets released. After that... meh, it's really debatable whether I'll continue.
 
Are you reffering to "NY vs Homer" or "Joy" as being high on your list but not on other's? Because, I see "NY vs Homer" mentioned quite a bit in discussions of favorite episodes.
 
I haven't seen anybody really mention "The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson" in this topic.



I don't mind it. I thought it was a funny enough episode. The plot was just kinda far out and compared to so many classics in this season, I don't think it holds up as well. In this set, it's definitely a 2/5. It's a 5/5 compared to a lot of more recent episodes. It also bothers me that none of it has ever been mentioned again, to my knowledge.



Only because I can understand why someone wouldn't like the episode. It's generally not a very popular episode so I can understand not liking it. Though I'm baffled as to how he didn't like "The City Of New York vs. Homer Simpson".
 
Remember, nobody in Springfield was allowed to mention the whole situation again, under penalty of torture. That's actually my favorite on the set. The animation was really well-done, the joke quality fairly consistent, and I liked how Homer was having such a horrible time in NYC while his family was having a great time. It was also interesting to see how Homer lets a bad experience with NYC in the past hamper his ability to enjoy how much NYC improved in the past couple of decades.

An interesting bit that I agree with on the commentaries is how many sports movie cliches "Bart Star" broke. That's part of what made that episode so enjoyable to me; instead of a typical "pathetic underdogs rise up to become a decent team" story, the story is told in a more original fashion. Heck, Flanders even shot down Lisa's attempted moral crusades right at the start. :p
 
The old fanbase does have relevance now though. It puts it into perspective how the "turning point" changes over time. In ten years, the "turning point" may be placed at season 16 by newer fans.
 
I wouldn't be too sure. If you actually study the old posts at the old fan base, those that agree with the show having declined were really anal and seemed to judge it more in terms of continuity, slight character inconsistencies, and changes in general; they seemed less concerned with how funny the show was, but seemed to dislike change of any sort. It was every time a new showrunner was chosen or that fourth wall breaks happened that controversy among the fan base really occurred. Now that it's been a while, fans of all kinds and ages have a better perspective on how the show developed and are better able to judge it. Seeing as how the fans who agree with the turning point being in season 9 are both long-time fans and recent fans, young and old, and overall come from a variety of backgrounds, and yet most have been able to generally agree on a turning point, and have thought so for quite some time. Maybe I'm being naive, but I can't see the turning point change so dramatically for whatever reason in years to come.
 
This is something that annoys me. If you still like the show, fine. But I don't care for the fans who attack those of us who don't. Usually it leads to crap like "You're not a real fan, you're just jumping on the trendy bandwagon!". I'd say personally being a real fan means knowing when what you like has declined. Humour is subjective but I really think The Simpsons own fanbase is a weakness as it's now so big that certain people will insist ANYTHING the show does is A-star material.
 
Plus, I think most of us who don't like the show anymore formed that opinion on our own as it was getting worse. I used to be a huge fan, but had to stop watching during season ten since it had gotten so bad. By that point, I wasn't involved in the online community anymore, and nobody else I knew agreed with me that it had turned.
 
Are you kidding? In 10 years I haven't met a single person on the internet other than myself that doesn't think that the show is in a decline in some way, shape, or form. And even I don't like every episode. Please point me to this loyal fanbase you speak of, because I've never seen it.

The Myst started watching the show at season 5, and started to dislike it in season 14. My cousin has watched it since about season 3, and he quit watching around season 11. I know some younger people who didn't start watching till season 11-12, and right now they think it's as funny as South Park and Family Guy. And like I said, the alt.tv.simpsons people, who had been watching it since episode 1, quit liking it generally about half-way through season 6. It's funny though, because outside of the internet I've never met any fans who think the show is dramatically less good nowadays. But don't ever try to act like you're in the minority if you dislike the new episodes. And the only reason you can see a "consensus" on season 9 being the turning point is because that's what you believe, and therefore you only remember the posts of people who came to the same conclusion. It is completely subjective, and if you really took the time to study old posts from different times, you'd see that the "consensus" is actually quite varied.

Also, please refrain from using the term "Jump the Shark". It is a useless anachronism that applies only to older shows of a certain type, but has no purpose and no meaning in the modern TV landscape. To point to a single moment or event at which a show started to decline is a gross oversimplification for most newer television, especially a show like the Simpsons.
 
I would like to remind everyone that this thread is not a discussion on who's right and who's wrong on the current state of quality on The Simpsons. This thread is to discuss the DVD release of The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season, including the quality of the product, the extras, and even some discussion of the episodes featured within. That's it. I will re-post the note from this thread's original post below and ask people to please use their best judgment before posting, or else further actions may have to be taken.

So please, back to the DVD release of The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season. Thank you.

simpsons9cover.jpg

Discuss This DVD!

Note: If you don't plan on buying this release, then please refrain from posting. We appreciate and encourage discussion, but one-word/one-line posts are unnecessary. We'd like to see actual discussion and real comments from those who purchased this release or intend to. Please keep your posts the thoughtful, relevant and insightful. We will issue warnings if we believe it necessary. Please keep the discussion civil.
 
So I watched "The Trouble with Trillions" last night. I still considered it among my favorite episodes, but something's always bugged me about it. Now I know what it is. The entire show seemed like build-up with no resolution. Still a great really good episode, though.

"They pee in cup and throw it on you. I saw it in a movie."
 
One thing I've learned from "The Simpsons" on DVD is how to appreciate the show the way the writers wanted it to be seen. So many episodes have been subtle satires that were misconstrued by the fans as laziness or just bad writing. When you realize that episodes like "Das Bus" and "All Singing, All Dancing" are meant to poke fun at themselves, they no longer seem as awful as they once were. Listening to the commentary on "The Principal and the Pauper", for instance, and hearing Ken Keeler explain what his message was, I no longer see it as an attempt to ruin Principal Skinner's character, but as an exploration of the relationship that the fans have with the characters. Really, the message of the episode isn't complete until you hear the backlash and see how unusual it really is that people got so worked up over the massive deconstruction of such an unexplored character that they didn't really care much about before.

Furthermore, "All Singing, All Dancing" doesn't seem like a cheap clip show that the writers reveled in shoving in our faces, because it's now been revealed that the writers despise having to do clip shows, and they stuck it to FOX for ordering them in the first place by making them intentionally crummy. The end of "Das Bus" doesn't bug me because it's a parody of cop-out plot solutions that don't solve anything. Lisa's ultra-anal personalization in "Lisa the Skeptic" doesn't bug me anymore because the writers (and Yeardley Smith) have pointed out that, through the subtleties of Lisa's scene in the kitchen with Marge, she's not a heartless instigator - she just gets carried away. And most importantly, the overall "flexible reality" of the show has greatly changed my outlook on the show as a whole. The people who chastise the show for being too cartoony and who point out every minute error, even when those errors are intentional to service a joke, are the people who are so intent on finding fault that they no longer put the humor first. If it makes me laugh, that's all I need, and now that I've seen Season 9 on DVD, it makes me laugh just as much as the previous eight seasons. People often point to Season 9 as the first awful year of the show, but when you look at it through the writers' eyes, you begin to see what they were going for, and then the humor shines through.

Of course, this isn't to say that the season is perfect. There are moments that just don't hit the mark. "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" is still my least favorite of the season because of its heartless ending. And Lisa is remarkably poorly characterized in "Bart Carny". But still, viewing the Season 9 DVD has drastically improved my opinion of the show post-Season 8. It'll be interesting to see if my opinion of Season 10 changes once they release that set - I won't be surprised if it does.

By the way, does anyone know how to access the easter egg on "Lisa the Simpson" that Matt Groening mentions in his introduction?
 
I've known people who thought the writers were just being lazy and throwing together a cheap clip show in order to fill out the season. They didn't seem to realize that FOX ordered the clip shows in order to save money.
 
I enjoy listening to the commentaries on THE SIMPSONS (I've yet to listen to these, though), but I don't think I've ever had my opinion changed because of them. And for what it's woth (which is less than nothing) I don't dislike "The Principal and the Pauper" because of how they treated the Skinner character. I dislike it because it just wasn't very good. I can see where they're coming from with the assertion that it's silly to get worked up over a character's backstory being changed when it wasn't really that developed to begin with.
 
Back
Top