The Simpsons - The Complete Tenth Season

Really, there is not much more to say than awesome. Get it. It is good and funny and brilliantly produced.

This season was better than i thought it would be. I have seen most of these if not all of them and was a little worried that this was that season that kind of went a little down hill. There are great episodes here, classic ones.

It's all downhill from here. Homer Overdrive is my favorite episode. There are several different stories going on at once in this one, and my favorite quote ever, "Maybe we should stop forcing our beliefs on people and get real jobs!" Excellent, excellent writing. I'm not sure exactly what happened after this season, but the difference in quality is obvious. I stubbornly refuse to purchase anything past season 10. I'm just saying!

This is a great series from one of the funniest shows on TV. Fantastically good and consistently entertaining. Great stuff.

In Season 10, the Simpsons are starting to show some of the faults that make more recent seasons uneven and less enjoyable. This is not the fault of the writers per se - it's hard to keep characters and situations fresh when a show passes the decade mark. Thus, as much as I admire the absurdity of the Simpsons' writing, starting in Season 10 the writers too often cross the border from absurd to outright silly. For example, in this season Mr. Burns captures the Loch Ness Monster (in "Burns Can't Buy Me Love"). It would be okay for such an even to occur in a Hallowe'en episode, for example, but it doesn't feel right as a regular season show. Similarly, although the 3-mini-story episode "Simpsons Bible Stories" the Hallowe'en episode gimmick of telling Bible stories as three short stories proliferates in later seasons, but generally they are inferior episides (especially on repeated viewings). So, a list of the best episodes from this season is shorter than for a season between 4 and 8, but there are still some great episodes, such as

Treehouse of Horrors IX - featuring Maggie as the son of the alien Kodos. Also has Bart and Lisa teleported into an Itchy and Scratchy catoon.

When You Dish Upon a Star - Homer becomes a gopher for Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, who have a vacation house in Springfield. Featuring an especially memorable guest starring performance by Ron Howard ("Homer, we're out of vodka!")

Mayored to the Mob - When Mark Hammill asks for a volunteer from the audience to help him act out a scene from Star Wars, the Bi-Mon Sci-Fi Con erupts in a riot. Homer saves both Hammill and the Mayor, leading to Homer becoming the Mayor's bodyguard.

Homer to the Max - Homer has his name legally changed to Max Power ("I got it from a hair drier"). As a result of his hip new name, he and Marge end up in Ed Beagley Jr.'s protest group, chained to old-growth forest trees.

30 Minutes Over Tokyo - my favourite "Simpsons on Vacation" episode (so far). They are in Tokyo (obviously) where Homer and Bart end up in jail, and the whole family suffers seizures while watching the local TV station. Guest stars George Takei as a sadistic game show host on whom the Simpsons depend on supplying their way home.

Unfortunately, many of the other episodes are marred by inconsistency - they are very funny in places, but become silly and/or cannot maintain a whole story. I previously pointed out the appearance of the Loch Ness Monster, but we also have the Simpsons descending into Hell (and not in a Hallowe'en episode), a Godzilla attack, and a second wife for both Homer and Flanders. There is the fortunate balance of a fantastic set of guest stars, especially the aforementioned Hammill (who also participates in the episode's audio commentary) and Stephen Hawking. Thus, the season is well worth buying on DVD, but the "cracks in the show's hilarious facade" are starting to appear, and this is one of the last seasons I will be purchasing.

There is the usual slate of extras - audio commentary on every episode, some layout artists demonstrating their crafts, and the all-important inclusion of deleted scenes. Somehow the audio commentaries remain fresh and interesting, even 10 seasons into the show (a marked contrast to the commentaries on, say, "Friends" that are stale by the time they reach Season 5, even though they only do 3-4 a season).