Home :: DVD :: Television :: Fox TV  

A&E Home Video
BBC
Classic TV
Discovery Channel
Fox TV

General
HBO
History Channel
Miniseries
MTV
National Geographic
Nickelodeon
PBS
Star Trek
TV Series
WGBH Boston
The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season

The Simpsons - The Complete Fifth Season

List Price: $49.98
Your Price: $32.49
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best show of all time
Review: after 335 episodes and 15 seasons the simpsons can not be beat. as the show goes on the better it gets. season 5 is as funny as it is memorable.any body who is any body will have this dvd in their collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Chowdah! CHOWDAH!"
Review: As of this review, the fourth season hasn't even been released on DVD yet. And while the fourth season is when the Simpsons officially became the greatest show on television, it's season five that stands out above all the rest. When it was first announced that the Simpsons were going to be released on DVD, I was eagerly awaiting subsequent seasons to be released. A reason obviously being I want to own my favorite show on DVD, but mostly because as each season comes out (one... by... one), it will bring me even closer to owning my favorite one: the fifth season. This is the cream of the Simpsons' crop. It's the one I'm nail-bitingly waiting for.

My favorite Simpsons episode of all time is where Homer goes into space ("They'll clog the instruments!" "Careful! They're ruffled!"), which is included on this not-yet-released DVD set. Other stand-outs are when Homer falls in love with Mindy (Barney dancing to the I Dream Of Jeannie theme in a bikini: classic) and Grampa going out with Marge's mom ("I can't remember the last time I felt this young... I really can't.") Every episode is pretty much flawless. This was the Simpsons at their absolute peak.

Season one was good. Season two was very good. Season three was great. Everything that came after, up until about season nine, was excellent. These days, the show has a few bright spots, but pales in comparison to what came before. Newbie fans who don't get a chance to watch the re-runs might wonder what all the fuss is about. To those people, I'd tell them to go out and buy season five.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Season 5 is Great
Review: Awesome season. This season has alot of great episodes from the earlier years that helped the Simpsons become the success it is today. Favorites include Homer loves Flanders where homer becomes Ned's friend for a bit and then goes right back to hating him again. This is Simpsons at its best.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The decline of "The Simpsons" begins...
Review: Considering that most of these sets offer the same kinds of extras, the rating has to reflect the quality of the episodes themselves.

And, unfortunately, after reaching new heights of excellence with "Marge vs. the Monorail" and "A Streetcar Named Marge" in season 4 and peaking with arguably the most intellectually hilarious 30 seconds in television history ("Worker and Parasite" in "Krusty gets Kancelled"), the first signs of what has become a long, slow decline of "The Simpsons" begins in Season 5.

This isn't to say there weren't some misses in previous seasons, but even the less-than-stellar episodes generated at least a few laughs. And this isn't to say that "The Simpsons" has jumped the shark (although it has come close at times); even its worst episodes are better than nearly all of the other "Raymonds," "Jims" and "Joeys" that pass for TV comedy today combined.

But what even the most rabid Simpsons fan has to admit is that Season 5 is the first season where episodes that are truly unfunny from beginning to end appear. "Marge on the Lam" is a monotonous take on "Thelma and Louise" that goes absolutely nowhere. "Bart Gets an Elephant" is a one-joke piece that begins a seemingly endless series of "funny pet" episodes that appear with distressing predictability in future seasons. "Bart Gets Famous" is quite possibly the worse episode ever--a totally unfunny exercise in self-absorption that blooms into the endless series of reflexive Fox jokes in season 6. "Homes Goes to College" begins a terrible trend of Homer-as-frat-boy plots, and "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy" maligns little Lisa with a plot unworthy of her intelligence.

Season 5 also begins the regrettable tendency to replace genuine laughs from witty writing and situations with cheap laughs from cutaway visual gags and one-liners. It's a shopworn practice as old as cartoons themselves, and one that The Simpsons managed to largely resist until Season 5, where it became a patented fall-back mechanism and remains so today.

Most distressing is the total transformation of Homer from a slow yet caring father-cum-working class hero into a completely one-dimensional neanderthal. Whether this was a directive from Fox or a conscious decision by Groenig and co., it started the series on a long downward slide into predictability and shameless pandering to contemporary music and MTV culture.

So what earns this collection its 3 stars? The few stellar episodes like "Cape Feare," "Deep Space Homer," "Homer and Apu" and "The Devil and Ned Flanders" vignette from "Treehouse of Horror." None of these episodes matches the sheer combination of wit and scathing satire as the pantheon episodes, but they at least are funny. That can't be said for the clunkers in season 5, nearly all of season 6, and, these days, at least 50% of all episodes from season 5 on. If you haven't seen these episodes, the collection is worth it (although seasons 1-4 truly comprise the Golden Age of the series) for the diamonds in the rough. For those who have seen it, it's the last "must have" Simpsons collection; everything from this point forward is for diehard fans only.




Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The simpsons are UNstoppable!
Review: i have adored watching the simpsons evry Sunday for the past 6 years. Bart, lisa, maggie, homer, marge, apu, wiggum, skinner, barney, moe, carl, lenny, ziff, flanders, burns, smithers and TONS of celebrity appearences. matt groening amazes me how he does such a good job creating these characters. all the directors and producers did an awesome job too creating such a addicting show. i've been watching it for 6 years and i haven't gotten tired of it yet! no doubt the simpsons are here for the past 16 seasons and will be in our minds for the rest of OUR LIVES!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Why do they take soo long
Review: I love the Simpsons & watch them all the time. But why does it have to take soo long between boxed sets. At the rate they are going I won't have all the seasons untill the children of mine (which are not even born yet) will graduate college. anyone know why it takes soo long?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simpsons RULE
Review: I started watching the Simpsons when I was about 7-8 years old. Then I stopped watching it, and just recently have I got back into the craze for the show. What I don't get is all the DVD sets they have out now are from around the time I was born, and why is it they can't put the seasons straight out on DVD once the season is already been aired. Sorta like the Sopranos series. But not matter what, I am a dedicated Simpsons fan who owns all four seasons. May God Bless Ya

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best ....
Review: I think this TV on DVD. It looks like these season sets may (finally) on a faster release schedule. Season 6 is set for release in June according to the Fox Website.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HAIL ANTS!
Review: I won't go over individual episodes since several people already have, but rest assured - seasons 4-7 were the show's peak. Season 4 firmly established a groove for the series, and season 5 keeps it going with outstanding episodes galore. "Rosebud" (where Burns wants his old teddy bear back) is arguably the best Simpsons episode ever, and it is in this set. Other outstanding episodes include "Burns' Heir" (Bart gets angry at his family and is adopted by Burns), "Bart Gets Famous" (the "I Didn't Do It" one), and "Deep Space Homer" (Homer joins NASA and goes into space).

If you are new to the DVD sets or (gasp) new to the series, and you can only pick up one season set....well...get season 4, as it is the pinnacle. But as soon as you're done watching that you're going to want more, and that's what season 5 provides.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BOBO the great
Review: I'm a life long simpsons fan, and seasons 4+5 are prob the best. i took off one star because the episodes seemed alittle blurry! but still great material.


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates