Dan CastellanetaThe Simpsons: Season 10

First off, I have to say that I absolutely love the Simpsons. Seasons 3 to 9 are still among the best television ever produced. The stories had broken out of the middle class family sitcom mold of the first 2 seasons yet were still cohesive; the writing was tight, without any padding; the characters were outrageous but still had emotional depth; the jokes were often thoroughly but subtly set up, callbacks were often surprising, and among the more obvious one-liners and sight gags, very few fell flat. 3 and 9 were, in my opinion, the upward and downward slope from the absolute peak of seasons 4 to 8, but were still great.Season 10 is when things definitely started getting shakier, before completely going off a cliff in season 11. No single episode in season 10 is truly bad, but the bad signs are definitely there. The writing starts relying more on an uneven string of throwaway one-liners that seldom reveal a deeper character underneath, or make incisive social commentary, and that start to fall flat with increasing frequency. Callback jokes are often seen from a mile away and sight gags aren't as clever. The stories themselves became more unwieldy, entailing ever more outlandish scenarios, and they're often quickly set up at the beginning and then neatly tied up at the end, with lots of fluff and meandering in between.I hadn't seen season 9 and 10 in a few years and watching them again, it's really surprising just how quickly the quality deteriorated. Even sadder is the fact that the show is still on, and that this turn for the worse happened basically a third of the way through the show's run. I can't bring myself to watch the new seasons; it's too risky.Still, this season deserves 4 stars. Even though it's not the best Simpsons season, it's still really good, and it's still a lot better than much of the drivel on TV, both when it originally aired and especially now. If anything, it's interesting to see it as the inflection point from the show's golden era to what it's become today.

doh

Great video with the original writers

I only ordered season 10 the day before this review, so I haven't received it yet, but I'm a big-enough Simpsons fan to write an honest review and get it out of the way now. After skimming the other reviews I think it's safe to say that, and I agree with, the very best seasons are 4-8 with 3 and 9 being excellent as well but at a slightly lower percentage. How I personally rate a season is by the number of great episodes compared to what I feel are the mediocre/poor eps; the eps of seasons 4-8 having almost all great eps IMO! Season ten is about 50:50, which is still pretty good but simply cannot hold a candle to the writing of past years. I don't know if some or most of the really great writers started moving to bigger and better things during this season, the Simpsons is a bit of a stepping stone in regards to writers, or what the deal is here but this season is clearly the turning point in overall writing quality for this show's wonderful subtlety and satire. It sounds like I'm being a little harsh on this season and still giving it 4 stars but that's due to the enjoyment this show still gives out to this day and I will never get tired of watching it! Here's to one of the greatest and longest running TV shows in history!

While I can't site the episode name, number, or even season (and I don't think that makes me any less of a fan), I do remember that at the end of one of their clip shows The Simpsons did a parody of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" with the line "We'll never stop The Simpsons". I took that promise to heart, and I sincerely hope that they never do. I've been watching The Simpsons since right around the beginning of the series, and have seen about 95% of the episodes. I disagree with those that say that The Simpsons are going "downhill" or that they are not as good as they used to be. The reason that The Simpsons has been around for 18 (20) years is that the writers, producers, and voice actors have kept it from getting stale. Some things must change for the series to stay fresh. If you really watch the episodes, you can see that there are phases that the series has gone through. If The Simpsons had stayed the same as it was in the groundbreaking first season we all would have stopped watching it years ago and it would have been ultimately pulled off the air. You can't have a concept around for 20 years and expect it to always be the same as you remembered it.The fact is, The most recent episode of The Simpsons is just as great as any episode from the much lauded season 8, just a bit different.

Season ten was an historic season of the Simpsons. Granted, I like many other reviewers here, think season 9 was better, some might say, the best.However, season ten had many important things, such as the last Phil Hartman episode (forever a sad day in Simpsons, Newsradio, comedy, etc). Also guest stars included the voices of Lisa Kudrow, Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jerry Springer, Ed McMahon, Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, George Carlin, Mark Hamill, The Moody Blues, Cyndi Lauper, John Madden, Troy Aikman, Dan Marino, Pat Summerall, Roosevelt Grier, Fred Willard, Dolly Parton, Rupert Murdoch, Yo La Tengo, Elton John, Hank Williams, Jr., Jasper Johns, Isabella Rossellini, Jack La Lanne, Stephen Hawking, and George Takei.Episodes such as Hell Toupee (classic), D'Oh in the Wind (just watch it), Mayored to the mob(luke, be a jedi tonight), Homer to the Max (one of my top 5 fave episodes ever), and Simpsons over Tokyo (my favorite from this season) all combine to make for a solid Simpsons experience.I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in comedy, the Simpsons, or as a gift to someone who does. A very funny show, still in its prime/early-early decline. DEFINITELY worth the time and expense.Thanks

Many fans see season 10 of the Simpsons as the season the show "jumped the shark". I can understand that. However, to say that Simpsons episodes produced after this point were bad television just wouldn't be true. The Simpsons didn't necessarily go worse; it just changed, focussing more on the surreal than previously. The moment (for me, at least) whereby this change occurs is at the end of "Mom and Pop Art", a so-so episode in which Homer floods the town as a work of art. This is the type of occurrence which began to happen more and more regularly on The Simpsons after this point, particularly in the following two season's.But Season 10 itself still has some classic episodes - 30 Minutes Over Tokyo in particular standing out. There is a large amount of episodes focussing on Lisa, which is a pleasant change for the series and allows the character to be fleshed out, more so than she had been before. This series also features the last appearance of Phil Hartman, whose tragic death put an end to his semi-recurring roles as Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz. With Hartman's death, the show lost something which it has never regained, and could never hope to.The special features consist mainly of commentaries on every episode, and in some cases they are more entertaining than the episodes themselves, and definitely worth a listen.As a whole, a good but not solid collection of episodes, and one which I would recommend for both collectors and casual fans. 8/10

Lots of funny episodes

Arrived well packaged and arrived safely and on time. Really good quailty.

Even better than the 9th series. How do they keep coming up with this stuff?

Very happy with the item