Tuesday is the day new TV disc releases drop -- and the day each week we plan to keep you posted on the latest DVD and Blu-ray goodies.
Jan. 12 is actually a slow week for shows hitting home video, but a big one for fans of the animated series that changed prime time 20 years ago. The Simpsons gets its first-ever release on high-def Blu-ray Disc (BD, for those in the know) by jumping the gun on the series' previously orderly ordinal queue. Season 1 was followed by Season 2 was followed by Season 3. Until last year's Season 12 release was followed today by Season 20.
Fox Home Entertainment seems to be celebrating the series' 20th anniversary -- a pretty inescapable milestone considering the way TV's entire Fox network turned yellow last week -- and testing the waters for high-def among Simpsomaniacs. Unfortunately, it's not a fair test.
Today's release of The Simpsons: The Complete Twentieth Season ($60 list, $37 currently at Amazon) is an anomaly among the show's season sets, bereft of all the commentaries, featurettes, storyboards, deleted scenes and other inside goodies that fans have come to expect when Matt Groening's Springfield oeuvre hits disc. The Simpsons DVD sets haven't been mere collections of episodes, they've been bonus-rich celebrations of the show's family humor, pop culture savvy, animation creation and overall artistry in creating an American portrait for the ages.
But the 20th season BD set (or DVD set, also out at $50/$29) holds only one extra, which really isn't: a teaser for Morgan Spurlock's documentary on the cultural impact of The Simpsons, which already aired following the show's 450th episode last Sunday. Why not incude the whole thing? That might actually have been a "special" feature.
Blame the quick turnaround of bringing this season from air to disc in just eight months. After all, The Simpsons Season 12 episodes out on DVD last August were produced in 2000-2001, leaving plenty of time to reflect and reconstruct at length in bonus features. But then, why bother with the quickie 20th? Sure, high-def Blu-ray looks swell -- the shows are finally in the now-standard widescreen ratio, and some parts of the exceedingly crisp animation have an almost 3-D feel between foregrounds and backgrounds. There's also 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (English only) that's uncompressed for sound aficionados.
If you're really, truly that dedicated, you can watch and hear in sterling quality rightawayrightnow. But if you're really, truly that dedicated, you're going to feel cheated without all those bonus goodies. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
Until, that is, Groening & Co. catch up to themselves -- Season 13 at least should come out this year -- and eventually produce all the Season 20 extras you crave. Prepare to buy again. And, of course, again, when the "complete series" hits shelves. You know the drill.
Actually, Season 20 is only half high-def. The Simpsons' first HD episode was last Feb. 15's "Take My Life, Please" (Homer's class president election), which means the season's first 9 episodes are standard def (with 12 in HD). The BD set has one BD disc in standard-screen ratio (4x3) and one disc in HD widescreen (16x9). The DVD set arrives on 4 discs, with the season's second half in widescreen standard-def.
The BD set comes in a standard blue-plastic package, though, which is at least a relief to those fans who loathed the recent cardboard accordion DVD innards they feared would scratch discs being removed and reinserted. The tradeoff, however, is a set that feels generic and not nearly as special as Simpsons devotees have come to expect. Season 12's DVD included a comic-book-styled 28-page booklet and similar original artwork on the accordion boards. Season 20's BD has just a flimsy little paper insert containing only the episode titles, not even their air dates or descriptions. At least there's nice every-character-ever art on the wrap.
So it's your choice: Be a Simpsons completist and enjoy HD picture/sound right away, or demand the best and hold off till an extras-crammed Season 20 shows up in 2013 or so.
Possibly on some other format yet to be determined.
Isn't video collecting fun?
Also out this week (Jan. 12, 2010):
ER Season 12 -- John Leguizamo takes over the department; Neela and Gallant get married; Abby and Kovac get back together; Weaver loses her cane; Carter goes to Darfur.
Becker Season 3 -- Ted Danson comedy about a cranky Bronx doctor (now seen Fridays on Universal HD) adds Nancy Travis as his new neighbor.
Route 66 Complete Season 3 -- Among the guest stars this time on this fine location-filmed '60s road drama: Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Gene Hackman, Julie Newmar, Rip Torn, Alan Alda, Rod Steiger, John Astin.
Robin Hood Season 3 -- Final season of the recent romantic British adventure hour, post-Maid Marian.
Top Gear Seasons 11 & 12 -- Too bad NBC's planned Americanization of this fun-and-funky British car-test hit hasn't panned out. Or maybe it will -- NBC could keep Jay Leno at 10 p.m. hosting it!
Released Jan. 5, 2010:
Big Love Season 3
Chuck Season 2 DVD/BD
Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures (Ralph Bakshi/John Kricfalusi)