The Simpsons Season 13 Review

• 21st Sep 2010

Unlucky for some, but The Simpsons showed no signs of stopping even in their 13th year. To be truthful though, the quality of episodes has started to wane and it is becoming evident as the seasons come at us.

This video game themed box set with Ralph Wiggum on the cover follows the same format of the previous seasons. There are short extras focussing on various antics. There is a look at Ralph Himself, deleted scenes, a look at key animated sequences, a short focus on the Rio episode that managed to offend a country and there are many commercials and galleries as well as a commentary on each episode. Thankfully the commentary material is still high value.

As for the shows themself there are some highlights to be found in Homer The Moe where Homer takes over the bar whilst Moe heads back to college. Mr Burns attempts to fall in love with Snake’s former beau in one show, and turns the church upside down in another. Springfield gets into the Duff book of records for being the fattest town and Homer becomes a better person after breaking his jaw and being forced to listen to people for a change.

Sadly, there are a few shows that really drop the ball, which includes the obligatory “clip show” episode like we hadn’t got sick of them already. But it is funny to watch Stan Lee hang around the Comic Book Guy’s store in the same show where Bart creates the internet sensation “Angry Dad” (which knowingly makes fun of the fact that clip shows suck!).

So it’s a year of ups and downs but the ups are worth the downs. The Simpsons is best viewed nowadays as 20 minutes of lazy but affable enough entertainment as you eat your dinner and there is no flawing the fact that they take pride in loading each box set with enough extras to really make it worth the price tag.

Steven Hurst