Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 1, 2014

As the father of two children who are, in the inestimable words of easy listening icon and one must assume parenting expert Pat Boone, “twixt twelve and twenty,” I can vouch for the fact that teenagers can often be sullen, unpredictable and inconsistent. It’s probably no mere coincidence, then, that The Simpsons’ seventeenth season tends to exhibit all three of those traits in various degrees. The surprise is not that The Simpsons may have (arguably) lost some of its luster at this ripe old age, but that it’s still as spry and generally amiable (if not laugh out loud hilarious) as it is so much of the time. The series continues its by now well worn path of peccadilloes by Homer and/or Bart wreaking temporary havoc, with Marge and/or Lisa helping to prevent outright calamity, and a more or less happy, if resolutely dysfunctional, family unit celebrating together at any given episode’s end. The seventeenth season of this now legendary series probably doesn’t offer any major surprises, but even if it varies from merely okay to pretty darned funny, it manages to keep its batting average well over the .500 mark, which for a series this venerable is a pretty remarkable occurrence.

The 22 episodes included in this season are:

1. The Bonfire of the Manatees: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what else is new? Homer screws up (twice in fact, first losing a bunch of money in a gambling scheme and then trying to pay it off by having a porn film shot in the Simpson house), Marge freaks out, leaves, and finds true romance with a manatee expert (voiced by Alec Baldwin). Sweet and decently funny, this gets the season started well enough, if in a not totally inspired fashion.

2. The Girl Who Slept Too Little: This is a fun episode that’s kind of a precursor to Treehouse of Horror, with a Stephen King-esque cemetery opening next door to the Simpsons house and causing the normally level headed Lisa to freak out.

3. Milhouse of Sand and Fog: As dysfunctional as the Simpsons routinely are, they’re a model of marital and familial stability when compared to the fractious Van Houtens. But maybe there’s at least a little hope for Milhouse’s estranged parents.

4. Treehouse of Horror XVI: Once again the master parodists in The SImpsons’ writers’ room have a field day skewering everything from A.I. Artificial Intelligence to the World Series. Kang and Kodos are of course in attendance.

5. Marge’s Son Poisoning: Marge and Bart have a little mother-son bonding courtesy of a tandem bike, leading to unforeseen repercussions.

6. See Homer Run: Once again some initially stupid behavior on the part of Homer ultimately leads to a greater understanding between the family members. In this case, it’s little Lisa who’s the injured party, not Marge.

7. The Last of the Red Hot Mamas: Yes, it’s Homer up to his old, stupid tricks again, sending Marge looking for a new social group to assuage her frustration with her husband. Unfortunately her choice of a girls’ get together group turns out to be less than fortuitous.

8. The Italian Bob: Everyone’s favorite homicidal maniac is back, albeit this time in Italy, with a political career and a happy family.

9. Simpsons Christmas Stories: This episode plays kind of like a wintry version of Treehouse of Horror, with traditional Christmas tales getting the Simpsons’ somewhat irreverent but sweet treatment.

10. Homer’s Paternity Coot: In one of the more peculiarly convoluted Simpsons episodes of the season, a series of cascading (and seemingly unrelated) dominoes delivers a curious twist to Homer’s parentage.

11. We’re On the Road to D’Ohwhere: Bart gets in trouble (big surprise) and is renditioned to a behavior modification camp, though getting there turns out to be a bit of a hassle for Homer. The girls stay home and have an unusual garage sale.

12. My Fair Laddy: In this clever riff on My Fair Lady, Lisa (in Henry Higgins mode) attempts to perform an extreme makeover on Groundskeeper Willie.

13. The Seemingly Neverending Story: This is another of this season’s better episodes, a charming set of “nesting tales” (so to speak) that occur as Lisa attempts to take Homer’s mind off the fact that they’re all trapped in a cave.

14. Bart Has Two Mommies: Marge ends up becoming a surrogate mother to the Flanders kids, disastrously leaving Homer in charge of the Simpsons kids.

15. Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife: Ricky Gervais wrote this very funny episode, which finds the Simpsons participating in a Wife Swap type television show.

16. Million-Dollar Abie: Grandpa Simpson is front and center in this episode, proving that Homer’s penchant for disastrous decisions and odd career choices may have a genetic component.

17. Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore: Another nicely developed episode finds Patty and Selma as kidnappers, with none other than MacGyver’s Richard Dean Anderson the victim. As in many Simpsons episodes, there’s a parallel plot concerning the nuclear plant getting outsourced to India.

18. The Wettest Stories Ever Told: Another Treehouse of Horror-esque trilogy of tales, this episode groups its stories around the common theme of water. An interesting concept that doesn’t really pay the dividends it might have.

19. Girls Just Want to Have Sums: A little social commentary has never scared away The Simpsons’ writers, and here we get a nice critique of gender based education, when Springfield Elementary starts teaching math separately to boys and girls.

20. Regarding Margie: Marge has a cleaning accident and has a strange case of amnesia which only seems to really only involve her not being able to remember Homer. Patty and Selma are of course overjoyed.

21. The Monkey Suit: Inherit the Wind is about due on Blu-ray. Or you could just watch this clever episode instead.

22. Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play: Those who can’t, teach, evidently, which may be why Marge and Homer become marriage counselors in this season wrapper.

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This release is very much in line with The Simpsons: The Sixteenth Season, with the strongest element probably being the incredibly richly saturated palette, something that is perhaps the biggest immediate uptick in quality from standard definition. Line detail is still a bit haphazard at times, and there are even a couple of incidents of stair stepping on display here. The image is nevertheless basically very stable, and there are no problems with banding, macroblocking or other issues.

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season once again offers DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio for all episodes, though the series continues to more regularly exploit the front channels for most dialogue. The always inventive score and goofy sound effects regularly dot the surrounds, adding at least a bit of immersion to most episodes. There's not a ton of low end in this season, but fidelity is excellent and there are no issues of any kind to report.

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentaries are once again offered on each and every episode. Spot checking several of these revealed another great aggregation of cast and crew delivering some fun and funny commentaries.


• Deleted Scenes are available on almost all episodes.

Disc One:

• Buongiorno, Simpsons Lovers (1080p; 3:47) offers Matt Groening with an overview of the seventeenth season.


• Sketch Gallery I (1080p; 3:21) features original concept art morphing into final animation versions.


• Animation Showcase: The Girl Who Slept Too Little includes:

  Storyboards (1080p; 6:29)

  Animatics (1080p; 6:29)

• The Great Ones (1080p; 22:02) presents a collection of snippets from classic episodes.


• "Krusty Gets Busted" Bonus Episode from Season 1 (1080p; 23:19)

Disc Two:

• Sketch Gallery II (1080p; 3:20)


• Special Language Feature: Homer Simpson, This is Your Wife (1080p; 21:16) offers Italian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and German language versions.


• "Cape Feare" Bonus Episode from Season 5 (1080p; 22:50)

Disc Three:

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary (1080p; 11:41)


• Live! It's The Simpsons (1080p; 34:55) is a fun table read for "The Italian Bob." This is basically an audio only supplement that features the script on screen as the read takes place.


• Let There Be Music (1080p; 5:07) is a really interesting glimpse at some scoring sessions with composer Alf Clausen.


• "The Man Who Grew Too Much" Bonus Episode from Season 25 (1080p; 21:45)

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Simpsons: The Seventeenth Season is arguably an incremental step downward for this incredibly long running series. Part of that is probably due to nothing less than attrition—would any other comedy series be able to last this long and still deliver as much humor as The Simpsons has? There are still delights galore to be sampled throughout the season, including a bunch of great guest star turns and that typically sweet but punchy insouciance that has become the series' trademark. Technical merits are generally good to excellent, and the supplementary package is fantastic. Recommended.