Season Six: A Tentative Rebound

Introduction

Following season five’s irritating descent into weak parody and pop culture gags, the sixth year of “The Simpsons” was accompanied by a pledge from creator Matt Groening to get back to its domestic core. So far, so good – but season six coincided with the Fox network’s decision to up the show’s episode order to 25 per annum. With “The Simpsons” now airing new material for half the year, the already-taxed writing staff seemed hard-pushed to fulfill the quota. As such, executive producer David Mirkin endorsed a bloating in the number of contributors, making season six the year of ‘a new writer every week’. Although the season is vastly superior to its predecessor, the adage about ‘too many cooks’ rapidly comes to mind when viewing it, with almost every high-quality episode paired with either an outright dud or obvious mediocrities from people who didn’t deserve to be contributing to the series in the first place.

Episode List
(Highlights in bold, lowlights in italics)

1) Bart of Darkness; 2) Lisa’s Rival; 3) Another Simpsons Clip Show; 4) Itchy & Scratchy Land; 5) Sideshow Bob Roberts; 6) Treehouse of Horror V; 7) Bart’s Girlfriend; 8) Lisa On Ice; 9) Homer: Bad Man; 10) Grampa Vs Sexual Inadequacy; 11) Fear of Flying; 12) Homer The Great; 13) And Maggie Makes Three; 14) Bart’s Comet; 15) Homie The Clown; 16) Bart Vs Australia; 17) Homer Vs Patty and Selma; 18) A Star Is Burns; 19) Lisa’s Wedding: 20) Two Dozen and One Greyhounds; 21) The PTA Disbands!; 22) ‘Round Springfield; 23) The Springfield Connection; 24) Lemon of Troy; 25) Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)

Brief Discussion

As critical as I am about sub-par writing and the ‘quantity over quality’ ethos in season six, there are two huge things that alleviate the pain. First is the previously mentioned domestic grounding, with the return of stories that try to expand and develop the characters rather than bolting a self-consciously wacky story onto them. Whether it’s Lisa dealing with a rival (“Lisa’s Rival”) or Homer desperately trying to keep Marge in the dark about money troubles (“Homer Vs Patty and Selma”), there are plenty of honest and genuine attempts at character exploration that make even the worst written pieces salvageable. Secondly, the characters themselves are portrayed with more depth. After season five’s endless onslaught of obnoxious jerk Homer, it’s refreshing to see him behaving like an actual person, valuing his family no matter what harebrained scheme he’s pursuing. The episode focuses are also divided up more evenly, with each family member getting a turn in the spotlight. This acts to diffuse the weaker moments, with the odd tedious Marge show (“The Springfield Connection”) or Homer idiocy-fest made more tolerable knowing that the next episode will deal with something completely different.

Humour-wise, the season is fairly successful, with a reasonable number of funny moments per episode and the odd bit of blunt but hilarious satire (such as the Republican critique “Sideshow Bob Roberts”). Although a lot of episodes have trouble maintaining a balance between the demands of the plot and the importance of humour, one of the two factors is usually strong enough to see you through to the end. Despite its clear inferiority to seasons two, three and four in terms of fully-realized writing, season six strides well ahead of years one and five in its attempts to balance realism and laughs. At this point “The Simpsons” was definitely not as good as it had been, but was still better than everything else on television – and for now, that’s completely acceptable.

Detailed Discussion

Like most seasons of “The Simpsons”, the first few episodes of the sixth year are actually holdovers from its predecessor. Opener “Bart of Darkness” is an archetypal season five hack-job, with two plots sloppily glued together and a lazy movie parody popping up – in this case, the Simpsons get a swimming pool, where Bart breaks his leg and becomes a hermit of sorts, only to grow suspicious that next-door neighbour Ned Flanders has murdered his wife a la “Rear Window”. There are a few great jokes (such as the Springfield Police Department’s automated 911 service: “If you are being murdered, please hold”), but the framework is ridiculously convoluted and jerks around as awkwardly as Bart in his cast. I feel similarly about “Another Simpsons Clip Show”, which features a few good jabs at its premise but fails to do anything creative with its framework.

If you’re ever interested at separating casual fans of “The Simpsons” from the ‘wow, you really need to get a social life’ brigade, watch their faces as the credits roll and look for pained spasms as the name ‘Mike Scully’ appears. For those not in the know, Scully is the man chiefly responsible for the series’ collapse post-season eight, and unfortunately gets his first three written episodes aired here. Although they’re nowhere near as bad as the tripe he’d oversee later on, all of his irritating trademarks are present and correct. “Lisa’s Rival” alone boasts a tasteless sex joke and a tasteless gay joke within its opening five minutes, with a main plot that makes the usually likeable Lisa out to be a shrill, petulant whiner. He’s kinder to her in “Lisa On Ice”, but makes up for that by portraying Homer at the character’s most irritating and shallow, before signing off with the pointlessly zany “Two Dozen and One Greyhounds”, which has a good musical number surrounded by fake sentimentality and misfired gags. These episodes don’t suck outright, but as far as red flags go, they’re pretty alarming.

With the Scully unpleasantness dealt with, let’s go on to the great episodes. “Homer: Badman” is a sharp take on sensational newscasts, with an unfortunate mix-up seeing the title character falsely accused of sexual harassment and fighting to clear his name. It’s worthwhile simply for his hilarious fantasy about living under the sea, and the media slams are well aimed and executed. “Lemon of Troy” has lower goals, but remains an excellent adventure as a lesson on civic pride leads Bart to seek vengeance on neighboring town Shelbyville. There are some excellently placed contrasts between it and Springfield, with loving meta-references that really reward the long-time fan.

Season finale “Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)” is another fantastic edition, setting up an intriguing cliffhanger with a rapidly-moving plot, lots of laughs and a real sense of mystery and suspense. Mr. Burns is as his evil best as he plots to block out the sun, and an engaging ‘whodunit?’ scenario is established (to be resolved at the start of season seven). However, the best episode laurels definitely go to “Lisa’s Wedding”, a beautifully assembled flash-forward that shows a college-age Lisa falling in love and getting engaged. The humour is funny, warm and clever (every time the teenage Maggie tries to speak she’s stopped, maintaining her permanent silence), and like the all-time season two classic “Lisa’s Substitute”, the episode cuts right to the core of who The Simpsons are. The interaction between Lisa and Homer towards the end is wonderfully written, bringing the best sides of both characters forward and reminding the audience that the series could be deep as well as funny.

Not every episode can be “Lisa’s Wedding”, but plenty of others have their hearts in the right places. “Bart’s Girlfriend” has a believable story featuring an understated guest voice from Meryl Streep as preacher’s daughter Jessica Lovejoy, while “Grampa Vs Sexual Inadequacy” overdoses on plot threads but has a compelling look at the nature of Homer’s relationship with his father. The flashback “And Maggie Makes Three” is also cute, with an absolutely corny yet heartwarming ending as we learn why the youngest Simpson is absent from the family’s photo album. “Fear of Flying” is probably the worst character-based episode thanks to a painfully slow story, but I can admire its attempts at revealing more about Marge’s childhood and its impact on her personality.

Most of the rest of season settles for being good clean fun. I wouldn’t suggest taking the likes of “Bart’s Comet”, “Homie The Clown” or “Bart Vs Australia” seriously, but they’re all perfectly acceptable bits of brainless fluff, with lots of good jokes ranging from zinging one-liners through to knowing references, and at least some attempts at realistic grounding. However, “A Star Is Burns” is a pure stinker, serving as little more than a crossover for the now-defunct cartoon “The Critic” that effectively prostituted the entire series for a quick buck. Matt Groening was so angry about the decision he had his name removed from the episode’s credits, and I completely understand why. Yet my biggest personal grievance is with “The PTA Disbands!”, which wastes some slicing satire on a lazy plot and appalling characterization of Lisa as a grade-obsessed loon.

Of all the episodes here, “’Round Springfield” is the one that best sums up my feelings about the year. The plot deals with Lisa experiencing the death of one of her heroes, and could have been one of the most powerful, moving and philosophical editions of the series. However, it chooses to waste its time on disconnected sight gags, with only Yeardley Smith’s emotive voice acting giving the story the effort it deserved. Such is season six as a whole – an appreciable set of shows that could have been amazing with better writing, but ended up settling for swinging between brilliance and bilge.

DVD Extras

“The Simpsons” continues its excellent run of box set additions, with commentaries for every episode, amusing outtakes and deleted scenes, and plenty of impressive explorations of the writing and animation processes. I am impressed by the level of thought being put into these releases, and it’s great to know that the high quality of extras is maintained in the later sets.

Conclusions

With 25 episodes of varying quality, season six provides the viewer with a respectable amount of entertainment for their cash. I certainly don’t love the year as much as the early classics, but the appreciable steps made to return to the roots of the series are very respectable and work more often than not, with some truly excellent showings. Coupled with the quality of the extras, this box set is easily recommendable, and will provide a fun time as long as you can handle the occasional bump in the road.

***
"The Simpsons" on DVD:
Season One; Season Two; Season Three; Season Four; Season Five; Season Six; Season Seven; Season Eight; Season Nine; Season Ten