I'm halfway through the DVD commentaries on season 5, two more disks to go.
I say that the commentaries jumped the shark at the start of season 4. seasons one through three were very interesting, but season 4 had too many people in the room, and was approaching what I'm hearing on season 5, which is a lot of:
"I love this gag where Homer does blah blah" "See now Marge is going downstairs, see now Maggie is really happy to see her" "and that version of Smithers will be available in a Walmart near you this fall."
basically a lot of explaining the jokes. Which is an insult. Also a lot of LITERAL commentary, telling us what the characters are doing, eg walking into rooms or opening fridges. Oh and also the cast appears REALLY dumb on the commentaries, like they don't, after all these years, know the process of how the show is made.
One thing I haven't grasped or heard on the DVD commentary for season 5, were they still sending the show out to Korea to be animated? Because the commentary makes it sound like the directors and writers are doing a lot of animating themselves.
But I will say about Season 5, at least it doesn't have Julie Kavner saying "my name is Julie Kavner and I LOVE this show." (season 4)
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