Interestingly enough, this particular season's release seems to pay some tribute to this annual Halloween episode. The release comes with two bonus episodes, both the Fifth and Sixth "Treehouse of Horror." Five contains "The Shinning," "Time and Punishment," and "Nightmare Cafeteria," a personal favorite, while Six has "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores," "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace," and "Homer3," where Homer finds himself rendered in 3D when trying to hide from Patty and Selma. This release also has a special feature recapping each of the intros of the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes and another that puts together the best scenes from the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes over the years. The last "Treehouse of Horror"-related special feature puts together all of the scenes containing the aliens Kang and Kodos.
This season contains a lot of classic episodes. Included in it is "Bart vs Lids vs. the Third Grade." Here, Bart is sent back a grade and Lisa is skipped ahead. As a result, the siblings find themselves in the same class. Where Lisa was bored in second grade, she finds the new curriculum a challenge and now Bart is the head of the class since he has been through all of it before. Their sibling rivalry comes to a boil when a field trip leaves them both stranded in Capital City.
Kelsey Grammer returns this season as Sideshow Bob when a murder attempt on Homer's life gives Chief Wiggum the idea to recruit the villain in order to get in the mind of the murderer. Needless to say, the Simpsons aren't too thrilled with the idea. In another episode, Homer comes up with a crazy scheme to become the top-dog at the plant. When he realizes that Mr. Burns has put a canary at the top of the organizational chart so that all liability falls to it, Homer puts himself in as the patsy once the bird dies. In full control, Homer makes drastic changes to the plant, but he also finds that things aren't so grand at the top.
The Simpsons: Season 14 contains the show's 300th episode. In it, Bart gets emancipated and moves into a loft downtown. As it turns out, he lives just below famed skateboarder Tony Hawk and while the X-Games athlete makes a big impression on Bart, he also helps Homer win back Bart's love in yet another crazy plan that involves Homer attempting to out-skateboard Hawk. This episode also has a brief guest appearance by the band Blink 182.
If you want to talk about guest appearances though, this season has one of the most packed episodes in the series. The episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" has Homer and a few of the other Springfieldians attending Rock Camp. This episodes packs in Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Lenny Kravitz, Elvis Costello, Brian Setzer and Tom Petty.
Other guest stars this season include Steve Buscemi, Andy Serkis (as a Gollum-like character), Weird Al Yankovic, Eric Idle, James L. Brooks, Adam West, Burt Ward, and Marisa Tomei.
As for non "Treehouse of Horror" special features, The Simpsons: Season 14 contains featurettes and sketch galleries of both the 300th episode and "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation." While the release is on Blu-ray, the picture quality isn't really up to the high-definition standards most people would expect. It is still a standard-definition cartoon being played and while the quality isn't as top-notch as the more recent seasons to come out, a bigger disc means fewer discs and there are a ton of special features to be enjoyed. Even though the image quality isn't what it could be, I would probably still recommend the BD version over the standard DVD release of Season 14.
