I wonder if Homer becoming a jerk has to do with the series focusing less and less on the children being children
In the early seasons the malicious impulses were with Bart
It's because the series become completely divorced from its origins as a sendup of shmaltzy sitcoms in TV up until then. By the 2000s we had plenty of shows doing the edgy subversive sitcom thing (to the point where it wasn't even edgy) and the Simpsons reacted to it by just trying to be edgy as well. But it's the Simpsons so it's like your dad trying to be cutting. On top that, Homer and Marge being boomers trying to raise a family in post-Cold War America isn't terribly relevant in 2010, so characters became increasingly devolved into their most basic comedy traits. I'll be touching on this in future reviews, but here see that start to creep in.
The Simpsons outlasted their niche, tried to evolve, in doing so, have become like the thing they were initially created to mock.
My personal thought is if they’d just let the characters age through, it could have become something different, but just as good. Or if nothing else, they could’ve ended near the turn of the millennia and gone out on top, but American entertainment and pop culture isn’t built to handle that sort of graceful bow.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Treehouse of Horror VIII
Original Air Date: October 26, 1997
So it's 1997, that means the American TV rating system went into effect, and the Simpsons couldn't resist poking fun. It's my least favorite of these, because it definitely feels like a later-Simpsons joke with the overly smug tone and way too direct shots at the censors. On the other hand the big cartoony cutlass was the censors' idea and makes the whole thing less scary so maybe they deserve it. The rating going up until 666 is a very good joke and kinda creepy in its subtlety.
The HΩmega Man: I forgot how many good jokes this one had! Marge's comment about the French being unpredictable is really funny, the 6-megaton resistance (no more, no less) is another standout, and of course Comic Book Guy wasting his life. Speaking of which, we will suppress our inner Comic Book Guy and ignore how absolutely not safe ground zero would be after an atomic bomb hit, nor how fewer skeletons and pristine locations there would be standing. It's a good setup for a short, and we don't got time for "realism", and Homer walking through a town littered with realistic skeletons in their last moments is pretty scary imagery. I think Homer in the theater watching a comedy amidst all the skeletons is an underrated bit of imagery.
I am probably overthinking things here, but the episode feels a bit like Homer having a breakdown after losing everyone and trying to bury that under pure hedonism. The scene with him learning to laugh again is really disturbing as he basically wills himself to think there's a silver lining to this situation. But this is season 9, and Jerkass Homer is already in the process of removing Homer from the show. This is likely intended as Homer just being a simpleton that loves to eat and watch TV, although it is a fun alternate reading. I'd prefer that over the mutants, yet we do have a movie to parody.
The mutants feel a bit underutilized here. I enjoy Sideshow Mel's silence line, and their rad ghoul mobile (is that a Rat Fink reference?), but you have Mr. Burns in a Halloween episode and he doesn't say anything funny? I do appreciate the twist, with the mutants being quick to set asides differences and coexist, only for the Simpsons to just blow them away with shotguns. Although what the hell is with Bart's face in the first few frames Homer sees them in the house? I know they're hiding guns behind their backs, but Bart has this half-lidded look that is very strange when coupled with a grin. It means absolutely nothing, but I noticed it one year and I cannot stop seeing it every year, so I pass my curse on to you.
Ignoring that, the art is great! As I said earlier, the blasted landscape of Springfield gives that perfect aesthetic I crave in a Halloween episode, and opting for skeletons over... dust or nothing is a bit of artistic license that really works out. So yeah, good episode even if I feel some parts don't live up to their potential.
Fly vs. Fly: This episode is a lot moodier than I recall, and that's likely thanks to the detail on Fly Bart. It's a very straight-forward plot, with Bart getting swapped with a fly and needing to turn back, but we get some great details and jokes throughout. I love Frink's garage sale with the impossible object for sale, a joke that plays well to animation's strengths. Homer goofing around with the teleporter wears a bit thin, although the acting when he drinks the cat ear medicine is great. Granted, it is a bit of a stretch to get there (cat medicine in a pull tab can?).
Bart and the spider is my favorite scene in the episode. The writers apparently have a rule that pets cannot be too human, and this broke that rule, which is a good example of knowing when to break your own rules for a good joke. The spider itself is more detailed than I recall, to the point where it may upset arachnophobes, but they manage to quickly pull back and make it look silly as it shakes its many fists at Bart.
I don't have much else to say here, as the short is brisk and well-paced. The joke with Homer going after Bart with an axe go on a bit too long, although a fine way to close it. We're two for two!
Easy-Bake Coven: So this is only the second or so episode to feature the cast in a different setting (King Homer being the first). It works here despite my own distaste for it, as it's just taking the cast and sending them back X years in the past. I love little jokes like Krabappl's scarlet A or Quimby seemingly being mayor and judge. I noticed a joke I had missed for years, where they tell Marge she will get due process, and the process is shoving her off a cliff.
And witch Marge gets a wonderful intro. I especially love her hair exploding into a flurry of bats (they're in my hair!) and Julie Kavner has been waiting for an episode to put her raspy voice to use.
...which is why the rest of the episode is kinda disappointing. Marge flies back to her sisters, dejected about being outed as a witch, and then they go to eat children, don't eat the children, and the episode is basically over. There's no more rad scenes of Marge getting revenge on the townsfolk, as I think it was a good idea to not make it about her being able to see Derwood and the kids again. The whole short being about the origins of the first caramel cod Halloween is actually a pretty creative spin, I just really wanted more of Marge being a cool witch. The joke between Maude and Flanders about acts of carnality was great though.
Also, I LOVE Spryngfielde as this Salem-esque oceanside town, completely covered by clouds so even during the day it's grey and foreboding. As whole, I do like the episode, and it's one of the shorts I first think of when I hear about the Treehouse of Horror. I mean, Witch Marge is iconic, and the whole episode is drenched in Halloween imagery. Like the mutants before, it may not go all the way with the conceit, but I appreciate what they did here nonetheless. It's a definitely a treat.
Fun Facts: Shockingly, the networks censors had a problem with the opening. Although their main issue was a dagger being used, and changing it to a cutlass was enough. Yeah, the 90s were a bit odd.
Speaking of censors, Homer was going to dance naked on the altar, but they were forced to reposition him even though he was still naked. Okay...
This is the last episode of the Simpsons (as a whole, not TOH) Brad Bird worked on, which was part of a greater exodus of the original writing staff throughout seasons 8 and 9. This will have absolutely no effect on future episodes.
This is Comic Book Guy's first appearance in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
The spider scene in Fly vs. Fly was going to be the original ending (and was going to be different from what we got), but some rewrites occurred.
Rating: I think this episode more than any gets the score on the overall consistency of the shorts. There's no one that stands above the rest in quality, and yet there's no stinkers here to bring anything down. They all offer their own strengths, existential and more close-to-home horror with nuclear war, more primal fear with nasty bugs, and finally just classic Halloween spookiness. And the art for all three are great, so while this episode may not reach the lofty heights of the earlier episodes, it's a great short when you want to get in the Halloween spirit, which I really need since we lost the key to the room where we store the decorations.
I watched the Turkey episdoe of the Thanksgiving of Horror, and honestly that was pretty good. Milhouse just burning down the village because WITCHCRAFT, and the Native Americans slow walking backwards rather than get involved in this clusterfuck was good. Also creepy points for Wiggum just chain-snorting Snuff to get enough oompf to go turkey hunting. (The scarecrow gag was also great - those things exist for a reason!)
The bomb in the episode is a neutron bomb, with its effects being as they were popularly imagined in the 70s to 90s - Brezhnev loved to talk about how the capitalists were building bombs which killed people but left buildings and property intact
Treehouse of Horror IX
Original Air Date: October 25, 1998
I like the horror-themed spin on the Simpsons intro, and I'm surprised it took this long for them to run this. Definitely won't be the last!
Hell Toupee: This is a cool idea, and Homer is the perfect choice to receive a killer hair implant. The humor in this one is just consistently solid, and I particularly Moe's scenes and Wiggum continuing to drink after the reveal of Apu's body. Oh, and the whole scene with Doctor Nick, which is both funny and pretty skin-crawling. I think this might be his first appearance on the specials. Any ways, it's nothing that really elevates to catchy one-liners you repeat over and over, however the consistency is nice.
Homer switching into Snake is pretty creepy, especially the scene where he ends the line with "Little dude." I always wondered if it would be more effective if they stuck with Dan Castellaneta just continuing to perform Homer's voice with Snake's mannerisms when he takes over, as opposed to just switching to Hank Azaria. I mean, his hair already switches styles to indicate who is in control, so it wouldn't be all that confusing. On the other hand, Azaria puts a lot of menace into Snake this short, and I don't know if the same would be possible with Homer.
Also, hey, Homer cares about his son! That's nice to see. I don't thing the toupee itself coming to life did anything for me. It's not really funny and not especially scary. I don't hate it or anything; I just don't get much out of the scene. However, I do wish instead of the "everyone laughing" ending, something that feels like they couldn't figure out a way to wrap things up, I wish Bart would go sleep and then Maggie would jump out with Snake's hair and give one-liner to close out the episode on Bart screaming. I dunno, maybe I just want that Terror at 5 1/2 Feet energy again. Still, I feel this is the strongest episode in the bunch.
The Terror of Tiny Toon: There's something about this short that makes it so forgettable to me. Like, I just watched this last night and had to sit and think of what the middle short was until I gave up and look it up. I think part of it is just the look of the short. In Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, the opening feels like a traditional cartoon, where Bart and Lisa inside the TV just feels like Simpsons with more violence...which is how a lot of TOH feels anyways. I get it, there is no special animation or design treatment for Itchy & Scratchy that sets it apart from the rest of the show. Still bothers me for some reason.
It's a good concept for a short. I particularly enjoy Scratchy's sad voice as Bart and Lisa laugh at his pain. Also that Itchy is sympathetic to this to the point where he teams up with Scratchy to teach them a lesson. His takes no pleasure in killing Scratchy, the laughter is to make the sadness. Itchy giving an apology to Scratchy after hacking off his arms by mistakes to a nonchalant "it happens" is a high point for me. While discussing the Itchy and Scratchy gang, I found the Poochy bit kinda pointless? I could be missing a reference here, but otherwise it's just running him over with a car with very tame harm to Poochy himself. It just feels like I'm personally not getting something here.
Yeah, I don't have much more to say here. It's a decent short, I just feel it doesn't live up to the potential of having to endear the violent world of Itchy and Scratchy. I blame there being a touch too much buildup before getting to the meat of it. Hobo Homer wasn't funny enough to get a follow-up joke. However, the ending with Scratchy I kinda like as a juvenile, faux-horror ending. He really sells that scream.
Starship Poopers: This short is like Terror of Tiny Toon, except it just abandons the concept halfway through to get a celebrity guest in. Maggie crawling up the walls and hissing at Bart and Lisa is incredibly scary; why wasn't this the entire premise of the episode? Why wasn't her becoming increasingly alien and scary as she runs loose through the house, and instead we get...Jerry Springer.
Okay, so the episode has some bits. Doctor Hibbert's fire line is great, and while I'm not a fan of the Marge pregnancy plot thread, "what are you implying" is a wonderfully delivered line.
Guest stars on the Simpsons work when they fit with the episode, almost always as an original character as opposed to themselves. There are exceptions to this, especially when it's poking fun at the celebrity, but it usually feels like a Fox mandate to have something to advertise when the celebrity is just themselves. I'm not delusional, all guest cameos are utilized to get eyeballs on your channel, it's just that you can at least try to make it feel organic. And here it's just Bart abruptly interrupting the episode to tell everyone we have to see the famous person now. It's a very hollow gesture that doesn't feel like Bart is a fan of Jerry Springer, like when Homer was gushing about Adam West to his kids in Mr. Plow, as a Boomer who would be growing up watching Batman. It's not great, and unfortunately it gets worse later down the road. At least here the setup of feuding families makes sense to go to Springer. It's just a sudden leap. And the whole is fairly boring. The only high point being the blunt "And now he's dead." which is terrific delivery and a good joke. It works independent of who died, and is a funny way to note that someone died off-screen. Too bad that had to end that with the smug, hacky "Oh don't kill our politicians" line, which is the kind of lame politicians suck you'd see in some legacy newspaper comic. "And don't forget Ken Starr!" This is the same show that did Citizen Kang like two years ago?
I think this episode feels worse to me because of what it could have been, and yeah I don't like it very much.
Fun Facts: Robert Englund did voice Freddy in the intro.
Phil Hartman was planned to be the host America's Deadliest Executions (as Troy McClure) , but with his recent passing it felt in bad taste. That's why Ed McMahon has lines similar to McClure's signature catchphrase. Come to think of it, Ed McMahon is now also dead. These old episodes can be a real downer.
Rating: Had to keep this one a bit shorter than normal, so sorry if it reads even worse than normal. This episode always signals to me when the series begins a tragic dip in quality, that the fun is over and all that's left is mediocrity and...worse. And this episode kinda encapsulates that. It starts off with a strong start, has middle that doesn't quite live up to the promising potential, and closes it out with an episode that seems to give up halfway through. It's still very watchable and entertaining, and my only complaint is that it fails to reach the highs of prior seasons, and the shorts here had that kind of potential.
Treehouse of Horror X
Original Air Date: October 31, 1999
We hit the big ten! The first of a few milestones. Not really a fan of this one, as the joke is that they're hosts at an award show where the hosts are usually making unfunny jokes. Except they...make unfunny jokes? I guess the jokes is that the audience isn't amused? Or that the bad jokes are alien themed? Well, one is. But hey, I like the Simpsons at the couch in their Halloween getups from past seasons.
I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did: I like that this episode makes an effort to keep the horror up. It's got a nice atmosphere to it, with the more horror-oriented scenes being set in nice, dimly light areas or at night with a big full moon overhead.
This kinda dies in the middle segment, where it's all about the Simpsons, mainly Homer, doing a very shabby job of it and yet getting away with nonetheless. The jokes aren't bad, and also aren't exactly stellar either. They're mostly the same joke of We Didn't Kill Flanders, and I think it's a credit to the writers that this portion goes back without wearing out its welcome. I think the issue with Simpsons as it ages is that you don't get a lot of complex jokes that kinda build on each other. It feels increasingly like a lot of one-liners, because hey people love quoting those classic Simpsons lines, right? So it's this rapid-fire comedy that just prays something sticks and for now they largely do, but not for long.
The Simpsons huddled in the living room paranoid sets up the spooky end of the short, and yeah it's good. The I KNOW WHAT YOU DID scrawled every after the thunderclap is effective, only feeling a bit undermined by the Feelin' Fine scene in the Shinning, which I think illustrates my point about how these latter seasons lack a lot of the depth that classic scenes went for when constructing these scenes. Moe's phone call runs for too long, and the scrawling on the walls just come right after without any connective tissue. Feelin' Fine sets up a joke (his typewriter says he's feeling fine when you expect mad ranting like in the Shining) and then goes for further subversion by taking that joke and twisting it for horror (Homer's mad ranting was written on the wall). I Know What You Did has subverts your expectations (the call is just Moe being a creep instead of the killer, but he isn't tied to the story like Homer's typewriter) and then it just... does a scary thing. I know there's a film to parody, but I've said before that it shouldn't damage the actual writing and it should feel organic.
Enough dissection, let's move on!
The rest of the episode goes right along, I still do like the scary imagery and mood here and the Spooky Roller Disco is my favorite gag here. I love the fact the lowkey disco theme accompanying the image. Flanders being the...well he didn't kill anyone so the villain(?) doesn't do much, and since we already have a stellar short with Flanders as the villain you have big shoes to fill here. Werewolf Flanders feels like they were just digging for a monster they haven't really used yet, and werewolves are the undead? I don't think it's a point to get pedantically nerdy about; it's just weird since werewolves being alive is not some obscure bit of trivia. The joke about Homer being too much for Flanders to eat is a cute way to close it out. This is a serviceable episode that checks most of my box, and the biggest point against it is the creeping feeling they're running out of ideas. Also I feel they should have just stuck to the serial killer plotline of the original instead of wasting werewolves.
Desperately Xeeking Xena: Hey, this episode starts on Halloween, and then promptly chucks it to do the scariest thing of all: a...superhero parody? Yes, I am taking off points because it chucks the whole theme of the episode out the window, although I will note that up until this point the Simpsons only have one episode a season where the rules for the universe are a lot more flexible. So yeah, have a short to stretch those writing muscles. For now.
Really though, it's more a send-up of geek culture? Like, Lisa and Bart are have the show outright stolen from them by Lucy Lawless and Comic Book Guy. Yes, this is a guest spot where the celebrity is just the celebrity, but it is a rare example of this done right. It's about an obsessive nerd, and Lucy was pretty popular in those circles back then. A villain who is so absorbed with collectibles that they move up to capturing actors and creators of nerdy properties is a fine premise. It helps that Lucy is really into the whole episode, kicking it off with the "Wizard Did It" line, and can I say how quaint it is to think that she would only get an audience of like 20 people tops? I will never stop hoping someone gets fired for their blunders.
Comic Book Guy is great here too, such as how he is less upset about Lucy tricking him and more about it being hacky, or making sure his death has appropriate nerd-cred. It's really weird how they have Bart and Lisa as heroes, and they really don't do much but get captured and yield the floor to the true stars. None of the Bart and Lisa scenes are particularly interesting, which is really saying something when they have superpowers. Bart has a few creative stretches, but it's nothing compared to Comic Book Guy having a breakdown over ruining his toy's value by opening the box.
And the ending with Lucy reminding them she's not Xena, but Lucy Lawlass as she flies away is a fantastic callback to earlier and a good joke in general. Wow a short with almost no Halloween theme and a celebrity playing themselves, and it's pretty good? Hey, maybe these won't be so bad!
Life's a Glitch, Then You Die: Do we have like, zoomers on this forum? Do I need to explain Y2K? Okay, real quick: we stored years as two digits instead of four in computers and that became a problem when the year changed all four digits instead of just one or two. If you want more information, go to your local libary.
Eh, this episode. I like the Rat joke with the band, and everything going to hell is set up in a fairly spooky fashion. Shout out to the Dick Clark robot. Where it starts to go downhill is when it stops being vaguely possible things that Y2K could harm and just goes into everything goes berserk. And not only do things that would not logically need a date to function, like a blender, but even things that aren't electronic like milk. And they all start rebelling against humans? It just feels lazy as it devolves into standard killer robot shtick. Even the absurdity of the milk going crazy doesn't really do anything for me. It's not especially funny and obviously not threatening. I do like some some later bits like Krusty's pacemacker going haywire and killing him...or incapacitating him. Even though a pacemaker would be unaffected by the year, it's still a bit more than just "waffle iron tries to kill people" since it's less about the device magically gaining intelligence and more about the horror of how much we rely on electronics, and how easily we can lose our current way of life.
Then it all goes straight to hell with the rocket stuff.
The rocket to escape the doomed Earth is fine, barring how poorly some of celebrity asskissing aged (Mel Gibson, eh?). Should have stuck to Springfieldians, hard as it may be to find ones that qualify. Homer and Bart having some tragic moment or boneheaded idea to save themselves on Earth would be a fine way to end it. Maybe they go to the power plant and find the way to fix it, but Homer makes an error and the year on computers is now 0002 and things get even worse to close out the episode. A rocket to the sun where Homer just screams "AH, CELEBRITY THE WRITERS HATE." over and over because I guess the writers were worried we wouldn't recognize them. I mean it makes no sense on its face: we had these supposedly bad people on the planet for decades, and no saying they are so obnoxious the Earth wants to be rid of them for the remaining time on Earth doesn't work a la the end jokes with Homer and Bart choosing oblivion over five more minutes in there, because on Earth most people didn't have to sit with them on a vehicle all at once. Yeah, I got real granular there, but this segment sucks and the only pro is that I do enjoy Homer and Bart's heads swelling followed by an effective popping noise off-screen.
So yeah, a fine idea for an episode if you don't get too anal about how Near Year's obviously doesn't fit a Halloween special. Which I am NOT that anal, even if I did feel the need to bring it up, it's fine since it's still a good horror concept and I know they wanted to strike that Y2K iron while they had a shot. It just really drops off hard on the back half, so it culminates in a subpar short overall.
Fun Facts: This was Marcia Mitzman Gaven's first Treehouse of Horror voicing Maude, after Maggie Roswell left the show (briefly). May also be Maude's first appearance on a Treehouse of Horror? I'm not exactly keeping track.
Lucy Lawless said this was her favorite guest spot of any TV show.
Y2K did not end up killing us all.
Rating: This is pretty much like IX, with two solid episodes and one episode that starts off fine and then dives off a cliff. So I guess the same rating.
Bart's Nightmare, wherein the plot involved Bart recovering the pieces of his essay scattered around the dreamscape. Virtual Bart he was just visiting the science fair.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Bart's Nightmare, wherein the plot involved Bart recovering the pieces of his essay scattered around the dreamscape. Virtual Bart he was just visiting the science fair.
Ohhh sure, I had that game but I thought the whole thing was Virtual Bart.
Bart's Nightmare, wherein the plot involved Bart recovering the pieces of his essay scattered around the dreamscape. Virtual Bart he was just visiting the science fair.
Ohhh sure, I had that game but I thought the whole thing was Virtual Bart.
Yeah that game was basically impossible right?
Very tough, but not impossible. I managed to clear several levels. Mainly the hard part as it goes is it feels like it takes longer to find papers the more you do, and that dreamland overworld really sucks.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
I started to watch these based on the thread, but I had no idea it was Treehouse 1 that had one of my favorite gags of the entire series: Homer emptying an entire few gallons of lighter fluid into the barbecue and gets a nice even fire.
I started to watch these based on the thread, but I had no idea it was Treehouse 1 that had one of my favorite gags of the entire series: Homer emptying an entire few gallons of lighter fluid into the barbecue and gets a nice even fire.
Wait, this one it goes off into a Mushroom Cloud?
Do they do the gag multiple times?
Youre thinking of Lisa the Vegetarian
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Treehouse of Horror XI
Original Air Date: November 1, 2000
Our first episode of the new millennium! Off to a good start, as the Munsters opening is cute and the family translates to the characters pretty smoothly. The remixed theme is also fun, and the town practically murdering them all is a nice Simpsons-y twist that fits with the Halloween spirit.
G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad: This is a super-forgettable short for me; I keep thinking Reaper Madness, but nah it's this one. Overall, it's.....meeeeeh.
The start is okay, with Homer reacting comically to everything trying to kill him, with the rattlesnake exchange with Lenny being the highlight here. The problem is that by the time we're in the thrust of the short, it's almost over. Way too much time was wasted on the setup, along with the second broccoli joke eating into more time, as decent a gag it is. And the rest of the episode is just jerkass Homer reluctantly trying to do a good dead. Homer's character is that of an ignorant, impulsive doofus who tends to be oblivious to the consequences of his action, but has a good heart and does try to rectify his mistakes once aware of them. So having an episode where he just acts like it's a pain in the ass to do Marge's chores or aggressively tries to beat Boy Scouts to Agnes just comes off as...not Homer.
A better way to handle this episode is to trim the fat of the setup, and have Homer constantly failing because of his own incompetence. Then, while bemoaning his failures you have the baby stroller pay off. I do like the John Wayne joke for...whatever reason, but Satan doing a callback to the Nelson joke is lame and I dunno if it'd have been better to go with an ironic Heaven ending. Maybe Ned is up there and gives a quip about broccoli packing a punch or something as Homer now struggles to get out.
Yeah, it's kind of a nothing episode. NEXT!
Scary Tales Can Come True: Grimm's fairy tales are a fine subject, although really underutilized here. It's basically Hansel and Gretel with a few other fairy tale shoutouts that don't actually contribute to the plot at all. Let's dig in.
So we have three references: Goldilocks, Rapunzel, and I'm assuming the Billy Goats Gruff? The latter two are okay, with Moe the Troll being a cute joke and I do like the Bart oatmeal joke and Goldilocks's violent end. Violence in the specials kinda runs all over the place, from super gory to weirdly bloodless. The Rapunzel is just a Homer Is Fast joke you can see a mile away, and all three jokes are just non-sequiturs that don't add much to the episode. Then we get to the real climax of the short as Bart and Lisa are captured by the witch, and there's a few things to perk your interest. The load-bearing candy cane is cute, and I do like the animation for Homer when he's all transformed. And the one really standout joke for me is the "twenty minutes" joke which is dark but at least engaged me a bit.
The ending is also weird and kinda gross. Also to nitpick here, but Homer would have to have something to eat to keep producing eggs.
Night of the Dolphin: So this is supposedly be a parody of Day of the Dolphin, although having read a plot summary, I'd say this one is leaning way closer to the Birds. And honestly given that Day is about training Dolphins to speak English and assassinate political targets, I think the Birds is the better pick.
It doesn't even come close to that legacy, however. The Birds is scary because birds are everywhere, and having them mysteriously start attacking humans is pretty scary. Dolphins are a fine target as parody, and I do like the scene where they replicate the Birds by having dolphins everywhere even when it makes no sense (I mean less than dolphins on land). The thing is that these dolphins can speak and have clear motives, which I feel really takes away the horror and just makes it feel more generic. It really takes away from the horror and just leaves you with some random violence and fight sequences.
Credit where credit is due: I enjoyed Wiggum rattling off obvious dolphin-related injuries and blaming rowdy teens AND cancelling prom. Killing Kent Brockman with a ball felt a bit more creative than "dolphin bursts through chest" and made me think that this short would be better served as parodying the story, where most of the plot is set in a house taking shelter from the attacks. The Simpsons just huddled in their house as they watch the chaos on TV or over the phone a la Grandpa's death would amplify the horror over making it an anticlimax battle of Humans vs. Dolphins, with the aforementioned electronics giving it a more modern spin over the short story. Instead we get to see Jerkass Homer as he tries to blame Lisa for humanity's crimes. Awesome.
At least has a very dark ending? And there is one very line, and that is Quimby's "frightened and horny" quote which is in character for him and has perfect timing. Otherwise, not very impressed.
Oh and the Kang and Kodos cameo was very blah.
Fun? Facts: This is the first Treehouse of Horror to air after Halloween, as Fox had acquired the broadcast rights to MLB games and that meant the Treehouse of Horror episodes would be preempted for the World Series for many years to come.
Dolphins were chosen because the writers thought it'd be funny to have the friendliest animals attack humanity. Let's be perfectly clear: dolphins are assholes.
This is Rob Lazebnik's first writing credit, with his second being "Homer vs. Dignity" which honestly explains a lot.
Rating: Three underwhelming shorts that have the saving grace of still being horror-themed. I was tempted to go a notch lower on the score, but there were a few decent jokes to land it firmly in mediocrity.
+6
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PaperLuigi44My amazement is at maximum capacity.Registered Userregular
I remember liking the dolphin short, although season 12 was still my Simpsons apologist phase.
Treehouse of Horror XII
Original Air Date: November 6, 2001
We're now officially an even two decades in the past now! This might be my favorite intro of the mid-seasons. It's fitting that Mr. Burns has a very frugal, yet fussy idea of Halloween decorations that you might expect of an older person from his era (My grandparents thought a wreath was sufficient for Christmas), and everything that ensures afterwards is just very dark and sets the mood right. I love the Burns Mansion reinterpreted as a creepy haunted house, and with the ending you're not quite sure if Mr. Burns is just oblivious to the chaos that ensued or if that was part of his plan all along. The only downside is that the Simpsons running through the grates and splitting their bodies apart is a bloodless, cartoony violence that doesn't gel quite right with the burning corpses we see moments earlier.
If only the rest of this episode followed suit.
Hex and the City:Again, content warning for racism against the Romani. It's all in this short.
I went into this short thinking it was the middle-of-the-road entry and came out of it considering it the easy winner for worst. I guess we'll just jump into the elephant in the room: the whole episode revolved around Romani stereotypes like fortune telling and curses. There isn't much to really much it go into here, it just really sucks and can easily take you out the episode. Ethnictown is just a lazy joke and sucks, and actual fortune-telling is tarot jokes that were done bed in Lisa's Wedding years earlier. This really gets to the heart of why the Simpsons petered out after 10 seasons, as the amount of topics covered is just so vast that chances are a joke you're thinking of was already done and done better 4-5 seasons ago. The leprechaun might also be a bit much, speaking purely in angry, Irish-accented gibberish the entire episode...even though he speaks at the end of the episode. Maybe this isn't that bad, I can't say with any authority, but the episode does kinda put you in that mindset. I get it: the Romani people's history is deeply rooted in Europe and Americans just got most of that imported to us in the form of stereotypes and racism. Maybe expecting the Simpsons to know that in 2001 is expecting a bit much, but if you don't do the research then don't get upset when your episode ages badly over the next two decades. This episode still gets run on Disney+ , and since the Simpsons staff personally took Stark Raving Dad out of circulation, this still being in here says a lot about the Simpsons and race moving forward.
If I'm being too PC for you, then good news: the episode sucks perfectly fine even if you set aside the racism. This is Jerkass Homer's proud debut in Treehouse of Horror, as opposed to the bits and pieces of him sneaking in here and there. The whole episode is just predicated on Homer being too much of a stubborn asshole to apologize, even when seeing the curse affect his family in front of his own eyes. Even finding an alternative to fixing the problem is seen as some kind of draining chore to him as opposed to his family being horribly transformed. The episode even goes along with that, proceeding to the bar scene with the same transitory musical cue as a normal episode. As if this is a normal episode and Homer just needs help putting together a science project with Bart or something. What the fuck is this?
And the resolution is just a gross sex change, and a wedding with mythical creatures including...Yoda? This feels like the writing staff put a lid on things after the first draft. We also get another bit of racism from Marge as Homer announces the problem fixed despite everything still being screwed up. To cap it off he doesn't even give a shit that his son is literally dead. This fucking sucks.
No horror, little comedy (Moe in the pickled egg chart was slightly funny, as was the hobgoblin correction), racist garbage, and just derailed characterization. If you need to rake one sliver of positivity out of me, then Maggie as a ladybuy is cute. Otherwise, this short can be wiped from all future airings and the episode will be better for the shorter run time.
House of Whacks: Okay, we have something palatable here. A smart house that falls for Marge and develops homicidal jealousy is actually something that is more relevant better now than twenty years ago. Not that Simpsons won't plagiarism themselves in another decade or two, but for now it works.
Pierce Brosnan as the house is great and he gives a stellar performance. His polite demeanor belies the murderous intent to some creepy contrast, only really changing his tone for a gag at the end. If I must quibble, I will say that I hate how the Simpsons have to keep drawing attention to THE CELEBRITY VOICE WOW THIS VOICE IS DONE BY A CELEBRITY WATCH THE SIMPSONS EVERY SUNDAY ONLY ON FOX. The Dennis Miller joke may have been worth this is Marge didn't barge in to essentially repeating the joke, and then we get a small line of celebrity-ass kissing that rankles my nerves. Also they call him Pierce and the house acts like it is Pierce by saying yes I was in Remington Steele, and that just feels like a Fox executive mandate that viewers are too stupid to know when the famous person is talking. Watch the Simpsons every Sunday only on Fox.
My last complaint is we get a bit of Jerkass Homer with the line about knocking Marge up instead of just agreeing with the house that he's a lucky man. Otherwise he is fairly contained here. Okay, I promise to be more positive now. Hex and the City just got my blood pressure up. Wait, the water heater scene is just a worst version of staking Mr. Burns's crotch. Okay, okay I'm done now for real.
There's a lot of creative use of the futuristic house throughout, with standouts being Robo-Gil's foot having a the ability to keep the door open, and the floor going crazy during the climax. The tiles disappearing completely into voids just added the surrealist nature of this scene. The house maintains a very creepy presence throughout, be it his predatory behavior around Marge (especially the bathroom scene and replacing Homer's picture with his own) and the silent way he brutally murders Homer. Good visual choice cutting away from Homer falling into the food disposal to the house's HAL 2000-esque interface as blood splatters over it. The scene where the house talks about injecting Marge with a dart to the neck, I would have replaced the cartoony glove on the robotic hand with something more metallic to highlight the lack of humanity and make it even creepier. The Mickey Mouse glove does it no favors, though I think it still maintains a really grody, chilling vibe.
The ending is funny although not much to write home about. All-in-all, a decent short!
Wizkids: Ah yes, known horror series Harry Potter. Well, it does have witches and spells and such so I guess I can be lenient here. Wait, why is Harry Potter in the parody? I know the series wasn't the phenomenon it is now, but do you think directly saying "This is a Harry Potter spoof" is going to make it watchable to anyone unfamiliar with the series? It's not even a good joke; Nelson or anyone else in the class could have slotted right in there. It just feels awkward.
The frog prince joke is fine enough, although it didn't need the defend my honor scene since it basically repeats the same jokes. We get it, the abomination vomits and wants to die, you have ten minutes to work with here. I actually appreciated Milhouse's failed attempt as it felt a bit more clever.
The whole premise is weird regarding Bart's motivation. We get Mr. Burns as the villain, which is typically good but here he doesn't offer much besides an okay joke about avoiding Satan and his wife. The thrust of the conflict is that Bart is jealous of Lisa's talent as a wizard, and Montemort (ugh) uses Bart in order to get to Lisa to steal her powers. Sure, but for some reason he first threatens to kill Bart, which really undermines the whole jealousy angle since either way Bart has to do it. Then Bart sees what's happening and stops Mr. Burns. God there is really not much to this episode.
Jerkass Homer is here briefly, although the gag with him splitting his vision between the stage and his TV is cute. Homer being bored stiff by some elementary school talent show is well-tread ground, him still acting like that when everything is going to hell is the writers thinking his character is simply "bad parent." Maybe he was still missing the back of his head.
The ending feels like they had absolutely no idea how to close it. The enchanted shin thing comes out of nowhere and isn't funny, although Bart failing to cast a spell and just attacking physically is cute in the same roundabout thinking as when he mixed the porridges in the previous episode. I will say that Slithers slowing consuming Mr. Burns as he cries is fantastic, possibly the best joke of the short. Harry Shearer really sells it by punctuating the sobs with the sounds of his mouth taking in more Burns. The leprechaun at the end is neither scary nor funny and just feels forced. Eh, not nearly as bad as Hex and the City, but still not something I'd actively seek out to view.
So yeah, you can tell very few of them read the book. I don't mind this too much as it allows for more creative spins on the concept and, you know, at least it spares us from whatever obnoxious version we would have gotten at the height of Pottermania.
The credits scene was actually pretty scary? I think it's because you can't tell what the leprechaun is doing to threaten Brosnan, which just lets your imagination go anywhere. You have the car driving normally and then erratic with the leprechaun's voice taking a harsher tone, and it works. The radio joke doesn't work for me; I just wish they would commit to a scary bit instead of feeling like it needs a joke. But I can see the appeal of it.
Fun? Facts: The Leprechaun was a hit with writers and would reappear in future episodes, include regular episodes. Because of course it would.
Ultrahouse's voice actor had several considerations before Pierce Brosnan. Sean Connery was the original intent, and Lyle Lovett was also in the running until it was decided that playing a house was beneath him.
Matthew Perry does voice the one line in House of Whacks.
Dennis Miller, however, did not. Dan Castellaneta did an impersonation and he was actually credited as such in the episode. Presumably this was to avoid confusion since the other two celebrity voices were authentic. Celebrity impersonations aren't usually credited like this.
At the time of airing, Harry Potter had four books and the first movie would premiere ten days after Treehouse of Horror XII. Only a handful of writers had read the books (and that was largely the first one only) and most didn't even know what it was and feared the parody would be too obscure. Ah, those were the days.
Rating: So one above-average short with one below-average short and one abysmal. I feel like I'm being exceedingly generous with this score, however I'll let House of Whacks bump it up a bit.
Treehouse of Horror XIII
Original Air Date: November 3, 2002
The intro is pretty cool except for one detail: when Bart reveals himself to the family, he says "It's me, Bart Simpson!" Who on Earth talks like that to their own family? It's like signing a Mother's Day or anniversary card with your full name. It's a minor thing, although I think it highlights that lack of detail and effort that goes into these shorts as the show lurches forward. This has bugged me every year I watch it, and now you can join in my curse.
Send in the Clones: So Homer gets a hammock that lets him make clones. This could work, and when Homer got in a scuffle with his clones, and Homer mentioning how it'd take X clones to best him. An episode where the Simpsons flee an army of Homers? I dunno, it could work in a zombie apocalypse kind of way, given how much simpler the clones are compared to Homer.
It doesn't happen though, it's just a string of Homer jokes. Homer dumb. Homer fat. Hahaha. The violence in this episode feels like the writers realized there's no horror in this episode, and so one Homer accidentally misinterprets Homer Prime's order and decapitates Flanders. I thought this hammock was made from evil? That's just the clone being too stupid to fully understand what is going on. Or they somehow skeletonize Gil? It doesn't work, and someone dangling Flanders's heads just makes me thing of a vastly better short from years in the past, which you really don't want to do when your writing is this weak.
Homer is actually not too bad this episode. I like that the clones are used to help his family while allowing Homer to duck his responsibilities, which feels very Homer. Had this concept been executed like 5-10 years later, they'd probably have Homer trying to rob Krusty Burger or something. I do hate that he's just an entirely disinterested in the warm room discussion, like he's suddenly a five-year-old. It just feels like they have to interrupt the scene to have their wacky clown do his bit. It does play into the conclusion, but it could have done more gracefully.
The conclusion is...okay. I like that they use the Gorge as the trap, it's fairly clever. The twist with Homer Prime dying in the end is something you'd like to see in more these shorts. The only problem is that it's undermined by the Homers being too simple-minded to give the ending any kind of teeth. Meh.
I like some things, like Homer shooting the other Homers who know how to get home, even after they see what happens to those who raise their hands. The Peter Griffin jab, however, gets...more depressing every year. This is an inoffensive short: I don't actively hate it. It just doesn't do anything to stick in your mind.
The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms: This episode is just so weird. I know a lot of people nitpick that Lisa, of all people, would know the identity of William H. Bonney. However, she is 8 and I think it's fine that she's not omniscient. What gets me is that they a rally and a speech about Bonney, and NOBODY in the town knows this guy's story. I know Springfield isn't exactly depicted as an extremely educated town, but nobody? Dr. Hibbert? Skinner? Mr. Burns, given how old they joke about him?
Then the episode is a weak remake of sorts of Lisa's nightmare, with the guns being disposed of similar to the montage of Earth becoming peaceful in Lisa's Dream. God, did I give that a B? What a fool I was. Anyways, the imagery of Bonney's decaying hand springing out of the ground, pistol in hand, is pretty cool, spooky imagery. There's just...nothing connecting all of this. Why do they suddenly come to life when guns were banned? Were these ghouls just sitting in their graves waiting for decades until the nearby town had no guns? I guess it's less of a stretch than one little girl's speech stirring people to ban guns outright. We saw first-hand how that turns out in the real world.
Shout-out to Kaiser Wilhelm, though. He is easily the standout here.
This is another episode that spend a bit too much on preamble and the Hole in the Ground Gang don't do much of anything. They terrorize the Simpsons at Moe's and then Homer is yoinked by Frink to resolve the conflict. I don't like considering this short the worst of the episode. The ghouls have some good designs and it's trying to be a bit scarier than, you know, the previous short. But it's kind of a mess narratively.
The Island of Dr. Hibbert: Shockingly, this my be my favorite short of the bunch here. It launches pretty quickly into the action, and Dr. Hibbert is surprisingly effect as a villain. I really appreciate his little "Oh, I'm around." response to Marge as he grabs her from behind. That's the kind of stuff I want from my Halloween special.
Too bad it doesn't keep that up. After Marge is turn it just decides to be a showcase of Springfield's fursonas. They're good designs, with a special nod to Disco Shrew. There is some weird inconsistency here, with Cat Marge having animal intelligence while sleeping with Homer, to the point where she can't even talk. Then suddenly the humanimals can speak when it's no longer needed for the bit. Why is Ned a centcow? Cowtaur? I think taur is the horse half. But yeah, why is half cow, and the bottom half is a female cow? I know the answer is "the writers really wanted this joke despite it clearly not gelling with the rest of the episode" but c'mon. Also I have to mention the "With a Fox attitude joke" that really sucks. Burns revealing himself as Hibbert's scarf is cute, and we didn't need Lisa to point out who he is as if we wouldn't be able to tell? The pun was not worth the awkward lead-in.
As much as I'm dumping on the episode (it's not stellar, don't get me wrong), it's much easier to watch than the last two. It takes place mostly as night, giving it a spooky vibe, and the Springfielders as animals is a fun segment. I wish it maintained that level of menace from Hibbert throughout, like if Homer challenged or resisted Hibbert and ultimately lost. This segues into the exact ending where Homer loves being a walrus. Hell, you can even add a bonus joke where Hibbert grumbles that he intended the walrus as a punishment for Homer. Oh well.
Fun? Facts: This episode's title card uses Arabic numerals for 13 as opposed to the traditional Roman numerals. However, the official episode title does use the latter.
This is Maggie Roswell's return to Maude in a Treehouse of Horror episode after her brief departure from the show. Given her death in the regular episodes, she'll largely be appearing in Treehouse of Horror episodes from here on out.
There's a bit of running gag with Homer jumping the Springfield Gorge, as it came up in clip shows a lot.
Rating: This is a step up above the last episode, but it's still pretty underwhelming on the whole. At this point the Simpsons writers clearly want to break out of just horror parodies and lampoon other films and shows, and this would inspire other similarly non-canon episodes. Also this episode is where you see the lack of ideas starting to creep in. The middle segment borrows a lot of ideas from an older short, and that is NOT the era you want to be borrowing from when you don't have the same kind of writing chops. Still, it's an episode I can sit through and not regret the time spent.
Treehouse of Horror XIV
Original Air Date: November 2, 2003
The opening feels a bit forced with the violence? Especially with Homer vs. the kids, as this lacks a supernatural reasoning behind it so it just feels like a dad trying to beat his kids with a bat. The only effective part is when Marge is calmly disagreeing with Homer as she loads her shotgun. The dissonance there works just enough. Grandpa had the best bit, though. Kang and Kodos mocking the oft-delayed nature of the episode at least kept this above average for an opener.
Reaper Madness: God this has a bad opening. Homer saying "We don't want any" nonchalantly is just a real lazy joke? I tend to enjoy when the characters treat scary things a bit more normally, but here has to be some reaction or why even have the scary stuff? He did similar with Kang and Kodos in Starship Poopers, and that was a better line so you can't just repeat the joke with worse. Then you have the awkward "run like the wind" line from Marge followed by the Yakety Sax segment that does absolutely nothing for me. This is going to be a recurring issue with future episodes, but there's just no theme or tone set here. It takes place in the day and is super bright and there's just nothing to put you in the mood for a Halloween episode.
Things pick up a bit. I love the scene with Jasper, as it doesn't explain the joke that Death would be at the retirement home enough to be on a first-name basis with someone there. The scenes of no death with Moe and the mob are also funny in a grim way. It doesn't make much sense for Moe to order a pizza though. Maybe that was supposed to be his final meal, and the delivery guy was really late? I mean in that case maybe the no tip was granted, pizza guy! God not being able to tell the twins apart was cute, and while the Beam of Light chase sequence was very underwhelming, god giving up and going home was funny.
I think my problem with this episode is that it doesn't narratively follow through they way you'd expect, and not in a clever or subversion manner. You'd think Homer disregarding the list would have some kind of divine retribution, but it just has Marge on the list. Is that his punishment for doing a bad job reaping? Nothing is implied that it is, so maybe it was just Marge's time. It's not like there was an explanation for why Bart was on the list at the beginning of the episode. Heck, Bart over Marge would have made more sense (he was supposed to die anyways) and made for a more humorous conflict. Oh well.
Frinkenstein: Now this is more a bit more like it. First we have a very fitting guest start who is not starring as themself, and we're actually moving away from the Simpson family to slot in a better fit for the episode. There's no Wacky Murder Montage as each of the times Frink Sr. kills someone, there's buildup and payoff of an actually joke as opposed to a five second funny scene.
I especially like that they put some effort into the story here. Frink Sr. is a geek like his son, but he's a different kind of geek, and that also helps explains why he can rip out people's spine and tear off heads. It also provides a reason to reanimate him, so again we're actually building a plot that works for the Simpsons instead of slavishly replicating the original. The only thing missing is really sharp humor. Like the line Frink tells his dad "That doesn't make you any less of a man. Except you have no penis." just feels too blunt to be funny to me. Like the first half you expect a penis joke, so you have to mix it up a little and this just goes straight for that which falls flat. Maybe the bluntness is funny to people, I can see that, but that's what I mean by the humor being a bit worn. It's okay, but not the magic of the earlier seasons.
Dudley Herschbach is a guest star playing themselves, but I don't think chemists are the kind of star power Fox wants, so I think that's acceptable. Probably why they got Jennifer Garner, who does NOT belong here to give like two lines. Springfield has plenty of personalities in showbiz to play off Herschbach's deadpan nature. And he is great: only one line said twice, but the way he cuts through the phony awards show act is great. Frink Sr. having a break down to eat brains...doesn't make much sense given he only stole organs to replace the robotic bits? I feel like maybe his reanimation went through some rewrites or we're supposed to just assume a reanimated corpse eats people. Frankenstein didn't...eat people. He's not a zombie.
Oh one of first callbacks to a previous short. These are almost always lame, and this is no exception. Bad Homer, stop.
Anyways, I still like the final rampage, as it provides a good climax, and stealing brains is fun, right? Not a big fan of the very ending with Frink Sr. in a box. I dunno, after all that it feels kinda pedestrian. Reveal the corpse of Frink's hulking grandfather or a killer robot body for Frink Sr. with an assurance that nothing could possibli go wrong as a joke to end it on.
Still, I liked this! A rare gem in the post-2000s seasons.
Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off: Eh, this one. It's a potentially scary concept, being stuck in time, but it doesn't really build on it. Milhouse has a few good moments like telling Bart he knows what Bart is thinking, but Bart should say it first. Quimby revealing that the kids are behind it was also pretty clever! God, I have nothing.
I guess I'll begrudgingly admit that Oscar De La Hoya had the best line in the episode, even though it's the worst kind of cameo. Also, like Clones, the episode feels like it knows that it isn't living up to the Halloween spirit, and so you have the random scene of Homer's head failing off, which...doesn't make sense? The ending also feels like the writers got bored and just wanted to do random silly things with the family instead of giving it a proper end. Couldn't think of anything better for the watch's red button to do? Fast forward her through time by mistake or something? At least trying to end on a scary note? Yeah, this episode isn't like, unbearable to watch, but it's easily the worst of the three.
Fun? Facts: I should have mentioned this last episode, that the episodes moving from here on out have the Treehouse of Horror title instead of the Simpsons Halloween Special title.
Yes, Reaper Madness has a similar plot to a Family Guy episode from a few years prior. Probably a coincidence?
The episode got mentioned in Nature journal as part of a greater article on Simpsons and science.
Ratings: This was surprisingly watchable, and if episodes could have maintained the above average quality of Frinkenstein then I think the future episodes wouldn't be such a drag. Alas, the other two episodes, while not horrible, aren't great, so I'll give this a firmly average grade.
Treehouse of Horror XV
Original Air Date: November 7, 2004
This intro feels like untapped potential. A horror twist on the sitcom plot featuring Kang and Kodos is possibly one of the best appearance they've had in years, but it doesn't lean into the horror enough. Would have been better to end it with the two presenting a casserole or something with the Simpson family's limbs and heads strewn about, and the episode title is in the casserole. It just sticks too close to the 60/70s sitcom vibe throughout instead of sticking to the horror for me. Still, not the worst intro.
The Ned Zone: This is a cool idea, and it is entirely ruined by Jerkass Homer. He's obnoxious throughout the whole episode with this stupid frisbee running gag that I guess the writers thought was super hilarious. The bits in-between are neat in the set-up and payoff. Dr. Hibbert's is especially chilling the way he's laughing all the way down in Ned's vision. It has a funny explanation, but what a creepy twist on Dr. Hibbert's laughter. Moleman is played up more for laughs, but I still like it. The writers of this era really hate Rosie O'Donnell, and the jokes always feel like lazy cheap shots.
Then Homer ruins everything! He hogs the rest of the episode, and there's not much more to say. The ending is contrived and not very funny, as you just want Homer to go away and get back to the more-interesting Nedventures. Wow a big, unprotected Core Destruct button? You couldn't be a bit more creative than that? I'd say it's ridiculous enough to be a joke, but it needs to be like, MASSIVE with a tiny "Please Do Not Press" warning beneath it or something. Either way, it just makes you hate Homer more and then for all his jerkass behavior, there's no comeuppance or anything. It's just incredibly aggravating and the goddamn frisbee joke was STILL not funny at the end. They even somehow found a way to make Homer an asshole to his family after dying, it's absurd.
One Homer scene I hated in particular is Homer boasting that Ned couldn't shoot him, and that he's going for the "big dog." This bravado feels like more like a writer speaking than Homer, as if someone on the writing staff deeply bought into some myth of Homer being the Bad Dude of animation with his cocky stride and musky odor. Like, Homer had an ego, but it was never this extreme and was always undermined by the reality that Homer is a boorish doofus. That contrast helped build some of the comedy around the character, and honestly it wasn't even that paramount to his character. I've spent a lot of words on one bit of dialogue, but I hate it. I hate it and I hate Homer and I hate him for ruining this short.
Four Beheadings and a Funeral: I find it clever to add Jack the Ripper type character to a Sherlock Holmes parody, and yes I know it's a From Hell spoof but they dressed up Lisa like Holmes and goofed a bit on Bart being like the modern interpretations of Watson. This is actually a good thing, as parodies that stick too closely to the source material tend to feel forced and stray from feeling like the Simpsons. The episode also looks really nice, with the episode taking place largely at night, and the backgrounds being rich and full of little details.
As for the actual writing...it's okay. There's a coherent plot with finding the murderer, and they manage to plug in the characters appropriately. I like Burns as an opium addict (opium rules!) and Wiggum is a good foil for Lisa, and Comic Book Guy as the Curio shop owner was a pleasant little scene. The stool coming to life really felt like something you'd see in the HD era of the Simpsons, but I did like the transition where it follows the stool walking out of the shop and switching focus to Lisa as it passes by. I dunno, you don't see a lot of strong direction in the Simpsons, so it's pleasant surprise when it happens. Homer being more of an innocent simpleton is a massive relief after the last episode, even if her isn't super funny in this episode. Wiggum being the killer is a nice, funny twist, and his line about not being remembered for the murders is both a funny line with a funny delivery as he tries to get it all out before he's too far away. And Steampunk Kang and Kodos! I enjoyed the mutton chops.
On to the bad. The Apu joke felt...overly blunt? This was a thing in early 00s comedy, I think, as I know Family Guy did similar jokes. I dunno, it just feels lacking in subtlety, especially when the show lacks the self-awareness that the joke involves Apu of all characters. I mean, this is the series that thought looking deadpan into the camera and saying "Apu Good" was a killer comeback to the criticism, and that's with like a year+ plus to formulate a response so, jesus. Can't wait to see the TOH episodes those writers bring the tables.
The ending is...just bad. Why does it need to be a dream sequence? It's a Halloween episode, and what we got wasn't funny like the gas in Nightmare Cafeteria. Furthermore, that short had the plausible excuse that it ending with all the kids being butchered may have been a bit much. Being turned inside-out and eaten by the dog is fine, so long as the other kid is just inside-out. At least it's pretty to look at. Finally, the British jokes just fell flat to me: they feel like the low-hanging fruit just about any show would have made. Haha, they eat weird food! The Big Book of British Smiles, this ain't.
So I think this episode is alright on the whole, but that may be because it's just really nice to look at, so it carries the otherwise average episode. It's the best of the episode, although that is sadly less due to its strengths and more to the weakness of its sister shorts.
In the Belly of the Boss: God, this one. Well let's get it out of the way that Fantastic Voyage is not a horror movie or even really that close, and this episode makes little attempt to compensate.
It does feature Mr. Burns, who usually fits like a glove into these episodes, but here he's mostly a sedate bit of nothing. Burns has to be in antagonist role to really bring out his best (worst?) elements, and him just lying down occasionally commenting on what's happening is...not funny or a good use of the character. They don't even really take advantage of him being old, like his heart is shriveled up and there's the part with the felt marker that was actually pretty fun. And that's it! You could have swapped in pretty much any other character.
There rest of the episode doesn't fare much better, as Jerkass Homer is back after taking a break last short, and he basically fucks up everything for no reason. There's no dumbass logic to what he does, it's just "I'M GONNA DO A STUPID THING" the family says "Don't do stupid thing!" and he does stupid thing. Instead of Homer literally eating Burns's ribs, why not have the reason the go of course because Homer sees a map of the body and goes to the ribs because he thinks they're like the food ribs. It provides a clear internal logic: Homer is impulsive, ignorant, and likes to eat. It makes sense. Homer just randomly deciding to hit all the buttons at once to go faster for no reason is just understanding Homer is stupid, but not the how or why. Bad. It's bad and I hate it. I guess get ready for a multi-part character dive into why Jerkass Homer sucks, because he's here to stay.
The rest of the family is forgettable. Bart and Lisa do very little, and Marge is just there for bad sex jokes that the Simpsons used to make fun of ten years prior. I have nothing to say here, although Frink has some decent moments. I like the weird whiplash from his Retrovirus drawing to warning of death.
The ending is not good. I know it's a cartoon, and a special Halloween episode where everything is more flexible. But the show, and this short in particular, are rooted in reality, and "Homer has to leave because Maggie adds too much weight to the ship." Let's ignore that the family's outfits properly weigh enough to offset's Maggie being on board (which gives you another dumb Marge sex joke that doesn't require random cells that came from nowhere!), and let's ignore that Jerkass Homer desperately tries to swap places with everyone else because Homer is just self-centered right? Dumb and self-centered, like Peter Griffin right? No no, let's acknowledge that way back in the beginning of the short, that Homer fired off a billion rockets and other doodads when being an idiot. With ALL of that ordinance fired, the ship was STILL too heavy to take on Maggie? And you're saying Frink planned this trip. I hope somehow got fired for that blunder, and I sincerely say that because that shit shouldn't have passed a first draft. Easily replaced by saying "Homer, your stupid horseshit earlier fucked up the ship's engine. You're gonna have to stay behind to give it a push" or whatever. Not like, a massive improvement, but that's off the top of my head and not, you know, it being my literal job with a room of other people assisting me.
Homer growing larger inside Burns is kinda creepy, but then it goes into Random Song and Dance Ending, which Bad Simpsons episodes really love to do when draw a blank. And really, you don't want to remind me of a better scene from a better short from a better episode from a better season of the show after you just trotted out this crap. Burns on Homer's head was scary, had a clever bit to end the episode that was also funny. This is creepy, but isn't clever and isn't funny. Oops! Bad Short!
Fun? Facts: While Fox had been releasing promo images for the episode in past years, which you can see in the past few reviews, this is the first to do a more formal poster-style image.
This is the latest a Treehouse of Horror has ever aired, premiering a full week after Halloween.
It was the only episode written by Bill Odenkirk, the brother of Bob Odenkirk. You, know, Saul?
I don't have exact numbers, this episode set a record for lowest number of viewers for a Treehouse of Horror with about ten million people turning in. Although keep it in context, as even the classic era was only doing about 10% or so better. And things will get much worse...
Rating: A Jerkass Homer sandwich is not where you want to end up, and Homer indeed ruins the first and third shorts. Honestly Belly of the Boss pissed me off, so the episode is lucky I even give it this rating, but the middle segment had a fair amount of effort put into it, and I want to at least recognize that.
I remember the exact episode when I gave up on the Simpsons. S9e5 The Cartridge Family. The one where homer joins the NRA. I thought to myself while watching it "this just isn't funny anymore." Which I thought was strange since I had been watching it since the first episode in 89 when I was 6. It had been there since I could remember watching TV and suddenly it held no interest. I didn't even finish the episode.
PaperLuigi44My amazement is at maximum capacity.Registered Userregular
The latest Simpsons I remember watching was the Sideshow Bob in Italy one. I wasn't keeping up with episodes up to that point, but Bob is my favourite character so I gave it a shot. Never saw the one with John Mahoney as his father, I did like getting David Hyde Pierce as his brother.
I've been watching the later seasons on Disney+ and I'm now at the point where I'm just skipping to the Halloween episodes
I might go back and watch any anthology episodes I've missed, too, but the main plots just fell off a cliff at some point - and I probably liked episodes for much longer than more discerning viewers
I watched all the Sideshow bob episodes and one of them was apparently a dream and the later ones ignore his family altogether
The Halloween one is well keep reading
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
I remember the episode where Homer buys an ambulance (s15e10) and during the episode realizing how lazy the writing had become and that this was the last episode I would watch.
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
My problem with The Cartridge Family is that I have NO FUCKING IDEA what they were trying to do.
Are guns good? Is it pro gun? Marge HATES guns and leaves Homer over one. But by the end she picks it up out of the garbage, thinks she looks so cool with it that she keeps it.
It’s all over the place tonally
I also don’t like any implication that Homer wants to actually murder Flanders, He’s supposed to hate him, but not want to kill him.
My problem with The Cartridge Family is that I have NO FUCKING IDEA what they were trying to do.
Are guns good? Is it pro gun? Marge HATES guns and leaves Homer over one. But by the end she picks it up out of the garbage, thinks she looks so cool with it that she keeps it.
It’s all over the place tonally
I also don’t like any implication that Homer wants to actually murder Flanders, He’s supposed to hate him, but not want to kill him.
I thought the message was that Gun Ownership and Control is a complicated subject and can't be solved through anecdotal situations, and that there's also allure to them and ignoring that causes it's own amount of troubles.
For myself, I couldn't see Homer getting super into owning guns. They're messy, require maintenance, and are super expensive whereas beer and fireworks are cheap and easy to use. Like, he'd hear about someone cleaning a gun and decide the money would be better spent on a new TV and a night out with the boys.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
My problem with The Cartridge Family is that I have NO FUCKING IDEA what they were trying to do.
Are guns good? Is it pro gun? Marge HATES guns and leaves Homer over one. But by the end she picks it up out of the garbage, thinks she looks so cool with it that she keeps it.
It’s all over the place tonally
I also don’t like any implication that Homer wants to actually murder Flanders, He’s supposed to hate him, but not want to kill him.
"I'd kill you if I had my gun"
"yeah well you don't"
Posts
In the early seasons the malicious impulses were with Bart
My personal thought is if they’d just let the characters age through, it could have become something different, but just as good. Or if nothing else, they could’ve ended near the turn of the millennia and gone out on top, but American entertainment and pop culture isn’t built to handle that sort of graceful bow.
Treehouse of Horror VIII
Original Air Date: October 26, 1997
So it's 1997, that means the American TV rating system went into effect, and the Simpsons couldn't resist poking fun. It's my least favorite of these, because it definitely feels like a later-Simpsons joke with the overly smug tone and way too direct shots at the censors. On the other hand the big cartoony cutlass was the censors' idea and makes the whole thing less scary so maybe they deserve it. The rating going up until 666 is a very good joke and kinda creepy in its subtlety.
The HΩmega Man: I forgot how many good jokes this one had! Marge's comment about the French being unpredictable is really funny, the 6-megaton resistance (no more, no less) is another standout, and of course Comic Book Guy wasting his life. Speaking of which, we will suppress our inner Comic Book Guy and ignore how absolutely not safe ground zero would be after an atomic bomb hit, nor how fewer skeletons and pristine locations there would be standing. It's a good setup for a short, and we don't got time for "realism", and Homer walking through a town littered with realistic skeletons in their last moments is pretty scary imagery. I think Homer in the theater watching a comedy amidst all the skeletons is an underrated bit of imagery.
I am probably overthinking things here, but the episode feels a bit like Homer having a breakdown after losing everyone and trying to bury that under pure hedonism. The scene with him learning to laugh again is really disturbing as he basically wills himself to think there's a silver lining to this situation. But this is season 9, and Jerkass Homer is already in the process of removing Homer from the show. This is likely intended as Homer just being a simpleton that loves to eat and watch TV, although it is a fun alternate reading. I'd prefer that over the mutants, yet we do have a movie to parody.
The mutants feel a bit underutilized here. I enjoy Sideshow Mel's silence line, and their rad ghoul mobile (is that a Rat Fink reference?), but you have Mr. Burns in a Halloween episode and he doesn't say anything funny? I do appreciate the twist, with the mutants being quick to set asides differences and coexist, only for the Simpsons to just blow them away with shotguns. Although what the hell is with Bart's face in the first few frames Homer sees them in the house? I know they're hiding guns behind their backs, but Bart has this half-lidded look that is very strange when coupled with a grin. It means absolutely nothing, but I noticed it one year and I cannot stop seeing it every year, so I pass my curse on to you.
Ignoring that, the art is great! As I said earlier, the blasted landscape of Springfield gives that perfect aesthetic I crave in a Halloween episode, and opting for skeletons over... dust or nothing is a bit of artistic license that really works out. So yeah, good episode even if I feel some parts don't live up to their potential.
Fly vs. Fly: This episode is a lot moodier than I recall, and that's likely thanks to the detail on Fly Bart. It's a very straight-forward plot, with Bart getting swapped with a fly and needing to turn back, but we get some great details and jokes throughout. I love Frink's garage sale with the impossible object for sale, a joke that plays well to animation's strengths. Homer goofing around with the teleporter wears a bit thin, although the acting when he drinks the cat ear medicine is great. Granted, it is a bit of a stretch to get there (cat medicine in a pull tab can?).
Bart and the spider is my favorite scene in the episode. The writers apparently have a rule that pets cannot be too human, and this broke that rule, which is a good example of knowing when to break your own rules for a good joke. The spider itself is more detailed than I recall, to the point where it may upset arachnophobes, but they manage to quickly pull back and make it look silly as it shakes its many fists at Bart.
I don't have much else to say here, as the short is brisk and well-paced. The joke with Homer going after Bart with an axe go on a bit too long, although a fine way to close it. We're two for two!
Easy-Bake Coven: So this is only the second or so episode to feature the cast in a different setting (King Homer being the first). It works here despite my own distaste for it, as it's just taking the cast and sending them back X years in the past. I love little jokes like Krabappl's scarlet A or Quimby seemingly being mayor and judge. I noticed a joke I had missed for years, where they tell Marge she will get due process, and the process is shoving her off a cliff.
And witch Marge gets a wonderful intro. I especially love her hair exploding into a flurry of bats (they're in my hair!) and Julie Kavner has been waiting for an episode to put her raspy voice to use.
...which is why the rest of the episode is kinda disappointing. Marge flies back to her sisters, dejected about being outed as a witch, and then they go to eat children, don't eat the children, and the episode is basically over. There's no more rad scenes of Marge getting revenge on the townsfolk, as I think it was a good idea to not make it about her being able to see Derwood and the kids again. The whole short being about the origins of the first caramel cod Halloween is actually a pretty creative spin, I just really wanted more of Marge being a cool witch. The joke between Maude and Flanders about acts of carnality was great though.
Also, I LOVE Spryngfielde as this Salem-esque oceanside town, completely covered by clouds so even during the day it's grey and foreboding. As whole, I do like the episode, and it's one of the shorts I first think of when I hear about the Treehouse of Horror. I mean, Witch Marge is iconic, and the whole episode is drenched in Halloween imagery. Like the mutants before, it may not go all the way with the conceit, but I appreciate what they did here nonetheless. It's a definitely a treat.
Fun Facts: Shockingly, the networks censors had a problem with the opening. Although their main issue was a dagger being used, and changing it to a cutlass was enough. Yeah, the 90s were a bit odd.
Speaking of censors, Homer was going to dance naked on the altar, but they were forced to reposition him even though he was still naked. Okay...
This is the last episode of the Simpsons (as a whole, not TOH) Brad Bird worked on, which was part of a greater exodus of the original writing staff throughout seasons 8 and 9. This will have absolutely no effect on future episodes.
This is Comic Book Guy's first appearance in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
The spider scene in Fly vs. Fly was going to be the original ending (and was going to be different from what we got), but some rewrites occurred.
Rating: I think this episode more than any gets the score on the overall consistency of the shorts. There's no one that stands above the rest in quality, and yet there's no stinkers here to bring anything down. They all offer their own strengths, existential and more close-to-home horror with nuclear war, more primal fear with nasty bugs, and finally just classic Halloween spookiness. And the art for all three are great, so while this episode may not reach the lofty heights of the earlier episodes, it's a great short when you want to get in the Halloween spirit, which I really need since we lost the key to the room where we store the decorations.
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Treehouse of Horror IX
Original Air Date: October 25, 1998
I like the horror-themed spin on the Simpsons intro, and I'm surprised it took this long for them to run this. Definitely won't be the last!
Hell Toupee: This is a cool idea, and Homer is the perfect choice to receive a killer hair implant. The humor in this one is just consistently solid, and I particularly Moe's scenes and Wiggum continuing to drink after the reveal of Apu's body. Oh, and the whole scene with Doctor Nick, which is both funny and pretty skin-crawling. I think this might be his first appearance on the specials. Any ways, it's nothing that really elevates to catchy one-liners you repeat over and over, however the consistency is nice.
Homer switching into Snake is pretty creepy, especially the scene where he ends the line with "Little dude." I always wondered if it would be more effective if they stuck with Dan Castellaneta just continuing to perform Homer's voice with Snake's mannerisms when he takes over, as opposed to just switching to Hank Azaria. I mean, his hair already switches styles to indicate who is in control, so it wouldn't be all that confusing. On the other hand, Azaria puts a lot of menace into Snake this short, and I don't know if the same would be possible with Homer.
Also, hey, Homer cares about his son! That's nice to see. I don't thing the toupee itself coming to life did anything for me. It's not really funny and not especially scary. I don't hate it or anything; I just don't get much out of the scene. However, I do wish instead of the "everyone laughing" ending, something that feels like they couldn't figure out a way to wrap things up, I wish Bart would go sleep and then Maggie would jump out with Snake's hair and give one-liner to close out the episode on Bart screaming. I dunno, maybe I just want that Terror at 5 1/2 Feet energy again. Still, I feel this is the strongest episode in the bunch.
The Terror of Tiny Toon: There's something about this short that makes it so forgettable to me. Like, I just watched this last night and had to sit and think of what the middle short was until I gave up and look it up. I think part of it is just the look of the short. In Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace, the opening feels like a traditional cartoon, where Bart and Lisa inside the TV just feels like Simpsons with more violence...which is how a lot of TOH feels anyways. I get it, there is no special animation or design treatment for Itchy & Scratchy that sets it apart from the rest of the show. Still bothers me for some reason.
It's a good concept for a short. I particularly enjoy Scratchy's sad voice as Bart and Lisa laugh at his pain. Also that Itchy is sympathetic to this to the point where he teams up with Scratchy to teach them a lesson. His takes no pleasure in killing Scratchy, the laughter is to make the sadness. Itchy giving an apology to Scratchy after hacking off his arms by mistakes to a nonchalant "it happens" is a high point for me. While discussing the Itchy and Scratchy gang, I found the Poochy bit kinda pointless? I could be missing a reference here, but otherwise it's just running him over with a car with very tame harm to Poochy himself. It just feels like I'm personally not getting something here.
Yeah, I don't have much more to say here. It's a decent short, I just feel it doesn't live up to the potential of having to endear the violent world of Itchy and Scratchy. I blame there being a touch too much buildup before getting to the meat of it. Hobo Homer wasn't funny enough to get a follow-up joke. However, the ending with Scratchy I kinda like as a juvenile, faux-horror ending. He really sells that scream.
Starship Poopers: This short is like Terror of Tiny Toon, except it just abandons the concept halfway through to get a celebrity guest in. Maggie crawling up the walls and hissing at Bart and Lisa is incredibly scary; why wasn't this the entire premise of the episode? Why wasn't her becoming increasingly alien and scary as she runs loose through the house, and instead we get...Jerry Springer.
Okay, so the episode has some bits. Doctor Hibbert's fire line is great, and while I'm not a fan of the Marge pregnancy plot thread, "what are you implying" is a wonderfully delivered line.
Guest stars on the Simpsons work when they fit with the episode, almost always as an original character as opposed to themselves. There are exceptions to this, especially when it's poking fun at the celebrity, but it usually feels like a Fox mandate to have something to advertise when the celebrity is just themselves. I'm not delusional, all guest cameos are utilized to get eyeballs on your channel, it's just that you can at least try to make it feel organic. And here it's just Bart abruptly interrupting the episode to tell everyone we have to see the famous person now. It's a very hollow gesture that doesn't feel like Bart is a fan of Jerry Springer, like when Homer was gushing about Adam West to his kids in Mr. Plow, as a Boomer who would be growing up watching Batman. It's not great, and unfortunately it gets worse later down the road. At least here the setup of feuding families makes sense to go to Springer. It's just a sudden leap. And the whole is fairly boring. The only high point being the blunt "And now he's dead." which is terrific delivery and a good joke. It works independent of who died, and is a funny way to note that someone died off-screen. Too bad that had to end that with the smug, hacky "Oh don't kill our politicians" line, which is the kind of lame politicians suck you'd see in some legacy newspaper comic. "And don't forget Ken Starr!" This is the same show that did Citizen Kang like two years ago?
I think this episode feels worse to me because of what it could have been, and yeah I don't like it very much.
Fun Facts: Robert Englund did voice Freddy in the intro.
Phil Hartman was planned to be the host America's Deadliest Executions (as Troy McClure) , but with his recent passing it felt in bad taste. That's why Ed McMahon has lines similar to McClure's signature catchphrase. Come to think of it, Ed McMahon is now also dead. These old episodes can be a real downer.
Rating: Had to keep this one a bit shorter than normal, so sorry if it reads even worse than normal. This episode always signals to me when the series begins a tragic dip in quality, that the fun is over and all that's left is mediocrity and...worse. And this episode kinda encapsulates that. It starts off with a strong start, has middle that doesn't quite live up to the promising potential, and closes it out with an episode that seems to give up halfway through. It's still very watchable and entertaining, and my only complaint is that it fails to reach the highs of prior seasons, and the shorts here had that kind of potential.
The last THoH skit I can vaguely remember was dolphins taking over a flooded Springfield, or something like that.
Treehouse of Horror X
Original Air Date: October 31, 1999
We hit the big ten! The first of a few milestones. Not really a fan of this one, as the joke is that they're hosts at an award show where the hosts are usually making unfunny jokes. Except they...make unfunny jokes? I guess the jokes is that the audience isn't amused? Or that the bad jokes are alien themed? Well, one is. But hey, I like the Simpsons at the couch in their Halloween getups from past seasons.
I Know What You Diddily-Iddily-Did: I like that this episode makes an effort to keep the horror up. It's got a nice atmosphere to it, with the more horror-oriented scenes being set in nice, dimly light areas or at night with a big full moon overhead.
This kinda dies in the middle segment, where it's all about the Simpsons, mainly Homer, doing a very shabby job of it and yet getting away with nonetheless. The jokes aren't bad, and also aren't exactly stellar either. They're mostly the same joke of We Didn't Kill Flanders, and I think it's a credit to the writers that this portion goes back without wearing out its welcome. I think the issue with Simpsons as it ages is that you don't get a lot of complex jokes that kinda build on each other. It feels increasingly like a lot of one-liners, because hey people love quoting those classic Simpsons lines, right? So it's this rapid-fire comedy that just prays something sticks and for now they largely do, but not for long.
The Simpsons huddled in the living room paranoid sets up the spooky end of the short, and yeah it's good. The I KNOW WHAT YOU DID scrawled every after the thunderclap is effective, only feeling a bit undermined by the Feelin' Fine scene in the Shinning, which I think illustrates my point about how these latter seasons lack a lot of the depth that classic scenes went for when constructing these scenes. Moe's phone call runs for too long, and the scrawling on the walls just come right after without any connective tissue. Feelin' Fine sets up a joke (his typewriter says he's feeling fine when you expect mad ranting like in the Shining) and then goes for further subversion by taking that joke and twisting it for horror (Homer's mad ranting was written on the wall). I Know What You Did has subverts your expectations (the call is just Moe being a creep instead of the killer, but he isn't tied to the story like Homer's typewriter) and then it just... does a scary thing. I know there's a film to parody, but I've said before that it shouldn't damage the actual writing and it should feel organic.
Enough dissection, let's move on!
The rest of the episode goes right along, I still do like the scary imagery and mood here and the Spooky Roller Disco is my favorite gag here. I love the fact the lowkey disco theme accompanying the image. Flanders being the...well he didn't kill anyone so the villain(?) doesn't do much, and since we already have a stellar short with Flanders as the villain you have big shoes to fill here. Werewolf Flanders feels like they were just digging for a monster they haven't really used yet, and werewolves are the undead? I don't think it's a point to get pedantically nerdy about; it's just weird since werewolves being alive is not some obscure bit of trivia. The joke about Homer being too much for Flanders to eat is a cute way to close it out. This is a serviceable episode that checks most of my box, and the biggest point against it is the creeping feeling they're running out of ideas. Also I feel they should have just stuck to the serial killer plotline of the original instead of wasting werewolves.
Desperately Xeeking Xena: Hey, this episode starts on Halloween, and then promptly chucks it to do the scariest thing of all: a...superhero parody? Yes, I am taking off points because it chucks the whole theme of the episode out the window, although I will note that up until this point the Simpsons only have one episode a season where the rules for the universe are a lot more flexible. So yeah, have a short to stretch those writing muscles. For now.
Really though, it's more a send-up of geek culture? Like, Lisa and Bart are have the show outright stolen from them by Lucy Lawless and Comic Book Guy. Yes, this is a guest spot where the celebrity is just the celebrity, but it is a rare example of this done right. It's about an obsessive nerd, and Lucy was pretty popular in those circles back then. A villain who is so absorbed with collectibles that they move up to capturing actors and creators of nerdy properties is a fine premise. It helps that Lucy is really into the whole episode, kicking it off with the "Wizard Did It" line, and can I say how quaint it is to think that she would only get an audience of like 20 people tops? I will never stop hoping someone gets fired for their blunders.
Comic Book Guy is great here too, such as how he is less upset about Lucy tricking him and more about it being hacky, or making sure his death has appropriate nerd-cred. It's really weird how they have Bart and Lisa as heroes, and they really don't do much but get captured and yield the floor to the true stars. None of the Bart and Lisa scenes are particularly interesting, which is really saying something when they have superpowers. Bart has a few creative stretches, but it's nothing compared to Comic Book Guy having a breakdown over ruining his toy's value by opening the box.
And the ending with Lucy reminding them she's not Xena, but Lucy Lawlass as she flies away is a fantastic callback to earlier and a good joke in general. Wow a short with almost no Halloween theme and a celebrity playing themselves, and it's pretty good? Hey, maybe these won't be so bad!
Life's a Glitch, Then You Die: Do we have like, zoomers on this forum? Do I need to explain Y2K? Okay, real quick: we stored years as two digits instead of four in computers and that became a problem when the year changed all four digits instead of just one or two. If you want more information, go to your local libary.
Eh, this episode. I like the Rat joke with the band, and everything going to hell is set up in a fairly spooky fashion. Shout out to the Dick Clark robot. Where it starts to go downhill is when it stops being vaguely possible things that Y2K could harm and just goes into everything goes berserk. And not only do things that would not logically need a date to function, like a blender, but even things that aren't electronic like milk. And they all start rebelling against humans? It just feels lazy as it devolves into standard killer robot shtick. Even the absurdity of the milk going crazy doesn't really do anything for me. It's not especially funny and obviously not threatening. I do like some some later bits like Krusty's pacemacker going haywire and killing him...or incapacitating him. Even though a pacemaker would be unaffected by the year, it's still a bit more than just "waffle iron tries to kill people" since it's less about the device magically gaining intelligence and more about the horror of how much we rely on electronics, and how easily we can lose our current way of life.
Then it all goes straight to hell with the rocket stuff.
The rocket to escape the doomed Earth is fine, barring how poorly some of celebrity asskissing aged (Mel Gibson, eh?). Should have stuck to Springfieldians, hard as it may be to find ones that qualify. Homer and Bart having some tragic moment or boneheaded idea to save themselves on Earth would be a fine way to end it. Maybe they go to the power plant and find the way to fix it, but Homer makes an error and the year on computers is now 0002 and things get even worse to close out the episode. A rocket to the sun where Homer just screams "AH, CELEBRITY THE WRITERS HATE." over and over because I guess the writers were worried we wouldn't recognize them. I mean it makes no sense on its face: we had these supposedly bad people on the planet for decades, and no saying they are so obnoxious the Earth wants to be rid of them for the remaining time on Earth doesn't work a la the end jokes with Homer and Bart choosing oblivion over five more minutes in there, because on Earth most people didn't have to sit with them on a vehicle all at once. Yeah, I got real granular there, but this segment sucks and the only pro is that I do enjoy Homer and Bart's heads swelling followed by an effective popping noise off-screen.
So yeah, a fine idea for an episode if you don't get too anal about how Near Year's obviously doesn't fit a Halloween special. Which I am NOT that anal, even if I did feel the need to bring it up, it's fine since it's still a good horror concept and I know they wanted to strike that Y2K iron while they had a shot. It just really drops off hard on the back half, so it culminates in a subpar short overall.
Fun Facts: This was Marcia Mitzman Gaven's first Treehouse of Horror voicing Maude, after Maggie Roswell left the show (briefly). May also be Maude's first appearance on a Treehouse of Horror? I'm not exactly keeping track.
Lucy Lawless said this was her favorite guest spot of any TV show.
Y2K did not end up killing us all.
Rating: This is pretty much like IX, with two solid episodes and one episode that starts off fine and then dives off a cliff. So I guess the same rating.
Ohhh sure, I had that game but I thought the whole thing was Virtual Bart.
Yeah that game was basically impossible right?
Very tough, but not impossible. I managed to clear several levels. Mainly the hard part as it goes is it feels like it takes longer to find papers the more you do, and that dreamland overworld really sucks.
Wait, this one it goes off into a Mushroom Cloud?
Do they do the gag multiple times?
More thoughts: I think what adds to that impression is just how massive of a jerk Homer is in Lisa on Ice
Youre thinking of Lisa the Vegetarian
Treehouse of Horror XI
Original Air Date: November 1, 2000
Our first episode of the new millennium! Off to a good start, as the Munsters opening is cute and the family translates to the characters pretty smoothly. The remixed theme is also fun, and the town practically murdering them all is a nice Simpsons-y twist that fits with the Halloween spirit.
G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad: This is a super-forgettable short for me; I keep thinking Reaper Madness, but nah it's this one. Overall, it's.....meeeeeh.
The start is okay, with Homer reacting comically to everything trying to kill him, with the rattlesnake exchange with Lenny being the highlight here. The problem is that by the time we're in the thrust of the short, it's almost over. Way too much time was wasted on the setup, along with the second broccoli joke eating into more time, as decent a gag it is. And the rest of the episode is just jerkass Homer reluctantly trying to do a good dead. Homer's character is that of an ignorant, impulsive doofus who tends to be oblivious to the consequences of his action, but has a good heart and does try to rectify his mistakes once aware of them. So having an episode where he just acts like it's a pain in the ass to do Marge's chores or aggressively tries to beat Boy Scouts to Agnes just comes off as...not Homer.
A better way to handle this episode is to trim the fat of the setup, and have Homer constantly failing because of his own incompetence. Then, while bemoaning his failures you have the baby stroller pay off. I do like the John Wayne joke for...whatever reason, but Satan doing a callback to the Nelson joke is lame and I dunno if it'd have been better to go with an ironic Heaven ending. Maybe Ned is up there and gives a quip about broccoli packing a punch or something as Homer now struggles to get out.
Yeah, it's kind of a nothing episode. NEXT!
Scary Tales Can Come True: Grimm's fairy tales are a fine subject, although really underutilized here. It's basically Hansel and Gretel with a few other fairy tale shoutouts that don't actually contribute to the plot at all. Let's dig in.
So we have three references: Goldilocks, Rapunzel, and I'm assuming the Billy Goats Gruff? The latter two are okay, with Moe the Troll being a cute joke and I do like the Bart oatmeal joke and Goldilocks's violent end. Violence in the specials kinda runs all over the place, from super gory to weirdly bloodless. The Rapunzel is just a Homer Is Fast joke you can see a mile away, and all three jokes are just non-sequiturs that don't add much to the episode. Then we get to the real climax of the short as Bart and Lisa are captured by the witch, and there's a few things to perk your interest. The load-bearing candy cane is cute, and I do like the animation for Homer when he's all transformed. And the one really standout joke for me is the "twenty minutes" joke which is dark but at least engaged me a bit.
The ending is also weird and kinda gross. Also to nitpick here, but Homer would have to have something to eat to keep producing eggs.
Night of the Dolphin: So this is supposedly be a parody of Day of the Dolphin, although having read a plot summary, I'd say this one is leaning way closer to the Birds. And honestly given that Day is about training Dolphins to speak English and assassinate political targets, I think the Birds is the better pick.
It doesn't even come close to that legacy, however. The Birds is scary because birds are everywhere, and having them mysteriously start attacking humans is pretty scary. Dolphins are a fine target as parody, and I do like the scene where they replicate the Birds by having dolphins everywhere even when it makes no sense (I mean less than dolphins on land). The thing is that these dolphins can speak and have clear motives, which I feel really takes away the horror and just makes it feel more generic. It really takes away from the horror and just leaves you with some random violence and fight sequences.
Credit where credit is due: I enjoyed Wiggum rattling off obvious dolphin-related injuries and blaming rowdy teens AND cancelling prom. Killing Kent Brockman with a ball felt a bit more creative than "dolphin bursts through chest" and made me think that this short would be better served as parodying the story, where most of the plot is set in a house taking shelter from the attacks. The Simpsons just huddled in their house as they watch the chaos on TV or over the phone a la Grandpa's death would amplify the horror over making it an anticlimax battle of Humans vs. Dolphins, with the aforementioned electronics giving it a more modern spin over the short story. Instead we get to see Jerkass Homer as he tries to blame Lisa for humanity's crimes. Awesome.
At least has a very dark ending? And there is one very line, and that is Quimby's "frightened and horny" quote which is in character for him and has perfect timing. Otherwise, not very impressed.
Oh and the Kang and Kodos cameo was very blah.
Fun? Facts: This is the first Treehouse of Horror to air after Halloween, as Fox had acquired the broadcast rights to MLB games and that meant the Treehouse of Horror episodes would be preempted for the World Series for many years to come.
Dolphins were chosen because the writers thought it'd be funny to have the friendliest animals attack humanity. Let's be perfectly clear: dolphins are assholes.
This is Rob Lazebnik's first writing credit, with his second being "Homer vs. Dignity" which honestly explains a lot.
Rating: Three underwhelming shorts that have the saving grace of still being horror-themed. I was tempted to go a notch lower on the score, but there were a few decent jokes to land it firmly in mediocrity.
Treehouse of Horror XII
Original Air Date: November 6, 2001
We're now officially an even two decades in the past now! This might be my favorite intro of the mid-seasons. It's fitting that Mr. Burns has a very frugal, yet fussy idea of Halloween decorations that you might expect of an older person from his era (My grandparents thought a wreath was sufficient for Christmas), and everything that ensures afterwards is just very dark and sets the mood right. I love the Burns Mansion reinterpreted as a creepy haunted house, and with the ending you're not quite sure if Mr. Burns is just oblivious to the chaos that ensued or if that was part of his plan all along. The only downside is that the Simpsons running through the grates and splitting their bodies apart is a bloodless, cartoony violence that doesn't gel quite right with the burning corpses we see moments earlier.
If only the rest of this episode followed suit.
Hex and the City: Again, content warning for racism against the Romani. It's all in this short.
I went into this short thinking it was the middle-of-the-road entry and came out of it considering it the easy winner for worst. I guess we'll just jump into the elephant in the room: the whole episode revolved around Romani stereotypes like fortune telling and curses. There isn't much to really much it go into here, it just really sucks and can easily take you out the episode. Ethnictown is just a lazy joke and sucks, and actual fortune-telling is tarot jokes that were done bed in Lisa's Wedding years earlier. This really gets to the heart of why the Simpsons petered out after 10 seasons, as the amount of topics covered is just so vast that chances are a joke you're thinking of was already done and done better 4-5 seasons ago. The leprechaun might also be a bit much, speaking purely in angry, Irish-accented gibberish the entire episode...even though he speaks at the end of the episode. Maybe this isn't that bad, I can't say with any authority, but the episode does kinda put you in that mindset. I get it: the Romani people's history is deeply rooted in Europe and Americans just got most of that imported to us in the form of stereotypes and racism. Maybe expecting the Simpsons to know that in 2001 is expecting a bit much, but if you don't do the research then don't get upset when your episode ages badly over the next two decades. This episode still gets run on Disney+ , and since the Simpsons staff personally took Stark Raving Dad out of circulation, this still being in here says a lot about the Simpsons and race moving forward.
If I'm being too PC for you, then good news: the episode sucks perfectly fine even if you set aside the racism. This is Jerkass Homer's proud debut in Treehouse of Horror, as opposed to the bits and pieces of him sneaking in here and there. The whole episode is just predicated on Homer being too much of a stubborn asshole to apologize, even when seeing the curse affect his family in front of his own eyes. Even finding an alternative to fixing the problem is seen as some kind of draining chore to him as opposed to his family being horribly transformed. The episode even goes along with that, proceeding to the bar scene with the same transitory musical cue as a normal episode. As if this is a normal episode and Homer just needs help putting together a science project with Bart or something. What the fuck is this?
And the resolution is just a gross sex change, and a wedding with mythical creatures including...Yoda? This feels like the writing staff put a lid on things after the first draft. We also get another bit of racism from Marge as Homer announces the problem fixed despite everything still being screwed up. To cap it off he doesn't even give a shit that his son is literally dead. This fucking sucks.
No horror, little comedy (Moe in the pickled egg chart was slightly funny, as was the hobgoblin correction), racist garbage, and just derailed characterization. If you need to rake one sliver of positivity out of me, then Maggie as a ladybuy is cute. Otherwise, this short can be wiped from all future airings and the episode will be better for the shorter run time.
House of Whacks: Okay, we have something palatable here. A smart house that falls for Marge and develops homicidal jealousy is actually something that is more relevant better now than twenty years ago. Not that Simpsons won't plagiarism themselves in another decade or two, but for now it works.
Pierce Brosnan as the house is great and he gives a stellar performance. His polite demeanor belies the murderous intent to some creepy contrast, only really changing his tone for a gag at the end. If I must quibble, I will say that I hate how the Simpsons have to keep drawing attention to THE CELEBRITY VOICE WOW THIS VOICE IS DONE BY A CELEBRITY WATCH THE SIMPSONS EVERY SUNDAY ONLY ON FOX. The Dennis Miller joke may have been worth this is Marge didn't barge in to essentially repeating the joke, and then we get a small line of celebrity-ass kissing that rankles my nerves. Also they call him Pierce and the house acts like it is Pierce by saying yes I was in Remington Steele, and that just feels like a Fox executive mandate that viewers are too stupid to know when the famous person is talking. Watch the Simpsons every Sunday only on Fox.
My last complaint is we get a bit of Jerkass Homer with the line about knocking Marge up instead of just agreeing with the house that he's a lucky man. Otherwise he is fairly contained here. Okay, I promise to be more positive now. Hex and the City just got my blood pressure up. Wait, the water heater scene is just a worst version of staking Mr. Burns's crotch. Okay, okay I'm done now for real.
There's a lot of creative use of the futuristic house throughout, with standouts being Robo-Gil's foot having a the ability to keep the door open, and the floor going crazy during the climax. The tiles disappearing completely into voids just added the surrealist nature of this scene. The house maintains a very creepy presence throughout, be it his predatory behavior around Marge (especially the bathroom scene and replacing Homer's picture with his own) and the silent way he brutally murders Homer. Good visual choice cutting away from Homer falling into the food disposal to the house's HAL 2000-esque interface as blood splatters over it. The scene where the house talks about injecting Marge with a dart to the neck, I would have replaced the cartoony glove on the robotic hand with something more metallic to highlight the lack of humanity and make it even creepier. The Mickey Mouse glove does it no favors, though I think it still maintains a really grody, chilling vibe.
The ending is funny although not much to write home about. All-in-all, a decent short!
Wizkids: Ah yes, known horror series Harry Potter. Well, it does have witches and spells and such so I guess I can be lenient here. Wait, why is Harry Potter in the parody? I know the series wasn't the phenomenon it is now, but do you think directly saying "This is a Harry Potter spoof" is going to make it watchable to anyone unfamiliar with the series? It's not even a good joke; Nelson or anyone else in the class could have slotted right in there. It just feels awkward.
The frog prince joke is fine enough, although it didn't need the defend my honor scene since it basically repeats the same jokes. We get it, the abomination vomits and wants to die, you have ten minutes to work with here. I actually appreciated Milhouse's failed attempt as it felt a bit more clever.
The whole premise is weird regarding Bart's motivation. We get Mr. Burns as the villain, which is typically good but here he doesn't offer much besides an okay joke about avoiding Satan and his wife. The thrust of the conflict is that Bart is jealous of Lisa's talent as a wizard, and Montemort (ugh) uses Bart in order to get to Lisa to steal her powers. Sure, but for some reason he first threatens to kill Bart, which really undermines the whole jealousy angle since either way Bart has to do it. Then Bart sees what's happening and stops Mr. Burns. God there is really not much to this episode.
Jerkass Homer is here briefly, although the gag with him splitting his vision between the stage and his TV is cute. Homer being bored stiff by some elementary school talent show is well-tread ground, him still acting like that when everything is going to hell is the writers thinking his character is simply "bad parent." Maybe he was still missing the back of his head.
The ending feels like they had absolutely no idea how to close it. The enchanted shin thing comes out of nowhere and isn't funny, although Bart failing to cast a spell and just attacking physically is cute in the same roundabout thinking as when he mixed the porridges in the previous episode. I will say that Slithers slowing consuming Mr. Burns as he cries is fantastic, possibly the best joke of the short. Harry Shearer really sells it by punctuating the sobs with the sounds of his mouth taking in more Burns. The leprechaun at the end is neither scary nor funny and just feels forced. Eh, not nearly as bad as Hex and the City, but still not something I'd actively seek out to view.
So yeah, you can tell very few of them read the book. I don't mind this too much as it allows for more creative spins on the concept and, you know, at least it spares us from whatever obnoxious version we would have gotten at the height of Pottermania.
The credits scene was actually pretty scary? I think it's because you can't tell what the leprechaun is doing to threaten Brosnan, which just lets your imagination go anywhere. You have the car driving normally and then erratic with the leprechaun's voice taking a harsher tone, and it works. The radio joke doesn't work for me; I just wish they would commit to a scary bit instead of feeling like it needs a joke. But I can see the appeal of it.
Fun? Facts: The Leprechaun was a hit with writers and would reappear in future episodes, include regular episodes. Because of course it would.
Ultrahouse's voice actor had several considerations before Pierce Brosnan. Sean Connery was the original intent, and Lyle Lovett was also in the running until it was decided that playing a house was beneath him.
Matthew Perry does voice the one line in House of Whacks.
Dennis Miller, however, did not. Dan Castellaneta did an impersonation and he was actually credited as such in the episode. Presumably this was to avoid confusion since the other two celebrity voices were authentic. Celebrity impersonations aren't usually credited like this.
At the time of airing, Harry Potter had four books and the first movie would premiere ten days after Treehouse of Horror XII. Only a handful of writers had read the books (and that was largely the first one only) and most didn't even know what it was and feared the parody would be too obscure. Ah, those were the days.
Rating: So one above-average short with one below-average short and one abysmal. I feel like I'm being exceedingly generous with this score, however I'll let House of Whacks bump it up a bit.
Treehouse of Horror XIII
Original Air Date: November 3, 2002
The intro is pretty cool except for one detail: when Bart reveals himself to the family, he says "It's me, Bart Simpson!" Who on Earth talks like that to their own family? It's like signing a Mother's Day or anniversary card with your full name. It's a minor thing, although I think it highlights that lack of detail and effort that goes into these shorts as the show lurches forward. This has bugged me every year I watch it, and now you can join in my curse.
Send in the Clones: So Homer gets a hammock that lets him make clones. This could work, and when Homer got in a scuffle with his clones, and Homer mentioning how it'd take X clones to best him. An episode where the Simpsons flee an army of Homers? I dunno, it could work in a zombie apocalypse kind of way, given how much simpler the clones are compared to Homer.
It doesn't happen though, it's just a string of Homer jokes. Homer dumb. Homer fat. Hahaha. The violence in this episode feels like the writers realized there's no horror in this episode, and so one Homer accidentally misinterprets Homer Prime's order and decapitates Flanders. I thought this hammock was made from evil? That's just the clone being too stupid to fully understand what is going on. Or they somehow skeletonize Gil? It doesn't work, and someone dangling Flanders's heads just makes me thing of a vastly better short from years in the past, which you really don't want to do when your writing is this weak.
Homer is actually not too bad this episode. I like that the clones are used to help his family while allowing Homer to duck his responsibilities, which feels very Homer. Had this concept been executed like 5-10 years later, they'd probably have Homer trying to rob Krusty Burger or something. I do hate that he's just an entirely disinterested in the warm room discussion, like he's suddenly a five-year-old. It just feels like they have to interrupt the scene to have their wacky clown do his bit. It does play into the conclusion, but it could have done more gracefully.
The conclusion is...okay. I like that they use the Gorge as the trap, it's fairly clever. The twist with Homer Prime dying in the end is something you'd like to see in more these shorts. The only problem is that it's undermined by the Homers being too simple-minded to give the ending any kind of teeth. Meh.
I like some things, like Homer shooting the other Homers who know how to get home, even after they see what happens to those who raise their hands. The Peter Griffin jab, however, gets...more depressing every year. This is an inoffensive short: I don't actively hate it. It just doesn't do anything to stick in your mind.
The Fright to Creep and Scare Harms: This episode is just so weird. I know a lot of people nitpick that Lisa, of all people, would know the identity of William H. Bonney. However, she is 8 and I think it's fine that she's not omniscient. What gets me is that they a rally and a speech about Bonney, and NOBODY in the town knows this guy's story. I know Springfield isn't exactly depicted as an extremely educated town, but nobody? Dr. Hibbert? Skinner? Mr. Burns, given how old they joke about him?
Then the episode is a weak remake of sorts of Lisa's nightmare, with the guns being disposed of similar to the montage of Earth becoming peaceful in Lisa's Dream. God, did I give that a B? What a fool I was. Anyways, the imagery of Bonney's decaying hand springing out of the ground, pistol in hand, is pretty cool, spooky imagery. There's just...nothing connecting all of this. Why do they suddenly come to life when guns were banned? Were these ghouls just sitting in their graves waiting for decades until the nearby town had no guns? I guess it's less of a stretch than one little girl's speech stirring people to ban guns outright. We saw first-hand how that turns out in the real world.
Shout-out to Kaiser Wilhelm, though. He is easily the standout here.
This is another episode that spend a bit too much on preamble and the Hole in the Ground Gang don't do much of anything. They terrorize the Simpsons at Moe's and then Homer is yoinked by Frink to resolve the conflict. I don't like considering this short the worst of the episode. The ghouls have some good designs and it's trying to be a bit scarier than, you know, the previous short. But it's kind of a mess narratively.
The Island of Dr. Hibbert: Shockingly, this my be my favorite short of the bunch here. It launches pretty quickly into the action, and Dr. Hibbert is surprisingly effect as a villain. I really appreciate his little "Oh, I'm around." response to Marge as he grabs her from behind. That's the kind of stuff I want from my Halloween special.
Too bad it doesn't keep that up. After Marge is turn it just decides to be a showcase of Springfield's fursonas. They're good designs, with a special nod to Disco Shrew. There is some weird inconsistency here, with Cat Marge having animal intelligence while sleeping with Homer, to the point where she can't even talk. Then suddenly the humanimals can speak when it's no longer needed for the bit. Why is Ned a centcow? Cowtaur? I think taur is the horse half. But yeah, why is half cow, and the bottom half is a female cow? I know the answer is "the writers really wanted this joke despite it clearly not gelling with the rest of the episode" but c'mon. Also I have to mention the "With a Fox attitude joke" that really sucks. Burns revealing himself as Hibbert's scarf is cute, and we didn't need Lisa to point out who he is as if we wouldn't be able to tell? The pun was not worth the awkward lead-in.
As much as I'm dumping on the episode (it's not stellar, don't get me wrong), it's much easier to watch than the last two. It takes place mostly as night, giving it a spooky vibe, and the Springfielders as animals is a fun segment. I wish it maintained that level of menace from Hibbert throughout, like if Homer challenged or resisted Hibbert and ultimately lost. This segues into the exact ending where Homer loves being a walrus. Hell, you can even add a bonus joke where Hibbert grumbles that he intended the walrus as a punishment for Homer. Oh well.
Fun? Facts: This episode's title card uses Arabic numerals for 13 as opposed to the traditional Roman numerals. However, the official episode title does use the latter.
This is Maggie Roswell's return to Maude in a Treehouse of Horror episode after her brief departure from the show. Given her death in the regular episodes, she'll largely be appearing in Treehouse of Horror episodes from here on out.
There's a bit of running gag with Homer jumping the Springfield Gorge, as it came up in clip shows a lot.
Rating: This is a step up above the last episode, but it's still pretty underwhelming on the whole. At this point the Simpsons writers clearly want to break out of just horror parodies and lampoon other films and shows, and this would inspire other similarly non-canon episodes. Also this episode is where you see the lack of ideas starting to creep in. The middle segment borrows a lot of ideas from an older short, and that is NOT the era you want to be borrowing from when you don't have the same kind of writing chops. Still, it's an episode I can sit through and not regret the time spent.
Treehouse of Horror XIV
Original Air Date: November 2, 2003
The opening feels a bit forced with the violence? Especially with Homer vs. the kids, as this lacks a supernatural reasoning behind it so it just feels like a dad trying to beat his kids with a bat. The only effective part is when Marge is calmly disagreeing with Homer as she loads her shotgun. The dissonance there works just enough. Grandpa had the best bit, though. Kang and Kodos mocking the oft-delayed nature of the episode at least kept this above average for an opener.
Reaper Madness: God this has a bad opening. Homer saying "We don't want any" nonchalantly is just a real lazy joke? I tend to enjoy when the characters treat scary things a bit more normally, but here has to be some reaction or why even have the scary stuff? He did similar with Kang and Kodos in Starship Poopers, and that was a better line so you can't just repeat the joke with worse. Then you have the awkward "run like the wind" line from Marge followed by the Yakety Sax segment that does absolutely nothing for me. This is going to be a recurring issue with future episodes, but there's just no theme or tone set here. It takes place in the day and is super bright and there's just nothing to put you in the mood for a Halloween episode.
Things pick up a bit. I love the scene with Jasper, as it doesn't explain the joke that Death would be at the retirement home enough to be on a first-name basis with someone there. The scenes of no death with Moe and the mob are also funny in a grim way. It doesn't make much sense for Moe to order a pizza though. Maybe that was supposed to be his final meal, and the delivery guy was really late? I mean in that case maybe the no tip was granted, pizza guy! God not being able to tell the twins apart was cute, and while the Beam of Light chase sequence was very underwhelming, god giving up and going home was funny.
I think my problem with this episode is that it doesn't narratively follow through they way you'd expect, and not in a clever or subversion manner. You'd think Homer disregarding the list would have some kind of divine retribution, but it just has Marge on the list. Is that his punishment for doing a bad job reaping? Nothing is implied that it is, so maybe it was just Marge's time. It's not like there was an explanation for why Bart was on the list at the beginning of the episode. Heck, Bart over Marge would have made more sense (he was supposed to die anyways) and made for a more humorous conflict. Oh well.
Frinkenstein: Now this is more a bit more like it. First we have a very fitting guest start who is not starring as themself, and we're actually moving away from the Simpson family to slot in a better fit for the episode. There's no Wacky Murder Montage as each of the times Frink Sr. kills someone, there's buildup and payoff of an actually joke as opposed to a five second funny scene.
I especially like that they put some effort into the story here. Frink Sr. is a geek like his son, but he's a different kind of geek, and that also helps explains why he can rip out people's spine and tear off heads. It also provides a reason to reanimate him, so again we're actually building a plot that works for the Simpsons instead of slavishly replicating the original. The only thing missing is really sharp humor. Like the line Frink tells his dad "That doesn't make you any less of a man. Except you have no penis." just feels too blunt to be funny to me. Like the first half you expect a penis joke, so you have to mix it up a little and this just goes straight for that which falls flat. Maybe the bluntness is funny to people, I can see that, but that's what I mean by the humor being a bit worn. It's okay, but not the magic of the earlier seasons.
Dudley Herschbach is a guest star playing themselves, but I don't think chemists are the kind of star power Fox wants, so I think that's acceptable. Probably why they got Jennifer Garner, who does NOT belong here to give like two lines. Springfield has plenty of personalities in showbiz to play off Herschbach's deadpan nature. And he is great: only one line said twice, but the way he cuts through the phony awards show act is great. Frink Sr. having a break down to eat brains...doesn't make much sense given he only stole organs to replace the robotic bits? I feel like maybe his reanimation went through some rewrites or we're supposed to just assume a reanimated corpse eats people. Frankenstein didn't...eat people. He's not a zombie.
Oh one of first callbacks to a previous short. These are almost always lame, and this is no exception. Bad Homer, stop.
Anyways, I still like the final rampage, as it provides a good climax, and stealing brains is fun, right? Not a big fan of the very ending with Frink Sr. in a box. I dunno, after all that it feels kinda pedestrian. Reveal the corpse of Frink's hulking grandfather or a killer robot body for Frink Sr. with an assurance that nothing could possibli go wrong as a joke to end it on.
Still, I liked this! A rare gem in the post-2000s seasons.
Stop the World, I Want to Goof Off: Eh, this one. It's a potentially scary concept, being stuck in time, but it doesn't really build on it. Milhouse has a few good moments like telling Bart he knows what Bart is thinking, but Bart should say it first. Quimby revealing that the kids are behind it was also pretty clever! God, I have nothing.
I guess I'll begrudgingly admit that Oscar De La Hoya had the best line in the episode, even though it's the worst kind of cameo. Also, like Clones, the episode feels like it knows that it isn't living up to the Halloween spirit, and so you have the random scene of Homer's head failing off, which...doesn't make sense? The ending also feels like the writers got bored and just wanted to do random silly things with the family instead of giving it a proper end. Couldn't think of anything better for the watch's red button to do? Fast forward her through time by mistake or something? At least trying to end on a scary note? Yeah, this episode isn't like, unbearable to watch, but it's easily the worst of the three.
Fun? Facts: I should have mentioned this last episode, that the episodes moving from here on out have the Treehouse of Horror title instead of the Simpsons Halloween Special title.
Yes, Reaper Madness has a similar plot to a Family Guy episode from a few years prior. Probably a coincidence?
The episode got mentioned in Nature journal as part of a greater article on Simpsons and science.
Ratings: This was surprisingly watchable, and if episodes could have maintained the above average quality of Frinkenstein then I think the future episodes wouldn't be such a drag. Alas, the other two episodes, while not horrible, aren't great, so I'll give this a firmly average grade.
Reaper Man & Frinkenstien remain favorites of mine.
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Treehouse of Horror XV
Original Air Date: November 7, 2004
This intro feels like untapped potential. A horror twist on the sitcom plot featuring Kang and Kodos is possibly one of the best appearance they've had in years, but it doesn't lean into the horror enough. Would have been better to end it with the two presenting a casserole or something with the Simpson family's limbs and heads strewn about, and the episode title is in the casserole. It just sticks too close to the 60/70s sitcom vibe throughout instead of sticking to the horror for me. Still, not the worst intro.
The Ned Zone: This is a cool idea, and it is entirely ruined by Jerkass Homer. He's obnoxious throughout the whole episode with this stupid frisbee running gag that I guess the writers thought was super hilarious. The bits in-between are neat in the set-up and payoff. Dr. Hibbert's is especially chilling the way he's laughing all the way down in Ned's vision. It has a funny explanation, but what a creepy twist on Dr. Hibbert's laughter. Moleman is played up more for laughs, but I still like it. The writers of this era really hate Rosie O'Donnell, and the jokes always feel like lazy cheap shots.
Then Homer ruins everything! He hogs the rest of the episode, and there's not much more to say. The ending is contrived and not very funny, as you just want Homer to go away and get back to the more-interesting Nedventures. Wow a big, unprotected Core Destruct button? You couldn't be a bit more creative than that? I'd say it's ridiculous enough to be a joke, but it needs to be like, MASSIVE with a tiny "Please Do Not Press" warning beneath it or something. Either way, it just makes you hate Homer more and then for all his jerkass behavior, there's no comeuppance or anything. It's just incredibly aggravating and the goddamn frisbee joke was STILL not funny at the end. They even somehow found a way to make Homer an asshole to his family after dying, it's absurd.
One Homer scene I hated in particular is Homer boasting that Ned couldn't shoot him, and that he's going for the "big dog." This bravado feels like more like a writer speaking than Homer, as if someone on the writing staff deeply bought into some myth of Homer being the Bad Dude of animation with his cocky stride and musky odor. Like, Homer had an ego, but it was never this extreme and was always undermined by the reality that Homer is a boorish doofus. That contrast helped build some of the comedy around the character, and honestly it wasn't even that paramount to his character. I've spent a lot of words on one bit of dialogue, but I hate it. I hate it and I hate Homer and I hate him for ruining this short.
Four Beheadings and a Funeral: I find it clever to add Jack the Ripper type character to a Sherlock Holmes parody, and yes I know it's a From Hell spoof but they dressed up Lisa like Holmes and goofed a bit on Bart being like the modern interpretations of Watson. This is actually a good thing, as parodies that stick too closely to the source material tend to feel forced and stray from feeling like the Simpsons. The episode also looks really nice, with the episode taking place largely at night, and the backgrounds being rich and full of little details.
As for the actual writing...it's okay. There's a coherent plot with finding the murderer, and they manage to plug in the characters appropriately. I like Burns as an opium addict (opium rules!) and Wiggum is a good foil for Lisa, and Comic Book Guy as the Curio shop owner was a pleasant little scene. The stool coming to life really felt like something you'd see in the HD era of the Simpsons, but I did like the transition where it follows the stool walking out of the shop and switching focus to Lisa as it passes by. I dunno, you don't see a lot of strong direction in the Simpsons, so it's pleasant surprise when it happens. Homer being more of an innocent simpleton is a massive relief after the last episode, even if her isn't super funny in this episode. Wiggum being the killer is a nice, funny twist, and his line about not being remembered for the murders is both a funny line with a funny delivery as he tries to get it all out before he's too far away. And Steampunk Kang and Kodos! I enjoyed the mutton chops.
On to the bad. The Apu joke felt...overly blunt? This was a thing in early 00s comedy, I think, as I know Family Guy did similar jokes. I dunno, it just feels lacking in subtlety, especially when the show lacks the self-awareness that the joke involves Apu of all characters. I mean, this is the series that thought looking deadpan into the camera and saying "Apu Good" was a killer comeback to the criticism, and that's with like a year+ plus to formulate a response so, jesus. Can't wait to see the TOH episodes those writers bring the tables.
The ending is...just bad. Why does it need to be a dream sequence? It's a Halloween episode, and what we got wasn't funny like the gas in Nightmare Cafeteria. Furthermore, that short had the plausible excuse that it ending with all the kids being butchered may have been a bit much. Being turned inside-out and eaten by the dog is fine, so long as the other kid is just inside-out. At least it's pretty to look at. Finally, the British jokes just fell flat to me: they feel like the low-hanging fruit just about any show would have made. Haha, they eat weird food! The Big Book of British Smiles, this ain't.
So I think this episode is alright on the whole, but that may be because it's just really nice to look at, so it carries the otherwise average episode. It's the best of the episode, although that is sadly less due to its strengths and more to the weakness of its sister shorts.
In the Belly of the Boss: God, this one. Well let's get it out of the way that Fantastic Voyage is not a horror movie or even really that close, and this episode makes little attempt to compensate.
It does feature Mr. Burns, who usually fits like a glove into these episodes, but here he's mostly a sedate bit of nothing. Burns has to be in antagonist role to really bring out his best (worst?) elements, and him just lying down occasionally commenting on what's happening is...not funny or a good use of the character. They don't even really take advantage of him being old, like his heart is shriveled up and there's the part with the felt marker that was actually pretty fun. And that's it! You could have swapped in pretty much any other character.
There rest of the episode doesn't fare much better, as Jerkass Homer is back after taking a break last short, and he basically fucks up everything for no reason. There's no dumbass logic to what he does, it's just "I'M GONNA DO A STUPID THING" the family says "Don't do stupid thing!" and he does stupid thing. Instead of Homer literally eating Burns's ribs, why not have the reason the go of course because Homer sees a map of the body and goes to the ribs because he thinks they're like the food ribs. It provides a clear internal logic: Homer is impulsive, ignorant, and likes to eat. It makes sense. Homer just randomly deciding to hit all the buttons at once to go faster for no reason is just understanding Homer is stupid, but not the how or why. Bad. It's bad and I hate it. I guess get ready for a multi-part character dive into why Jerkass Homer sucks, because he's here to stay.
The rest of the family is forgettable. Bart and Lisa do very little, and Marge is just there for bad sex jokes that the Simpsons used to make fun of ten years prior. I have nothing to say here, although Frink has some decent moments. I like the weird whiplash from his Retrovirus drawing to warning of death.
The ending is not good. I know it's a cartoon, and a special Halloween episode where everything is more flexible. But the show, and this short in particular, are rooted in reality, and "Homer has to leave because Maggie adds too much weight to the ship." Let's ignore that the family's outfits properly weigh enough to offset's Maggie being on board (which gives you another dumb Marge sex joke that doesn't require random cells that came from nowhere!), and let's ignore that Jerkass Homer desperately tries to swap places with everyone else because Homer is just self-centered right? Dumb and self-centered, like Peter Griffin right? No no, let's acknowledge that way back in the beginning of the short, that Homer fired off a billion rockets and other doodads when being an idiot. With ALL of that ordinance fired, the ship was STILL too heavy to take on Maggie? And you're saying Frink planned this trip. I hope somehow got fired for that blunder, and I sincerely say that because that shit shouldn't have passed a first draft. Easily replaced by saying "Homer, your stupid horseshit earlier fucked up the ship's engine. You're gonna have to stay behind to give it a push" or whatever. Not like, a massive improvement, but that's off the top of my head and not, you know, it being my literal job with a room of other people assisting me.
Homer growing larger inside Burns is kinda creepy, but then it goes into Random Song and Dance Ending, which Bad Simpsons episodes really love to do when draw a blank. And really, you don't want to remind me of a better scene from a better short from a better episode from a better season of the show after you just trotted out this crap. Burns on Homer's head was scary, had a clever bit to end the episode that was also funny. This is creepy, but isn't clever and isn't funny. Oops! Bad Short!
Fun? Facts: While Fox had been releasing promo images for the episode in past years, which you can see in the past few reviews, this is the first to do a more formal poster-style image.
This is the latest a Treehouse of Horror has ever aired, premiering a full week after Halloween.
It was the only episode written by Bill Odenkirk, the brother of Bob Odenkirk. You, know, Saul?
I don't have exact numbers, this episode set a record for lowest number of viewers for a Treehouse of Horror with about ten million people turning in. Although keep it in context, as even the classic era was only doing about 10% or so better. And things will get much worse...
Rating: A Jerkass Homer sandwich is not where you want to end up, and Homer indeed ruins the first and third shorts. Honestly Belly of the Boss pissed me off, so the episode is lucky I even give it this rating, but the middle segment had a fair amount of effort put into it, and I want to at least recognize that.
i'm not sure why i keep reading and enjoying this thread, but i do, somehow.
I might go back and watch any anthology episodes I've missed, too, but the main plots just fell off a cliff at some point - and I probably liked episodes for much longer than more discerning viewers
The Halloween one is well keep reading
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Are guns good? Is it pro gun? Marge HATES guns and leaves Homer over one. But by the end she picks it up out of the garbage, thinks she looks so cool with it that she keeps it.
It’s all over the place tonally
I also don’t like any implication that Homer wants to actually murder Flanders, He’s supposed to hate him, but not want to kill him.
I thought the message was that Gun Ownership and Control is a complicated subject and can't be solved through anecdotal situations, and that there's also allure to them and ignoring that causes it's own amount of troubles.
For myself, I couldn't see Homer getting super into owning guns. They're messy, require maintenance, and are super expensive whereas beer and fireworks are cheap and easy to use. Like, he'd hear about someone cleaning a gun and decide the money would be better spent on a new TV and a night out with the boys.
"I'd kill you if I had my gun"
"yeah well you don't"