[5.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] A particularly meh Treehouse of Horror installment. I remember chuckling at the electronic voting booth gag in the opener back in 2008, and it's kind of surreal to watch it know with the election-tampering cloud hanging around the 2016 one, but it's still an amusing bit.
The Transformers parody is weak broth. The story has no middle it -- just going from "Bart gets a toy" to "Take over the world" in about a minute, and there's not really any point of view or funny takedown of the source material, just a generic "what if we stopped fighting each other and started taking over earth?" resolution.
The middle segment gets the most time to breath, though not really to its benefit. Homer killing celebrities so that an ad agency can use them in commercials is an amusing enough premise, but the residents of "Celebrity Heaven" returning to Earth to kick his behind is an odd direction to take the story, and it's mostly an excuse for the show to throw out some middling impressions and one-note celebrity gags.
The last segment is enjoyable though. I'll admit to being a sucker for a good Charlie Brown reference, and silly stuff like Homer imitating Snoopy or Marge playing the trombone in lieu of the Peanuts-style parent speak made me laugh. That story also takes a weird turn, with The Grand Pumpkin wanting revenge on humans for butchering his countrymen, but bits like his yellow pumpkin racism or defeat at the hands of Tom Turkey are the right kind of odd marriage that makes the segment passable at worst.
Overall, this isn't a good episode of the show or anything, even by post-classic standards, but it has its moments.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-10-13T16:45:11Z
[5.3/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] A particularly meh Treehouse of Horror installment. I remember chuckling at the electronic voting booth gag in the opener back in 2008, and it's kind of surreal to watch it know with the election-tampering cloud hanging around the 2016 one, but it's still an amusing bit.
The Transformers parody is weak broth. The story has no middle it -- just going from "Bart gets a toy" to "Take over the world" in about a minute, and there's not really any point of view or funny takedown of the source material, just a generic "what if we stopped fighting each other and started taking over earth?" resolution.
The middle segment gets the most time to breath, though not really to its benefit. Homer killing celebrities so that an ad agency can use them in commercials is an amusing enough premise, but the residents of "Celebrity Heaven" returning to Earth to kick his behind is an odd direction to take the story, and it's mostly an excuse for the show to throw out some middling impressions and one-note celebrity gags.
The last segment is enjoyable though. I'll admit to being a sucker for a good Charlie Brown reference, and silly stuff like Homer imitating Snoopy or Marge playing the trombone in lieu of the Peanuts-style parent speak made me laugh. That story also takes a weird turn, with The Grand Pumpkin wanting revenge on humans for butchering his countrymen, but bits like his yellow pumpkin racism or defeat at the hands of Tom Turkey are the right kind of odd marriage that makes the segment passable at worst.
Overall, this isn't a good episode of the show or anything, even by post-classic standards, but it has its moments.