[8.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Wow! Pretty easily the best “Treehouse of Horror” installment we’ve had in a decade. Granted, that may not be the highest bar in the world, but this one was funny and enjoyable in every single segment, with creative premises for each one, which is not something you can say for a lot of post-classic Simpsons triptychs.
The first couple of segments were both brief, but made the most of their quick setups. The cold open, with Our Favorite Family stumbling into a Cthulhu-summoning New England town was a lot of fun. Homer besting the Eldritch horror in an eating contest is an amusing direction to go, and his one victory wish being to get to eat the squid-monster himself is an appropriately Twilight Zone twist.
The second segment, which is a big conceptual play on iPods/pod people, was a little rushed, but hit its Invasion of the Body Snatchers beats ably, and wrung some good humor with a touch of commentary over people acting brainless when attached to their devices, with some good plant-based humor on the side.
The third segment, which sees Lisa kidnap and torment Bart, Milhouse, and Nelson in a fit of deranged personality disorder, was probably my favorite. It’s the most complete of the segments, not only letting Yeardley Smith shine in showing many different sides of Lisa, but also doing a good job of making her theatrical condition intriguing but then revealing her motivation and the source of her transformation well. Some of the humor with the boys was a little forced (sorry to steal your lines, Milhouse) but generally chuckle-worthy at worst, and Lisa’s traps and maneuvers were creative and enjoyable.
The last segment was mostly spectacle, but still quite fun. It feels like this show was overdue for another Jurassic Park riff, and doing it through the series’s senior citizens turning into dinosaurs is a fun approach. It led to all kinds of great visuals as the old folks of Springfield transformed into dinosaurs (my favorite was Jasper with his fin-like beard), and the solution that the rampaging dinos just want to be cherished is a silly but solid one.
Overall, each of these segments was good, and we got the return of satirical gravestones to boot. Hooray for Treehouse of Horror!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-10-24T01:32:25Z
[8.5/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Wow! Pretty easily the best “Treehouse of Horror” installment we’ve had in a decade. Granted, that may not be the highest bar in the world, but this one was funny and enjoyable in every single segment, with creative premises for each one, which is not something you can say for a lot of post-classic Simpsons triptychs.
The first couple of segments were both brief, but made the most of their quick setups. The cold open, with Our Favorite Family stumbling into a Cthulhu-summoning New England town was a lot of fun. Homer besting the Eldritch horror in an eating contest is an amusing direction to go, and his one victory wish being to get to eat the squid-monster himself is an appropriately Twilight Zone twist.
The second segment, which is a big conceptual play on iPods/pod people, was a little rushed, but hit its Invasion of the Body Snatchers beats ably, and wrung some good humor with a touch of commentary over people acting brainless when attached to their devices, with some good plant-based humor on the side.
The third segment, which sees Lisa kidnap and torment Bart, Milhouse, and Nelson in a fit of deranged personality disorder, was probably my favorite. It’s the most complete of the segments, not only letting Yeardley Smith shine in showing many different sides of Lisa, but also doing a good job of making her theatrical condition intriguing but then revealing her motivation and the source of her transformation well. Some of the humor with the boys was a little forced (sorry to steal your lines, Milhouse) but generally chuckle-worthy at worst, and Lisa’s traps and maneuvers were creative and enjoyable.
The last segment was mostly spectacle, but still quite fun. It feels like this show was overdue for another Jurassic Park riff, and doing it through the series’s senior citizens turning into dinosaurs is a fun approach. It led to all kinds of great visuals as the old folks of Springfield transformed into dinosaurs (my favorite was Jasper with his fin-like beard), and the solution that the rampaging dinos just want to be cherished is a silly but solid one.
Overall, each of these segments was good, and we got the return of satirical gravestones to boot. Hooray for Treehouse of Horror!