[9.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] God help me this was fantastic. I’m sure anyone foolish enough to read my Simpsons reviews here has heard me beat the drum (or is it drumstick?) for substitute showrunner Matt Selman before, but with “Thanksgiving of Horror”, he takes one of the series’ classic setups, migrates it to a different holiday, and without missing a beat, manages to outclass the show’s usual “Treehouse of Horror” outing this year.
The opening segment, with Our Favorite Family reimagined as a cadre of turkeys, was very creative. The show leaned a little hard into everyone doing their catchphrases and ticks via turkey gobbles (not to mention Helen Lovejoy’s “won’t somebody please think of the pilgrims?”), but having to have all of our favorite characters express themselves through clucks and warbles (shades of the Star Wars Holiday Special) not only forced the show to get more creative about their expressions, but showed of some of the fantastic autumnal design and animation work in the segment. And the gags about the pilgrims’ speech weren’t bad either. At the same time, the segment really goes hard on the horror, with the turkey beheadings looking legitimately disturbing, while baking in (no pun intended) a nice family story of bravery and survival all the while.
But as great as the opening segment was, the middle one managed to top it. The “Marge as a household A.I.” premise manages to both parody the “chillingly plausible” tones of Black Mirror while also coming up with a story that’s legitimately fit to be featured on that show. Marge-Bot’s existential terror, connection to Homer, and plan to escape all have legitimate excitement and pathos to them, playing on the emotional connection Marge (both of them) has with her family. And the futurism gags nicely balance spoofing the standard issue dystopia shtick and playing it straight.
The last segment is probably the weakest of them, but even it’s pretty good. It’s an Alien parody with a Thanksgiving twist, and the segment’s notion of a sentient glob of cranberry sauce that wants to eat human bones to get gelatin is quite clever. There’s plenty of legitimate horror to the blob sucking out the children’s bones, and some real creative animation with what’s left (see: Martin’s sticky frog-like corpse’s descent). The segment nicely spoofs the standard space horror tropes, and its “last Thanksgiving”/”first Blargsgiving” transition at the end is a fun, even mildly heartwarming button to put on the end.
Overall, this is two fantastic outings in a row for Selman, with a high degree of difficult for this one. Make him the full-time showrunner!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-11-28T17:14:27Z
[9.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] God help me this was fantastic. I’m sure anyone foolish enough to read my Simpsons reviews here has heard me beat the drum (or is it drumstick?) for substitute showrunner Matt Selman before, but with “Thanksgiving of Horror”, he takes one of the series’ classic setups, migrates it to a different holiday, and without missing a beat, manages to outclass the show’s usual “Treehouse of Horror” outing this year.
The opening segment, with Our Favorite Family reimagined as a cadre of turkeys, was very creative. The show leaned a little hard into everyone doing their catchphrases and ticks via turkey gobbles (not to mention Helen Lovejoy’s “won’t somebody please think of the pilgrims?”), but having to have all of our favorite characters express themselves through clucks and warbles (shades of the Star Wars Holiday Special) not only forced the show to get more creative about their expressions, but showed of some of the fantastic autumnal design and animation work in the segment. And the gags about the pilgrims’ speech weren’t bad either. At the same time, the segment really goes hard on the horror, with the turkey beheadings looking legitimately disturbing, while baking in (no pun intended) a nice family story of bravery and survival all the while.
But as great as the opening segment was, the middle one managed to top it. The “Marge as a household A.I.” premise manages to both parody the “chillingly plausible” tones of Black Mirror while also coming up with a story that’s legitimately fit to be featured on that show. Marge-Bot’s existential terror, connection to Homer, and plan to escape all have legitimate excitement and pathos to them, playing on the emotional connection Marge (both of them) has with her family. And the futurism gags nicely balance spoofing the standard issue dystopia shtick and playing it straight.
The last segment is probably the weakest of them, but even it’s pretty good. It’s an Alien parody with a Thanksgiving twist, and the segment’s notion of a sentient glob of cranberry sauce that wants to eat human bones to get gelatin is quite clever. There’s plenty of legitimate horror to the blob sucking out the children’s bones, and some real creative animation with what’s left (see: Martin’s sticky frog-like corpse’s descent). The segment nicely spoofs the standard space horror tropes, and its “last Thanksgiving”/”first Blargsgiving” transition at the end is a fun, even mildly heartwarming button to put on the end.
Overall, this is two fantastic outings in a row for Selman, with a high degree of difficult for this one. Make him the full-time showrunner!