Review: The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror XXX”

 

 

Overview:

“Danger Things”

A parody of the Netflix sensation Stranger Things. Lisa portrays the role of lost and powerful Eleven, while Milhouse ends up with the victim status of Will. Bart, Nelson, and Martin fill out the child roles of this rushed look at an influential series.

“Heaven Swipes Right”

Based off an oldie-but-a-goodie, Heaven Can Wait, this segment features Homer’s consciousness transferring to a new body. Though unlike the original, Homer ends up in a few more bodies than expected.

“When Hairy Met Slimy”

For a The Shape of Water parody, Selma gets intertwined with an unusual new love interest, Kang. Their love may be enough to cross the galaxy, but where does that leave Patty and Kodos?

 

Our Take:

Now, what an impressive milestone! What an amazing collection! What an astounding tradition! There is now thirty complete “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. This never-resting sitcom has upkept the annual Halloween series without fail. Never have the talents behind this show let it’s fans down in thirty years. This is nothing short of an accomplishment that no other entertainment franchise in history could boast. Congratulations to The Simpsons. From a dedicated fan, I am grateful for the stand-out event year-in and year-out.

We could also go into the irony of the numbering of the episode. It is serendipitous that “Treehouse of Horror XXX” would also be categorically episode 666.  ‘666’ being synonymous with the number of the beast.  The show has even marketed it as “part of the plan” from the beginning. Though that would take some of that future sight that the series has been claimed to have. So…maybe. Regardless, it is fitting and an incredible amount of episodes.

The whole thing starts off with a tad outdated reference to The Omen. Though it feels natural that Maggie would be the one to be the anti-Christ, it does feel recycled. Maggie was very memorably an alien already in much more memorable “Treehouse of Horror” episode. Still, there were some highlights to this segment. Especially when Homer sees the reflection of Maggie’s Finding Nemo poster. And, this one got a little gruesome, even for the annual Halloween episode.

“Danger Things” was a fun parody, but it was quite compacted into the one-third of the episode. Stranger Things first season was a layered and complex program. Trying to squeeze all of that in felt sloppy and could have been simplified. However, there have to be some points for the effort, and it must be difficult enough to instantly make it recognizable as Stranger Things and not just a generic ‘80s film.  There were plenty of fun references, especially the one that hits the earliest days of The Simpsons. Honestly, I loved this segment, and I wish that it was a full episode so that they could do more with it.

The Shape of Water parody was great solely for the fact that Kang and Kodos were there. Obviously, they needed to make an appearance as to keep up the tradition. That is thirty “Treehouse of Horror” episodes where they have been included now. Sometimes they are harder to see than episodes like this one, but they’re always in there. Maybe, we’ll do a post on it soon. While we’re on the subject, I would love to go back to the episode where they told us all of Selma’s future husbands. I am pretty sure Kang may have been at the end of the long list?

The “Heaven Swipes Right” segment was probably the weakest out of the three, not to say that it was bad. The reference is just outdated for the majority of us viewers. Thankfully, they tried to update it with some Google, Disney, and other modern call-outs. However, there could have been some much better options for Homer’s soul to enter. Seeing him take over the body of Mr. Teeny was pretty amusing though. I would have loved to seen Disco/Breakdancing Stew make another appearance.

There’s no point in telling you this episode is excellent. “Treehouse of Horror” is always one of the best episodes that you can watch out of the season. Add in all of the clever Disney references as the new streaming service approaches, and now I am just excited to binge-watch all of the Halloween specials back-to-back. Animation Domination Sunday’s are at their best when there are episodes like this to be had. We may now be passing ‘666’, but I sure hope we make it through some higher Roman numerals because I always love “Treehouse of Horror” before Halloween.