Review: The Simpsons ‘Treehouse of Horror XXVI’

Spoilers Below:

“Wanted: Dead Then Alive”

Sideshow Bob finally killed Bart (in the school music room, with a spear-gun). With the deed complete, Bob moved on to a professorship, but found himself unsatisfied. He decided to reanimate Bart and kill him again, over and over again. However, the Simpsons found out and killed Bob, with Bart reanimating him as some sort of Frankenanimal professor.

“Homerzilla”

Springfield was Japanese-like; Homer was Godzilla-like. Shenanigans ensued.

“Telepaths of Glory”

Lisa and Milhouse were exposed to radioactive waste and gained superpowers, but the latter took it too far. Maggie, who apparently also possessed the powers, stopped him.

In Case You Missed It:

1) The American Girl Doll on Milhouse’s phone background was “from the mixed-up ‘80s.”

2) Sideshow Bob had Fiendbook messages from Fat Tony (“You won’t be seeing much of Louie no more.”) and Jailbird (“Bob, I left my shiv in your ear canal.) He also had a notification that Russ Cargill is hosting a 10-year Dome Reunion 2017 – a reference to The Simpsons Movie (2007).

3) Springfield University’s motto was: “If you can read this, you’re accepted!”

4) A sign in Springfield Prefecture read, “High Tension Wires, Never Been Struck by Monsters.”

5) While walking in town, the Simpsons passed a Mr. Sparkle billboard.

6) Grampa’s tombstone said, “Abraham Simp-San, “Foolish Old Man.”

7) Mrs. Hoover’s “Four Sushi Groups”: icky, ucky, ooky, and gross.

8) The movie executives had posters for Green Hornet vs. Green Lantern (“with special appearance by Green Arrow!”) and Solitaire: The Movie (“Don’t See It Alone.”)

9) Some of the scrolling news headlines said “Ramen Prices Skyrocket!” and “Geishas Giggle Coyly.”

10) The Ice Age squirrel had an appearance in the beginning of the third segment.

This year’s Simpsons Halloween special started off quite strong. It had an intro by Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi, which BubbleBlabber photog Becca Green aptly summarized with the comment: “I wish every Simpsons episode was like this.”

It then moved on to the first segment, by far the strongest of the trio. Even with the ups and downs of the series throughout the years, it has always been enjoyable to see a Sideshow Bob episode. Maybe it’s just me (or maybe I’m secretly in love with Kelsey Grammar), but there seems to be more care put into these installments. In this instance, however, I think the best part was finally seeing Bob accomplish his goal – over and over again. The little throwbacks like the rake were cute too, but for once it was refreshing to just focus on the action.

By contrast, the second segment wasn’t nearly as good of a story. It was basically “King Homer” from “Treehouse of Horror III,” but with Godzilla. Still, did you see the amount of background jokes packed into this one? It was like the complete opposite of the first: crap story, but sight gags galore. Out of the ten ICYMIs above, six came from “Homerzilla.” Did that make it fantastic overall? Not quite, but it was at least passable.

The third was like a throw-in at the end. I actually thought there was something wrong with the timing of my DVR – maybe a football game went long or something – because by the start of “Telepaths of Glory,” there was only a few minutes left in the episode. Instead, it just ended up being quite brief. I was disappointed (especially considering it was kind of like Stretch Dude and Clobber Girl from “Treehouse of Horror X”) but Kang and Kodos saved it at the end with their comment about the aspect ratio: “Just because it looks like season four, doesn’t make it season four.” Well played.

Although the biggest part of this episode was a success, it was almost brought down substantially by a lousy plot in the middle and a half-assed finale. Still, Kang & Kodos saved the day, as they are known to do (vote Kang/Kodos 2016), and the intro was hard to ignore when judging the average rating. I might have scored this half a point less if it weren’t for those two factors.