Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XVII Review

Well... that wasn't bad at all. To put a statement out there, I think that Treehouse of Horror episodes have been an outlet for the Simpsons, a chance for them to put randomness into the show and have things happen that normally wouldn't. Lately, during the past few years, the Treehouse episodes have been nothing but a lame excuse of an episode. This year's episode was a little differnet.

MARRIED TO THE BLOB

The Blob, obviously a parody of something I havn't seen (it's such an uncultured generation) was filled with jokes right off the bat. The Arby's joke was actually pretty darn good and it's one we'll probably remember until next week. The cat joke was priceless too. The jokes were well placed and often. One thing that seems to be happening in the epsiodes lately is the presence of song fillers though. It seems ever few episodes theres a small music video. It's not bad, it's just I'd rather see more episode instead of a montage. Unlike many of the Halloween episodes, however, this short did end good. Usually they end somewhat weak... even normal episodes, but the homeless joke was a great ending.

YOU GOTTA KNOW WHEN TO GOLEM

Again, right off the bat, a great joke with HDTV: "That's right... look at your hero...". Of course, this is probably the weaker of the shorts, but that's how the halloween episodes go. This was a Jewish themed episode like many of the Krusty episodes but it was by all means not bad. For all of you who didn't watch the episode, Bart get's control of a golem from backstage at the Krusty Show. Whenever he puts a scroll in it's mouth, the golem performs the task that is written on it. This results in Bart taking it and using it to kick Homer's walls... wait... no... and beat up bulllies. Lisa decides to let it speek and it all of a sudden comes to life. There were a lot more spaces in between jokes in this episode, but still, it wasn't bad. They eventually make him a wife (and of all words to come out of her mouth when she first talks it'll make you laugh). Not bad though, the animators have really tried on this one.

THE DAY THE EARTH LOOKED STUPID

I was looking forward to this one because anyone who's familiar with the novel, the famous radio broadcast, and the movies (I expected bettter out of Speilburg) would realize it would make the perfect halloween episode. What they did, which I was really impressed with, is they got someone to do a voice pretty darn close to Orson Wells' from the radio. If anyone's not familiar with what this is about, around the 1930's or so on the night before Halloween, Orson Wells' radio show broadcast "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells. However, they did this in a way that it sounded like news coverage. It fooled half the country into thinking it was a real Martian invasion. Back to the Simpsons now, the episode opens up with some old music and a funny little view of "Quikee and Sons". It's all in sepia tone too. Gags like Otto's headphones were cool, but I didn't think the whole episode lived up the the hype it was getting on the internet and on commercials. They did it well, but there were significantly less jokes in this than the other two. The sound effects guy was a nice addition, and so was the "nose-bud" gag. The episode ended with a nice little parody (wheather you're against the war or not) on Iraq. The only problem was that the episode ended too early and the last shot lasted for a good few seconds, without even a bad joke. Weather that was for dramatic effect I don't know, but they should have said somethingthing.


All in all it was a great episode. For a Halloween episode, it wasn't bad at all.

- RATING: 8.0 -