Episode 5 - Treehouse of Horror XVIII
4 January 2009
Review
Synopsis: Three Halloween stories as usual. First is a Kang and Kodos story modelled on E.T. Next is a parody of Mr and Mrs Smith with Homer and Marge as the married assassins. Finally Bart, Lisa, Nelson and Millhouse cause terror in Springfield in Heck House. The Good: With the weight of realism off its shoulders the show’s plots can be as silly as possible without bothering me too much. The opening and ending of the show allow the writers to take shots at their own network, which we know they love to do. Marge attacking the advertising for other shows is quite clever. Of the three stories the Mr and Mrs Smith parody is the funniest. Homer being called Agent 241 (“Why does he always bring up my weight?”) and Bart sitting on the cannon which replaced the toilet get us off to a fun start. Then we have Homer eating the potentially poisoned lasagne which is hardly original but is always a welcome gag. The ending where they have been telling Principal Skinner all their problems is an amusing conclusion. The Kodos story has a nice direct E.T. joke with Bart peddling very slowly under his weight and his use of his ray gun as deodorant is suitably silly. While the best joke of all comes in the Heck House story (See Best Joke). The Bad: The Heck House story doesn’t do a lot for me. It seems to lack a real point and as with many Halloween episodes, one story seems to get squeezed for time. Kodos is so obviously evil that the humour is a bit weak in that story. Best Joke: Flanders playing the devil is trying to scare the kids away from sin. Having listed four of the seven deadly sins he decides to speed up the process for the last three. So he shows them Moe at a strip club. He steals dollar bills from the stripper who kicks him in the crotch. This effectively demonstrates lust, greed and envy. Envy because as he lies in pain on the floor he cries “Oh how I envy the crotches.” The Bottom Line: This is about what you’d expect from a Simpsons Halloween episode after eighteen years. A few nice jokes and parodies but nothing startlingly original or entertaining.
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