The one where Bart dies.
Note: this is a spoiler-free advance review of “Treehouse of Horror XXVI.” This episode will air on Sunday, October 25 at 8pm EST.
No season of The Simpsons is complete without a new installment of Treehouse of Horror. These episodes rarely rank among the best of any particular season, but they tend to offer a fun, gruesome change of pace. The latest installment is no exception in that regard, though a few storytelling flourishes help this episode stand out a bit.
The Simpsons’ Best Treehouse of Horror Segments
After more than two dozen Halloween specials, the well has pretty much run dry when it comes to iconic horror stories to spoof. As a result, “Treehouse of Horror” has become progressively less horror-oriented over the years. Here, the only portion of the episode that feels overtly Halloweenish is the opening sequence. Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi returns to animate his second couch gag (after Season 23’s “Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts”). This sequence is every bit as dark and mind-bendingly surreal as you’d hope. It channels some of the subversive mischief of the older “Treehouse of Horror” episodes that has mostly faded in more recent years.
The first and most hyped segment in this year’s batch is “Wanted: Dead, Then Alive.” This segment shows what happens when Sideshow Bob (voiced by guest star Kelsey Grammer, of course) finally succeeds in his 25-year-long quest to kill Bart. Predictably, Bob finds himself in a bit of an existential crisis without his defining purpose in life, and he resorts to grotesque lengths to prolong his victory. If not a direct parody of the 1985 cult classic The Re-Animator, it certainly shares some common elements.
Any Simpsons episode featuring Bob is usually worth watching. The novelty of the premise only makes this particular return that much more appealing. The one real flaw with this segment is that this premise really deserves its own, full-length episode. There’s an interesting character study here in how the story explores Bob’s search for purpose in a post-Bart Springfield. It’s not unlike the Batman comic “Joker: Going Sane,” where Joker was forced to become a normal, suburban family man after he thought he had killed the Caped Crusader. There’s some funny material in this segment as Bob takes up teaching and butts heads with the disaffected, social media-obsessed students in his class.
This revenge is being served very cold indeed.
Sadly, there’s only so much room to focus on that material before the story reaches its climax. As for how Bart’s disappearance impacts his family, there’s barely a nod to that beyond one brief scene of Homer on the hunt. This segment is a lot of fun, and easily the best of the trio, but it could have been better given more room to flourish.
Though one of the earliest “Treehouse of Horror” episodes lampooned the original King Kong, somehow we’ve made it all these years without Godzilla becoming a target for Halloween parody. That finally changes thanks to the second segment, “Homerzilla.” This segment starts out as a pretty straightforward parody of the original film, right down to the black-and-white format and jokes about poorly dubbed dialogue. For once, Grandpa Simpson takes center stage as a kooky old man doing his best to protect a rural Japanese version of Springfield from the wrath of the ravenous beast who dwells beneath the waves.
Initially this segment doesn’t have much to distinguish it other than the black-and-white approach and the fact that Grandpa is the lead character, But eventually the story takes an unexpected swerve as it begins making fun of more modern incarnations of the Godzilla franchise and Hollywood’s relentless focus on remakes and reboots. If “Homerzilla” ultimately lacks the charm of “King Homer,” at least it shows the ambition to try something different and break the fourth wall.
This episode wraps up with “Telepaths of Glory,” which is largely a spoof of found footage superhero film Chronicle. Here, Bart, Lisa and Milhouse stumble across a hidden cave and emerge with super-powers. As with Chronicle, it’s not long before one of these newly minted superhumans begins abusing their new gifts.
This last segment is the most disappointing of the bunch. While initially it maintains the found footage format of Chronicle, eventually the animators abandon it for a more traditional approach. At that point there’s little to distinguish this story from past Treehouse fare. The story plays out like a mash-up of Treehouse of Horror II’s “The Bart Zone” and Treehouse of Horror X’s “Desperately Xeeking Xena.” The super-powers make for some fun sight gags as the three kids play pranks on various Springfield residents, but there’s nothing terribly new or exciting about this one.
While only one of the segments in this year’s “Treehouse of Horror” installment feels remotely Halloween-flavored, this episode offers a decent lineup of darker Springfield adventures. The standout is the return of Sideshow Bob, a story entertaining enough it really deserved its own, full-length episode. “Homerzilla” also has its moments. And while the lack of originality in “Telepaths of Glory” is disappointing, as a whole this episode is entertaining enough to fall comfortably in the middle of the pack as far as “Treehouse of Horror” episodes go.
