TREEHOUSE OF HORROR XXIX -
Sunday, October 21st
Episode Production Code =
XABF16 (#643) / Writer =
Joel H. Cohen / Director =
Matthew Faughnan / Showrunner =
Al Jean
IT'S A TRILOGY OF TERROR
Homer wins an oyster-eating contest against the mythical Cthulhu, Springfield is overrun by plant body-snatchers, Lisa finally snaps and Mr. Burns opens a retirement home with some Jurassic upgrades.
Pre-airing Verdict
Next year will feature Treehouse of Horror XXX - which will also be Episode 666 - written by the modern show's top writer in J. Stewart Burns. That installment will likely wind up more promising than what's in store for us this Sunday - the first TV-PG rated THOH in five years (the last 4 have been rated TV-14) - but there are still reasons to be optimistic.
While this is the 3rd Treehouse in 4 years written by Joel H. Cohen... and the last two (XXVI and XXVII) have been critical duds... this one at least seems to remember that THOH is about actual horror and not nonsensical movie parodies with a penchant for over-the-top violence. So we won't be seeing spoofs of Mad Max, The Hunger Games, Kingsmen, Planet of the Apes or Chronicle here. This is promising in light of the fact that the best segment from those past two Cohen-penned THOH specials (BFF R.I.P.) actually had an element of horror to it... even if it failed to nail the landing.
I'll break out my expectations for each of the individual segments below. The opening bit featuring Homer in a competitive eating send-up against Cthulhu isn't likely to last more than a couple minutes.
Intrusion of the Pod-Y Switchers - A Body Snatchers homage could work if it's largely played straight and interspliced with comedic one-liners to cut the tension. All of the best THOH segments work this way. The clips have been good and the animation direction from Matthew Faughnan appears excellent.
I do have some apprehension that this segment could go off the rails partway through in light of the tie-in promotion from Tapped Out. So long as this largely sticks with the citizenry of Springfield getting replaced by clones and not the wacky antics of unfunny one-shot sentient plant creatures we should be fine. (Nobody wanted to see hijinx featuring the Zune aliens from the black hole short, either. They showed up, delivered a memorable punchline and that was it.)
Multiplisaty - This homage to the classic 1957 thriller, The Three Faces of Eve (for which Joanne Woodward won the Oscar for Best Actress), easily has the most potential to impress and continue the 2-year streak of the middle THOH segment being the strongest.
Lisa does indeed "snap" but she'll be snapping into a fractured litany of divergent personalities (almost all of whom want to kill Bart) that is probably best personified in the show's past by this one gag from Season 15's The Diatribe of a Mad Housewife.
(Yes, this predates Inside Out.)
Lisa has snapped a bunch of times in the comics but this is largely uncharted territory in the show itself. The success of this segment will hinge strongly on Faughnan incorporating subtle visual cues to signify "which personality" is presently at the wheel along with Yeardley Smith nuancing her delivery for Lisa as she segues back and forth between them.
I had the opportunity to ask Yeardley about the challenge this presented during
her Reddit AMA two weeks ago...
Geriatric Park - It's fair to call this segment "loosely" derived from horror - the Jurassic Park / World franchise is largely removed from the horror genre at this point. I also have the lowest expectations for this segment of the three given the preposterous premise of treating silly-looking dinosaurs that resemble the Springfield Retirement Castle crew as any sort of threat. The promo clip pretty much entails this will be little more than recycling tropes from those films while Homer cracks one-liners. At best I'm hoping for some inventive social commentary and for this not to be outright awful.
So, in short, two of the segments have promise... but I don't believe this will rise to the standard of last year's entry.
FYI, for those of you who haven't watched it, one of the finest episodes in the entirety of HD-era Simpsons' 10-year stint airs tomorrow as part of the weekly FXX episode marathon in Halloween of Horror at 6:30pm. I highly encourage you to seek it out.
FXX Marathon Theme - Conquering Fear (weekly themed 4-hour mini-marathons run each and every Sunday afternoon on FXX before new episodes premiere)
3:00pm
Lisa's First Word (S4E10 / 9F08 / 1992)
3:30pm
The Fat and the Furriest (S15E5 / EABF19 / 2003)
4:00pm
The Girl Who Slept Too Little (S17E2 / GABF16 / 2005)
4:30pm
Dial "N" for Nerder (S19E14 / KABF07 / 2008)
5:00pm
Wedding for Disaster (S20E15 / LABF05 / 2009)
5:30pm
The Nightmare After Krustmas (S28E10 / WABF02 / 2016)
6:00pm
Kamp Krustier (S28E16 / WABF09 / 2017)
6:30pm
Halloween of Horror (S27E4 / TABF22 / 2015)
Genuine Classic: Lisa's First Word
Highly Recommended: Halloween of Horror
Worth Watching: The Girl Who Slept Too Little, Dial "N" for Nerder
Nothing Special: Everything Else
