TVSquad

Even after I'd given up on watching The Simpsons every week many years back, I continued tuning into their annual "Treehouse of Horror" specials, the most recent of which aired Sunday. After a few more years of watching just that one episode each year, I eventually let it go as well. But I've been watching this 20th Anniversary Season of the show, and reviewing it for the site, so I settled in to see what we'd be tackling this year.

As always, the special is broken into three parts. This year's batch: a send-up of Alfred Hitchcock films, 28 Days Later, and Sweeney Todd. That sounded promising enough, and yet ...

Maybe I'm too old for the "Treehouse." Or maybe they just try and do too much. Or maybe, as was the case with all three of this year's segments, they have decent enough set-ups, but their endings are all stupid.

"Dial M for Murder, or Press "#" to Return to Main Menu"
After Lisa accidentally kills Bart, she and Mrs. Krabappel walk away laughing.

"Don't Have a Cow, Mankind"
Everything is back to normal in Springfield. Bart is in a giant tub of soup and people are in line to eat it. So they have to eat Bart-tainted food forever?

"There's No Business Like Moe Business"
Well, this entire segment was kind of annoying. But the big finish with Homer jumping out of the cellar still attached to the distillery was even ridiculous for this musical send-up. It was kind of funny when he threw the clearly ragdoll Moe across the bar.

All in all, these endings were letdowns. They weren't particularly funny, which should kind of be the point if they're not going to be scary. The "Dial M" ending was Hitchcockian, sure, but it wasn't clever or unique or humorous or anything. It just kind of ended.

I really wanted to like "Cow," as I have a predilection for enjoying zombie flicks. I was loving the zombie denizens of Springfield feasting on one another. I enjoyed Homer's father meeting their same fate despite making it safely to the Simpson house, as well as the inadvertent abandonment of Apu. All was going along fine, with a perfect blend of humor and danger and then it ... was just over.

Part of the problem is that they try and pack too much plot into these little short-stories. They've become 100% dependent on you having seen the source material to fully understand the sequence of events happening in them, which is an incredible weakness. Maybe the kids just like the silly violence. Who needs plot structure when you have human impalement. They're turning into animated Scary Movie knock-offs.

It was good to see Kang and Kodos in the audience for "Business." They felt about the same as I did by the end, though.

You'd think that after 20 years, they'd be able to prepare just an amazing little sequence of short films for these "Halloween of Horror" specials. Groening's comics line at Bongo Comics has an annual "Treehouse of Horror" special, as well. It features differing art styles, complex horror send-ups, and a dramatic departure from The Simpsons norm.

Wouldn't it be something if the television iteration of the concept was just as innovative and different from a standard episode of The Simpsons in presentation and visual style? Family Guy had a lot of success having fun with their animation style in their season premiere. The Simpsons have a built-in annual vehicle to really stretch their boundaries. They're just not doing it.

I guess next year maybe I should just skip the "Treehouse of Horror" TV special and curl up next to the fireplace with the "Treehouse of Horror" comic special instead.