[7.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Perfectly acceptable for this era of The Simpsons. None of the three segments knocked it out of the park, but none of them were bad either. Granted, none of them really told great or complete stories like classic “Treehouse of Horror” installments did, but they were each still solid.
My favorite of them, and the one that came closest to telling a complete story, was “Frinkenstein”, the middle segment. For one thing, there’s the juice that comes from Jerry Lewis meeting his own knockoff in Professor Frink. Making him Frink’s dad, even if it’s non-canon, is a fun bit of stunt casting. There’s a solid emotional throughline to Frink Sr. being more of an Indiana Jones-style scientist and our Frink never living up to his legacy. It’s not much, but it adds a little shading to the segment.
The bits with Frink Sr. trying to steal other people’s organs is pretty out there, but adds the mandated horror element to the proceedings and gives the animators the chance to come up with some intestinal set pieces. The conclusion, with Frink Jr. finally earning his dad’s approval through “acting like a man” to stop Frink Sr.’s rampage, is a nice one, and there’s a lot of good Nutty Professor-style gags.
The weakest of them was the opening Grim Reaper bit. It was mostly just a bunch of loose gags strung around a theme rather than anything with more momentum, but it was amusing enough for what it was. It feels very Schwarzwelder with the randomness of the gags. My favorite of them was Homer coming to Lisa’s class for “My Parent’s Job” day. It was dark, but comically so. The ending action movie chase with God was a bit much though.
The last segment fell somewhere in the middle. The show’s gag-writers clearly had a great time coming up with fun bits to do with Bart and Milhouse getting their hands on a time-stopping clock. There’s at least some narrative progression with the pair having fun, getting caught, and then having to figure out how to live when the world’s frozen in time after they break the watch. The jokes are all just chuckles rather than guffaws. But it’s amiable enough.
The opening is the only true weak point, with the family brutalizing one another in a desultory effort. Really the only bit of amusement is the annual cameo from Kang and Kodos, this time poking fun at the show for not airing its Halloween episode until November. (Damn you baseball!)
Overall, this one is perfectly solid as post-classic THoH installments go. It’s unlikely to be anybody’s favorite, but unlikely to result in too many groans either.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-10-07T04:33:24Z
[7.0/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] Perfectly acceptable for this era of The Simpsons. None of the three segments knocked it out of the park, but none of them were bad either. Granted, none of them really told great or complete stories like classic “Treehouse of Horror” installments did, but they were each still solid.
My favorite of them, and the one that came closest to telling a complete story, was “Frinkenstein”, the middle segment. For one thing, there’s the juice that comes from Jerry Lewis meeting his own knockoff in Professor Frink. Making him Frink’s dad, even if it’s non-canon, is a fun bit of stunt casting. There’s a solid emotional throughline to Frink Sr. being more of an Indiana Jones-style scientist and our Frink never living up to his legacy. It’s not much, but it adds a little shading to the segment.
The bits with Frink Sr. trying to steal other people’s organs is pretty out there, but adds the mandated horror element to the proceedings and gives the animators the chance to come up with some intestinal set pieces. The conclusion, with Frink Jr. finally earning his dad’s approval through “acting like a man” to stop Frink Sr.’s rampage, is a nice one, and there’s a lot of good Nutty Professor-style gags.
The weakest of them was the opening Grim Reaper bit. It was mostly just a bunch of loose gags strung around a theme rather than anything with more momentum, but it was amusing enough for what it was. It feels very Schwarzwelder with the randomness of the gags. My favorite of them was Homer coming to Lisa’s class for “My Parent’s Job” day. It was dark, but comically so. The ending action movie chase with God was a bit much though.
The last segment fell somewhere in the middle. The show’s gag-writers clearly had a great time coming up with fun bits to do with Bart and Milhouse getting their hands on a time-stopping clock. There’s at least some narrative progression with the pair having fun, getting caught, and then having to figure out how to live when the world’s frozen in time after they break the watch. The jokes are all just chuckles rather than guffaws. But it’s amiable enough.
The opening is the only true weak point, with the family brutalizing one another in a desultory effort. Really the only bit of amusement is the annual cameo from Kang and Kodos, this time poking fun at the show for not airing its Halloween episode until November. (Damn you baseball!)
Overall, this one is perfectly solid as post-classic THoH installments go. It’s unlikely to be anybody’s favorite, but unlikely to result in too many groans either.