This Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror Episode Confirmed The Show’s Decline (But I Still Love It)

Although a special Treehouse of Horror Halloween special midway through The Simpsons‘The 36-season run encapsulates many of the series’ biggest structural problems, I still love the ride despite this. If The Simpsons Whether it’s renewed through season 37 or not, it’s fair to say the series has already performed well. The Simpsons reshaped the television comedy landscape during its Golden Age, from seasons 3 to 11, and the influential series inspired everything from South Park to Rick and Mortyto Bob’s Burgers, American father, Family Guyand Gravity falls. His legacy is already set in stone.

However, while The Simpsons Season 36’s risky experiments keep interest in the series alive, there’s no denying that the series peaked a long time ago. The Simpsons themselves may never get old, but the show’s humor was starting to feel out of date twenty years ago. I occupy a strange transitional space in The Simpsons fandom, when I came to the show just as its critical decline began. I started watching The Simpsons regularly around age 8, as well as a series of widely panned outings like Season 11, Episode 13, “Saddlesore Galactica,” heralded the end of the Golden Age.

Treehouse of Horror XV announced the start of The Simpsons at the end of the season

The Halloween special is markedly more surreal and wacky than previous outings

After its initial release, episodes such as “Saddlesore Galactica”, season 11, episode 15, “Missionary Impossible”, and season 13, episode 17, “Gump Roast”, were held up as evidence of the show’s declining quality. The fact is that I, along with many other viewers, remember them as classics. Admittedly, I highlighted Season 12 Episode 5, “Homer vs Dignity,” as the beginning of the series finale in a What is Culture article years later, but in general terms, the decline of The Simpsons it wasn’t something I witnessed firsthand as a late arrival. This explains why I love a divisive Treehouse of Horror.

With jokes like a talking stool, Hans Coleman being eaten by alligators in the sewer, and Homer sharing a body with Mr. Burns, Season 16, Episode 1, “Treehouse of Horror XV” belongs largely to the later, cartoonish era of The Simpsons. I ranked it among the best Treehouse of Horror episodes of all time, but compared to previous parodies of the series The Shining or Nightmare on Elm Streetthe anthology episode’s segments don’t make much effort to scare viewers or replicate the aesthetics of the film they parody. Instead, the episode is twenty minutes of constant absurd jokes.

The Simpsons Got Sillier (and Less Resonant) After Its Golden Era Ended

Treehouse of Horror XV highlights the problems that plagued the zombie Simpsons

It would be ridiculous to claim that the Golden Age of The Simpsons fate authentically scary episodes of Treehouse of Horror, but the show stayed true to the source material it parodied during the acclaimed era. In contrast, “Treehouse of Horror XV” parodies are chaotically exaggeratedprioritizing jokes per minute over character work, and as a result, it feels confusing. For example, Mr. Burns inhabiting a Victorian opium den is a funny visual, but it goes against everything viewers know about the character. Likewise, Burns’ optimistic outlook after he and Homer are trapped in the same body is strangely out of character.

As The Simpsons Season 36 movie parodies “Treehouse of Horror XV” is so busy mocking From Hell, The dead zoneand Fantastic Journey that the series barely has time to think about its characters. In a careful and complete analysis of the series, YouTube creator SuperEyepatchWolf noted that seasons 30-33 of The Simpsons featured an average of about 40 more jokes per episode than seasons 34 and 35. Surprisingly, seasons 30–33 are seen as the series’ lowest point, and seasons 34 and 35 were considered a marked improvement. Focusing on more jokes than character-based comedy hurt the series.

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XV is still a late-season classic

The episode arrived at the perfect time for the series

While I may be intellectually aware that “Treehouse of Horror XV” is a harbinger of everything that would soon go wrong The SimpsonsI can’t help but love the flawed episode. Maybe it’s all nostalgia, but I still think the chaotic madness of “Treehouse of Horror XV” feels inspired by its inanity. Some of the The SimpsonsThe best movie parodies succeed precisely because of their silliness, and it’s hard to begrudge an episode that does everything imaginable to get laughs.

Arriving at the start of Season 16, “Treehouse of Horror XV” came before the sloppy character work really infiltrated the series proper. It’s easier to excuse the inconsistencies as part of the non-canonical Treehouse of Horror experience, even if the show soon began to become similarly inconsistent in its regular episodes. While the writing may have been on the wall for The Simpsons When this first Halloween special from 2004 airs, “Treehouse of Horror XV” will still always have a place in my heart.

Source: What is Culture

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