Although one particular Treehouse of Horror Halloween special from midway through The Simpsons’ 36-season run does epitomize many of the show’s biggest structural issues, I still love the outing despite this. Whether The Simpsons is renewed through season 37 or not, it is fair to say that the series has had a good run already. The Simpsons reshaped the landscape of television comedy during its Golden Age from seasons 3-11, and the influential series inspired everything from South Park to Rick and Morty, to Bob’s Burgers, American Dad, Family Guy, and Gravity Falls. Its legacy is already set in stone.
The Simpsons season 36 episode 4 parodies '80s neo-noir movies, but the episode's plot also borrows from a movie that has not even been released yet.
However, while The Simpsons season 36’s risky experiments keep interest in the series alive, there is no denying that the show peaked a long time ago. The Simpsons themselves may never age, but the show’s humor was beginning to feel outdated even twenty years ago. I occupy a strange transitional space in The Simpsons fandom, as I came to the show just as its critical decline began. I started watching The Simpsons regularly around 8 years old, just as a string of widely reviled outings like season 11, episode 13, “Saddlesore Galactica,“ heralded the end of the Golden Age.
Treehouse of Horror XV Heralded The Start Of Late-Season Simpsons
The Halloween Special Is Markedly More Surreal and Zany Than Earlier Outings
Upon their initial release, episodes like “Saddlesore Galactica,” season 11, episode 15, “Missionary Impossible,” and season 13, episode 17, “Gump Roast,” were singled out as evidence of the show’s decline in quality. The thing is, I, along with a lot of other viewers, remember these as classics. Admittedly, I did single out season 12, episode 5, “Homer vs Dignity,” as the beginning of the show’s end in a WhatCulture article years later, but broadly speaking, the decline of The Simpsons wasn’t something I witnessed firsthand as a late arrival. This explains why I love one divisive Treehouse of Horror.
The anthology episode's segments don't make much of an effort to scare viewers or replicate the aesthetic of the movie they parody.
With gags like a sentient 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” very much belongs to the later, cartoonier era of The Simpsons. I ranked it among the best Treehouse of Horror episodes ever but, compared to the show’s earlier parodies of The Shining or Nightmare On Elm Street, the anthology episode's segments don’t make much of an effort to scare viewers or replicate the aesthetic of the movie they parody. Instead, the episode is twenty minutes of constant absurd gags.
The Simpsons Got Sillier (& Less Resonant) After Its Golden Age Ended
Treehouse of Horror XV Highlights The Issues That Plagued Zombie Simpsons
It would be ridiculous to claim that the Golden Age of The Simpsons featured authentically scary Treehouse of Horror episodes, but the show did stick closely to the source material it parodied during the acclaimed era. In contrast, the spoofs in “Treehouse of Horror XV” are chaotically overstuffed, prioritizing gags-per-minute over character work, and feel messy as a result. For example, Mr. Burns inhabiting a Victorian opium den is a funny visual, but it goes against everything viewers know about the character. Similarly, Burns’ optimistic outlook after he and Homer are trapped in the same body is bizarrely out of character.
Like The Simpsons season 36’s movie parodies, “Treehouse of Horror XV” is so busy mocking From Hell, The Dead Zone, and Fantastic Voyage that the show scarcely has time to think of its characters. In a thoughtful, thorough analysis of the series, YouTube creator SuperEyepatchWolf noted that seasons 30-33 of The Simpsons featured an average of over around 40 more jokes per episode than seasons 34 and 35. Surprisingly, seasons 30-33 are viewed as the show’s critical nadir, and seasons 34 and 35 were considered a marked improvement. Focusing on more jokes over character-rooted 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 might be intellectually aware that “Treehouse of Horror XV” is a harbinger of everything that would soon go wrong with The Simpsons, I can’t help but love the flawed episode. Maybe it is all nostalgia, but I still think the chaotic lunacy of “Treehouse of Horror XV” feels inspired in its inanity. Some of The Simpsons’ best movie parodies succeed precisely because of their silliness, and it is tough to begrudge an episode that does everything imaginable to get a laugh.
While the writing might have been on the wall by the time it aired, “Treehouse of Horror XV” will still always have a place in my heart.
Arriving early in season 16, “Treehouse of Horror XV” came before sloppy character work truly bled into the series proper. It is easier to excuse the inconsistencies as part of the Treehouse of Horror non-canon experience, even though the show soon started to become equally inconsistent in its regular episodes. While the writing might have been on the wall for The Simpsons by the time this 2004 first Halloween special aired, “Treehouse of Horror XV” will still always have a place in my heart.
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