Rate and Review: "Treehouse of Horror XXI"

[Friz]

I don't understand why the Maggie Clockwork Orange reference was so well received. Considering the segment was a Hallowe'en story and therefore non-canon anyway, "it's all a dream/ it's all in their imaginations" isn't much of a twist. I don't understand how simply referencing someone is amusing, but that's just my view.

Because Alex from A Clockwork Orange is a sick, twisted individual. The idea that Maggie thinking about her Father killing loads of people and her Mother committing suicide is... well... dark. So the revelation that she always thinks about this sort of scenario is very scary - the scariest thing to come out of this Halloween special.

And also, the animation was gorgeous. The smoothness of her putting on her bowler hat and tipping it was a joy to watch. So fluid for the nowadays stiff animation that this show constantly parades about nowadays.

[NoOneFamous]

I can see that now but I'm rather disappointed. They've put in jokes before that not everyone will get but the point is, they're jokes. Wiggim not knowing how chess works isn't funny whether you understand chess or not. Better yet, if Wiggim doesn't understand chess (and obviously, the joke is that he doesn't), then why isn't he afraid of the knight? What should he expect it to do?

Wait, I just thought of another variation on the chess joke that would have been better than what they gave us!

"I don't like the looks of that Knight, Chief!"
"Don't worry, Knights can only attack from diagonally!"
*Knight crushes Wiggum*
"Uh... you're thinking of a Bishop, chief"

Ehh... still lame, but still better than what they did, I think.

EDIT: I have a couple more matters for contention.
I don't understand why the Maggie Clockwork Orange reference was so well received. Considering the segment was a Hallowe'en story and therefore non-canon anyway, "it's all a dream/ it's all in their imaginations" isn't much of a twist. I don't understand how simply referencing someone is amusing, but that's just my view.

I agree. To me it felt more like they thought, "well, Homer killed all these people, and we don't really know where else to go with this, so..... lets have it be Maggie's imagination! And then have her portray Alex DeLarge because its cute and vaguely fits."

[Cartoonnetwork]

I thought Maggie as Alex DeLarge was a little too elaborate. I got the idea but it's still a kind of weird cop out. Yeah, so she thinks of twisted things like Alex, but she imagining this whole thriller story that goes nowhere seems a little two much. Maybe if they were still doing the wraparounds it would seem more natural, but ending that particular segment with this was a little odd. It was well animated, though.

I liked the chess gag. I don't think it's explaining the joke. To me the joke is not that Wiggum is attacked as we expect, but the fact that he doesn't know chess rules and he thinks he's safe. He's so confident and clueless about it that he even explains the exact rule without realizing that's exactly what's going to happen. I sincerely think it was one of the...erm...four of five better jokes in the episode. Maybe it would be more subtle if Wiggum has said that and we haven't seen how he gets attacked or we have listened to a scream out of camera. But I think finding this so annoying or a typical flaw of modern Simpsons is seeing problems in an ok gag , maybe not brilliant, but more than acceptable.

I agree with everything people said about the Twilight segment. They could and should have torn it apart. And I believe I can enjoy a parody of something I dislike if it's clever and mean. I actually did find this segment partially entertaining but only the first part was similar to Twilight, so it feels like they should have either do a parody of Twilight or a Homer meets Dracula story, but not both things. Milhouse turning into a pooch was pretty funny, but I would have liked to see Lisa debating over Milhouse or the new guy, like the girl does in the movies. They have done it already in Future-Drama and other episodes, but now it would have been totally in context and it only appears as a sight gag.

Incidentally I completely agree that Homer finding Marge and Roger and saying "D'oh!" would be more classic style writing than the dull, long joke they actually used. This was much worse than the chess gag and more time consuming.

[Jims]

Holy crap... The Simpsons did a joke about "The Room". Why is this movie suddenly popping up everywhere? It was made in 2003.

The Twilight one only made me laugh a little when Milhouse turned into a goofy looking poodle and at the "The Room" reference (though they should have made him say the line to Lisa to make it more accurate).

That was my nitpick with the joke too, since they had the chance to hit the ball out of the park there, and (for some reason) they didn't. Having a character named Lisa kinda begs you to go for it.

Don't really feel like doing a big review, so I'll give some final scores.

"War and Pieces" 4/5
-I'm a board game fiend, so I'm a sucker for those kinds of jokes. Was kind of surprised to see a Jumanji parody because, honestly, who really cares about Jumanji anymore?

"Master and Cadaver" 1/5
-Didn't do much for me. This kind of story should be going for suspense and instead it turned out really campy and melodramatic. Even the obligatory "Clockwork Orange" joke at the end fell flat for me because it seemed gratuitous.

"Tweenlight" 2/5
-Saved a little by the fact that they really earnestly tried to do a family story. The dinner scene and some of the awkward small talk was amusing. Not much else really did anything for me, however.

Overall, we'll just call it a 2.5/5.

[HRH Sir Prince Charles]

the room joke was a total failure... seriously, he didn't even say Lisa

[Property of Ned Flanders]

they should have just made him turn to lisa and say "HE'S TEARING ME APART, LISA!". how easy, they wouldn't even have to remove the dad part.
yes, hearing that there was a room parody, i just had to watch this one. too bad it failed.

[Kiyosuki]

Seriously, if that really was supposed to be a Room ref...and they had a character named Lisa right there and they didn't take advantage of it...then that's just nuts. That made me do a double take for the rest of the segment. Like...how could they miss such a golden opportunity to truly complete that reference? I dunno...whatever. I get that maybe, -maybe- its some sort of copyright thing but...I seriously doubt it.

Maggie looking like Alex was sort of cool, since it's been joked often that she might as well grow up to become a professional killer or something, but when she started to physically transform into the guy with the hat and everything and it just continues on it was like "I get it already, jesus". If the one eye had the eyeliner when she turns around, and she gets the evil look and that's it...it would have been fine.

I mean, Lisa! Right there! If you're gonna make something that's 80% direct lift references, do them some justice at least.

[TriforceBun]

This type of joke is so terrible and its such a common staple of Al Jean era. The whole point seemed to be so people who know Chess (almost everyone viewing, most likely) can say "Hey, I get that joke and not everyone watching does! I'm smart and the writers are smart for writing jokes that not everyone will get! The show is just as subtle as ever!"

Because nothing is funnier than explaining the joke and why its funny before it happens, and then having the joke play out exactly as you'd expect.

A slightly funnier (though still bad) approach to this joke would have been to have a chess piece Wiggum wasn't paying attention to crush him instead... for example, a Bishop, diagonally, from offscreen. That way you still have the "omg I know Chess so I get this!" chess rules joke, but it isn't what they just fucking described. See? I improved the joke slightly with just a few seconds of brainstorming. Its so obvious the writing staff doesn't second guess their jokes anymore and just roll with the first thing they think of. Either that or they are actively shooting for dumbed down humor for a dumbed down audience.

Yeah, predictability is a joke-killer. Lines like these pop up very frequently in the Jean era, and it's often to set up a gag that ends up playing out exactly as described. Wiggum thinks he's safe from the knight, and explains it in an overtly, intentionally-unrealistically-wordy way. It's not really "overexplaining" so much as an attempt to set up a joke in a tongue-in-cheek, self-knowing way.

The problem is, it doesn't really work well at all. One of the cornerstones of humor is surprise, and while you can draw some great stuff from predictability (if the timing is impeccable), you usually don't want the audience to be able to tell where it's going. That's why the suggestion you made of the bishop slamming Wiggum from offscreen would be a marked improvement: it sets up the viewer's expectations, then pulls the rug out from under them. It's the most basic rule of most jokes, and if one can't grasp that concept, why would one be writing for the longest-running sitcom ever?

Like you pointed out, it's immensely frustrating that you can improve on a joke in The Simpsons with a few seconds of brainstorming. I'm even one of the more positive regulars here regarding the show, but this lack of care in the writing lately has really held OFF back.

[jayleno]

Nice post Triforcebun, I agree totally. I think this season has already officially pushed me over the edge into preferring the Scully Era over the Jean Era. Sad to say, but it has to be said.

[Doh]

Actually, you should have rounded down in the first place anyway... so you're not being too harsh in giving it an overall 1/5

If it was 1.5 upwards you round up, 1.4 downwards, round down


....sorry

I just noticed that

I wrote that review late in the evening. and I guess I can't be expected to be good at maths half asleep...

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

Yeah, predictability is a joke-killer. Lines like these pop up very frequently in the Jean era, and it's often to set up a gag that ends up playing out exactly as described. Wiggum thinks he's safe from the knight, and explains it in an overtly, intentionally-unrealistically-wordy way. It's not really "overexplaining" so much as an attempt to set up a joke in a tongue-in-cheek, self-knowing way.

The problem is, it doesn't really work well at all. One of the cornerstones of humor is surprise, and while you can draw some great stuff from predictability (if the timing is impeccable), you usually don't want the audience to be able to tell where it's going. That's why the suggestion you made of the bishop slamming Wiggum from offscreen would be a marked improvement: it sets up the viewer's expectations, then pulls the rug out from under them. It's the most basic rule of most jokes, and if one can't grasp that concept, why would one be writing for the longest-running sitcom ever?

Like you pointed out, it's immensely frustrating that you can improve on a joke in The Simpsons with a few seconds of brainstorming. I'm even one of the more positive regulars here regarding the show, but this lack of care in the writing lately has really held OFF back.

I agree, it makes me think how anybody can really enjoy this when the jokes aren't really up to par. That included the critics who review these episodes, the average watcher who has Family Guy embedded in his mind and the psuedo bandwagon fan who tries to be a part of the audience that hates one show but loves the other. There may be more but I haven't checked yet...

Anyways, the only way I'll be able to enjoy it was if they filled the room with laughing gas while a Simpsons episode was playing, then I'll be able to laugh at the episodes the writers write because they think the Simpsons can go on forever. Mike Scully was right, you better end your show while you still can. Cause I have not seen any original plot in Season 22, it's just baseless ripped off from other episodes and the critics are oblivious to this. It's almost like "My Generation" on ABC, which feels exactly like a sitcom from the 90's.

Additionally, I disagree with most of the critics reviews so far, especially TV Squad's review for "Elementary School Musical". Just because you looked at Lisa at a physiological way does not make an episode good.

[NormanB]

I loved it! 5/5.

I seriously laughed several times throughout the episode.

[Ramier Wolfcastle]

War and Pieces was probably the best segment. I really enjoyed it. So many hilarious references to board games I played when I was several years younger (Chutes and Ladders and Battleship come to mind). 5/5

Master and Cadaver was very boring. It took them a long while to tell the viewer that a potential murderer was on board. Then Homer decides to kill innocent people. Not cool. 3/5

Tweenlight was somewhat of a letdown for me. We had a vampire segment before (Bart Simpson's Dracula), why another? The only good parts were the family eating Ned Flanders for dinner and Milhouse turning into a poodle. 3/5

Overall, 3.5/5, rounded up to 4 or a B-

[jbauer]

Seriously, I thought Treehouse XXI was outstanding. Quite an improvement over last season's Treehouse special.

Direction-wise, this was another terrific effort from Bob Anderson. His third treehouse effort. During the War and Pieces segment, I even noticed a few visual parallels with Treehouse VI's cursed outdoors segment, which he also directed. Excellent use of color, lighting and camera angles. Smooth and gorgeous HD animation.

A solid effort from the writers (and good pacing and structure by Joel Cohen, who's really improved since his season 12 treehouse effort). Jokes never let up, and never got tiresome. The parodies themselves were quite fun and watchable.

I really don't get all the criticism. It's fun and watchable, as any Treehouse episode should be. Sounds like the more obsessive and critical fans are getting a little too nitpicky.

By the way, I completely disagree that humor should be always dependant on surprise. I'm not a chess expert, and I got that joke, which was perfectly delivered by Hank's Wiggum.

The opening was very nice, especially The Office opening. Nice use of the music along with the animation. I don't see it as much of a satire or parody, as much as it is a pat on the back on the likes of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and of course former Simpsons scribe Greg Daniels. They're all buddies of The Simpsons staff. I see this as a love letter (much like the Cheers parody on Flaming Moe's).

Also, the part where Homer and Bart start bashing each other was quite violent, which was a surprise. I enjoyed it. You don't see enough Bart/Homer abuse these days.

Kudos to the first segment. Brilliantly executed. I played pretty much ALL of those games, and I loved their real-life counterparts, and the way they were animated. The best joke was by far Marge playing real life Detective. Nice reference to Titanic as well (Milhouse sinking). Not a whole lot of plot, but that's all right. It is a Treehouse segment that isn't supposed to push much past 5 minutes.

Milhouse was surprisingly well used. Usually, secondary characters don't get enough to do in Treehouse episodes.

The second segment was the most solid, plot-wise. Homer's increasing level of psychosis and paranoia was uncanny. It got really fun when he started killing animals as well. I couldn't hold it together at that point.

I love parodies of movie that I hate. Twilight is no exception, even if there isn't a lot to parody about it. Best part was probably the beginning with every vehicle out to wound or kill Lisa (which is something that always bothered me in Twilight. Bella is always getting hurt or bleeding in contrived ways to set the human/vampire tension/conflict). I also have to give kudos to Daniel Radcliffe for his EXCELLENT portrayal of the vampire. I barely recognized him at all.

Overall, it seems Treehouse episodes have really improved over the past several seasons. A far cry from the somewhat forgettable season 16 and 17 Treehouse episodes. The best decision Mike Scully and Al Jean have made over the past 10 years was to move the production of these segments as late-season productions. It gives more time for the jokes and the animation to really come together in a nice package.

So, shoot me for giving it a good rating. 5/5

[jbauer]

I almost forgot. The Halloween scary names were REALLY OUT THERE! Especially from the writers. Joel H. Cohen's had the best ones, by far. I took a stopwatch and timed the episode. He really 'died' 187 SECONDS after his co-executive producer credit. Genius and brilliantly timed move by the writers and animation editor Don Barrozo.

[NoOneFamous]

jeez, do you work for The Simpsons or something?

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion and all, but I can't believe you're defending some of the things you did.

[Mr. Krikt]

I really don't get all the criticism. It's fun and watchable, as any Treehouse episode should be. Sounds like the more obsessive and critical fans are getting a little too nitpicky.

I take issue with this statement. People aren't just nitpicking; they're outlining the issues that they have with the jokes and in some cases, are in fact improving upon them.

By the way, I completely disagree that humor should be always dependant on surprise.

That's phrased to form a strawman argument. No one stated that humour should always rely on surprise. At the very most, TriforceBun asserted that surprise is a "cornerstone" of comedy which isn't the same. In the very same sentence, he mentions how "you can draw some great stuff from predictability".

The opening was very nice, especially The Office opening. Nice use of the music along with the animation.

Emptier praise is hard to find. They used The Office music while parodying its opening. How is that anything beyond "adequate" usage?

Also, the part where Homer and Bart start bashing each other was quite violent, which was a surprise. I enjoyed it. You don't see enough Bart/Homer abuse these days.

I cannot fathom such an opinion. Slapstick violence has become a crux for the writers for filler and humour. How can more be required?

I can understand that the Simpsons may no longer be quite to my tastes and that it's now produced as lowest denominator humour in the like of Family Guy. Therefore it will find fans nonetheless. However, I cannot understand how anyone can regard it as something so much higher than its station.

[Zombies Rise from the Sea]

A solid effort from the writers (and good pacing and structure by Joel Cohen, who's really improved since his season 12 treehouse effort). Jokes never let up, and never got tiresome. The parodies themselves were quite fun and watchable.

I disagree. The parodies were lazy, obvious and painful at best. The jokes themselves seemed like they would of been written by writers of Family Guy, (the jokes are evident of this, only the low IQ internet people will find those jokes funny.)

I really don't get all the criticism. It's fun and watchable, as any Treehouse episode should be. Sounds like the more obsessive and critical fans are getting a little too nitpicky.

I'm not nitpicky alright. I watch the episode and I write a review based on how I like the episode (you act as if we have a vendetta against you). We watch for the jokes, the stories, the characters. If the jokes and stories are lazy then why should we watch when we can all go watch "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"

The opening was very nice, especially The Office opening. Nice use of the music along with the animation. I don't see it as much of a satire or parody, as much as it is a pat on the back on the likes of Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and of course former Simpsons scribe Greg Daniels. They're all buddies of The Simpsons staff. I see this as a love letter (much like the Cheers parody on Flaming Moe's).

Love letter? They parodied South Park in "Bart of War" and then they did it again in "Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?". The former seemed like a parody, the latter felt much more like a love letter to the show we wrote letters about because Family Guy is kicking our asses.

Kudos to the first segment. Brilliantly executed. I played pretty much ALL of those games, and I loved their real-life counterparts, and the way they were animated. The best joke was by far Marge playing real life Detective. Nice reference to Titanic as well (Milhouse sinking). Not a whole lot of plot, but that's all right. It is a Treehouse segment that isn't supposed to push much past 5 minutes.
It's not supposed to have gag after gag after gag. And it's especially not supposed to have a Family Guy style cutaway gag. One thing I don't get is why everybody is obsessed with the Titanic reference.

The second segment was the most solid, plot-wise. Homer's increasing level of psychosis and paranoia was uncanny. It got really fun when he started killing animals as well. I couldn't hold it together at that point.

I didn't see much of Homer killing animals and most of the story felt monotous to me. (they feel the need to EXPLAIN everything like we're dumbasses)

Overall, it seems Treehouse episodes have really improved over the past several seasons. A far cry from the somewhat forgettable season 16 and 17 Treehouse episodes. The best decision Mike Scully and Al Jean have made over the past 10 years was to move the production of these segments as late-season productions. It gives more time for the jokes and the animation to really come together in a nice package.

What improvement, this seems like a step down from the THOH of yore. If they had alot of time for the animation and the jokes then why does it feel cheap and lazy?

Also, 187 seconds is a reference to the 187 police code, which indicates homicide/murder.

[TriforceBun]

jbauer--

While I don't agree with some of your points, it's cool seeing a positive, contrarian post that explains why you liked the episode rather than something a lot more brief.

About the humor and surprise thing, part of the issue is that The Simpsons has had this style of writing a lot over the past few years. It's an unrealistic, overly-descriptive way of speaking that cloyingly brings joke to the forefront and relies on laughs for the predictability of it. I could see this working the first couple of times, but it's been a regular thing over the past several seasons and it's gotten to the point where it feels like a crutch. That's why the suggestion of an unexpected result would've been preferred.

I also didn't feel that the Twilight parody was nearly biting enough for the show, and for the subject matter parodied. The beginning with the absurd amount of vehicles was a start, but it didn't take it any further than that.

I do agree that the animation was excellent, the scary names were enjoyably weird, and Homer's swordfish was a fun gag.

[McClure]

Wow, four posts in a row responding to one review. I understand everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I don't want everyone to jump all over this guy and discourage people from sharing their opinions in the future. so I will just respond to one comment:

I really don't get all the criticism. It's fun and watchable, as any Treehouse episode should be. Sounds like the more obsessive and critical fans are getting a little too nitpicky.

You've gotta love the irony of someone posting a review of a Simpsons episode on a forum taking issue with similar fans being "obsessive".

Do you know what nitpicking is? Many of the reviews have brought up things like pacing and plot (or lackthereof), whether you agree with those reviews are not, those are still major issues. That's not nitpicking.

Nitpicking would be giving an episode 1/5 solely because Lisa was in it too much for their liking. Or when someone posts a response because they think someone misused the term "nitpicking".

[The Governor]

I really don't get all the criticism. It's fun and watchable, as any Treehouse episode should be. Sounds like the more obsessive and critical fans are getting a little too nitpicky.

Those same "more obsessive and critical fans who are getting too nitpicky" are the same people that readily hand out 4/5's and 5/5's, even in season 22, but this episode stank and going batshit with your Simpsons Defense Force attitude isn't going to make it any better for the rest of us.

[D'ohmer]

The point is that we all have different opinions and if some people don't find flaws like some people do, then they just like it more and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Jims]

About the humor and surprise thing, part of the issue is that The Simpsons has had this style of writing a lot over the past few years. It's an unrealistic, overly-descriptive way of speaking that cloyingly brings joke to the forefront and relies on laughs for the predictability of it. I could see this working the first couple of times, but it's been a regular thing over the past several seasons and it's gotten to the point where it feels like a crutch. That's why the suggestion of an unexpected result would've been preferred.

I'm glad that this kind of joke got brought up, because it really seems to be a popular joke style for the Jean Era writers.

I don't understand the motivation for pushing this joke all the time. It's almost as if the writers have become so bored with traditional joke-telling that they have to put that meta-spin on everything.

BURNS: "What if there's a joke where Wiggum is on the chess board and proclaims 'I should be safe here!' when he's clearly in the path of the knight."
JEAN: "Hmmmm... It's a good idea, but too predictable."
SELMAN: "What should we do?"
BURNS: "We could always re-work the joke, maybe as a misdirection joke, or we could re-word it."
JEAN: "Wait a minute, what if the joke is how predictable the outcome is? Let's lampshade it! It'll be a joke about joke-telling! You know, a Writer's Joke!"
(Selman and Burns laugh uproariously)

No, it's not a Writer's Joke. It's just stupid and obvious. I feel like the staff must think this kind of lampshading is super-clever or something, and the only reason why people don't like them is because they don't get it. But maybe the real problem is that everyone gets the joke, but is so completely tired of this style that it doesn't mean anything anymore!

It's just that annoying guy at the party who won't stop harping on his originally-witty observation. Give it a rest already.

[lionelhutz123]

The point is that we all have different opinions and if some people don't find flaws like some people do, then they just like it more and there's nothing wrong with that.

The flaws are there. We aren't trying to find flaws. There isn't anything wrong with voicing a different opinion, but that "anyone who disagrees with what I found amazing is just being nitpicky" type of comment is unfair to the people who gave reasonable explanations for why they didn't like specific aspects of the episode. Jbauer uses the term "critical fan" as if we're out to bash those terrible new episodes. People are just telling it as they see it.

[Kiyosuki]

Well what about me jb? I don't hate every episode. In fact, I gave the previous episode a decent rating even if it was still pretty vanilla, I don't constantly rant about the series' shortcomings every single chance I get...I just don't see the point anymore, and I don't even post things quite as long or in depth as I used to generally, and I thought this thing was a piece of shit. Does that make me an obsessive compulsive, nitpicky person now?

[D'ohmer]

The flaws are there. We aren't trying to find flaws. There isn't anything wrong with voicing a different opinion, but that "anyone who disagrees with what I found amazing is just being nitpicky" type of comment is unfair to the people who gave reasonable explanations for why they didn't like specific aspects of the episode. Jbauer uses the term "critical fan" as if we're out to bash those terrible new episodes. People are just telling it as they see it.

This wasn't just directed at this side. I don't agree with what JB said and I'm sorry if it came across that way.

[Mira]

Homer had a few funny lines: "Oh yeah, I love it when you're distracted.", "don't ask if he's related to frankenstein, because that's racist somehow."

Maggie randomly turning into the clockwork orange character was funny too.

Other than that, all three segments were incredibly boring and devoid of anything funny. I mean, board games? Doesn't get much lamer than that. 1.5/5

[NoOneFamous]

I mean, board games? Doesn't get much lamer than that. 1.5/5

I think this segment could have been great, had they maybe just focused on one board game and Bart and Milhouse's attempts to win it, rather than what they did, which was essentially nothing more than a series of board game puns.

[Miss Diko]

There is nothing wrong w/ everyone having a different opinion, hating an episode or loving it for whatever reason. But it's never a good idea to go attacking other board members or labeling them with names. That's why I stay the hell off of YT and geekologie comments. Respect first!

I went back and re-watched THOH XXI and I was really happy to see more Bart, and I laughed at the part where he killed the Crazy 8's by impaling them and then blowing them up. And then kicking the crap out of the Mouse Trap game. I think the first segment was the best Simpsons anything I've seen since this new season began.

But I still can't help but wonder with this season...Will there ever be a rainbow?

[Denis Dufek]

Shit episode!

The one with games had a lot of potencial,that makes me hate this episode even more