Opener: Point of View Camera wanders, and stumbles, through a haunted house, ending upon an opened coffin that lets loose a pile of animals finally revealing Mr. Burns as the “Master of Scare-a-Monies” which Smithers finds hilarious, but Moe rejects before he is killed by an iron maiden. His blood then spells out “Treehouse of Horror XVII.” For which Moe asks us to look at “my genius blood with the fancy Roman numerals and everything.”
Story I: “Married to the Blob”
Plot: A comet lands in the Simpson’s backyard and Homer immediately eats the oozing goo coming out of it. This gives him an insatiable appetite (even bigger than his normal one) and he begins eating anything and everything including the Simpson’s cat, local teenagers, and Dr. Phil. When Marge scolds him, they decide he needs to do something for the greater good, which turns out to be eating all of the homeless people.
Parody Song: “Baby Likes Fat” to the tune of the Sir Mix-A lot’s “Baby Got Back”
Best Lines:
- Homer when the comet goo begins oozing out of his orifices, “If I can keep down Arby’s, I can keep this down.”
- Marge scolding Homer for trying to eat Bart, “You won’t eat my stuffed peppers, but you’ll eat our son.”
Review: The Dr. Phil gag as well as the parody song were cute, but barely got more than a grin out of me. Homer growing fat has been done, so him growing grotesquely fat just isn’t that funny.
Story II: “You Got to Know When to Golem”
Plot: Bart discovers the Golem in Krusty’s prop room and promptly steals him to do his petty bidding (beating up the bullies, kicking Homer in the balls, and killing Principal Skinner.) Lisa orders the Golem to speak, believing that it despises doing such horrible things and as it turns out, he does (and also makes lots of bad Jewish jokes.) Marge makes a Play-Doh girl golem and the two marry.
Best Lines:
- Groundskeeper Willie to a cut-in-half Skinner, “You’ll make better mulch than you made a man.”
Review: Weak, weak, weak. The Golem story is a great one and had comedy potential, but making it do Bart’s bidding was just blah.
Story III: “The Day the Earth Looked Stupid”
Plot: A parody of the hysteria following Orson Welles’s reading of “War of the Worlds” with Springfield getting the hysteria and then being attacked for real by Kang and Kodos. The ending mocked the war in Iraq. Unhilarity ensued.
Best lines:
- Big Band Stu, instead of Disco Stu (since the scene takes place in the 1940s)
- Homer after the rioting “I’m proud of what I achieved during my rioting. It was either kill him or kill no one.”
- Radio announcer during “War of the Worlds,” “Astronomers say the ominous capsule originated from Earth’s closest neighbors.” Homer: “Flanders?”
Review: Parodies of this have been done. And that much better. Big Band Stu was the best line of the night, which isn’t saying much.
Episode Review: I’m a big fan of the Halloween episodes, but like the series they have suffered over the last few years. With three segments per episode all of the gags have to be dead on, and that’s got to be tough to do with a horror theme for 17 years straight. This one was especially disappointing since this season has turned out to be a refreshingly funny one. On top of that, the long break between new episodes had me salivating for tonight. Oh well, there is always next week.
themidnightcafe.org 
Story III was by far the most politically charged episode I’ve seen, and done well at that. The producers, I don’t think, weren’t trying to be funny, though some of that slipped in no doubt. The episode is clearly a social/policital statement that, unfortunately, will get overshadowed. The analogies were beautifully crafted and very specific to American’s lives, but they will likely overlook this as well, especicially in th polling booths Tuesday.
I thought it was a little over done. The Simpsons have always done social commentary and often been political, but they usually do it with better style and more funny. I guess Iraq is just too easy a target for me.
It was pretty good as far as Halloween episodes have gone in the past few years, but I did think the end was overdone. The Simpsons are supposed to be neutral on Blue/Red issues. The comments were fine except for that “this is how Iraq will be” thing. But then again the writers are californian celebrities. They did it with gay marriage already. Maybe it’s the American Dad reaction. Probably not though.
It was a little overdone. I’m not so sure the Simpsons are really neutral, but they definitely take shots at both sides. I always feel it is best when it is done with great humor. I hardly laughed at all with this episode.
Many people augur the rapid decline of the Simpsons in these days. It’s quite popular to think “they’re going down the drain” and to underline this with various “quality” arguments, often meticulously parroted from each other. This is the oldest mechanism in popularity and entertainment, when people get fed up with something and infest other, simpler minds with their idea of “what goes wrong with the series”, talking an icon to death just because the producers don’t follow this multiplicator people’s taste or idea of how things should be. Maybe they just got bored by watching too much in too short time and blame their resulting boredom to the series and not to their own fault, the overdose. You can’t do the same thing 350 times in the same style. That would bore the real fans and spectators of that series, which appreciate that the producers are not sticking to an endless repetition of the same stereotypes, which really killed so many other long runners. This episode has everything that a good Simpsons Halloween special needs, plus a honorable attempt to differ from the other ones. I had a good laugh all the time and -admitted that the Iraq potshot was a bit shallow- liked the third story so much that it is amongst my all-time favorites.
Thank you for your comment.
While, in general, I would agree with your statements, I will specifically disagree with you. Certainly, there will always be fans who turn on a given thing (band, TV show, whatever) when they make larger changes. But I will submit this is not the case with me.
You could actually flip what you’ve said and make a point that some people will stay with a show no matter how awful it has become. Relying on its past greatness and ignoring where it is.
For me I love the Simpsons. It is quite possible my all time favorite show. And my only marker for judgment is the funny. I love the social satire, but ultimately it just has to make me laugh.
Honestly, the last few seasons have found me laughing a lot less. However, if you will read my recent reviews you will find that I have great hope for this season. The stories have been more even and I find myself laughing a lot more.
This particular Halloween special was OK. It had a few moments, but for the most part I didn’t find it particularly interesting.