This review contains full spoilers for The Simpsons: “Treehouse of Horror XXXVII.”
The opening segment of this year’s “Treehouse of Horror” has Marge Simpson putting up a shed in the backyard, and the shed keeps supplying her with new husbands. The last in a long line of Springfield men is Survivor host Jeff Probst. That one gag sums up the whole episode pretty well. It’s silly and fun, and it isn’t going to give anyone nightmares.
Overall, “Treehouse of Horror XXXVII” is a decent episode. It doesn’t come close to the show’s best Halloween special, and it’s a long way from the worst. Its real problem is scheduling. It airs right after “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening,” and that episode is the stronger of the pair.
The classic three-story format returns
Last week’s special told a single story over the full half hour: Homer (Dan Castellaneta) and his friends were stalked by a bloodthirsty slasher, and the killer’s secret identity turned out to be a surprise. This week the show returns to the traditional “Treehouse” formula. There’s a cleverly animated intro, which this year is a neat little claymation spoof of The Nightmare Before Christmas, followed by three spooky shorts.
If you watch both episodes in a row, you may well decide the show ought to switch to the full-length format permanently. Still, if the writers want to make one of each every year, nobody’s going to object.
It’s wise to keep your expectations in check for any modern “Treehouse.” On the plus side, The Simpsons has improved at these specials over the past few years.
A haunted shed and a Bart with a dog’s brain
The night’s cleverest title belongs to “Bride’s Shed Revisited.” Marge (Julie Kavner) puts the shed together, it starts replacing her husband at random, and she fully embraces her questionable new ability, working her way through the best and worst single men in town. The Probst pairing is easy to let slide. Lisa reminds viewers in the intro that none of this counts, since the episode is strictly non-canon.
“Dog Boy Afternoon” borrows very loosely from Pet Sematary. Homer accidentally kills both Santa’s Little Helper and Bart (Nancy Cartwright), and then, without meaning to, causes their bodies to swap brains. The body-swap jokes land, and there’s a good running bit where Homer works through a lineup of morning-themed and afternoon-themed liquor.
The segment is bloodier than you might expect, too. Homer gets torn apart by hungry dogs in a scene that goes further than the show normally does, and it’s nice to see a Halloween special push the envelope this way.
Teenage Bart and Lisa face the DMV
The final short, “Vehicular Dad Slaughter,” skips ahead in time. A teenage Bart and Lisa (Yeardley Smith) discover that Patty and Selma (both voiced by Kavner) have stranded their father in DMV training video limbo. Writer Tim Long was smart to make the time jump, even if the story would have played just as well with the kids at their normal ages. As a pair of witches, Patty and Selma are solid.
No single short stands out from the rest, and none of them falls flat.
Julie Kavner gets the spotlight
Two ideas tie the episode together. Each short checks in on the Simpson family at a different stage of life, and Kavner’s characters get more attention than anyone else in the cast. Both choices pay off.
Just a few seasons back, an episode centered on Marge and her sisters would have been cause for concern. Kavner’s voice has worn down considerably over time (in fairness, the same is true of several cast members on a sitcom that’s approaching 40 years on the air). Lately it’s gotten better, whether thanks to some form of digital AI assistance or simply hard work from Kavner. Her Marge now sounds more like she used to.
None of this will push the all-time great “Treehouse” episodes off their pedestal. You get lots of goofy jokes and Halloween gore, and each short works on its own terms. Even so, that only earns it second place among Season 38’s Halloween episodes, behind “The Revengening.”