I don't really know if there's a single reason for the overall dip in quality of The Simpsons. I've read everything from Mike Scully to the Fox executives, and I'm sure a lot of those things are factors. One of the problems is that the show has been on for twenty-five years, and you simply can't maintain a golden era for that long.
My personal opinion is that Seth MacFarlane success has had an unfortunate effect on the very program that allowed him his success. I don't really have a nice way of saying this, but I think MacFarlane is a heartless bully who only has on average three funny jokes per episode of Family Guy. But it seems that a significant portion of The Simpsons's writing staff is made up of people who believe that MacFarlane's bar is what they should be aiming for.
I'll gripe more about that in a minute, but another problem is that over the course of seventy-five individual Halloween segments The Simpsons have probably covered this territory. The most recent segment which truly felt classic to me was 2010's Dial 'M' for Murder or Press '#' to Return to Main Menu, both in terms of using a solid source to parody as well as taking on its own identity as a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.
Well, with suitably low expectations, let's take a look at this year's offering and see what we have to learn from it.
Treehouse of Horror XXV
The opening was a disappointment, but after the previous year's Guillermo del Toro masterpiece they may as well not have bothered. In fact they kind of didn't, simply showing a quick montage of the past twenty-five years and then...um...dead people on a wall? Screw it, let's go to the first segment.
School in Hell
Let me get this out of the way up front. The Simpsons needs to stop doing jokes about Christianity, simply on the grounds that they don't know how to do it. A joke has to be funny first, then you can step into offensive territory as needed. But writing an offensive joke doesn't make it funny. Now somebody tell Seth MacFarlane to write that on the chalkboard.
Okay, this segment starts out promising enough. Principal Skinner is always a delight in the Halloween episodes, probably because his self-restraint gets loosened up a little. Bart goes to hell. Old news, but the premise is fine. He wants to stay. That's predictable. He does well there. And?
There were so many missed opportunities with this concept and most of them have to do with Lisa. Suppose Bart had left hell with Lisa and then needed her to get him back there once he decided that he belonged there? What if instead of Homer being the sinner Bart had to torture, it had been Lisa? "Lisa? What did she ever do?" Or better yet, what if Bart realized that he wasn't cut out for life in hell, but it turned out Lisa actually took to it quite well? Like I say, the second half just didn't GO anywhere.
For the record, Pat Benatar's song about child abuse was really not a wise selection for this context.
A Clockwork Yellow
Doing a parody of A Clockwork Orange at this point in Simpsons history feels like a bit of a reach, but I'll admit they handled it surprisingly well. A special kudos for giving Moe the Malcolm McDowell role instead of Homer. Moe has always been one of my favorite characters on the show, and as the perpetual helpless powder keg his violent streak is put to wonderful use here.
Even if you're not familiar with Stanley Kubrick's films the jokes come fast and hit their targets. The sight of these four grown men hopping in and out of the Kwik-E-Mart is delightfully humorous on its own, but when you set it up with the line from A Clockwork Orange (that I dare not explain here) it adds a whole new layer of satire.
A Clockwork Yellow proves to be the strongest entry in this year's Treehouse. With a bunch of London-centric references that feel inspired without being gratuitous and a quick survey of Kubrick's career (did I miss a Dr. Strangelove nod somewhere?) this segment does what Treehouse of Horror is supposed to do.
The Others
I think the seven minute format worked against this segment. The concept of the Simpsons meeting their former selves is actually pretty sophisticated, but they don't have enough room to really explore the idea. Marge competing with herself and then getting along with herself is about as deep as they manage, but there was a real potential for something truly special to happen here.
I think The Simpsons should have broken with tradition and done a single story arc through the whole Halloween episode. One, you could actually have done a parody of The Others and gotten Tracey Ullman to voice the old woman. Two, if the original incarnations are ghosts, how/why did they die?
And three, it's kind of an injustice to not give each character their moment to really look at themselves. How would Homer really take to dealing with someone who is himself? Did Bart turn out to be the character he'd wanted to be twenty-five years ago? Is Lisa happier as a blank slate or an outcast genius? What would it reveal to us if MaggieX2 could talk to herself?
Basically it was a good idea that couldn't develop. And dare I say that looking at the payoff gag at the end of the episode with multiple versions of the family arriving at the house that there might actually be a solution to The Simpson's stagnation here? Scooby Doo (comment on my fan fiction damn it!) has been through multiple incarnations and styles. Not all of them are good and they each have their flaws, but the powers behind the gang are also able to breathe new life into the characters and explore their personalities in ways that you really can't with a set-in-stone formula.
Maybe The Simpsons is due for an overhaul. What if they tried a version of the show where a story arc ran through an entire season, with consequences and character development? I'm sure there would be a backlash but I also think people would warm up to the idea of getting back to character driven plots. It's ultimately why The Simpsons has lasted so long.
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