My thoughts on The Simpsons Halloween of Horror and Thanksgiving of Horror episodes

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, considering we're getting two Treehouse of Horror episodes this year. I wanted to look back on sorta spin off episodes. Don't worry I do plan on doing the same with Not It episode. For the present, I wanted to cover my bases since I already previously talked about Treehouse of Horror episodes themselves.

Halloween of Horror

Let's start with Halloween of Horror, the only canon Halloween episode in the show. They do reference Treehouse of Horror as a joke. The episode follows The Simpsons goes to an haunted house attraction. You know the ones where people dress up to scary people. Lisa quickly hit her limit canceling plans for virtually everyone including the performers.

Homer went to a store to end up telling Apu about his employees attempting to steal Halloween. The former employees vowed vengeance on Homer. I do liked how Lisa was able to overcome her fears later in the episode. I felt this was one of the more emotional holiday episodes that's canon they done. Halloween of Horror does stand out in a few ways.

Along with Not It, the only Halloween episodes with one story rather than a couple of them. Also we finally got to see how The Simpsons celebrates Halloween outside Treehouse of Horror episodes. This is one of the most upsetting moments in Lisa's life ever. At one point, they weren't going to celebrate Halloween that eventually changed.

I thought it was a decent Halloween episode. Obviously a very different vibe from Treehouse of Horror episodes. It felt like something that could happen in real life. Something horrific stuff that happened in real life ends up being scarier than fictional stuff you seen in many forms of media. Halloween of Horror ends up being of the best canon holiday episodes.

Thanksgiving of Horror

Alright now I gotta go a total 360 with a strange concept they ended up doing. Everyone knows Treehouse of Horror episodes are essentially Halloween episodes. They decided to attempt a similar concept on another holiday, Thanksgiving in this particular case. We are given three short stories that all relates to the holiday, Thanksgiving in some way.

I will respect they attempted something not expected at the time. It just came off being a little too weird even for a non canon Simpsons episode. Not only that, it felt more tame than actual Treehouse of Horror episodes. I think another major reason why so many fans loved those episodes is going the full distance with concepts.

I'm not feeling cheated out though, in a weird sense we gotten two Treehouse of Horror episodes in the same year before 2022. Maybe Thanksgiving isn't the right holiday for such a concept. I could see it working with Christmas though. Honestly, this felt somewhat like Treehouse of Horror. I think the main issue is each story was a little too focus on the holiday itself rather than spicing things up.

Thanksgiving of Horror obviously didn't have much success. Then again they did do this years after Treehouse of Horror episodes already became stables of the holiday Halloween for so many people. To clarify, it's a different take on a similar concept. Personally I stick with actual Treehouse of Horror episodes.

People are treating those like classic Christmas specials for the holiday Christmas. Which is a huge honor in and of itself. Which is also why Thanksgiving of Horror was already doomed from the start. It isn't the worst concept they ever attempted but still was a fun episode itself. Sometimes you attempt to out do something, the bar already set so high it's a failure before it even had a chance.