Rate & Review: "Thanksgiving of Horror" (YABF17)

How would you rate this episode?


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[MENTION=49374]Venomrabbit[/MENTION], At least they'll be taking it semi-seriously for once and not just for the sake of a tasteless joke.
 
I don't have much to add to this farce of a thread, but I'll very briefly leave my two cents. Thanksgiving of Horror is unquestionably the strongest horror-themed anthology episode the show has produced in God knows how long. I'd probably watch this over any Treehouse of Horror since season 9 or 10. All three segments were mostly a success, the direction was stellar, the pacing was excellent, the atmosphere was on point, I laughed a few times, and there were several moments where I was genuinely disturbed. I'm feeling mighty generous today (maybe the general awfulness of the HD Halloween specials is inflating my estimation of it), but this just worked for me from start to finish.

5/5
 
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Well, it's been a lot polarized here, with people that genuinely liked this episode and what it tried, and others who hate it, with little to no inbetween. As far as I'm concerned, I'm from those who enjoyed the heck out of this episode. The best THOH of this year, and even one of the best since quite a few time for that matter (even if I think I still prefered the XXV and the XXVIII than this episode) isn't even a THOH. And looking back on it, I still wonder why they rarely gave as much attention to a THOH these last years as to this episode, with its extra runtime and its good sense of pacing that really are beneficial for it. And also with a short and simple yet efficient intro which gave me huge earlier THOH vibes, it's enough to start the episode in a very good way in my opinion. (Plus, the Thanksgiving names are pretty good. Wonder why Groening and Brooks haven't had one, though.)

A-Gobble-Ypto is a nice appetizer. I was curious to see how they would translated one of my favorite movies by resulting in a story about turkeys and the first Thanksgiving, and they did it pretty well. I won't say that this was a great segment, but it worked well with me. I thought the segment was quite engaging. Seeing the Springfield folks as turkeys was amusing, they did a good job to make them recognizable and understandable while only gobbling (I thought it would've been kinda annoying but it wasn't), and the story was somehow pretty intense. Sure it's violent and a lot bloody and I'm not totally into things that mostly rely on violence to show that it's for adult and to make things uncomfortable, but Apocalypto was quite gruesome too, even if sometimes it's a bit forced like turkey Maude being shot in the head in slow-motion, overall I didn't mind it that much. The story was short, but it didn't need to be longer so it's a good thing and that let more time to segments that had a lot of material. I liked some jokes like the indians showing up that made me laugh out lout, the last part with Wiggum trying to kill the turkeys after putting whatever he put into his nose was good and I liked the ending a lot, it's refreshing to have this kind of dark yet sober ending (until turkey Nelson shows up at least) with the turkey family observing the dark future for their kind. Lastly, I know that this isn't canon and that this is a turkey depiction of the family, but I really liked seeing turkey Homer trying to protect the family and save the egg alone, as well as turkey Bart saving his father.

The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow is an awesome segment and my favorite of the three. I know nothing about Black Mirror but thank goodness, it wasn't necessary to enjoy the segment as it is (though I suppose there's some BM easter eggs in it, but they don't interfere). It's a very efficient story about Homer buying a cooking maker AI with Marge's DNA in it, and what I enjoyed a lot about this segment is that this is quite disturbing. It's something that misses with a lot of modern THOH, being disturbing, without relying on any gory content. It's just delightfully unsettling, for all the good reasons. At first I though it would mostly be a story about AI Marge being convinced that she's the real Marge, and I'm pretty sure I saw this kind of plot a few times before (for example an Invader Zim episode), but they knew how to spice up the story all along. The crisis is so well handled for once and there's a very interesting interaction between real Marge and AI Marge. I liked that they made Marge an antagonist in this story too, that is well handled too, and therefore she deserved what she gets at the end. Though I must admit I don't really get why Marge didn't let AI Marge going into the Internet when she realizes that it's what she want, did she wanted that much to erase her ? The way AI Marge convinces Maggie to let her go is really sweet by the way, I appreciated that they made it serious. The ending with robot Homer was kinda random though, but that's not that much of an issue and this is basically the only one of the segment (besides Kavner's voice, I'm sorry for her but that just becomes difficult to hear her when both Marge are as expressive as they are in this segment). Oh and, the animation is fantastic. I loved this segment, it's not the funniest but it's one of the most interesting I've ever seen.

The Last Thanksgiving is also a very good segment in my opinion. Probably the most polarizing of this special but for me it worked in so many levels. Funny to see that some of the recent THOH are criticized for lacking boldness, but when it comes to segment like Mmm... Homer or this one, it's not always well received. I liked the boldness of this segment with all of those kids being killed with their skeletons extracted out of their bodies by a cranberry sauce blob-like, but without being excessively gruesome for the sake of it, something that probably would have been less pleasant to see. I just thought this segment was both disturbing and engaging, some scenes really gave me the chills like the attack of the blob in the dinning room full of kids, while Bart, Lisa and Milhouse vainly try to warn them. And I just love the very idea of it, by being a Simpson version of those cheesy sci-fi movies that could turn virtually anything into a menace, but this time taken seriously. Overall this segment is a good parody of Alien and Life, and once again if that's not the funniest thing I've ever seen in this kind of horrific specials, it's still entertaining, well paced and well executed. As for the elephant in the room... Well, I do think that this was a good use of Martin. Seeing him being a parody of this kind of character putting trust into the advanced creature while becoming crazy, I think it fits well with him (and that was nice to have more screentime with him, and giving him a more important role). And about Russi Taylor, well we already talked about that. Not only I think cutting out her part, her last performance would have been more disrespectful than this sendoff (that once again it wasn't intended to be) apparently is, but like it was said, she probably didn't mind to voice Martin in this episode and this scene despite all of this. And if she had a bit of a sense of humor and I have no doubt she had, she'd have appreciated that scene. And keep in mind that this is a special, non-canon, willingly horrific episode. I liked the scene with Milhouse afterwards even if this was a bit repetitive with the joke of someone trying to be friendly with the blob only to get mauled by it, and the action scene with Bart and Lisa trying to get rid of the sauce was well done. Also, usually I'm a bit tired of this kind of false happy ending, but this time I thought it worked with the family happily having a Thanksgiving with people from another planet by eating the sauce while being aware they eat children's bones as well. That's just dark yet hilarious to me (though I agree that the twist itself about the sauce is kind of stupid).

Overall, this episode was a solid Thanksgiving version of a THOH. While it's far from being perfect, it's still well executed, well paced, decently funny, engaging, disturbing, with a great animation direction from Rob Oliver and a great sense of atmosphere, and all of these segments are interesting to see. I especially liked The Fourth Thursday after Tomorrow but the two others also are enjoyable in their own way. And the fact this one benefited from more attention, something that most of the modern THOH are lacking of (among other things), is certainly a bonus. A really good episode that gets a fair 4/5 out of me.
 
This was a really good episode, a bit surprisingly. Went into this one expecting it to be just okay and it turned out to be better than I expected. All three segments had their merits; it started just about okay to me but kept improving as it went on with quite a bit of creativity and good humor. I liked how they brought back the opening disclaimer with Marge addressing the viewers about the scary contents of this special (and Homer too, sitting in the seats); it made sense due to the fair gruesomeness of the first and even sort of the third segment (despite the latter not being nearly as gory). The Kang & Kodos cameo was neat and the opening title credits being spilled sauce on a table which Homer and Santa's Little Helper licked off was pretty creative; I liked that too. Really a solid and enjoyable episode that was also kinda great, to be honest.

'A-Gobble-Ypto' had a nice premise with half of the cast being literal turkeys and the other half being the invading settlers who hunt and kill the turkeys (a take on Mel Gibson's film 'Apocalypto'), but to me it was the weakest one. It had nice animation direction and having the turkey cast not talk but instead speaking turkey language (gobble-gobble) was an suitable choice but it felt a little repetitive and not really all that funny, only really relying in the turkey talk and the gore shock humor (with the turkeys having their heads cut and shot off and gushing blood, Lou and Eddie randomly getting killed by a gang of crows & Wiggum being mauled and ripped apart by a bear). I liked the core of the story with the Simpson turkeys and their bond (and protecting their egg of the Maggie turkey, which was pretty sweet) as well as the ending with their statement on the settlers & Wiggum getting high on snuff and chasing after the escaped Homer turkey was original, but the story felt thin and the reliance on the gruesome violence I didn’t really care for (despite it making sense due to being an 'Apocalypto' parody). It was a fine segment with it's moments.

'The Fourth Thursday After Tommorrow' had a good story of Homer getting a kitchen AI for Marge and the voice and personality of the device being based on the latter (and personified by a little Marge inside who runs things in the kitchen via robot arms). I haven't seen the 'Black Mirror' episode it references of but I'd say this works well on it's own. Marge getting annoyed by the AI knowing eveything about her and her family and demands of Homer to get rid of it after having spent a night in the kitchen (drinking beer and eating what it provided him) was an interesting crisis and Marge takes all credit for it cooking a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner (which is did to prove it's worth) the AI decides to the escape online was an interesting turn. The climax with the AI's escape, Marge trying to stop it and Maggie helping it was a good one (it showing it's love to Maggie was sweet; I liked how the AI was sympathetic). Marge being revealed as a liar and ending up alone with the Homer robot (nonsensical but it was fine and AI Marge enjoying the internet world was a good, positive way to end it. An very entertaining one.

'The Last Thanksgiving' was my favorite of the three. I liked the atmosphere (channeling movies like of 'Alien' and 'Life') and having Bart, Lisa, Milhouse and the other Springfield Elementary students wakening up on the starship as it travels to a new world was an interesting lead-in & the monster being an blob of cranberry sauce (given life by an replicator malfunction, thanks to Bart trying to clone the sauce) was a good horror story. It had good darkly humorous horror moments of the blob sucking out the kids' bones (gruesome but not unnecessarily gorily). Milhouse got some nice moments, Martin helping the creature because he admires it (good 'Alien' reference) before letting himself be killed was a surprise but a good parody and Bart & Lisa having the blob sucked out the airlock and crashing on the planet was a good climax. The end with the family reunited, meeting the alien inhabitants and being served the remains of the cranberry monster was perfectly bizarre. All of it's elements came together smoothly & it was well paced too. It’s a very solid one with some really good horror moments and atmosphere.

The episode maybe wasn't the funniest but there was still many good jokes and it got better as the episode progressed, with the first segment feeling a bit sparse, the second being better with the AI jokes and the third upping it with the dark humor (like with Milhouse and his boneless arm and Bart's comment on the skin being the best part after the blob creature goes amok) so despite the humor wasn’t aplenty I cannot complain since it was pretty funny. The animation and the direction of it was great throughout with the designs, lighting and the rest and the characterizations were all right for an 'Treehouse Of Horror' type episode (that usually goes off the rails with exaggeration but here I still recognized most of the characters with how they acted for the most part). Everyone in the cast gave good performances, too (Russi as Martin included).

Overall, this was very enjoyable. It had issues (like the first segment relying a bit too much on gore for my taste) but it was still fun, creative and enjoyable. Even though I would've preferred a normal non-trilogy episode this one was still well written and directed and ended up being better than it could have (and all segments having happy endings of sort I really enjoyed). So yeah, this was surprisingly neat and entertaining, mostly due to the latter two segment (also, I noticed the episode was a few minutes longer which helped, clocking in at around 25 minutes; can we get more episodes with this length? It would immensly help pacing issues).

I'm giving it a 5/5 (rounded up from a 4.5/5). The episode was not without it flaws but those were very minor and I certainly enjoyed and enjoyed it quite a bit as it was fun with it's spooky and creative segments even with the heavy parodying (and after the lackluster 'Treehouse Of Horror' this year this was definitely a big step up). It was genuinely really, really good and thoroughly well made with a fun, entertaining and well paced set of segments.

(I retooled my review some, which explains the repost)
 
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[MENTION=78686]Wile E. the Brain[/MENTION], Controversy over Russi's final performance as Martin aside (which probably wouldn't have been as bad if Matt Selman had just kept his mouth shut and not drawn attention to the fact that it was), I think the reason why the episode is as polarizing as it is more or less comes down to how excessively violent and gory it is for a holiday special where that kind of stuff isn't normally associated with the holiday in question.

The over the top violence and gore is fine in an actual THoH even if I'm not a fan of it because that's what you expect from Halloween. But doing it in any other holiday besides that like Thanksgiving or god forbid Christmas (correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they actually gonna do a Christmas of Horror next year?) and you get something that's on-par with Miracle on Evergreen Terrace in terms of awfulness (though admittedly I'd probably rewatch this over that if I was forced to).

And honestly, even if this was an actual THoH I still wouldn't have liked it because the entire episode largely boils down to "Let's see how much pointless bloodshed and massacring we can get away with!" relying more on cheap shock with little to no actual substance or jokes to be found. That's why I found the second segment to be the best (even if it could only be as good as being tolerable) because it didn't rely on cheap shock gore. But even then, the ending was lame and the whole thing felt like a weaker version of House of Whacks.
 
[MENTION=75269]John95[/MENTION], yeah I never said Russi's final performance was the only reason this episode is polarizing, as I had no doubt that the "shocking" value of the stories also was a reason. Obviously yes this wasn't the holiday for horror stuff but they decided to do it anyway and I appreciated that. Sometimes I like when they take a cheerful holiday to do a much darker episode than it should be, like the pretty good Road to the North Pole from Family Guy or Rapture's Delight from American Dad which is one of my favorite episodes of this show. I don't say that it works everytime, it can fail miserably as well, but I'm not against the idea to be honest. And like I said, despite all the massacre, I still think the stories were engaging enough for me to overlook, at least I didn't feel that it was forced besides some parts that weren't necessary (like, I don't know, the crows in the first segment), and like I said Apocalypto was a quite gruesome movie to begin with, I guess that explains. I've seen worse, especially for the last segment which found a way to be more pleasant to watch than it could have been, by not being as bloody as I thought it would be. And as for the comparison with House of Whacks for the second segment, well aside from the idea, I think both of the stories are a lot different. Just my opinion, though.

That Christmas episode that you're talking about isn't actually just a rumor ?

Also, something that I forgot to mention in my review, but I found the end credits music unsettling, in a good way once again. For some reason it really makes the Bart Simpson balloon parade pretty creepy.
 
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I've lost interest in keeping up with this show but I decided to watch Thanksgiving of Horror because why not.

All 3 segments were really entertaining and fleshed-out. Now if only the HD THOHs could consistently be on the same caliber of quality as this trilogy.

4.5/5 rounded to a 5 for the polls

Might write an actual review later.
 
[MENTION=78686]Wile E. the Brain[/MENTION], We're in the minority of people who actually like Road to the North Pole which from what I've seen tends to be shat on mainly for the home invasion scene (which yes, is terrible and I always fast forward through it whenever I watch it). Rapture's Delight I find to be massively overrated for an episode that's super mediocre at best. Speaking of AD!, most of their Christmas episodes since that one I'd classify as examples of them failing miserably at doing this kind of episode (especially Season's Beatings), and I'm probably the only person whose openly admitted to considering FG's first Christmas episode to be one of the show's all-time worst.

Well, I at least heard that they're doing a Christmas anthology next year and I seem to remember reading that it would be like this.

The music was making me expect a last minute jump scare after the credits.
 
[MENTION=78686]Wile E. the Brain[/MENTION], We're in the minority of people who actually like Road to the North Pole which from what I've seen tends to be shat on mainly for the home invasion scene (which yes, is terrible and I always fast forward through it whenever I watch it).

Good to know ! But yup this scene is the lowest point of the episode for me either. Not (that much) because it's disturbing and I get the idea behind this, but because Brian and Stewie (especially the former) are so dumb in this scene that it's a bit painful to watch. But everything else, I enjoy it and I enjoy the idea of making an episode about the greedy side of Christmas. I don't like their first Christmas episode either, though, even if I don't consider it one of the worst episode of the show, I don't like it.
 
Also, something that I forgot to mention in my review, but I found the end credits music unsettling, in a good way once again. For some reason it really makes the Bart Simpson balloon parade pretty creepy.

You're not alone on that as I thoughts so about the end credits too. There was something really off with the pairing of the old footage from the early 90's Thanksgiving parade with that somber and dark music but I really liked it for some reason. It was such an unexpected and bizarre yet great way to close the episode.
 
The first FG Christmas episode is excellent, so is Miracle on Evergreen Terrace. You all are nuts.

That said, my problem wasn't the idea of mixing Thanksgiving and horror (I'd be okay with a Christmas of Horror, although now it's veering into gimmicky territory), it's the trend in The Simpsons (and other shows) toward more gore. It's as if they've given up on alternative methods to scare. Older THOHs show that things can be scary or unsettling without a lot of blood and gore. But I realize that I'm just not a fan of the horror genre in general. I love the unsettling and disturbing (psychological thrillers are some of my favorite movies), but slashers and jump scares don't do it for me. I still thought this was a decent episode, by the way.
 
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oh this was decent btw. definitely better than any thoh in the hd era. not really funny but it was fun and reasonably fleshed out. 4 more minutes and a new idea certainly go a long way. and the ominous bart macys float is the funniest thing the show has probably done since the scully era, which kinda made up for the general lack of comedy
 
Since when was liking Road to the North Pole a minority opinion? It does have its haters but it is commonly considered one of the series' best.
 
[MENTION=81769]Homer Samson[/MENTION], Well, I don't want to have things go any further off-topic so I'll make this brief:

From what I've seen Road to the North Pole is generally disliked by most mainly for the aforementioned home invasion scene and to a lesser extent the unexpected darker tone that you normally don't see from these holiday specials. That said, I thought the latter was pulled off far better than it was on AD!'s very own Christmas episode from the same year (even if I thought it was OK).
 
people don't dislike the episode for that scene they just don't like that scene. unlike you most people don't give episodes an insta 0 because it contains any blood
 
Well, even with that rather myopic justification in mind, Maude's is still worth getting a little fussy over as it's another case of how she has virtually no purpose on the show anymore outside of cheap "Jokes" about her being dead which have always been in bad taste due to the circumstances regarding her death.

And because this was one of the worst examples of that, it's gonna slightly hinder how next week will be one of the extremely rare cases of them portraying it for mostly actual seriousness and not just cheap bad taste.
 
That said, my problem wasn't the idea of mixing Thanksgiving and horror (I'd be okay with a Christmas of Horror, although now it's veering into gimmicky territory), it's the trend in The Simpsons (and other shows) toward more gore. It's as if they've given up on alternative methods to scare. Older THOHs show that things can be scary or unsettling without a lot of blood and gore.

You're right. Like I said I'm not that much into shows that mostly if not entirely rely on violence (or crude content for that matter) to say "it's for adult" or "it's horror, y'know". I don't have that much of a problem with violence in the Simpsons or any other animated adult show when it's handled without being excessive just for the hell of it, but when it comes to horror, I also prefer when they're able to make scary stuff without mostly relying on gore content. Hence why The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow is my favorite segment of this episode since I found it genuinely unsettling without any violent moment.
 
Wow. How is possible that a copy of Treehouse of Horror turns out better than the big majority of them? They handled really well this adaption of Halloween specials. Starting with the great idea to set it on Thanksgiving, which might limit the creativity but, conversely, did it more epic. Following the great use of all elements that characterized those specials, including the classic Marge's speech at the beginning, the obligatory appearance of Kang and Kodos, the trilogy format, title-cards gags, the always awesome promotional poster, and the adapted credit names. And finishing with that strange mix of feelings this type of episode must have, including perturbation, horror, discomfort among others. I think the best way to describe how much I loved this episode is through the next sentence: "Each upcoming Treehouse of Horror should take this episode as a model". Including its 25-minutes extension to avoid pacing problems -if it is economically possible.


INTRO.
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This intro was perfect. Not, it wasn't memorable. Not, it wasn't outstanding. Not, it wasn't extensive. It just simply exactly was an intro must be. It introduced the episode. It explains why we got a horror special in Thanksgiving and warned people for the violent content, they specified here it would be gruesome -wow, apparently many people tuned in after that-. Plus, it gives screentime to Kang and Kodos, another function of these intros at least in episodes that have segments without them. There was a place for a funny joke executed by Homer about Thanksgiving's timetable. And the best part it was extended only for a minute, which eases the pacing and development of the segments. I loved the homage to the earliest Treehouse of Horrors in Marge's speech on a scenario. The title card had a good gag with Homer and Santa's Little Helper eating the spilled sauce. I don't have complains about it.



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A-Gobble-ypto was probably the goriest segment, and while I have said sometimes that extreme violence is unnecessary even in Horror specials, this time it was handled perfectly, maybe because the animation and the atmosphere helped on that. It was probably my favorite segment after the first time I saw it. Maybe it won over me since it was the perfect story to an episode called "Thanksgiving of Horror". It tells the first time this festivity was celebrated, there in 1621, but it does it under turkey's point of view, giving place to a lot of suspense and adrenalin. I think that was the key to the success of this one: a real Thanksgiving story with true horror in it. I loved to see The Simpsons family and other characters as turkeys. It allowed a lot of fantastic special character designs and also a stellar performance of some voice actors. And I'm glad they just defined what character would be a turkey or a human according to what was necessary, instead of establishing a rule. From turkey's side, it was nice to see Maude again, although she was killed instantly. I liked Sideshow Mel with a branch in his head instead of a bone. Nelson's Haw-Haw was cute at the end. And I laughed hard when Patty and Selma were decapitated. From the human side, I'd say especially Lovejoy's perversity was the biggest highlight, but Lou and Eddie had funny moments at the start, and it was nice to see some of the women of the staff appearing too. The great pacing it had did possible everything worked well.

There was a great work assigning roles to each member of Simpson's family. It was agreeable how joined they were here. Homer was the main protagonist. I loved him protecting his family after the first hunting. It was a likable moment for him. I can feel his fear and terror while Wiggum was persecuting him and when his death was near. Bart had a funny moment at the beginning playing a joke to Homer, and then one pretty sweet when he saved Homer's life. Lisa was cute when she flew out to catch the egg. Marge was constantly inoffensive and stayed out of the biggest conflicts. They express lots of emotions and have true reactions when they were animals while in some Treehouse of Horrors they act by inertia and carefree of others' disgraces. Anyway, Maggie closes the episode with her nativity in a really pretty moment. But the tenderness closes up when we see how Wiggum is attacked by a bear. He received a masterful use throughout all the segment. He has some good quotes at the start. But then he becomes in the antagonist and he reaches an unimaginable level of madness and has too much thirst for blood from those inoffensive turkeys was disturbing. His pupils, his torn clothing and his appearance established how maniac he was. It was probably the best use of this character in the entire series.



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The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow was my favorite after my first rewatch. It had a worth-to-mention virtue: it conserves the perversity, that twisted-mind that characterized Black Mirror, which is accurate for be parodied in this type of episode. Marge described it perfectly: "It's creepy". It treats an elaborated story, exploring the primordial concept in that Sci-Fi series: how we are losing our essence as technology advances. We see how Marge is facing to her own awareness, in one of the best stories we have had about her at least in horror specials. I felt flattered for virtual Marge through the entire segment. You can experiment her desperation to be looked upon as a thing. You can wish she could reach freedom. You may be proud of her when she takes revenge against Marge. On the other side, I have mix feelings with real Marge's behavior. After all, She was jealous of a "thing" and her disagreement is reasonable. I mean, she wanted a helper but it almost replaced her in Homer's life and gets the kids' love, so I can understand why she was angry. But under another perspective, She seems pretty wicked with her virtual version. She wishes revenge instead of back everything to normality. I mean, delete the A.I. would be the same as free it on the Internet. And that is what becomes her to an antagonist, a role that fits perfectly with her here.

Most interactions between both Marges were great. Everything seems to work at the start, but bit by bit real Marge started to be unsure, a feel that then mutated in hate, and A.I. Marge started to take initiatives. Her eight-years plan to escape was fantastic. I think it's great the writers didn't execute just a flat parody and they adventured with an alternative finale. R2-Me-Too was visually funny. I loved A.I. Marge recreating heartbeat to convince Maggie to connect her to the modem. It was completely tender and adorable. And when she finally gets freedom, and she gave an entire universe to explore, she enters ETSY. Well, we are talking about Marge, so it has sense. Homer plays a worth role here too. I enjoyed seeing him doubting between both versions of Marge and trying to convince himself to choice real Marge. His final appearance, when we discovered that he was a robot, was really random and unexpected, but it was in tune with the rest of the segment and worked fantastically. The segment has used visual gags to include references to Black Mirror. Quimby and Plopper's appearance on TV parodying The National Anthem was uncomfortable to me. But I liked the reference to Nosedive -that when everyone rates Marge after the dinner fraud-. I don't know if someone noticed it, but it had references to the previous segment -we can see a draw of a turkey in the fridge- and to the next one -virtual Marge uses Jellies Cranberry Sauce to prepare dinner-. My nerd side is glad about all those details.



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The Last Thanksgiving sounded awful. A Cranberry Sauce mutant monster-hunting kids throughout the entire segment. That's what it is about. And you know what? It was fantastic as well. It had an impressive atmosphere. Everything that happens outside Earth is more epic and each horror story set in a closed space is more horrific. The casting choice was a success too. All dangers are scarier if are children who are in problems. And it was great to see them taking protagonism. I'm sorry if someone disagrees with me, but I find funny how recurring kids were used here. I mean their function as recurring characters is to generate an ambient to the protagonist and that's what they get being killed by the monster. Nelson's one was a bit unexpected to me since I thought he would be along Milhouse, Bart, and Lisa until the end. Then, most of the kids die in an attack and we see Database's skin crashed against the glass in a disturbing and tense scene. Then, Martin sacrificed himself for the benefit of the sauce. I agree with Matt Selman: it was an epic farewell to Russi Taylor, but reward or punish the episode for a casualty is absurd. They didn't think it would be her last episode, though said goodbye with her most prominent character interpreting a memorable scene. I'm not sure if I liked the joke of nobody cares about Snowball, but I couldn't avoid laugh when the kids cheer Skinner's dead.

Milhouse is cheated by the monster and he made an unwitting sacrifice for Bat and Lisa. I liked his design with an arm without bones and those jokes they did about that. Bart had a nice role. He started the conflict with his innocent desire to celebrate Thanksgiving and he created the monster ignoring Dr. Frink's advice about what'd happened if he put organic matter in the replicator. Lisa was the brain of the team and she created fast a plan to survive. However, she was hilarious with her first perception of the monster and how she is worried after watching it for the first time. The formula of them working as a team will never expire. Their plan to throw off the monster was interesting. Loved how Bart says "Happy Thanksgiving" when he opens the airlock. The monster is quite frightening if we take into account that he is a cranberry sauce mutant (man, I won't surpass that premise). His way to feed gives place to some good moments and various perturbing images of some kids, especially the scene when he kills practically everyone and we see their skins scattered on the table. I liked how this story ended. It's funny they sell a happy end when only The Simpsons family survives. Well, them and the monster too. The fact him finds peace letting himself be eating by others was a clever outcome. And after that, they created the concept of The First Blarg-sgiving, which was great to finish the segment and the trilogy too.



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Thanksgiving of Horror did everything well. They center their effort such in the segments, taking advantage of a short intro, and excluding a fourth act (that credits running with Bart's balloon on screen and that music at the background was perturbing). They established a coherent relationship between the segments, being the first one presented as the first Thanksgiving, the second as the current one and the third as the last one. I think that was a smart way of occupying all grounds. It was gory when it needed to be gory, it was funny when it needed to be funny, it was emotive when it needed to be emotive. It did a truly masterful use of The Simpsons Family and also of secondary characters. All three stories were captivating, interesting, with good pacing and total coherence. And a special mention for animation. Rob Oliver and his time did, probably, the best work in that item in the entire series. I'm not kidding nor exaggerating.  Character designs, backgrounds, shadows, darkness and colors, fluidity in animation. It was superlative. Everything was detailed as hell and one can perceive the extra effort. I really desire this one gets some awards because it was perfect in all aspects. I've read each review and I can't understand how someone could hate it. One of the best trilogy-horror episodes of the series.

A-Gobble-ypto: 5/5
The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow: 5/5
The Last Thanksgiving: 4/5

THANKSGIVING OF HORROR: 5/5
 
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My favorite thoh segments are things like monkeys paw, Genesis tub, fly vs fly, and Kang and kodos abduct the Simpsons. Bloodless, funny, and with an ironic twist. These are just too bloody and too straight forward, you could predict the endings of all 3 and they didn't have that twilight zone atmosphere I like so much. It's just not for me this time.
 
The episode wasn't all that bloody at all. The only segment I can agree on about that is 'A-Gobble-ypto' but the other two? Not really. 'The Fourth Thursday After Tomorrow' was pretty non-violent to me (it was more psychological horror) and 'The Last Thanksgiving', while certainly gruesome, had bloodless carnage.
 
I don't know how to describe it! It was FANTASTIC! Everything was perfect!

The first segment was so funny that I couldn't breathe! Only the thought of Dan, Julie, Nancy and Yeardley making those noises inside the studio makes me laugh! I wonder how many times they had to record it! Although I have to say, there wasn't something going on, just a bunch of funny gags, but it was okay.

The second one is my favourite! I love how they tried to portray Marge and the change her character has over the course of the series. It felt like a battle between classic Marge Simpson and modern Marge Simpson. Look how bitter she is today and look how nice she was in the past. Homer said he took Marge's DNA and gave it to make the AI Marge, so it goes to show Marge has a little of what made her character amazing in 90s. Despite that, they managed to make the two women relatable. I love how AI Marge panicked about being trapped in the tube!

The third one was good! It was funny and sad at the same time. It was Russi Taylor's last performance as Martin Prince and when you think it that way, it is a little disappointing! Again a great segment! They handled Bart, Milhouse and the rest of the characters quite well!

Now, in regards to Russi Taylor's performance [MENTION=78686]Wile E. the Brain[/MENTION] is right. We can't blame the writers for what happened! I know they should have changed the episode a little and I know Russi was sick, but can we bring her back? We can't! So, don't blame them!
We should also take a look at Julie Kavner for a second! OH MY GOD! She sounds like a car hit her vocal chords! What is going on? Is she okay? I think she suffers!

5/5
 
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I gotta say, this was the best episode in I don't know when

1/5, fuck off Venomrabbit
I'm a little confused on this rating.

You qualify it as "the best episode in I don't know when" then proceed to give it a 1 out of 5. Which, I can sort of grasp if you're grading on a curve and consider just about every episode post-Classic era to be worse than a 1 out of 5 and this one actually earned a full point. Is that the case here? Because you're actively hurting this episode's consensus community score by doing this despite considering it "the best episode in I don't know when". Or are you giving Venomrabbit the 1 out of 5 score?

I wish I could read minds.
 
I didn't really get on with the first story - perhaps it brought back bad memories of those "The Simpsons characters as other characters" trilogy episodes from the noughties - but the other two were fun enough, and one big advantage the ep had was that all three stories felt like proper stories, rather than some of the recent THOH segments which felt like they lasted about five seconds. Flawed in places - in particular I found the third segment fell prey to the "it's not canon, let's graphically kill off loads of characters" syndrome that has plagued the THOHs in recent years - but a solid entry nonetheless. ​B
 
Even after all these seasons and some awful episodes over the course of years this is proof Simpsons can still suprise with quality. I wasn't prepared for Apocalypto parody, Simpsons's suprisingly in-depth commentary on AI and action-paced thriller in space. And I loved it. 5/5
 
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