If you would have asked me prior to Halloween if I was pleased about the delay in broadcasting the Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror XVII, I would have stabbed you with the retractable knife from Sean’s costume. But today, 6 days after Halloween, I’m thankful for any spooky morsels of media that keep the holiday spirit alive.

If you’ve got teh Internets (which you apparently do), you might have watched this episode sooner, as it was leaked over a week early. For the rest of us in the US it debuted last night, November 5th. The 17th installment of the Treehouse of Horror definitely has a different feel to it, and people are divided in their opinions. Many reviews summarily dismiss the episode, calling it “ham fisted” and “hit or miss”, but these opinions come almost exclusively from those who were “unsettled” by the Iraq War commentary at the end. But let’s not be myopic. On one hand I agree that, without the Simpson’s-standard comic twist at the end, lines like “You said we’d be greeted as liberators” are almost as sobering as they are funny. However, just because 2 of the 22 minutes in this episode reference the Iraq debacle doesn’t negate the rest of the humor. Light hearted or notorious, part of the beauty of the Simpson’s is their ability to weave current events into their storylines!

It’s hard to rate XVII next to previous episodes because each one has its own feel, and because Simpsons standards have always been excellent. The Oregonian aptly said “…the standard set by the 16 previous Treehouse episodes is so high, that a show that features lines as clever as that is still, by comparison, substandard.” Yes, it has some dud jokes and recycled ideas, but those are overshadowed by the overall clever and topical writing. OK, and the cannibalism, destruction, and rolling around naked in the mud. Those always help. Treehouse of Horror XVII is a soon-to-be classic, and in my opinion, one of the best Halloween episodes yet. If only we could get a decent DVD released…