Greetings, reader!
With the spookiest night of the year just a few days away, I figured I'd rank my favorite Halloween-themed episodes from the world of television. I decided to go with one per series, because otherwise the list would be quite dominated by a select few shows that have really nailed Halloween (looking at you, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). I hope you enjoy!
Here are my honorable mentions: Halloween (The Office, Season 2 Episode 5), New Haunts (The Walking Dead, Season 11 Episode 10), Stone Mountain (30 Rock, Season 4 Episode 3), The One with the Halloween Party (Friends, Season 8 Episode 6), Twenty-One Is the Loneliest Number (Gilmore Girls, Season 6 Episode 7).
10. Trick or Treat, Freak (Stranger Things, Season 2 Episode 2)
"Whoa whoa whoa - why are you Venkman?"
"Because I'm Venkman!"
"No, I'm Venkman!"
"Why can't there be two Venkmans?"
"Because there's only one Venkman in real life! We planned this months ago - I'm Venkman, Dustin's Stantz, you're Egon, and you're Winston!"
"I specifically didn't agree to Winston!"
Of course the series all about bathing in 80's coming-of-age nostalgia and classic horror tropes was bound to have a Halloween episode. As we all know, the first few episodes of a Stranger Things season are always delightfully low-stakes fun, as the characters are sort of hanging around and catching up while the more dramatic end-of-season plotlines are being gradually built - so what better time to enjoy some Halloween shenanigans than the second episode of the sophomore season?
It's a bunch of fun to follow the Stranger Things gang going around trick-or-treating while dressed as Ghostbusters, and the make-believe horror of Halloween conventions is juxtaposed quite well with the actual creepiness of the strange town of Hawkins. Trick or Treat, Freak may be one of the less eventful Stranger Things episodes, but it sure is fun as heck.
9. Who Got Dee Pregnant? (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Season 6 Episode 7)
"What is that, what even is that?"
"I'm that character from Lord of the Rings, Virgo Mortenstein"
That line by Mac (Rob McElhenney) is genius because it's wrong on at least four different levels - he gets Viggo Mortensen's name wrong, he thinks Mortensen (or Mortenstein) is the character's name and not the actor's, even without the name flub he'd have the wrong character in mind as his costume looks more like Legolas (Orlando Bloom) than Aragorn (Virgo, excuse me, Viggo Mortensen), and on top of all that, it's a very shitty Legolas costume. Love it when a character gets something to spectacularly wrong.
Anyways, Who Got Dee Pregnant? is classic IASIP, as Dee (Kaitlin Olson) is convinced that one of the main characters drunkenly got her pregnant during a Halloween party, and we flash back to everyone's account of the events. It's an often-seen sitcom trope, but it's never been done with such brutally dark humor and insanely chaotic hilarity that It's Always Sunny is known for: from bar fights and incest implications to Danny DeVito dressing up as "Man-Spider" and an ostrich yelling at Mac in the men's room, this episode has it all.
8. The Slutty Pumpkin (How I Met Your Mother, Season 1 Episode 6)
"Come on, I came back for you, Ted! I penguin-suited up to show you the error of your ways!"
While the titular moniker of Ted Mosby's (Josh Radnor) Halloween-related love interest hasn't aged in the best possible way, there will always be something endearing about the way in which Ted pines for the beautiful and mysterious woman he met at a Halloween party years ago. It's the rom-com take on Linus waiting for the Great Pumpkin in the Charlie Brown Halloween special, as Ted spends much of the night waiting for the slim chance that the Slutty Pumpkin would appear once again.
Apart from the lovable schmuck-romantic antics of Mr. Mosby, the episode gains memorability for the hilarious sequence where Barney (dressed as a devil) stands on one side of Ted giving him terrible advice, while a guy dressed as an angel stands on his other side giving a counterpoint, playing off the classic animation trope with amusing results. All in all, quite the classic.
7. The Next Episode (Euphoria, Season 1 Episode 6)
"Jules, what are you doing?"
"Although I joy in thee, I have no joy in this contract tonight"
It just hits different when a serious series does a Halloween episode. Euphoria (2019-Present), a show that is outdone only by Black Mirror (2011-Present) and Surrounded By Enemies (2022) in the category of the most depressing shows I've watched, manages to have its share of fun inbetween its bleak depictions of drug addiction, mental illness, sexual violence and other such fun topics. This is evident in episodes like The Next Episode, where the main characters go all-out for a Halloween party, where relationships and long-built narratives collide in a semi-chaotic chain of events.
The balance between aesthetical Halloween fun and the show's darker themes and storylines rearing their head is done quite well, which certanily isn't an easy job. This is also the episode where I absolutely fell in love with the lovely and relatable character Lexi (Maude Apatow), which would only grow in the following season.
6. Halloween Surprise (Parks and Recreation, Season 5 Episode 5)
"7:34 P.M. Man dressed as a nerd. Female dressed as...crazy witch"
"Neither of us is in costume"
Sure, the most memorable element in this Parks & Rec episode is the wholesome ending twist (which I won't spoil here) that has nothing to do with Halloween. But in addition to being overall memorable, the episode also works quite delightfully as a mere Halloween special - from the Parks department screening the hysterically over-the-top Death Canoe 4: Murder at Blood Lake to the antics of Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) and Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) trick-or-treating with Diane's (Lucy Lawless) children, it's all pretty great. The best gag has to be Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) hyping up his plan to dress up as "his greatest fear", and later showing up dressed as an old man. Brilliant.
5. Halloween (Modern Family, Season 2 Episode 6)
"Why am I in a cage?"
"Because you're in a house of horrors, you are being held against your will!"
"I know, so why am I in a cage?"
It was difficult to choose the best Modern Family Halloween episode, as they're such a solid bunch. Still, the original has to be the best, as there is no overcoming the delight of how the show's Halloween-themed running gags are established. And while the episode has hijinks all around with every castmember getting a chance to shine, the star of the show is without a doubt Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), whose freakish love for the creepy and brutal side of Halloween is introduced for the first time here. It's just such a fun and unconventional way to flesh her character out, and while this sick enjoyment of high-quality horror would go to even further lengths in subsequent seasons, it feels the most fresh and delightful in season 2's classic Halloween episode.
4. Epidemiology (Community, Season 2 Episode 6)
"Well, I'm a sexy Dracula"
"You mean Vampire"
"I don't need to know which Dracula I am to know I'm a Dracula"
The most difficult aspect of today's list was picking the best Halloween episode from my all-time favorite sitcom, as I'm going with the only-1-per-series method, and Community's selection of Halloween episodes is incredibly solid. You have season 1's Introduction to Statistics with Abed's (Danny Pudi) epic Batman antics and Jeff's (Joel McHale) significant character growth, season 3's Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps where everyone tells their own horror story (while Pierce (Chevy Chase) is my least favorite out of the main characters, his line "The hell was this crap??" after Jeff's story will never not make me roar with laughter), and season 4's Paranormal Parentage where the haunted house -shenanigans escalate until Abed hits us with the iconic line "I remember when this show was about Community college".
But after thinking long and hard, I had to go with season 2's Epidemiology. Using the premise of a rabies outbreak at Greendale Community College's Halloween party, the series plays with every single zombie movie trope to chaotic and brilliant results. Not only is it an excellent parody of (or homage to?) zombie films, it also creates a thoroughly unique atmosphere as the episode's soundtrack consists largely of ABBA's Greatest Hits album. Having ABBA's upbeat pop bangers blasting as the main characters escape intense zombie situations is a bizarre and unforgettable combo, truly cementing the episode as a Community classic.
Also, Troy's (Donald Glover) character development in this episode is endearing, as he goes from being embarrassed of his nerdy side and ditching his sci-fi costume with Abed in order to pick up girls, all the way to more or less saving the day by embracing his nerdiness.
3. John Mulaney / The Strokes (Saturday Night Live, Season 46 Episode 5)
"America - it's a spooky time, filled with demons and darkness. Also, it's Halloween"
The stars were aligned for this Saturday Night Live episode - it aired on Halloween, it was hosted by the one and only John Mulaney, and it was the last episode to air before the 2020 Presidential Election. This trifecta of context made for some magnificent sketch comedy; the presence of Mulaney brought us one banger of a monologue, the election setting made for brilliant material such as Colin Jost digging into Trump's brilliant strategy of going against doctors as his final election message, and the Halloween setting made for deliciously spooky stage decorations and an amusing Headless Horseman skit.
Of course, all three elements come together in New York Musical, my second-favorite SNL skit of all time. Pete Davidson's character wants to buy a pair of "I LOVE NEW YORK" boxers from a souvenir shop run by John Mulaney, which naturally leads to a series of escalating musical numbers featuring all sorts of creepy Halloween-appropriate figures from the streets of New York. Things take a drastic turn from hilarious to deeply moving, when Mulaney suddenly shifts the topic into the upcoming election, bursting into 'One Day More' from Les Miserables, with the lyric being 'Three Days More' - I remember watching the skit for the first time, as the laughter came to a sudden halt as suddenly there was a tear in my eye, with the rising-on-barricades feel of the Les Mis song fitting the stakes of the upcoming election in a powerful manner.
2. Treehouse of Horror V (The Simpsons, Season 6 Episode 6)
"Husband on murderous rampage. Send help. Over"
"Whew, thank God that's over. I was worried for a little bit"
There are many, many great episodes in the Treehouse of Horror chronology (I'm seriously considering that for next year's Halloween, I'll do ranking of every Treehouse of Horror mini-story; there are 33 Treehouse episodes and three stories per episode, which would make the list into an ambitious Top 99). But the best one quite simply has to be the iconic Treehouse of Horror V, with its infinite re-watch value.
I mean, before the three mini-stories even begin, we are treated to the hysterically funny intro of Marge (Julie Kavner) warning the viewers of the scary content, before being cut off by Bart (Nancy Cartwright), as the spooky shenanigans begin. We're then treated to the first and undeniably best segment: The Shinning, with its pitch-perfect spoof of the classic Stanley Kubrick movie, filled with memorable gags from "Weird, usually the blood gets off at the second floor" to "No TV and no beer make Homer something something". The rest of the episode is quite classic stuff as well, with both the time-travel story "Time and Punishment" and the cannibal-themed "Nightmare Cafeteria" featuring great laughs and memorable moments. But really, the presence of The Shinning alone makes this episode worthy of a Top 2 spot on today's list.
1. HalloVeen (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Season 5 Episode 4)
No series on earth does Halloween as well as Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Sure, the annual Halloween Heist episodes aren't one bit scary, but what they lack in spookiness, they more than make up for in creativity, laughter and ambition. It all started off with season 1's Halloween, where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) face off in a high-stakes heist. From thereon out, each season has continued the tradition, with the heists becoming more elaborate, grand-scale and over-the-top each season. As the stakes and schemes grow larger, so does the competitive spirit of the main characters, and it's a joy to watch this likable set of goofballs turn into absolute nothing-is-off-limits monsters once a year for the sake of the heist.
And yes, my favorite Halloween Heist has to be the beloved season 5 entry. The biggest reason for this is obviously the unforgettable twist that I won't spoil here for people who haven't watched it, but it is far from being the only reason; even before that payoff, there's just so much to enjoy. You have the cold open where Holt has broken into Jake and Amy's (Melissa Fumero) house to eat their breakfast (really driving home the point of how seriously the characters take the competition), and the heist itself which is just full of over-the-top plans, double-crosses and reveals, which is an absolute joy to watch. And yes, that ending certifies this episode as a masterpiece, and my favorite Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode of all time.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as we enter the Donald Trump of months, and I rank the Top 10 feel-good movies to get you through N*vember.
No comments:
Post a Comment