The Harry Potter fangirl in me was very happy to hear that Daniel Radcliffe was going to play Edmund, Lisa’s vampire boyfriend in this year’s Treehouse of Horror.” For one, Radcliffe would be mocking both a rival movie series and Robert Pattinson, who also played his romantic rival in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I also knew Radcliffe grew up loving The Simpsons and, in my opinion, celebrities who are giddy to be on the show tend to make the best guests. And truth be told, “Tweenlight” was the best act of the episode.
Honestly, Radcliffe has two of the best lines too. After he saves Lisa from Otto’s negligent driving, the brooding Edmund weakly explains away his super strength: “Oh, uh, it’s these cheap school buses with their squishy metal.” When he brings Lisa up to the tree tops and admits his vampirism, he romantically decrees, “Let us move between the trees like a bat does — by jumping!” Oh, and Milhouse takes on the rejected werewolf role, except he turns into a poodle (like Jacob, Milhouse will never, ever win). As someone who has sat through the Twilight films (with Rifftrax, the movies are almost bearable), I chuckled at the direct-from-movie jokes. Seriously, what kind of bat jumps?
So Edmund and dad Dracula come over to dinner and Homer is more than delighted to serve them Flanders, which made me laugh like crazy. Ultimately, Edmund tries to bite Lisa so she’ll be an eight year-old with him forever. Unlike the co-dependent Bella, Lisa doesn’t think being young forever is a good idea and breaks up with her controlling boyfriend. Twilight girls: be more like Lisa!
The other two stories were not nearly as strong. “War and Pieces” had Bart’s board games come to life and run amuck; but the games don’t really get very violent at all, and I wondered why it was included in this normally macabre Simpson‘s tradition. “Master and Cadaver” showed Marge and Homer finding a man stranded at sea during their second honeymoon. They think the man (played by House‘s Hugh Laurie) is a murderer and kill him before he kills them. Maybe this act was a reference to something I’m not familiar with, but I was bored by it. I am baffled as to why they wasted a guest star with such great comedic timing like Laurie on a lame story like this.
It’s true that The Simpsons is not where it was 15 years ago, but this was still better than the average Family Guy episode. I’m just not ready to give up on it yet. Oh, and the monsterized version of The Office‘s opening credits at the beginning of the show made me laugh despite myself.
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Nov 07, 2010 @ 22:57 EST5EDT
Robert PATTINSON…
(before all the fan girls come to get you)
*POST AUTHOR*
I told one of the editors about the typo. Should be fixed soon.
Still, I mock Cullen-lovers so much in this post, I just assume the fan girls are going to come after me with pitchforks. I’ll be waiting.
I stand with you, torch at ready!
“Maybe this act was a reference to something I’m not familiar with, but I was bored by it.”
I believe the second story was meant as a parody of the movie Dead Calm, which starred Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill as the married couple and Billy Zane as the killer.
How did I miss this ep??? OMG. Have to see it now. Thanks