The Simpsons: Every Treehouse Of Horror Ranked Worst To Best

In the opening sequence - named obviously in homage to Matt Groening's comic strip - substance is definitely the winner: the episode is really well designed and looks great, but it's just a little light on story. Saying that, the simple idea of Bart being an over-achiever in a school based in Hell - including a final torture of Homer - is pretty genius stuff.

Second comes an outright parody of A Clockwork Orange with Treehouse hero Moe, which is expertly observed, but which rather unfortunately ends up feeling a little like a self-congratulatory celebrating of how much the writers know about Kubrick films. Still, a nice thing to have.

The Others meanwhile sees The Simpsons haunted by their earlier alternate selves from the Tracy Ullman Show: a great idea that seems to have been left at that, as plot is very much a secondary concern. But again, the style over substance argument elevates it higher than a lot of older episodes, and at least the heart of the idea is in the right place.