What’s Worth Watching: ‘The Simpsons’ on Fox for Sunday, October 25

THE SIMPSONS, Treehouse of Horror XXVI
FOX
THE SIMPSONS: In the annual fright fest Halloween episode, Lisa, Bart, and Milhouse get super powers from radiation in the all-new “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” episode of THE SIMPSONS airing Sunday, Oct. 25 (8:00-8:30 PM ET/PT) on FOX. THE SIMPSONS ™ and © 2015 TCFFC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CR: FOX

The Simpsons, “Treehouse of Horror XXVI” (Sunday, Oct. 25, 8/7c, Fox)

Re-animate? This animation looks good enough to me.” D-oh, Homer Simpson, you’ve still got it.

And so does The Simpsons, with a joke-packed 26th edition of the annual “Treehouse of Horror” trilogy, which somehow manages to surprise from its opening frames: a couch gag conceived by Ren & Stimpy‘s maestro of grody ghoulishness, John Kricfalusi. The highlight of the episode features the return of the notorious Sideshow Bob (Kelsey Grammer’s best non-Frasier work), who finally after a quarter-century’s murderous efforts manages to take down his 10-year-old nemesis, Bart Simpson. (The first thing Bob does is update his Fiendbook profile.) But as always seems to happen in cautionary fables, life without Bart isn’t quite the happy existence Sideshow Bob envisioned. Ergo, reanimation.

In other segments, Homer takes center stage for an homage to Japanese Godzilla movies, complete with badly dubbed laughter; and the young ’uns get special powers after being exposed to Springfield’s greatest export, radioactive waste. You may be shocked to learn which of the kids abuses these new gifts.

No wonder those space aliens Kang and Kodos keep coming back year after year to comment on the action. This Halloween tradition never disappoints.