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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CNU chapter.

One of my favorite part of the Halloween season is watching all the spooky movies with my friends. However, I’m not always in the mood to sit down for an hour+ and pay attention to a full movie, and further, I’m not always down for somethign super scary either. 

This year, I’ve decided to compromise a short list of some of my favorite Halloween episodes that combine the fun nature of the holiday and a short length that can cater to my dying attention span. 

Brooklyn 99 (Season 2, Ep. 4: Halloween II)

I’m definitely biased because I’m a huge B99 fan, but the comedy takes Halloween episodes to a whole new level. In addition to the fun costumes (which are usually worn by Charles Boyle), each season, the characters participate in Halloween heists, where they compete against each other to win a preset task. 

Personally, the second Halloween heist is my favorite of the several that they have. The stakes are higher in this one, as Jake tries to keep his title as the winner of the heist and the proclaimed “amazing detective/genius”. More of the characters get involved in this one, bringing the whole cast into the holiday festivities. 

It might not be spooky, but this set of Halloween episodes will surely get you into the fun, lighthearted energy that comes with Halloween. 

Parks and Rec (Season 2, Ep. 7: Greg Pikitis)

If B99 didn’t get you in the Halloween spirit, then this episode of Parks and Red surely will. This Halloween episode has two different storylines: one following Ann Perkins as she tries to throw a good Halloween party, and another following Leslie Knope as she tries to prevent a high school prankster from defacing government property. 

Like B99, this episode falls more on the fun side of Halloween than the spooky one. Ann’s party is full of fun costumes, from Ann as Raggedy Ann, to Ann’s doctor friends dressing up as doctors, to April’s boyfriend’s boyfriend dressing up as a straight guy. At the least, maybe this episode will give you a good costume idea for this year. Just because we are social distancing, doesn’t mean that we still can’t dress up. 

New Girl (Season 2, Ep. 6: Halloween)

In this episode from the second season, the gang from 4D takes on Halloween, each facing different scary aspects of their life, as Jess works in a haunted house and Nick meets up with an old crush from college. Stakes are high as the drama of the group increases leading up to Halloween night, ending with Nick avoiding his problems by facing his fears of haunted houses, which doesn’t really go well for the other characters. 

This episode is full of fun costumes, some more creative than others. On one side, Jess takes the classic route by dressing up as a zombie for the haunted house, while Shelby, Winston’s girlfriend, is a bit more creative by going as raining cats and dogs. 

If you are looking for another funny episode full of fun costumes, look no further than this great episode!

Suite Like of Zack and Cody (Season 1, Ep. 19: The Ghost of 613)

This is actually my favorite Halloween episode ever. When I was younger, this scared my sister and I so badly, we couldn’t even think about this episode for years after. Now though, it is the perfect mixture of funny and spooky. 

In this episode, Zack and Cody learn about room 613, a presumably haunted room in the hotel, and decide to go there and try to talk to the ghost. Even though they are facing the ghost and the suspension is high, there are still plenty of funny bits, like when Esteban gets put on hold by the ghost in the middle of their seance. 

If you have Disney+, definitely go and check out this classic Halloween episode! 

Modern Family (Season 2, Ep. 6: Halloween) 

Like Ann’s party from Parks and Rec, this episode of Modern Family is full of great costume ideas! 

In this episode, Claire decides to put on a haunted house, her love of Halloween going too far as she tries to pressure her family into making sure it goes perfectly. The whole gang is there, assigned various roles in the haunted house, each decked out in their own spooky costumes. While the episode itself isn’t scary, the drama that the family faces surely is. 

Hopefully you were able to find something on this list that is speaking to you this Halloween season, and a reminder to have fun and stay safe! 

Caroline Ernst is a senior at Christopher Newport University studying English with a writing concentration and classical studies and literature as minors. She studied abroad in Rome fall semester of her junior year, where she spent her time exploring the city, Italy, and many other European cities. On campus, she works as her university's Italian tutor in their tutoring center, where she also work as a the Foreign Language Lead Tutor. In addition, she works in the writing center on campus as a writing consultant, helping students with their essays and other writings. She is a proud member of CNU's chapter of Her Campus, where she writes for their writing team and this year will take on the responsibility as Senior Editor.
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