R & R: I'm Goin' To Praiseland

[Garp]

It gets a 6/10 for me. I think this episode is so-so, but not bad, and I was surprised when I saw it here, as the number 10 in the "Official 50 Worst Episode Ever List". What do you think of it?

[Charmy]

This episode is more slightly-worse-than-mediocre than it is really bad. A 5/10, perhaps?

[squishee lady]

A give it a 7/10. It was nice to see Rachel Jordan again because "Alone Again..." left us wondering. The story was a little too far fetched though, Why would Gas make EVERYONE fantasize about Heaven?

[Sloppy Jimbo LXIX]

You'd think that when the producers decided to get rid of Maude, they would've at least used the opportunity to further explore and develop Ned's character. Alas, this is hardly an in-depth character study. Nor is it particularly funny or memorable. Ned's "girlfriend", Rachael is just as uninteresting and useless as before, doing nothing for the episode or the series, for that matter. She's basically forgotten by the second act when Ned decides to build a theme park in Maude’s honor then brought back at the end for some lame form of closure. Oppurtunities for funny comments by secondary characters are sqaundered too. An episode that basically falls flat on every level. Maude died for this?

Grade: D+

[pat]

Terrible episode. Not funny at all. The story made no sense; the gas causing fantasies about heaven especially didn't do it for me. 2/10

[brentmoney]

3/5

The episode's definitely not fantastic, but it's definitely better than what most people think in my opinion. The idea of gas giving people weird hallucinations at a christian amusement park was pretty weird, but I still enjoyed the episode. It was nice to see Ned recover after Maude's death at the end of the episode, and how obsessed widow's can be as it's showed in the beginning ( trust me , it's that bad).

[Channel Surfer]

Grade: D

An episode where the comedy was sad and the sad was funny. Seriously, Ned is both very weird and very uninteresting here. Is Maude's death really an excuse for him cutting Rachel's hair while she slept? An overly crazy, forced, unfunny way to push the plot along. And I won't even get into the believability of him actually building a theme park in remembrance of her death, or how (as squisheelady brought up) everyone had visions of heaven from the gas. And what was with Homer in this episode? He literally runs around screaming like an idiot. This episode might have still been passable had it been funnier, but it barely gave any chuckles. CBG's fantasy and a few things in the opening scene are kind of humorous, but other then those few moments, there isn't anything funny at all. Sadly not the worst of season 12.

[Mike Scully]

^
|
What he said.

2/10

[chiefdan]

4/10. One of the worst ever. I'm Goin' to Barf.

[Generic]

7/10. Would have given it a six, but the grade is raised by Milhouse's line "Ants are crawling in my mouth and I don't care!". Please excuse my odd sense of humour. ;)

[SideshowTim]

6/10. Nothing special, Nothing terrible.

[Steve Allen]

The episode was on TV last night!

Anyway, 6/10

[doyle]

I was hoping for good emotion, or at least sadness like in Alone Again. Instead, we saw that any attempts at emotion were terribly forced. The main plot was rather poor too. However, there were a couple redeeming factors. I did like the ride where the kids are strapped in and have to sit while they hear Bible passages. My memory is a bit rusty so I don't remember how well exeuted it was but it's one of the things I remember about the episode. I did also like the gas thing. Yes, it was a bit wacky, but I appreciated the irony that everyone thought God was performing a miracle but it turned out to really by something harmful. But overall, this episode fails in most aspects but doesn't really stand out in my mind as being one of the worst ever. C-

[George Cauldron]

I'd rank it around average for season twelve, which, compared to the run of the entire series is very poor. It does have its funny moments, which are few and far between. Rachel Jordan isn't a very interesting character, so why she was brought back, I don't know. Why we don't hear about her again after this, I still don't know. How Ned Flanders almost single-handedly managed to build a theme park, I don't know. Why Maude wanted a Bible-themed amusement park as one of her wishes, I still don't know. Why the gas was strong enough to cause hallucinations, I have no idea. Why Lisa and Marge and Bart are remarkably underused, I don't know at all. There's a lot of unanswered questions from this episode due to its many flaws.

[Wezzo]

Originally posted by squisheelady
I give it a 7/10.

Due to my liking of the plot.

[Robertuybrush]

It was original. liked it.

7/10

[y2dave2004]

6/10. Disco Stu's heaven was pretty funny.

[Air Homer]

6/10 It wasn't great but it wasn't bad.

[Goty]

In terms of emotion and character development, 'Alone again..' is (almost) pure gold when compared to 'Praiseland'. 2 or 3 good gags, but that's it. 3/10

[Gamblore]

pretty mediocre

[Moe Nopoly]

i don't know, i really don't like Ned as Widower.
I think this episode is also not so good and not really funny.
I just don't like it too much, think it was better when Ned had Maude as wife on his side.

3.5/10

[Simpsonsfan1981]

Had its good points and bad points. I think this is probably the best post-Maude portrayal of Ned out of the episodes he's appeared in since her death but that's not saying much. I kind of liked the concept and the idea of the show and it was executed rather well. I agree that there were inconsistencies and Ned's cutting of Rachel's hair was slightly creepy but all in all I enjoyed this. I'll give this 7.5/10

[Sideshow Jay]

I saw this episode once a long time ago, but I thought it was decent. I'll give it a 7/10.

[Gatorsrule]

I'd rank it around average for season twelve, which, compared to the run of the entire series is very poor. It does have its funny moments, which are few and far between. Rachel Jordan isn't a very interesting character, so why she was brought back, I don't know. Why we don't hear about her again after this, I still don't know. How Ned Flanders almost single-handedly managed to build a theme park, I don't know. Why Maude wanted a Bible-themed amusement park as one of her wishes, I still don't know. Why the gas was strong enough to cause hallucinations, I have no idea. Why Lisa and Marge and Bart are remarkably underused, I don't know at all. There's a lot of unanswered questions from this episode due to its many flaws.

Most of your questions are worthy, but I thought Maude wanting to build a Bible-themed amusement park was well within her character. She'd always been seen as a good Christian, it makes sense that she would want to make something that's fun for children and also spreads the word of God.

[joe miller]

8/10, it was good, but a little low on the humor department

[Darkel]

ugh . the plot made no sense, it wasn't funny and the emotion was tagged on

[Nauru-1]

Could be worse. I'm glad this one's out of 10 because IMO it's worse than a 3/5 but better than a 2/5. As a result, I'm giving this a 5/10. Nothing special about it at all but the premise is slightly intriguing and I don't recall anything that is particularly cringeworthy.

[Jims]

It's kinda average.

The best stuff, by far, is the Ned Flanders development. The episode serves as a good bridge between "Alone Again Naturadiddly" and "A Star is Born - Again" as Ned comes to terms with Maude's death. Of course, he comes off as extremely creepy, but it's actually pretty funny in a pathetic way. The idea that Ned would keep Maude's imprint on the other side of the bed is cuckoo-bananas.

The "Christian amusement park" works okay as a story and seems to be a pretty good representation of what would actually happen. At that point, they kind of write themselves into a corner so the episode goes off on the gas-leak subplot. It's not the worst direction they could've gone. You have to suspend disbelief a good bit, but I've had much tougher exercise already in Season 12. This is child's play.

Overall, 3/5.

[Gorky]

Easily one of the worst episodes of S12 (right up there with "A Tale of Two Springfields" and "Simpson Safari"). It's not funny, and I think the writers really wasted an opportunity to explore Ned's life post-Maude's death in earnest. The amusement park idea was original, sure, but it's executed terribly. And for some reason, Homer's irritating, borderline-jackass behavior in this one wasn't nearly as well-intentioned as it was in "Alone Again..." Oh, and this doesn't really affect my non-existent enjoyment of the episode, but I think the animation in this one is kind of sub-par when compared to the rest of the season; that might just be me, though.

1.5/5

[qwertyuio]

Easily one of the worst episodes of S12 (right up there with "A Tale of Two Springfields" and "Simpson Safari"). It's not funny, and I think the writers really wasted an opportunity to explore Ned's life post-Maude's death in earnest. The amusement park idea was original, sure, but it's executed terribly. And for some reason, Homer's irritating, borderline-jackass behavior in this one wasn't nearly as well-intentioned as it was in "Alone Again..."
Agreed, but actually I found Homer irritating in Alone Again Natura-Diddly too. What the season 11 episode had was a nice development of Ned, while here he is a cartoonish overreacted character.
There are no redeeming qualities in this piece of crap. It's almost absolutely unfunny, the characterizations are flat and sometimes disgusting and the whole plot is forced at all (OK, Maude is a religious woman, but that's not enough to justify the whole Praiseland idea. And its construction is likely to be one of the most tedious parts ever in The Simpsons). Painfully overrated, I have never seen what seemed to make it "special" in comparison with its contemporaries. I hate it intensely and the saddest thing is that it's not by far the worst episode of S12. Worthy of a place in the bottom25, though. 4/10

[Le Jake]

I was hoping for good emotion, or at least sadness like in Alone Again.

If you thought "Alone Again..." was a genuinely sad episode because it was well written, you'd be the type who'd laugh at a lynching.

[Fox Executive]

Sucks shit as well. 2/5

[Rowdy Roddy Peeper]

Just watched this and it's an awful episode. The characterization of Homer and Ned is appalling, Homer is simply not funny in this episode. Homer used to be a character we all loved, he had his flaws but we loved him because we empathized with his slightly selfish attitudes. However, in this episode he just doesn't care about anyone else, Ned's talking about his recently deceased wife and Homer's acting like a big spoilt child and is actually embarassing to watch. It's really like the writers modelled him on an unfunny Peter Griffin for this episode.
And for Ned, well way to turn a Christian loving gent into a insane maniac. I know the haircut thing was a 'parody', but that's not a good enough reason. You should never sacrifice 12 years of characterization for one shoddy joke. Really bad. The plot was silly and ill thought out. You know they really could have done something sweet and special about Ned and his wife, and i have no doubt that if this story was approached 4 or 5 years earlier, it could have been. It's just such a shame they went down a really poor path during this era. And to be honest, I think Mike Scully does deserve some of the criticism he gets because it was his responsibility to not let the show get like this. He didn't do his homework, he didn't 'get' what the Simpsons during his time as an EP. Which is surprising since he's written some fantastic episodes in the nineties including one of my all time favourites (Marge Be Not Proud).

[royal36]

If you thought "Alone Again..." was a genuinely sad episode because it was well written, you'd be the type who'd laugh at a lynching.

Alone Again definitely was a "sad" episode and so was this one.

[worstcomicbookguyever]

i perfer this episode over "alone again" disco stu's vision of heaven was funny and comic book guy's vision was the best thing in the episodes but it lost points when i saw patches and poor violet i hate thoose orphans more than the rich texan i hate them although tresses cough for violet was funny in a horrible way but the ending i felt was really sweet it left u hope for ned and homer was bad at the start but when praiseland came along homer was great it was a step up from alone again
7/10 nuff said scully

[The Wiggs]

Not good at all. 'Nuff said. 2/5

[Bartist]

F

To everyone involved in making this episode (and "Alone Again Naturadiddly"):

"AW HELL, DIDDLY DONG-DONG CRAP!! CAN'T YOU MORONS DO ANYTHING RIGHT?!"