How could Maude's death have worked?

JRogyRogy

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It's no secret that a lot of us aren't fans of how the Simpsons killed off Maude Flanders. Alone Again Natura-Diddly always came off as extremely rushed and at times, quite callous (Homer parking in the ambulance zone being a prime example).

I was thinking lately, do we think there is any way that Maude's death could ever have worked? How do you think they could have pulled this off?
 
It really never bothered me how she died. They don’t need to treat it super seriously. I actually thought Homer’s admittance to parking in the ambulance zone was pretty damned funny.
 
Have a better writer, to start. The whole thing felt too slapdash and scatterbrained. Maybe it would've benefited by being split into two episodes.
 
I don't like homer contributing to Maude's death. It would have been better if she died of an illness (I could see the Flanders family thinking cancer was God's will and refusing treatment.)
 
my original opinion on the episode itself was that it needed to be more emotional and that's why it didn't work. because you're dealing with a serious topic like death, so... it needs to be serious? that was my initial mindset for the longest time, until there was a thread here about the episode and I talked about wanting it to be more dramatic and people were arguing how just because it's about a serious topic, it's still the simpsons and it's still a comedy.

that said, the episode itself does not make me laugh much, and the way maude died is pretty half-assed, but I'm not entirely sure how they could have handled it any differently. could have made up a whole other episode and premise i suppose.
 
Yeah, see, I don’t think the topic of death always needs to be serious. It’s the end of life; it’s a natural part of the cycle. It sucks when someone you know dies, but it doesn’t need to be handled so delicately.
 
i dont mind how shes dies really, its the rest of that episode i find really unpleasant and disgusting. i do think had it been an earlier season theyd have been more tactful about attaching our supposed protagonist to a death (indirectly a murder really), jerkass scully eps function better when they have no consequence, it just comes off ugly when it results in a death that sticks.
 
Well, before start, I want to say I don't hate Alone Again, Natura-Diddly. However, it's not even one of my favorites episodes of my least favorite season, but I can tolearte it. The problem here is that this episode had the potential to be truly fantastic, and it didn't take advantage of it.

I think the episode could be a lot better. First, giving Maude a dignified death: an illness, for example, which allow us empathize with the characters. Second, giving Homer a noble characterization: as usually in this season, he is in jerkass mode. Third, removing the part of the plot in which Ned search a new girlfriend, and center the efforts in how he and his children overcome the pain. They would take the way of the emotion instead the joker one. Fourth, take advantage of Rachel. If you take the episode by the easy way, at least, use the good things of it in the future. This one is not preciselly a way the make better this episode, but Rachel should have been the new girlfriend of Ned (and not only appear to ruin I'm Goin' to Praiseland)
 
Part of the problem with making Maude's death more 'poignant' or meaningful was that the character was never that well developed, so it would have been hard to make the audience invest in her plight at any point in the series even when it was capable of doing that, and during peak Scully, forget it. In the episode where she dies she's just another prop signifier of Ned's perfect life that is destroyed through Homer's jerkassery. not really a character, hence Homer's well intentioned but beyond crass motivation to 'make things right' by getting Ned wed again minutes after she's buried.

I do wish Maude had been more developed when she was around. You know how there are a few Marge/Ned episodes where that pairing is explored and we see how they relate? I wish they'd done a Homer/Maude episode where Homer's attraction to Maude is confronted more explicitly than the few joking hints we got over the show's first decade. Maybe a Last Temptation Of Homer style episode where for whatever reason Marge and Ned are away and Homer has to approach Maude directly about some neighbourly issue, he finds he can't be such a dick to her as he is to Ned and also battles with his guilt over his attraction to her. Eventually as they work together on whatever the issue is (say for the sake of argument, Rod is trapped in his treehouse cos he's scared of heights and also has agrophobia) they end up relating a bit more as some of Homer's carefree slobbishness rubs off on Maude (leading to an end scene where I dunno, a shocked Ned walks in on them cracking a beer open together toasting a job well done on a Sunday morning while Maude would usually be at church) while Homer gets to appreciate Maude and the kids more as people, not object of jealous resentment/attraction, and they perhaps bond over Ned's foibles (Maude admits his okily dokily schitck gets on her nerves etc).
 
The real issue with Alone Again, Natura-diddily is that, as with most Scully-era plots, it places its figurative apples into an entirely incorrect basket - unlike the majority of the classic era, plot holds a weirdly uneven position in the Scully era in that most episodes from its depths will gladly bend the established cast into different beings altogether to service a narrative (Marge going insane, anyone?), yet, while Jerkass Homer is basically a manifestation of this (an interpretation of Homer directed and dictated by the basic will of an immediate plot or gag over the consistent set of character traits he harboured during the first eight seasons), whenever said seasons tend to exert any focus onto him, any existing plot within an episode (by S11, at least) is almost instantaneously sidelined in favor of more wacky Homer gags (which follow the simple premise of ‘yeah, the audience likes Homer, we’ll simply dump more of that onto them’ as opposed to utilising Homer’s previously established traits to more judiciously integrate him into a storyline and justify his presence there), which leads Homer’s Scully-era characterization to adopt the air of a desperate attempt on the staff’s part to disguise the increasingly ramshackle nature of the plots behind him. Although this is (kind of) more forgivable in an episode primarily focused on comedic farcical, treating one’s own plot in such a callous and precarious manner simply doesn’t gel with the mechanics and themes one needs to employ to pull off a ‘character death’ episode successfully, which led to the execution of Maude’s death coming off as mean-spirited and disgusting in that the episode barely focuses on either Maude’s death (a particularly bizarre dichotomy in that they insert several grim scenes overplayed with melancholic string music to imply the harsh consequences of her demise, yet the episode barely refers to Maude or honours her character in any way (I get she was a sparsely used tertiary, but still, we’re talking an innocent woman who plummeted to her death courtesy of a certain maniac’s stupidity over any fault of hers or her family’s own) to indicate anything greater than apathy for its own story, which exudes a heinous disrespectful tone) or Ned’s grief (despite acting as the emotional push the episode attempts to strain for at its climax without any buildup) in favor of less compelling Jerkass Homer-focused comedy, which resultantly consumes virtually the entire episode and leaves the incredibly dour subject matter and plot the episode initially set up and implied during the second act to be shoved aside for Homer hiding in mailboxes and heckling Flanders (with a confused mixture of semi-decent intentions and mean-spirited gags, such as the ambulance slot line, which is not aided by the episode’s refusal to interpret Homer as anything more than a simple-minded and destructive clown (as opposed to a plausible human or character) amidst the inherent solemnity of the episode’s alleged plot and themes, in turn further confusing his intentions) in such a way that the episode and its plot (possibly accidentally) generate the air acting as a pretense or excuse to celebrate Jerkass Homer (particularly as neither Homer nor any other cast member (even Ned) appear to regret or resent Homer for Maude’s demise respectively) for his zany antics (despite said zany antics ultimately causing the death of an innocent woman). Ultimately, while the episode does present the possibility for a unique plot and tone among the endless Homer farces of S11, it suffers from the typical Scully-era issue of neglecting the most compelling aspects of its own story (the focus on Ned’s bereavement and progression towards his eventual recovery) to merely fall back on the same homogenous Jerkass Homer routines, albeit in a far more egregiously distasteful context than previous Scully efforts.

In short, the episode, regardless of its placement, needed to reshuffle its structure (axing the filler-heavy and irrelevant first act), exert more focus onto Ned, establish a more even balance between drama and comedy (tone) between scenes, emphasise Ned’s role as the central protagonist of the episode and tone down Homer significantly (at least showcase his regret and progression towards overcoming his established animosity towards Ned in favor of assisting him as opposed to shoehorning him in to crank out lame cartoonish gags at every turn), assuming that the crew lacked the time or further notification to development Maude prior to her death.
 
Something about the Homer parking in the ambulance zone ‘gag’; didn’t the Simpsons park miles away to initially go on a nature ramble, and only stumbled onto the racetrack by accident and on foot? How could Homer have parked in the ambulance zone of the racetrack parking lot when he walked through a forest to stumble onto the racetrack by accident? Don’t make no sense.
 
There’s a short interjection/scene where Homer briefly leaves the spectator stands at the rally to repack the family car (hence the scene where a pit crew service the OFF sedan). We can only assume that Homer did so in the ambulance slot following this scene, of course.
 
Wacky, I always love the content and substance of your posts, but man I wish you'd make the formatting a tad more palatable. :D
 
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