The Treehouse of Horror episodes can be hugely divisive amongst fans of the Simpsons. While some find the episodes a bit lazy (not to mention irrelevant in a time where their novelty of randomness is normal for a standard Simpsons episode), many others utterly adore the episodes because they allow the writers to completely unleash with whatever random references and acts of violence they want. Personally I love them and they rank among my favourite episodes each season. The first of these episodes is held in particularly high esteem amongst long time fans because it is considered the episode that changed the landscape and allowed the Simpsons to establish this absurd tradition. At the IMDB this episode is ranked in the top 10% of all Simpsons episodes with a rating of nearly 8/10 from nearly 2000 votes. Rolling Stone ranks this episode in its top 150 episodes, and critics at Rotten Tomatoes rank the segment The Raven in their top ten Treehouse of Horror sequences of all time. But thats not really a fair summary of the quality of this episode. The Raven in particular is so specific in the audience it targets (fans of Edgar Allen Poe) that it is a skin crawlingly irritating watch if you're not a fan. Worst of all though, its not a particularly enjoyable watch for fans of Poe anyway. The original work is a painful mediation on grief, and is one of Poes most well known and beautiful pieces. In the hands of the Simpsons animators the sequence may be ambitiously inventive (particularly with the use of James Earl Jones voice) but the whole exercise becomes akin to something more like the song that never ends. The writers deserve all the kudos in the world for having a go at something so bold - but that doesn't mean it's particularly good.
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