18x01 The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer

Fun starter of the season. Weird to see so many modern references (Shark Tale, Batman Begins,...)

A fun enough post-classic Simpsons episode. The story is a solid one, though the execution is fairly lacking with a lot of narrative shortcuts as usual. The references to The Sopranos and The Godfather are fun, but the attached gags were pretty thin, and Michael Imperioli and Joe Pantoliano's guest appearances weren't wasted exactly, but they weren't used to their fullest potential either. There were some very funny sequences (the baking soda/vinegar/TNT pileup and Nelson's frightened temperament in particular) but there were a lot of really bad ones as well (Homer roughing up Moe stood out like a sore thumb, and the WWII beans gag was equally lame). Not the best, but not the worst either. About par for the course for this era of the show.