Good God was that terrible. Everything seemed drawn out, played out, overexplained, or in violation of most laws of nature, not to mention the episode was incredibly short (by my count, 17:41 for the three acts, not including credits or intro), though there was plenty of time for a subplot, or even just for more Jon Lovitz! The story didn't even really get interesting until the final act anyhow, so why couldn't that be longer? Ugh. I guess this is what we get left with until the end of April. Well... I'm a little short on time tonight, so I'm probably overlooking the positive aspects of this episode - just bear that in mind, especially you, future self, when reading this a few years down the line.
DYN: ...the TV-PG ratings bug showed up at the start of every part tonight (since that started up in earnest a few years ago, it's usually been in the intro and second act only)? ...if Homer and Marge first dated in 1974 (according to 7F12), there couldn't actually be any "Scent of a Wookiee" cologne yet?
Previous episode references 5F08: "Precious memories" photo album like "precious moments" and "treasured memories" 9F19, BABF13: Gabbo and Arthur Crandall seen (Not listing the various celebrities Homer spotted at first) 7G10: Scene set in a darkroom (developing scandalous pictures too) EABF08: Sara Sloane seen at Wolfcastle's revenge meeting AABF18: One of the pictures of Homer looks like it's from his boudoir photography session 3F19: Terlet AABF23: Shifty eyes
Other reference Jurassic Park: The helicopter approach to the island where Wolfcastle is getting married is visually like this and has a similar music cue; see also couch gag
Meta-reference corner - see below
Finally It's funny that they should do a Tracey Ullman Show lookalike 1987 thing tonight when recreating the family photos, because I was all set to mention (since this is the last new episode before it) that April 19th will mark the 20th anniversary of the Simpsons on TV (in MG01)! That is all.