The episode was alright, I think. I really like the idea of a story where Smithers finally finds true love and I think it did make for an interesting premise with Homer (of all people) matching him up with this famouse wealthy fashion designer named Michael whom seems too good to be true and it leading to an unpleasant reveal, but overall, it felt fairly bland and a little dull, the jokes weren't terrible but many fell flat (and some didn't feel right), some characterizations like Marge and Burns were really kinda off and it didn't really have much (or anything) that really stood out as all that good. The directing was solid and the writing was okay (despite really nothing special other than in terms of how tasteful and natural the love story felt in the first act), but it never really rose to something greater.
It did have an alright opening scene at Burns' mansion grounds (with Smithers introducing the new litter of dobermann puppies to Burns) for starters & the little montage skit of Homer's new job as a "test dummy" for the puppies to bite down on was a little amusing, but could probably have done without the unnecessary "greenhouse" gag (the lame pun at least elicited a chuckle so that was a small plus). It was one of those "Smithers feels unappreciated" plots we have seen before but this was done in an pretty alright manner, with Burns not really caring for his assistant and Homer feeling sorry for the guy & wanting to help (I like these kind of Homer-Smithers where they act friendly with the other). Also, Homer's moment with the nice & friendly discarded puppy was cute.
I did find it little odd how Michael, the fashion designer, suddenly just stood there infront of Homer (I guess he was one of those who answered to Burns' invitation to get one of the puppies) and Homer deciding to play matchmaker by pairing him up with Smithers was entertaining (especially him being so proud about it afterwards). Smithers meeting Michael was a nice bit but the Luigi's restaurant scene wasn't especially interesting nor that funny (especially with the overlong gag of Luigi's mother being intolerant and he tries to reason with her. It wasn't terrible, just drawn out and not funny). The scene with Homer boasting about his gay matchmaking at Moe's was amusing (especially with his "no can do" attitude toward's Lenny's question about straight matchmaking).
While Homer's smugness was amusing, Marge was being really annoying with her fangirling over Homer giving Smithers a boyfriend and following him around asking about Michael (whose fashion critic show she's a fan of) andd doing things like jumping onto the hood of the car to find out more and she became almost unbearable with her damn antics, though the jokes with Homer continuous swapping way of travel (going from his car to her car to the bus stop) to get away from her was pretty funny. Smithers and Michael had a nice scene at the latter's villa, but the 'Dancing Queen' bit with whatshername having been hired to sing the song almost made me roll my eyes (them actually following Smithers' dialogue up audiovisually was just too much and made it a bit of a drag).
While Marge essentially stalking Smithers at the plant was a little much and got him to accept a party thrown for his and Michael's sake, the party itself had some nice moments (and Michael giving Lisa's skirt a makeover was probably the best part, but the Lenny & Carl gag was funny), but the second joke scene with Luigi and his mother was just meh. Michael starting a clothing factory for modern fashion in town was an interesting turn, though here the Smithers story got lost in the shuffle and it suddenly became quite Lisa centric with her and Homer (and Bart, there for no reason) finding out that Michael is an villain to the environment and pollutes the town with his factory and the workers get really sick from the condictions of the factory (makes sense Lisa calls it a sweatshop).
While I don't oppose the reveal, I think that Lisa hijacking ther story with her pointing out everything what is wrong did feel a little forced (I've often noticed Lisa gets shoehorned into plots a lot of the time and this was one of those times. Also why is Bart angry about the pollution?). I did like the gag with how Homer revealed the pollution to Smithers (with Lake Springfield having "gone plaid") and it gave an nice bit of conflict for Smithers. His scene with Burns afterwards was nice (and Burns' monologue on how "fast fashion" is potentially more dangerous than nuclear power as the SNPP provides electricity yet Michael profits off things that nobody truly needs, was some surprisingly decent satire. Also, I did find it amusing how he still doesn't get that Smithers is actually gay).
It obviously comes down to Smithers confronting Michael about the literally toxic workplace but the latter is a crazed and malevolent boss who doesn't care about the environment to make quick bucks and naturally, Smithers walks out on him (but not before Michael literally kicks the puppy since it caused him spill some wine, obviously to prove how evil he is! ). Anyhow, Smithers adopting the puppy was cute and his chat with Homer & Marge I liked, but it felt like it didn't solve the very problem at hand (as Michael still has his factory in town and it is slowly destroying Springfield with pollution and spewing pieces of clothing everywhere so it should be a huge deal, but I suppose they'll be erased when the status quo sets in. It almost felt like they wrote themselves into a corner).
Overall, it was okay. Story was good and they handled the love story decently well with some nice scenes of him and Michael (and Homer's role was nice), though it was a bit of shame they got a little sidelined for things like Marge's fangirling, Lisa's forced role and such & it became a little too much but there were still a lot of nice little moments throughout (I think my favorite was the subplot with Burns and the puzzle, simple yet entertaining, yet not feeling forced), the humor was not great but there were still some amusing moments, the characterizations were a bit half-and-half (such as Smithers & Homer being portrayed well, while Marge wasn't) and the story got a little dull at times, but it was alright. A (mostly) unremarkable but averagely okay outing with its moments.
3/5. Had the episode focused on Smithers and his relationship, Mr Burns (and his puzzle subplot) and a bit of Homer (I liked his part) it'd have been pretty nice, but it had to force unneccessary, intrusive and/or dragged out material, not too funny and with a few poor characterizations in there (such as Marge being too much, Lisa forced into the story to be angry and do the exposition about how Michael is a bad guy, the unfunny overlong jokes with Luigi's intolerant mother, Michael being worse than Burns, etc): It having two writers was definitely felt and I'd say the first act was the strongest (before they started overloading the episode). Though, for all its shortcomings, it still had enough to make it an interesting and rather decent viewing so yeah, a perfectly decent one.
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