People often says older Simpsons are the better Simpsons and is true. Until 2000 the series was a long stretch of victories.
This is the first episode when you feel something has changed and not for better.
The episode have one of the stellar moments of the series with MR X tale: first half is flawless and very memorable 20 years after.
Thing become very awful in the last part: that about that British series nobody knows.
The Simpsons always made references to pop culture (i see the plot of The Shining in the Simpsons before the movie or TV serie) but always work as stand alone piece: was not a prerequisite to know what they were making reference.
In this episode simply don't work: there was a over reliance on "The Prisioner" to understand what was happening and that was a big mistake. The last part ot the episode is a mess.