After already doing a Christmas episode, this week's The Simpsons tackled the other winter holiday that often gets ignored due to the hiatus: New Year's.

Unfortunately, the hangover jokes, which were some of the best moments of the episode, served only as a Simpsons style intro which would jump start the main story of "Donnie Fatso."

We realize that after the show has been on for over 22 years, many episodes will have that "haven't already done this?" feel.  However, none seem to feel that way as much as the mafia storylines.

Fat Tony is a great character and contributes some great Simpsons quotes with each appearance, but he does much better as just that: an appearance. 

When he dominates a whole episode?  We just get a feeling of deja vu as we go into yet another parody of Goodfellas and other mafia movies.  At least in the episode's defense, Homer did refer to the fact that he's already been a confidant for Fat Tony.

At any rate, most of those previous interactions were ignored, as Homer was able to start fresh, thanks to a fantastic set of hair.  Once the mafia storyline kicked in, there were definitely still some fun moments, such as the meat tenderizing in jail, but they were just too and far between.

For an episode with such an overdone story, we could have forgiven things if it were at least funnier.  Unfortunately, there just weren't enough jokes to make the episode worth it.  And that includes the nod to Maggie shooting Mr. Burns.

We do have to give Jon Hamm credit for doing a fine job as the FBI supervisor that was at least a part of some of the funnier aspects of the episode.  Still, his character was far too bland to go on to be anything memorable.

Eric Hochberger is the programmer of TV Fanatic, so please forgive his mediocre writing. His programming is far better. Follow him on Twitter and/or email him. Just don't request threaded comments. They're coming.