I didn't think that OMWF was a very strong ep, actually, when you bar the musical bits and just look at it as a plot.

The whole thing about OMWF is that there's something unsaid, and it comes out in OMWF because it's an episode about people suddenly magically voicing their deep unspoken thoughts. So it has a great marriage of form and content, like Hush.

the Gentlemen had me first thinking of Gorey

I never noticed it till I heard the commentary, but there's a strong element of Mister Burns from the Simpsons in there too.

When the ep first aired all the critics were calling them a cross between Mr. Burns and the bad guys in "Dark City."

the bad guys in "Dark City."

They certainly owed something to that look. That's a great movie, even if it could do with a bit of a trim.

Putting Jennifer Connelly in that dress made up for most of the problems.

Madrigal, so true! I love that dress.

When the ep first aired all the critics were calling them a cross between Mr. Burns and the bad guys in "Dark City."

I think Joss himself cited Mr. Burns and Nosferatu as influneces on The Gentleman. I'm not sure about Dark City.

That's what I meant about "until I heard the commentary" -- Joss says the floating thing was from childhood nightmares, and he personally names Mr Burns and Nosferatu, and some other stuff, but not Dark City.

From a commentary transcript:

What I was going for very specifically with the Gentlemen was a Victorian kind of feel, because that was very creepy and fairy tale like. The politeness, the suits, the crazies who were like the crazies in the asylum in Dracula, the metal teeth still representing science, defeating cavities. Everything is very Victorian era, and for me that bespeaks total creepiness.

When I designed them, I was drawing from everything that had ever frightened me, including the fellow from my dream, Nosferatu, Pinhead, Mr Burns, anything that gave that creepy feeling. I wanted guys that will remind people of what scared them when they were children, and I believe what scared us when we were little children, were old people. It’s the idea of age.

most musicals aren't very much on plot. There are some exceptions like "Chess"

Dude, Chess has no more plot than any other musical! Love...er...semi-quadrangle, and political match, but...really, no more than most. Now, there are definitely some with less ("Assassins" springs to mind, as does t shudder "Cats")...

My Fair Lady has plot - but OK based upon Pygmalion, and thus non-musical roots.

OK Sweeny Todd (Sondheim version) tons of plot. And many of the subplots are new, not from the original Sweeny Todd legend.