I’ll start by saying I loved the musical episode. Don’t think it would, but I was very wrong. Watching season 4 now, and I have to wonder, are they just making the show all gimmick episodes now? Each episode isn’t bad on its own, but I really wish they would get back to telling Star Trek stories.
I think “genre episodes” is more fitting than “gimmick”. On the one hand, I like the meta-ness of SNW exploring all the genres of film and television. And I like to imagine how much fun the actors are having, being able to act in so many genres and some their charterers in different ways. On the other hand, it’s tiresome. This kind of thing only works well written it’s the occasional episode, not the whole season/series.
I say this as someone who found the soap opera episode hilarious. The problem is that the episodes become more about the genre-of-the-week than it does about the story.