(S05E08) December is a tough month for TV. "Barely Legal" is the only new Family Guy episode for the month, as they are off again next Sunday. But hey, if you are only going to do one episode in a month, might as well make it a good one. And this one was.It seemed like more of a cohesive story than we have seen in a while as the whole family was tied in to the same storyline. Not only that, but it was a Meg story. She's been almost absent from the show so far this season, so it was a nice change of pace to move the focus away from Peter and Stewie.
Meg has always taken a lot of crap. It's just what she does. Not having a date for the dance was nothing new. But Jimmy killing his little brother to avoid having to go with her was a little harsh. And Stewie's line, "Brian, I present to you your polished turd for the evening." was probably the most humiliating thing since Meg's butt was the exit to the portal. No worries though, making fun of Meg is still funny, so more power to them. Brian's refusal to disagree every time Meg mentioned being fat or ugly was pretty good too.
I liked the story of Meg's infatuation with Brian. The origin of it was great, with a drunk Brian defending her to Connie, by explaining what a whore Connie is, followed by the big make out and puke scene. The Richard Marx tune in the background was a nice touch. And that all led to Meg's insane crush. It was a very Quahog Swimfan.
Chris had to take a back seat this week, but his excuse of being buried in paperwork for 72 hours when he didn't mention that Meg had tied Brian up and thrown him in the trunk was funny. Creepy Meg with the hair pie and candlelit dinner was strangely disturbing. The resolution with Quagmire actually imparting good advice was a nice twist.
There could have been more done with the Police Academy part of the story, but with only 22 minutes, something has to go. The Police Academy movies are just perfect for Family Guy parody though, so more would have been fun. What little we did get from it was well done with the highlight being full cavity search training. For those that were wondering, the list of items Peter found in Quagmire's ass included a cell phone, wedge of cheese, doorknob, lollipop, xylophone, and a DVD of Goodburger. It was nice how they tied that all back in with the search for Meg and Brian. How did they not get Steve Gutenberg to do a cameo for this episode though?
The episode didn't have the normal collection of cutaway gags, but that wasn't a bad thing. It can start to feel a little formulaic, so something a little different once in a while is nice. Most of the spots that would normally have gone to those completely unrelated bits were used for the crazier parts of the episode story. Things like Peter coming home with the giraffe he swiped from the zoo, and named Allison Janney. The end of that one, with Cleveland's tub crashing to the ground, was a nice call back to "Hell Comes To Quahog."
The pronunciation joke, with the H sound, was silly, but I thought it played really well. All three times even. As did the other language joke with Jillian and Eastern and Specific time. Probably my favorite of the bunch was Garret Morris as Headmaster of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing. That's reaching all the way back to season one of SNL. The only typical cutaway bit that really stood out to me was Brian and the bubblegum fart. The lowest of the lowbrow, but funny. Maybe it's just my hatred for all things Star Wars, but I didn't think the Emperor dialog joke was funny at all.
Overall, I'd call this one a really good episode. It had a different feel, partly because of the Meg focus, and partly because of the decrease in gags, but it worked.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-18-2006 @ 8:40AM
MGA said...
I'm still not happy with this entire animation block.
Brian asking Meg if she was going to eat his vomit, was great.
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12-18-2006 @ 8:40AM
jimmy said...
i loved Brian's "awwwwwwww....."
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12-18-2006 @ 9:43AM
Marlos Hill said...
Brian's "awwwwwwwww" was hilarious... agreed
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12-18-2006 @ 10:16PM
Andy said...
ah man cmon don't be hating star wars, that gag was funny. Brian's aww was priceless.
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12-18-2006 @ 10:30AM
Josh said...
Brian's, "She made me eat her hair pie!" followed by Lois's punch nearly made me spit up my soup.
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12-18-2006 @ 11:38AM
Lee said...
^And Stewie Had Some
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12-18-2006 @ 12:14PM
Rob said...
I can't believe no ones mentioning Stewie's line to Brian about Meg:
"And just in case your wondering, the carpet matches the drapes,.. in color and length"
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12-18-2006 @ 12:20PM
Kristopher said...
When Brian kept going "awwwwwwww", I nearly died laughing.
I also got a kick out of the white people unzipping themselves to be black underneath once all the cops were gone and doing the dance number.
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12-18-2006 @ 2:02PM
SJ said...
Great episode.
My personal favorite part was when Brian's gf calls him and at the end of the call you can hear Stewie snicker. I don't know why but that I found that snicker to be extremely hilarious.
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12-18-2006 @ 2:35PM
Adam said...
This episode was the worst ever -- honestly, I don't ever want to watch this show again. I am not one to make such a rash decision based on one bad episode, but this show has been getting progressively worse and worse since the start of Season 4. Unlike the boxed sets of Seasons 1 and 2, where I could laugh and be entertained the entire 22 minutes, the current episodes are so dry and ridiculous that I feel like I've lost half an hour of my life forever. Can anybody actually vouche that they "love" this show as they did back in Season 1 and 2? Nobody I know can.
Seriously, I think it's about time to teach the producers a lesson for wrecking this show. If you can agree with me in any way, please stop watching it... maybe we can kill the show now before it gets any worse.
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12-18-2006 @ 3:28PM
Greg said...
I thought the overpronounced 'h' sound runner was great. Cool wHip? a wHile? wHeird? It was all great.
And there were very few "it went better than that time I ______" jokes which fueled South Park's rant. They used to be smoother with their flashbacks/non-sequiturs (however you spell that) and this was a slight return to form.
Still, I think FG is getting progressively worse while American Dad gets progressively better. Interesting, non? At least this episode was a nice look back at when the show was great.
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12-18-2006 @ 4:58PM
Jim said...
I agree this episode was really good. I have never seen a Family Guy episode that hasn't made me laugh and this one made me laugh pretty hard. I always love catching new episodes of Family Guy. It was nominated for favorite animated TV comedy for The People's Choice Awards! You can see if Family Guy won on Jan. 9th on CBS at 9pm. There are also 2 more categories you can vote on at http://www.pcavote.com . Queen Latifah will be hosting the show, so it's a must see! I work with The People's Choice Community, just giving you guys the heads up!
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12-18-2006 @ 10:11PM
Geoffrey M. said...
This episode was really funny!!! I loved it!
Cool Hwip!! LOL
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12-19-2006 @ 12:42AM
GhaleonQ said...
Adam, though you're obviously correct in your first assertion, the legions of people who still believe it to be as good as its first 3 seasons will keep it alive for a long while.
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12-19-2006 @ 1:29AM
Keith said...
"when I watched the box set"...and you call yourself a fan??? I was PISSED when this show went off the air, and there was NOBODY watching...now everyone flashes back to first 2 seasons like they actually watched the show on FOX
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12-19-2006 @ 12:04PM
Adam said...
Keith -- Kudos to you for being with the show from the very beginning. However, do keep in mind that other people might not have accomodating schedules or cable television to have allowed them access to FOX in the first place. They're no less a fan if they watch the boxed sets instead of the live shows.
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12-21-2006 @ 7:28AM
Sal said...
This is a great show . Well written and the "actors" are better than most movie stars .
The dog and the kid are very funny . Its not a boring PC type of same old junk .
The dog dating a human is great .
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