(S06E05) Lois has realized that she has given birth to a monster and knows what she has to do to resolve it. The world needs more mothers who take responsibility like this.I never liked episodes which end up saying "the whole episode you just watched never happened", but the nice thing about Family Guy is its tendency to call itself out on its own crap before the viewer can. I believe Brian described it best when he called it giving the audience a giant middle finger.
However, to begin at the beginning, I found the unintelligible recap by Ollie amusing. It was consistent with the character but being that it couldn't be understood, it didn't really work as a recap. Seth McFarlane (and his writing team) was probably trying to mock recaps from multiple part episodes of other shows.
I became suspicious of the episode when certain things happened. I know it's a cartoon, but even cartoons have their own internal logic. Certain logical inconsistencies of the two-parter struck me as odd. I didn't buy Lois being saved by the merman, particularly with a half-dozen bullets in her chest. How did the merman heal up the bullets? How did a year pass and none of the characters really changed? I also wondered when Stewie's gun never ran out of bullets as he kept the family hostage. But the clincher was Cleveland's death. They wouldn't kill Cleveland any more than they would kill either Lois or Stewie. At that point, I knew the episode would end as a dream or hoax (or, in this case, simulation).
Admittedly, if I switched bodies with a woman the same way Peter and Lois did, I'd probably react initially the same way Peter did. I also liked the scene at the Fortress of Solitude: "Mr. Superman no is here." And the scene of Stewie singing "Lost In Your Eyes" by Debbie Gibson was worth the price of admission (as well as the subsequent skewering by Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson).
Through the show's history, there have been episodes which have been "Brian and Stewie on the road". I liked the twist of this episode which had Stewie holding Brian hostage. And then the episode turned into a standard James Bond plot. Seth McFarlane did let his political opinions on our current president be known during that final fight between Lois and Stewie. And there was a surprise cameo of McFarlane's other Fox creation, American Dad.
I did enjoy the two-parter of Stewie Kills Lois and Lois Kills Stewie. I wasn't so keen on the ending and would have preferred one with more meat, but it was really the only logical way to end the story so nobody would get hurt and the show could pick up where it left off next week (or whenever the writer's strike permits the next episode to be shown).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
11-11-2007 @ 11:42PM
Oreo said...
"I never liked episodes which end up saying "the whole episode you just watched never happened""
That's the reason I hate Star Trek Voyager and Enterpise. :)
But I think you are a little slow. I knew they were going to reset the episode before watching it by just the name of the episodes.
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11-12-2007 @ 1:05AM
Diego M said...
i love the superman maid, and agre abou the disney sequels, but the jaffar bit dragged a lil long.
The fights were awesome as always and the matrix shout out was funny.
the portrait of the nude clinton was also funny.
really good episode, good ending and i don't feel like i was given the middle finger...
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11-12-2007 @ 1:09AM
Brandon said...
I'd say the two parter worked quite well. How bad is the sound on your TV when you can't understand Ollie? I welcomed the return of the megalomaniacal Stewie. I think most people were getting bored with 'fancy' Stewie.
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11-12-2007 @ 3:40AM
Bill said...
That is kinda crazy that you couldn't understand Ollie. He yells and talks kinda fast, but it's better than lots of tv actors who mumble. Kinda reminds me of that old Sinatra Group sketch on SNL, when no matter what Luther Campbell said, Frank couldn't understand him. "You got a Ben Vereen quality, I can't put my finger on it."
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11-12-2007 @ 3:48AM
eugene said...
liked it, the superman maid bit was awesome. I have to say, the image of stewie laying there with the gunshot wounds was VERY disturbing.
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11-12-2007 @ 6:12AM
Juliette said...
@Oreo: Aw, come on, Voyager only did that half a dozen times in about 150 episodes...
Ahem. Back to Family Guy!
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11-12-2007 @ 8:03AM
jpn said...
dude...no offense, but this review looks like it was written by a 5th grader. And not the Jeff Foxworthy kind. You're question the realism of a cartoon? It reads like a formulaic essay for a junior high English class.
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11-12-2007 @ 8:37AM
Daniel said...
Seriously, you have trouble buying the merman bit? On a show that features an ever-recurring fight between Peter and a large chicken? Where Stewie "logically" has a fully-stocked arsenal only feet away from his crib? Where a dog can talk???
But, I see your point. The Family Guy has always been about one thing: logic, internal or otherwise.
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11-12-2007 @ 9:12AM
fred said...
I too felt like a few things were like thrown in as cheap explanation, like how Lois was saved or why she spent one year without looking to come back.
It was an okay-episode, but most important I felt this episode wasn't as good/funny as part 1. More like a cheap way to end it.
A few things funny though, like Cleavland's dead body "hidden" under the couch or the Cruise/Holmes bit.
I liked the variation on Peter vs the giant chicken fight, staring this time Lois & Stewie, but I wonder if once Peter and Lois switched bodies, and since it was (obviously) not really happening, if wouldn't have been better if they stuck with the wrong body.
But it wouldn't have been Lois fighting Stewie, visually, and they wanted that I guess.
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/11/12/family-guy-lois-kills-stewie-part-2/
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11-12-2007 @ 9:35AM
sarah said...
i found this episode to be better than Stewie Kills Lois, actually. there were more funny bits, except the Hilary Swank gag. even though it was apparent that it was a dream/simulation sequence once they killed Cleveland (i got that then too), it was still a more enjoyable half hour than last sunday's, which sucked IMHO.
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11-12-2007 @ 9:44AM
LM said...
I liked how the reviewer was OK with there being a merman, but it fails to make sense that the merman can't heal Lois.
LMAO.
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11-12-2007 @ 1:20PM
Majikphat said...
You Family Guy fanboys shouldn't get so defensive. He's just saying that, within the shows craziness, it possesses its own version of logic. This was an ok episode. They ended it the only way they could. I hope they do it for real for the series finale. Too bad I'm gonna have to wait two or three years to see it.
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11-12-2007 @ 2:15PM
Jay Hash said...
The Willem Dafoe Bit was brilliant. Had me in stitches so bad I had to pause the playback for 10 minutes. Glad to see he has enough of a sense of humor to show up and read 2 lines that emphasizes how whereas he is bar none one of the freakiest people in Hollywood, he's also a damn good actor & nice guy.
~JYH
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11-12-2007 @ 2:52PM
Tori said...
When Stewie announces his list of words no one can say I roared.... however now I can only recall "irregardless" and "all of the sudden"... what was the other? Anyone know? It's killing me!!
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11-13-2007 @ 5:05AM
Veggies said...
@ Tori
"a whole 'nother" was the last one you were thinking of.
Favorite line has to either be Peter quoting Lethal Weapon 2 or "But you Meg... You going to jail'.
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11-13-2007 @ 8:35AM
Galley said...
"They're real, and they're spectacular!" Too bad I don't like milk.
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11-13-2007 @ 9:22AM
rick cokely said...
I think you're letting your politics show... There was a NUDE painting of Clinton as well. Thanks for repeating Rush talking points on this site, thats just what I want when I read reviews of television shows.
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11-13-2007 @ 1:46PM
mike said...
that jaffar bit had me laughing the hardest i have laughed in a long time. it was so awkwardly long which made it even funnier.
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11-13-2007 @ 2:31PM
kevjohn said...
Wow, I must be out of touch, or was just in a non-humorous mood Sunday night. I didn't think there were too many funny bits in this episode at all. Certainly none of the ones anyone else mentioned. Anything that even got close to being funny went on far too long with too little payoff (Hillary Swank, Jaffar, the fight in the Oval Office, Peter and Lois switching bodies, starting the rumor about Rob Schneider). I was even disappointed that after all Stewie's previous attempts to gain power (including hypnotizing the nation via that Cosby t.v. show), the way he actually acheived his goal was pretty stupid. Not "I'll just have the Supreme Court get me the job even though the other guy got more votes" stupid, but stupid nonetheless.
The only parts I found lol funny were when Chris revealed that his hands weren't tied, and the appearance of American Dad's Stan and Bullock showing up at the CIA (and Stewie briefly confusing Stan with Joe the cop). That's a pretty poor showing for an show I usually enjoy.
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11-14-2007 @ 4:02PM
Max said...
What song did Peter play on Lois's boobs?
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