TVSquad

It was nice to cut back Seth MacFarlane's domination of Sunday nights to only three shows. As much as I enjoy all three shows in a general sense, two-and-a-half hours of MacFarlane's brand of humor was a bit much. I continue to enjoy the growth of The Cleveland Show more and more; I'm beginning to see why FOX went ahead and gave it an early season two pick-up.

After a shaky start, we're starting to get a better feel for all these new characters, and I'm finding little things about them to enjoy. It's little things like Arianna's love of confetti that add layers to the character. And while I'm sure it's politically incorrect of me, I find Kendra tooling around in her Rascal absolutely hilarious. That and the over-eating, but all with such a sweet disposition and voice.

When she ordered the breadbowl filled with chicken wings, I had the expected sense of guilt that we're making fun of an overweight person's struggles with food. But what isn't MacFarlane willing to poke fun at? At least he's made Kendra a likable character. It would be worse if she was a bitch along with her other problems.

Both American Dad and The Cleveland Show tackled the issues of men's expectations of their wives. Cleveland's assumption that Donna would inevitably become friends with the wives of his friends is actually pretty typical of men. When men get along, it just seems incredibly convenient that our spouses would get along as well, so we simply expect them to.

It was extra sweet of Cleveland to pretend to be with hookers so her "single lady" friends would take her back. I can't speak as much about this segment of society, but I've known some "man haters." I'm not sure if they group like that and ostracize any of their own who do find a good man, but I found myself agreeing with Cleveland that they were all stupid. Also, though, if they made Donna happy, then he did the right thing.

Loved his closing line to his wife about being sure to use a condom with the prostitutes. With Cleveland, you can't quite say for certain that he was joking.

Meanwhile, in the Smith house, we discovered the real Francine ... and it's a frightening visage to behold. I tell my wife all the time that if she ever lets herself go way downhill, it's over. This episode really illustrated what I was talking about. Yes, I know it's a horrible thing to say, and yes I'm joking when I say it, but good lord, did Francine look horrible when she let herself go.

The best thing about the whole episode was the lesson to be learned: sometimes it's okay to be shallow and petty, so long as everybody involved is happy with the arrangement. Francine doesn't want to provide for her family, and Stan doesn't want a fat wife. So bench press that couch and he'll bring home the bacon. We don't need a real lesson in a cartoon. A ridiculous one is just as important.

Another lesson could be how negligent parents can be. Roger's alter ego (one of them) so terrorized the kids that they wound up fleeing to Argentina, and how long was it before Stan and Francine realized it. At least they acknowledge all of their kids. Over on Family Guy, Peter clearly says that he has two kids at one point. I don't think we saw Meg or Chris at all, though the story of Chris's birth was enough to terrorize me away from ever witnessing another childbirth.

I'm glad to see Quagmire given a chance to grow into a real supporting character again; he'd kind of become a "giggity-giggity" catchphrase machine the past few seasons. It's also good to see him talk directly to the audience from time to time. I was laughing so hard when he fell asleep on the beauty school girl's lap from child-rearing exhaustion. And while I agree Glen did the right thing by putting the baby in a new home, it would have been interesting to watch him mix parenting with his lifestyle.

I thought the clone storyline kind of fell apart by the end, much like the clones themselves. I liked Bitch-Stewie, but by the time Stewie had Brian stroking his own tail, it was losing me. Brian's clone itself wasn't all that funny, nor were any of its antics. I'm thinking it was one of their strange ideas that never really resolved itself so they just let it kind of peter out.

"I'm gonna have to lick that up."