Family Guy, S10E17
Basically, the answer to the question that no one was probably wondering beyond Stewie was given last Sunday: Are Peter and Brian friends of convenience or friends through and through? Well, through the magic of science, Peter and his buddies are thrown into a world by themselves where a spoof newspaper article makes the others think that Peter is an evil, human-destroying alien. It was very interesting to see how these four would get along if their memories were wiped and they were the sole residents of the world. It was a little eerie in a Twilight Zone-like way and funny in the regular Family Guy way.
I think what I liked the best was when Quagmire was trying to teach Brian "gimme paw," and it took forever. Brian contrasts his normal dog qualities by blurting out some pseudo-intelluctual crap afterwards before Quagmire tells him to shut up. No surprise that the deep-rooted hatred that Quagmire has for Brian still manages to seep out even though they don't have their memories back. Two other gags that I enjoyed were Peter pulling out the Chex Mix to see if anyone else was around, and the revised "Who Else But Quagmire?" joke ("Who Else But Shirt Pants?"). However, I will say that the oddity of their situation and whether the mystery would be revealed was a lot more interesting to me than the comedy in this episode.
What I didn't particularly like was the "shock" joke this time. There was a cutaway to a gorilla petting a kitten next to a pile of dead ones it had already torn to bits. So gross. It's very hard for me to laugh at a dead animal or one suffering in a bloody manner. I would have preferred that Peter had just told us that had happened rather than us having to see the death pile.
Also, I didn't much care for the ending of this episode where the girls were put in the same scenario as the guys, but all they were doing was fighting and pulling each others' hair. Apparently they hadn't even tried to name each other. What bullcrap. As if women would naturally just hate each other and not work together. I think women would fight less if men were out of the picture. Damn you, Seth MacFarlane, and your anti-women position. Sometimes when I stop to think about it (which I do more now that he has more than one show where I can compare the women characters he's made), it irritates me how women are represented in SF world. But then again, it's just a cartoon. It's nothing to march about. Still, I wish he would have a women character who wasn't in a position where it seemed like she was ranked lower than her husband (or father).
Anyway, I was a little touched by how deep Peter and Brian's friendship turned out to be. Brian may be an asshole most of the time, but he does love Peter, and the feeling is mutual. Brian took a damn bullet for him. Sometimes you might question whether Peter has a heart, but seeing his best friend die before his eyes and all the tears, you know that his love for Brian is more than that of a pet. It's a nice change of pace because they haven't really had a moment where if you were soft-hearted enough you might just say, "Aww" while watching Family Guy. They used to have touching family moments like this in the first season, but the eventually disregarded this for a general feeling of tolerated hatred among the family (or indifference, at best).
Although this episode reminds me a little of when Stewie killed Lois (it all turned out to be a simulation), I still thought it was good in general. I wouldn't mind more of this style where things are unusual for a reason you can't determine right away, nor would I mind a little more sentimental stories (if not to offset all the stories where the characters are being jerks to one another). We're fast approaching the end of this season, and I'd hate to see it end with me disliking more episodes than I liked.
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