Some Governent Better Than None

Family Guy, S10E21

Peter, annoyed by the government's ability to persecute him for running an unlicensed business, joined a Tea Party rally in town.  He got involved deeper when Carter started using him to gear up more support, and the numbers of Tea Party supports grew so large that they were able to convince Mayor West to resign and abolish city government.  When Quahog quickly began to decline without government to maintain order and public services, Peter fixed the problem by suggesting to the townspeople that they implement a system that was exactly the government that he had earlier opposed.

I didn't think this episode was that funny, but I did think it was predictable.  There's no way that Quahog was going to function better without government, so I was simply annoyed by the full circle of events that happened.  I think the overall message that people who come down on the government for being too intrusive don't realize the general necessity of government.  But I don't really watch this show for the social/political commentary--I come for laughs.  I can't recall any jokes that were good, but there were a lot of disturbing moments throughout that I enjoyed.

One was when Stewie mentioned that some man had tried him on in the closet.  I don't know what that meant at all, but it sounds really bad, especially since Stewie said he "fit."  What the hell??  Another that was quite similar in that fashion was when Meg agreed that the lack of government had benefits.  She and her Spanish teacher were allowed to hold hands, and he wanted to screw her in the library.  Eww!  But when you think about it, if you got rid of government, adults would be allowed to freely take advantage of underage people.  That's a damn good reason to not want to abolish it all together.  The last joke that was unsettling was when Hebert came into the Griffin house and just kidnapped Chris.  That made me gasp.  Again, it speaks to the idea that a lawless town would not just be filthy and lacking electricity, but would also have perverts like Herbert rolling up in your house and taking any kids they damn well pleased.  Makes me want to shudder.  But it was slightly funny in a "I can't believe this is happening" creepy way.

I would say this isn't the best episode this season, but it's not the worst.  I think it works for a certain kind of audience, and I just don't happen to fall into that category.  I applaud them for making a story about the Tea Party and not taking their satire over the top.  However, I'll be very content for them to address something less significant in the next episode, so that I can enjoy a little more of the jokes than I did this week.