No Chicken Fights, Please

Family Guy, S10E23

Joe decided to have an affair after experiencing problems with Bonnie and being convinced from his friends that it was only fair since she cheated first.  At Kevin's birthday, Bonnie learned of his infedelity and Joe learned that Bonnie had never cheated.  They two seemed to be on the road to divorce until Peter helped Joe and Bonnie recreate they first meeting.

We had another long Peter and Chicken fight that we hadn't seen in a good while.  The absence of this long-running gag helped me not pull out my hair at the sight of it again, but it was hardly the best 5 minutes of the episode.  I did like that they had a part where Peter and Chicken went back to the Old West, via Stewie's time machine.  They were able to get back by hitching a ride on car being pushed by a train in a scene that looked just like Back to the Future.  Besides that, I found myself wanting to push a fast-forward button so that the fight would hurry up and end.  I'm not sure if this is the final fight between them since Chicken did open his eyes at the end, but he was burnt to a rotisserie crisp, so maybe we never have to suffer through another of their fights.  I'm begging for the latter.

 The fight between Bonnie and Joe wasn't that interesting except that we learned that she didn't cheat on Joe in France.  Maybe they told us this already, but I thought she had.  It made reconciliation for the couple look bleaker after what Joe had done.  I doubted that after their big blowout at Kevin's birthday party that they would even want to look at each other again.  But then we saw how Joe and Bonnie first met.  That was another surprise--didn't expect Bonnie to have been a stripper when they first met.  Makes me wonder if it was all a fairy tale from then on.  After all, when Peter succeeded in making them feel like it was their fateful first meeting again, they were swept away enough by their love to agree to work on their marriage.  It's been a long time since this show has done something that was even remotely sweet.  That was the last thing I thought I would see in their season finale.

Finally, I think I only liked one cutaway this time.  Stewie went into a door that said "This is not an exit" and found there was a gorilla on the other side to beat him up.  He complained the door should have been less vague about what awaited behind the door.  It's funny how such a rather simple joke works so well for me.

For the last episode in the season, there wasn't a lot of comedy, unless it amuses you to see Peter fight Chicken for the fifth or whatever number of times.  I will say it's probably the fight I hate the least of them all.  Also, it's nice to see that they haven't abandoned completely the idea of ending a story on a happier note rather than something bitter and mean-spirited.  It gives me a little hope for what the next season might bring.  There were probably as many episodes I liked this season as there were ones that I didn't.  But I don't think this show has quite peaked yet, so I'm definitely still firmly strapped in await for what things they will shock and amuse us with in the 11th season.

Forget A Sexual Partner? Just Go Back In Time

American Dad, S07E17

It was revealed that Stan may not be Hayley's father when Hayley needed a kidney transplant to replace the one that was busted from an intense night of drinking.  Francine didn't know who the other possible father was, so she and Stan had to go back to the past to find out his identity.  That went well until Stan's jealousy made him stop Francine from screwing the other man, and it jeopardized Hayley's existence.  They then had to ensure that Francine did screw the right guy, which was harder to do once Stan and Francine showed themselves to their younger selves.  However, with a little ecstasy in Francine and a little push in the right direction, they were able to ensure Hayley didn't disappear from the present and obtained another kidney she could possibly use.  We didn't get to know whether Stan is the true father or not, but we did see that he valued Hayley enough as his daughter to not care about something as superficial as blood ties.

I rather like when Francine's past is brought up because she was such a party girl in the day.  So I was interested to see her old friend Kelly (voiced by Kathy Griffin) come into town, and I hoped she would slip back a little into her old ways.  I never imagined that Hayley wouldn't be able to keep up with her mother and her kidney would fail.  And that was a pretty scary display of how alcohol can damage your internal organs.  There was something about making them people-like and seeing one of them shrivel up and die that made me a little more cautious the next time I think about putting an excessive about of alcohol inside of me.  I think they should use that clip to frighten people from underage drinking.

I'm not that surprised that Francine cheated on Stan.  I would be frightened about marrying someone as white bread as him (at least on the surface, anyway--he's insane).  I didn't think they would ever figure out who the father was without Francine remembering.  Using a time machine to go back and see who it was, was a strange turn of events.  At least it was something I can't say that I've seen before in a show.

It was funny how Stan kept saying all these horrible things to Francine when he found out that she had cheated on him, but his body language kept suggesting he was going to say something sweet or forgiving.  That joke worked well for me because I didn't want to listen to him bitch about how Francine was a slut.  The humor offset me taking his complaints so seriously.

The only other joke I really liked was when Stan was explaining to their past selves about time travel and they forgot to use Back to the Future as a reference point.  I was thinking about it the whole time, so I'm glad that they were aware of what I (and probably most viewers) had in my mind.  I guess, though, they didn't bother much with that usual rule that you shouldn't reveal yourself to your past selves.

I didn't care too much for Roger's character who was the inventor of ecstasy.  I wondered what the point was of Stan taking his formula and putting it into his jacket pocket until they needed it later in the past.  Also, without that happening, Stan wouldn't have been able to call in a favor with Roger to steal the possible baby daddy's kidney. Although, Roger is pretty twisted (I mean, he was dancing around while stealing the kidney), so he might have just done it for Stan anyway.  I wish that he had a bigger role, though.  There wasn't any good Roger lines this time.

For this show, I could sort this story into one that was "heartwarming."  Stan was upset, for good reason, about Francine's betrayal and seemed ready to cut Hayley out of his life, but in the end, his love for his daughter outweighed his outrage.  It was nice that they could do that sort of thing without underplaying it too much with comedy.  Call me a sap if you will, but I appreciate these sort of moments every now and then.  It can't always be about how much you can shock and entertain us--if the show is centered around a family, at least throw in a few stories about the value of those bonds at some point.