Chris Runs To Herbert's

Family Guy, S11E13

Meg saw Chris steal money from their mom and began blackmailing him to do her bidding.  When Chris got sick of being treated like slave, he ran to Herbert's house to live.  Stewie also got hooked into Anne Murray's music and turned Brian to her music as well.

I wasn't sure what would become of Chris being at Meg's beck and call.  She didn't really do anything too shocking or twisted (save maybe wanting him to call girls and pretend to be their dead babies), but I knew that Chris couldn't possibly tolerate being her slave forever.  I thought he might just come clean to his parents, but he surprised me by running away to Herbert's house.

I was scared what might happen to Chris under that pervert's roof for a few days, but after trying to jump into Chris' bed the first night, he didn't seem to make any other big moves.  He might have been working up to that had Chris not driven him crazy with his slovenly ways.  Chris got kicked out at the right time because in a cabin relatively alone with Herbert miles away, Chris probably would have been in some real danger there.  The collection of tapes he had spying on kids was creepier than anything he really did to Chris, so I guess I was glad about that part.

Chris made a good point that he and Meg need to stick together, growing up in the house they do.  Lois and Peter didn't even notice that Chris was missing for a few days.  That's crazy.  Even if Meg was covering for him, the fact that they didn't physically see him for a while didn't bother them at all.  Great parents they are.

The funniest thing about this story, I guess, was when Chris had to put in Meg's contacts.  It was freaky how her pupils rolled back into her head, but Chris' reaction to that was entertaining.  He first compared her eyes to ping pong balls.  Finally, he said that she looked like some blind jazz man--I really liked that comparison.

Another interesting moment was when Peter and Lois were at a restaurant.  He made a call to someone named "Damone" and asked him to help him pay for their bill.  It was a clip from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but I have never seen that movie, so I didn't get the reference.  The joke there might have worked for me had I seen it.

In Stewie's story, I liked that it commented on that fact that people listening to music can get very different impressions/meanings from the lyrics.  I think they did a good job about speaking to the fact that arguing about differing opinions is pointless.  There is no right or wrong.  Stewie and Brian thought they would settle their argument by getting the "true" interpretion from Anne Murray, but she had sung "Snowbird" in her own interpretation and hadn't written the song at all.  Somehow Stewie thought that made her a fraud and he felt like he had been deceived, which made him seem all the more ridiculous.  Regardless of who wrote it, the way it made him feel was the right answer for himself.

It was concerning that Stewie tied up Anne Murray and pointed a gun at her.  There was no resolution of that--they just ended it with him harassing her like that.  We can just add that to Stewie's list of messed up things.

I think what I liked best about this story was when Brian first got into Anne Murray's music and imagined when he was a puppy.  It was cute to see him frolicking with his siblings and nuzzling with his mother.  Sometimes I forget how sensitive Brian is because he's often so insensitive and narcissistic.

I liked this episode because Meg and Chris were able to have a pretty sweet ending.  Meg started off treating Chris horribly, but in the end she showed that she appreciated him, and they bonded.  Stewie's story wasn't so sweet, but it at least it brought up an interesting topic.  It really made me think about how there's just no wrong way to feel about music.

Everyone Has A Story, But Not A Good One

Family Guy, S11E12

The show did a parody of the movie Valentine's Day, and showed different stories about each of the characters on this holiday.  Lois and Peter spent the day in bed, Quagmire got turned into a woman, Meg went out with a boy she met online, Stewie went back in time to the Summer of Love, Stewie gathered together all of Brian's ex girlfriends to find out what Brian's problem was, Herbert helped his grand-niece talk to Chris, and Mayor West found out Carol was seeing another mayor.

I enjoyed the beginning of this episode that was made to be like a trailer of the movie they were spoofing.  It's nothing new, but I still like this setup each time I see in a show (usually, anyway).  One of my favorite parts of that was when it said "Comes more evidence of Family Guy's decline."  I tend to like their ironic jokes like that.

There were a lot of stories packed into one episode, but none of them were particularly great.  The top ones for me were Stewie's story, Brian's story, and Meg's story.  If I had to pick the most interesting of those three, it would be Meg's simply because it was a good story for her when you consider how most of Meg's romantic endeavors go.

Meg's date seemed to be going well at the beginning, which could only mean that something bad had to happen.  However, Meg turned lemons into lemonade when she didn't want to end her date just because she was down a kidney and bleeding everywhere.  Talk about low standards/desperation.  I was happy, though, to see that Meg had a pretty great day with Toby.  They had lunch, went ice skating, got caricatures done (Meg was drawn as a pile of poo, but I could let that slide), she got her kidney back as a present, and she got a kiss.  Toby is a criminal, for sure, but at least he's sort of a gentleman (though he is kinda gross using a dead, shriveled conjoined twin as a bookmark--eww).  Sadly, Meg couldn't do much better than him, but at least he seemed genuinely into her.  I liked seeing Meg have a relatively happy end for once, instead of her looking like a pathetic psycho.

Stewie's story where he kissed his own mother as a baby wasn't surprising (as I figured it might be her), but it does speak to the idea that Stewie has a lot of mother issues.  He already has this desire to dispose of her (though not so much lately), and now he has to deal with the fact he's a little attracted to her.  It just makes me wonder how messed up Stewie is going to be when he finally gets to puberty.

I thought that Brian's story, while grabbing my attention more than others, was a waste of time.  I don't know why Stewie would think he needed to gather all of Brian's exes to know what the problem with Brian is.  It's basically everything with Brian is wrong.  Stewie's been there through all of his failures, most of them fizzling out because Brian's ego got in the way or his mountain of lies finally collapsed.  I couldn't imagine any of them saying something redeeming about Brian because he's always been the worst lover/boyfriend.  Hopefully Stewie was really just gathering them for his own amusement to make fun of Brian's many shortcomings.   Or perhaps he knew that the riot of exes he sent after Brian would help him end up in bed with a bunch of different girls.  I surely didn't expect that.  That was the biggest surprise out of all the stories.  More random to me than Quagmire turning into a woman.  Don't know why anyone in their right mind would sleep with an asshole like Brian.

This episode was only okay because I thought it was going to be good since I enjoy spoofs.  The stories weren't terrible, but they definitely could have been funnier.  I appreciate that they didn't do a single Valentine's story and tried to do several.  It just would have been a bonus if most of the stories were really memorable and a little less uneventful.

Meg Can't Let Go Of The Fantasy

Family Guy, S11E07

Meg finally went out with the boy she's been fantasizing about, Kent, to find out that he was gay and liked Chris.  Wanting to live through Chris, Meg schemed to roofie Chris so that Kent could have sex with him and Meg could hear the details later.

Well, for an episode about Meg, this one wasn't too bad.  I think that's mainly because even though she still couldn't catch a break, the one who made things worse for her was Meg herself instead of someone victimizing her.  Yeah, it sucked that Kent ended up being gay after she finally asked him out, but her refusal to accept reality was really pathetic.  She could have easily been Kent's friend, at least--that was better than him hating her like he did at the end.  Meg was also pretty selfish, wanting to disregard Chris's feelings just to fulfill her fantasy.  I don't know.  Meg should really take the small victories when she can.  She wanted the gold prize (a real relationship with Kent), when she could have been really content with bronze (friendship).

Also, Meg was really rude when she kept denying that Kent was gay because he didn't act like a stereotypical gay man.  I would think that she would be smarter to know that you can't cook-cut people like that.  But maybe she was too blinded by her desire for Kent to use her brain.  Just one more reason that Meg looked like a horrible person who sort of deserved to be bullied upon like she always is.

Anyway, there were a few moments that I liked.  My second favorite was when Meg was squealing with joy about successfully asking out Kent.  Stewie came to the door and before closing it said:

I’m gonna go ahead and shut this for you.

Stewie's irritation at her loud voice just made me laugh.  It's like he was doing something so important that Meg was interrupting or something.

My favorite part, though, was when Meg told Kent that Chris had a dark side.  I wasn't sure if she was making it up (because she was lying about Chris being gay in the first place), but that cutaway was so creepy!  Chris was sitting in their room in the dark, sitting in a rocking chair or something.  Then he got up started to gently stroke Peter's face while Peter was trembling in the bed.  I don't know what the hell was going on, but it was so uncomfortable that it was hilarious.

I also thought it was kind of funny that one of Meg's teachers informed her and her friends that he would be in the park later, which was one of his technically not illegal invitations.  That teacher is like intentionally being the bare minimum sleaze-bag that he's allowed.

There were some disturbing things as well in this episode.  The number one thing was the plant that kept raping things.  First it raped a roofied plant, and then it raped a roofied Stewie.  Eww!  It was almost funny because you wouldn't expect a plant to do that, but instead it was just a frightening thought to imagine a plant attacking a person like that.

Another thing was when Meg went to get roofies from Quagmire.  That wasn't too weird because it was Quagmire, but his comment after she left was a bit unsettling:

That’s what it’s all about, Glenn.  Don’t rape it back, rape it forward.

Yeah, let's not rape it forward or back or at all.  I can see why Quagmire would be willing to be Meg's contact if she got arrested for those roofies because he has no business having them nor giving them to unbalanced teenagers.

There was this moment when Peter was on the slip-n-slide and a giant spider was pulling him away wrapped in a web.  That wasn't disturbing, but more like what the hell was going on??  I almost wish that it had come back later in the episode to sort of answer that question because it was so random (but not unwelcome).

Finally, the last thing I wanted to comment on was how I was a little annoyed with that cutaway about how women and men differ in friendships.  I don't think that the difference is as simple as women use half-insult compliments to their friends, while men are straightforward.  I guess what bothers me the most is that whenever there are gender-difference jokes, it's always to paint women in a worse light than men.  I can't think of time when it was the other way around.  Just gets a little tiring to see that constantly.

I liked this episode, even though Meg was being an obsessive jackass. It's not the first time she's let her fantasies run wild, nor will it be the last.  For someone who is so desperate like her, these sort of stories are kind of a given.  She doesn't get affection or positive attention, so if she has a chance for it, she's definitely going to use unorthodox methods to get it and not give up easily.  Luckily, there were quite a few jokes to distract you from Meg trying to help someone unknowingly date rape her brother.  I can't imagine how horrible it would have been if there wasn't some good comedy to shift the focus away from that.

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.

Meg Gets "Taken"

Family Guy, S10E20

Meg went overseas to Paris with a friend and got kidnapped by human smuggling group.  Brian and Stewie went to save her, going through many typical action movie steps before they do so.  Meg almost had a terrible thing turn into a wonderful dream, but it was literally blown up in front of her face before that could happen.

For a Meg story, which are rarer in these days, I wasn't expecting much, but it turned out to be a spoof of the movie Taken, which made it a lot more interesting.  I had a feeling it was based on that story when Meg and Ruth got in the car with a dubious stranger, but as soon as I saw the place that she and Meg were staying, I instantly knew it had to be going down that road.  It's a little exciting to watch a spoof  that I recognize on any of the Seth MacFarlane shows because I feel like I don't know even a fourth of the movie references they make.

I liked that when Peter got a call from Meg as she was getting kidnapped, Peter realistically told the man on the phone that he would never be able to find him and told Lois that Meg was dead.  Even for this show, no one would have been able to believe that Peter would have the skills to rescue Meg in a foreign country he's never been to.  I actually thought they were going to be cruel enough to just let Meg be, but thankfully Brian seems to have a bit of a soft spot when it comes to Meg (he's about the only one), and he got Stewie to come with him to get her.  When I saw that Stewie was on the job, I knew that they would be able to successfully get Meg back.  Plus, it also meant that this was more of a Brian and Stewie story than Meg, really, so it wasn't going to be as bad.

Most of the jokes, however, weren't that great while they were finding out information about where Meg had been taken.  They weren't necessarily bad, but they didn't make me laugh either.  My favorite joke was when Brian and Stewie stole a car and it had "car chase GPS."  That was a cool way to mock the typical development of most car chases in any given action movie.  If there was such a car that had that, it would be pretty cool.  I mean, most people would crash within a few minutes of attempting most of things that people try in those sorts of scenes.

Because bad things always happen to Meg and it's treated like normal, I was a bit happy when her kidnapping turned into her being possibly engaged to a wealthy, handsome prince.  But I already knew that before their lips touched that Stewie was going to shoot him in the head.  There was no question in my mind.   I think Meg deserved a happier ending after all the shit she has to put up with her family, but of course, it wouldn't be funny in a horribly ironic way if Meg had her dreams come true.  At least Stewie wiped her mind (though not the part where she met the man of her dreams) and got her to safety.  Even with Peter poking fun at Meg that she got no mail while she was gone at the end, at least she was home in one piece.  I guess, this show can't be that heartless to her and have her abandoned somewhere.  No point in sending her somewhere exotic to be miserable when she can be miserable at home.

I think I liked the spoof element best in the episode, overall anything else.  It would have been great if they could have had better jokes, but it was at least nice to see a Meg-centered story where she wasn't treated too much like a lesser person.  Thank goodness for Brian who cares enough about Meg not to treat her life like garbage and for Stewie who is a bad ass skilled and equipped well enough to handle an international rescue.

Maybe Meg Should Have Let Peter Die

Family Guy, S10E18

Peter's newest adventure was to start his own children's show to fill the void made by his recently favorite show, Jolly Farms.  His show was certainly not anything close to being appropriate for children (with Peter at the head, it was more like for teenagers who never matured from grade school), but it was popular enough to incite a mob of kids to attack Lois after seeing her mocked on the show as a puppet.  After being treated so badly, Lois threw in the towel with warning him against stupidly dangerous things until Peter tried a comedy bit with a puma.  If it hadn't been for Meg who had shadowed Dr. Hartman, Peter would have died.  No one acknowledged that, mind you, and Peter and Lois came to an understanding about her nagging.

It was cute when Peter and Stewie seemed to be bonding over Jolly Farms.  I got my hopes up that they would be friends again like they were in another episode, but Peter's attention zeroed in on just the show itself.  I suppose him getting on TV again and acting like an ass was better than him doing something silly (and funnier) with his youngest son.  What a waste.  Peter basically does his own selfish thing 70% of the time.  Usually to spite Lois.

Also, it was a waste to see Meg learning under Dr. Hartman.  Not because he is such an incompetent doctor, but because Meg had a story where she gained enough medical skills to be useful in an emergency situation, but they refused to give her any credit for that.  I wouldn't mind if they praised Meg for just a second and then treated her like dirt as usual, but no one was even going to mention what Meg did at the end if she hadn't brought it up herself.  Even for Peter's family, that is low.  Why even bother to have a mini Meg story at all if you're going to pretend she's invisible in the end?  Just take the damn story out and have Peter rescued by the puma or something else idiotic.  Since it obviously didn't matter who prevented his death.

My favorite joke of the episode was the one about Evites.  I've never used that (nor had anyone send me one, thankfully), but I appreciated their overtone of how annoying and frivolous their service seems to be.  I really liked the jingle for it:

Tell a friend and then kill yourself.

 It's hard to be generally entertained when the theme of the story is "screw you, Lois!" and Peter is acting too much like an ass for me to ignore it and just have fun with it.  We really needed more of Peter's friends in the episode, and Brian and Stewie are always welcome.  What we don't need are the kind of episodes where Peter is off being a dick by himself basically--those usually have the least comedy.  And seriously, don't use Meg unless you're ready to admit she's not a ghost or something.  I'm getting tired of the "Meg is a worthless pariah" joke.