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.

Just Stop Writing, Brian

Family Guy, S11E10

Brian finally had success with his writing when his play become popular in town, but after seeing the incredible play that Stewie had written, Brian was devastated and tried to sabotage Stewie's play by saying it was terrible.  Stewie figured out what he was doing and later got his show on Broadway, to Brian's dismay.

This was another depressing story about how Brian is never going to get anywhere with his writing.  I thought something was up when Brian was having people excited about his play--the few bits that we got to see were like the worst sitcom ever.  Plus, as Stewie had pointed out, Peter was really engaged in the whole thing.  If that wasn't a red flag that he was writing crap than nothing else is.  Still, I could have been content to see Brian enjoying the thrills of being semi-famous in town if one, he wasn't always an ass about his "genius," and two, he didn't decide to listen to Jasper and try to crush Stewie's aspirations.  I hate that I feel both bad for Brian and hate him for his selfish actions and cocky attitude.  Why can't Brian be either humble or not be jealous of someone else?  I'd settle for him just being one of those things.  I wish he didn't have to constantly be so insecure and desperate to be great (or even good).

One thing that was obvious in this story was how Stewie is absolutely Brian's friend and biggest supporter, even though Brian's deceitful and untalented.  Stewie did bring him to a party where people made fun of him and he sort of threw his own possible success on Broadway in Brian's face, but in the end he threw away his chance to be a big playwright to please his friend.  Brian does not deserve Stewie, as crazy as that baby is.  That's what makes it a little less touching because I'm still angry at Brian for trying to ruin Stewie when Stewie would sabotage his own play for Brian.  When has Brian ever sacrificed himself like that for Stewie?  It's times like this that I love Stewie and wish that prehistoric bird that got them would just swallow Brian and end his miserable life.

I wish there were more jokes to offset Brian moping and crying about how brilliant Stewie would be and how mediocre he was and will always be.  My favorite cutaway was when Chris was stuck in the seats and he met another guy in the same boat:

[Guy stuck in chair] She's not coming back, you know.
[Chris] How do you know that?
[Guy stuck in chair] Cuz she's my mom too.

More than be funny, this was just sort of shocking.  But I can totally see Lois doing that because while she seems to love her kids, she also has this side where she would abandon them if they were too troublesome for her tastes.  I mean, she once told Meg to stop crying or go ahead and kill herself.  She's not always the best mother around.

A little more shocking and unnerving moment was when Brian snapped the neck of the squirrel that he was yelling at.  But from the beginning I had a feeling that Brian was going to do something bad to that squirrel, so I wasn't taken aback that much.

There weren't any jokes that I loved, but some of them were okay.  One of such was when Peter went crazy from tasting real butter, but thinking it was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.  I don't know why it would encourage him to kill three kids, but it was almost funny enough to make me laugh.  Another was when Peter was trying to figure out Stuart Little and he commented that he felt "old and in the way."  I've had a moment in life where someone was having a revelation about a movie where there was none to be had (because it wasn't complicated or trying to create mystery). So I suppose that's why I liked that scene.

I think I'm about done with these sort of stories with Brian hating himself and Stewie barely being able to keep him afloat from drowning in his own self-pity.  Brian's not ever going to get anywhere with his writing, so it'd be nice if maybe he tried to do something else with his short life.  Or at least if we have to see another pathetic chapter in Brian's short-lived fame there should be adequate jokes to distract us.  If I wanted drama without comedy relief, I'd go watch something like Mad Men.

It's All Coming Back

Family Guy, S11E04

Brian broke Stewie's time machine and caused time to reverse itself.  Brian and Stewie had to rush to fix the machine and get time back to normal before Stewie was unborn.

It's funny that only this show I find that when they show scenes from previous episodes it's really enjoyable.  I suppose it's because the way they did this wasn't like a typical flashback.  We got to see some old scenes in reverse, which was, in a way, like seeing it anew.  One of my favorite reverse moments was when Brian had a cutaway gag in reverse.  I thought that was pretty funny itself, not so much the actual cutaway.  I just liked hearing Stewie express surprise that even the cutaways were affected by the time phenomenon.  Another that I found to be funny in a sick way was when Brian went back to the time that Lincoln was shot and one of the puppets from The Muppet Show was shot in the head as well.  It was just so surprising (and a little deserving since him and his buddy are always bitching) that I found myself laughing, although it was terrible.  But if you watch this show long enough, you're bound to laugh at something really inappropriate, despite yourself.

The third moment that I wanted to mention wasn't funny, but horribly disgusting.  Brian and Stewie had to relive that awful scene where they, Peter, and Chris were puking all over the den, but in reverse!  I still hate watching that scene as it was and couldn't imagine that watching the puke fly back into their mouths would be just as bad!  Ugh...  But I applaud the show for selecting that scene.  It really displayed how horrible it would be to have to go through things backwards.  I was equally grossed out when Stewie had to have a dirty diaper put back on him!  Oh, god, that was the worst.

Although I don't like those Peter-Chicken fights, it was interesting to see it in reverse.  It was an improvement over them fighting normally for sure.  Of course, for them to have a fight like this again would make no sense, so hopefully the writers will not find another excuse to throw in one of their "epic" fights again.

Lastly, why didn't Stewie have an umbilical cord when he was going in (and out) or Lois?  Even though it's a cartoon, I was still wondering about that.  I mean, sure he should have been a lot grosser coming out of her and other things if it was supposed to be a birth, but still.  It's really weird to see a baby just come out like that.

I liked this episode.  It could definitely be one of my favorite Stewie and Brian stories.  Usually those make you want to groan because they are likely to have a terrible song in them, but this time we were spared an awful singing session.  I feel like I want to see them do something else with Stewie's time machine because these stories have been pretty good so far.  Although, I don't know how they could work another story about time travel again without it seeming a little stale.

Didn't Make Too Much Of An Impression

Family Guy, S11E03

Quagmire was revealed to have a toupee and was convinced by his friends to discard it since it was public knowledge.  However, Peter and the gang got sick of his annoying new attitude as a bald man and suggested he get a hair transplant.  While at the hospital for the procedure, Brian discovered that Carter was diagnosed to have cancer.  When the Griffin family went o visit him to check on his conditon and found him completely healthy, Brian and Stewie went to investigate his company to make sure that Carter was the real Carter.

This story wasn't exactly bad, but I can't think of much that was really worth mentioning, even to complain about.   One of the few things that I slightly liked was when Peter was telling Quagmire about how he hated him now that he was bald and acting crazy.  His honesty, as usual, is so blunt that it ends up being funny, although it wasn't hilarious.  I also sorta liked when Stewie was waiting for Lois to get off the phone and she kept extending her conversation with Bonnie.  I just have a lot of instances with talking to my bestie where we keep saying goodbye, but then think of something else and want to talk about it real quick.  I guess it's not something that guys typically do.

There wasn't anything outrageous or disgusting in this episode, but I was a little disturbed by Stewie talking about his nipples being big from the cold and him pulling on them.  I could have lived without seeing that.  It's probably the most memorable part of the episode, unfortunately, because I didn't see that coming at all.

I did predict that Carter would have a cure for cancer on hand and that in the end he wouldn't make good on his promise to Lois.  He's not a sweet guy and cares more about money than his family.  So no surprise there.  It just sucks that they ended the episode with Lois and Peter sort of forgiving him because he was on a magazine cover.  Wish it could have been a better joke.

I don't think this will be an episode I'll remember.  I'll probably watch it again one day and only then recall that it existed in the first place.  It's sad that I can only keep in mind the really horrible ones or the really good ones.  Ones like this one are pretty much out of sight, out of mind.

Wouldn't A Baby Freeze To Death?

Family Guy, S11E01

After being looked down on by a superior family at dinner, the Griffins were encouraged to take a trip to climb Mt. Everest.  They failed to beat the other family to the top, but in the end had to work together to save the parents from meeting death as their son did.

Hmm, what to say that I liked about this episode.  It wasn't bad for sure.  I did find it hard to believe that they would be able to make it up the mountain with as little trouble as they did.  They did face extreme cold and hunger, but they weren't exactly half dead by the time they reached the top.  I never expected them to make it up there, honestly.  And another thing I found crazy, even if it is this show, is that they would bring a baby to such a place.  You just don't do that.  Stewie would have died, no matter how much of an evil genius he is.  I found more likely that they would eat the frozen boy (that's hardly shocking for the Griffins) than they would think it's a good idea to bring a baby along.  I don't know why, but I kept thinking about that.

I'm surprised that the family wasn't so self-centered that they didn't just leave the Fishmans wandering the mountain until they died, looking for a son that was in the Griffins' bellies.  But I knew that once they saved them and their helicopter was about to take off that Peter would just blurt out that he ate their son.  That's classic Peter (or Family Guy, really).  They tend to do that, like when Peter just came out and told Quagmire that he killed his cat at the end of an episode and slammed the door in his face.  So I couldn't even find that funny because I saw it a mile away.

I guess this episode was more interesting than it was funny.  After all, the Griffins have never climbed a mountain before and nearly died trying to show up another family.  So it was nice to see them working together toward the same goal, instead of being at home acting like assholes to each other.  But I had been hoping for more comedy since it was the premiere.  It's not the best start to season 11, but it doesn't leave me thinking that there won't be some good stories in the future.

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.

Better The First Time

Family Guy, S10E22

There were three different stories, supposedly based on some suggestions by fans.  The first was a British version of Family Guy where Peter wanted to prove that he was related to the Queen of England.  The second was about Peter having the ability to turn anyone (and eventually anything) to Robin Williams.  The third was a story that took place entirely from Stewie's point of view.

I was expecting something pretty good from the episode since I enjoyed the first version of viewer mail stories.  However, it's hard for me to say which one I liked the best because all of them weren't that good.  It felt like they didn't try very hard to think outside of the box (which might have been a problem of them using fans' ideas if that were true) and the stories weren't as bizarre as they could have been.  They might have been limited to what they could accomplish with a story that had to be a third of the time they usually had to work with, but I still think they could have done better.

I think maybe the British version of Peter and the others was the most interesting of them all.  I liked seeing them with ridiculously bad teeth and more distinguished noses.  Plus, Brian was a horse instead of a dog, and Stewie had an American country accent instead of his usual British one.  Another interesting twist was that British Peter's random bitter enemy was not a chicken, but a quail and their fight was much shorter and ended on a more polite note than any of the Quahog Peter's fights have.  Basically this story's appeal was the funny differences between America and England.  But Peter chasing after the Queen of England and killing her in the process to get some hair for a DNA test, seemed like a pretty lame adventure for him to get into.  But perhaps that was the point--showing that British Peter can't measure up to the American one?  I don't know, but it was pretty boring.

The second story was just awful.  There is a limit to how many Robin Williams jokes I can tolerate, and I think they exceeded that within the first few minutes.  This one was more like a horror story, but not horrifically funny.  It was more like if I had to see one more Robin Williams appear, I was going to go as crazy as Peter did.  The best part was the end, surprisingly (not simply because it was ending), but because it was so disturbing.  Peter had kept 5 of the Robins and dressed them like his family.  That was so freaky and sad!  Then to make things even more so, Peter had chopped off his hands.  It was like the end to something from the Twilight Zone, but not even a fraction as enjoyable to watch.

The last story wasn't too bad, but it was just amazing how everything through Stewie's eyes wasn't more interesting.  After all, he's a baby that acts like an adult most of the time.  There were two creepy moments that worked well in the story.  The first was Quagmire asking Stewie to come over so he could see if the smell of Lois' boobs were still on him.  Geez.  There is really no low he won't go when perving on Lois.  The second is when Stewie saw Herbert hanging underneath a school bus and Stewie warned him to stay away from his brother's butt.  That was probably my favorite joke in the whole episode.  The last thing in that story I thought was a little funny was the book Lois read Stewie to bed.  It was about the town from Footloose.  I liked how Stewie wondered who the intended reader of the book was and how one line from the book referenced "the church where you slap your daughter."  That was a pretty good joke.

I was pretty disappointed that they weren't able to top the first of this kind of episode.  This was one of the last episodes in the season, I so I expected something a little more flashy and memorable.  Instead, there were just a lot of stories that felt uninspired and boring.  Mostly this was the fault of a story about an invasion of Robin Williams, but the others had their faults as well.  If this had been the last episode of the season, I would have been incredibly dissatisfied.

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.

Stewie Finds His Soulmate

Family Guy, S10E19

Lois got she and Peter separate beds after suffering another injury after he rolled over her in his sleep.  Peter, unable to sleep properly without someone to cuddle, asked Quagmire to be his substitute in that manner.  However, Peter started living with Quagmire completely, living his life with him in an intimate way that looked like they were a couple.  He finally went home after Lois agreed to sleep in the same bed with him and confessed that she missed cuddling with him too.  Stewie met his soul-mate with a wicked girl named Penelope.  Brian, after watching the news of the international terrors Stewie and Penelope had perpetrated together, told him that she was a bad influence on her and should stop seeing her.  When Stewie told Penelope about Brian's thoughts, she demanded that Stewie kill him.  Stewie couldn't do it, so Penelope came to do it herself.  After an intense battle, Stewie bid farewell to Penelope and admitted to Brian that he was right about her.

I had to agree with Lois' decision to not sleep with Peter in the same bed since he didn't seem to think her breaking numerous ribs was a problem, nor did the doctor want to admit that Peter had any fault in her injuries.  If that wasn't bad enough, he was really annoying with his plume pen writing at night where he would actually say "dip" each time he dipped his pen into the ink.  It might not have been a bad idea for her to get her own place entirely if he was going to be that obnoxious.

It was also smart of her to leave Peter be for a while after he decided to sleep with Quagmire.  It was kind of weird when they first laid together and Peter was taking off Quagmire's boxers with his foot.  At least let him take it off himself.  Eww.  But I think when Peter moved into Quagmire's and they had a montage about how their were interacting with each other every day, it was kind of sweet (if you imagined they were a couple).  It's funny that just snuggling in the same bed could make them that close. I could have stood to see more of how their relationship deepened (besides that "giggity band") before Lois came to get her man back.  I'm glad that Peter didn't make too much of a fuss about it since, as his wife, I would hope she would be his top choice for spooning.  I felt bad for Quagmire that he was stuck to Peter's back and crushed just like Lois had been at the beginning.  Not sure if I can call that karma or not.  Or ironic.  But it is a little funny.

Stewie's story was okay.  It was interesting to see him find another person like himself who was perhaps a bit more evil.  She, unlike Stewie, didn't have a dog best friend who could convince her to stop creating havoc for kicks.  I liked when Stewie had to make a 20s theme with his tidal wave destruction and he chose flappers dancing on surf boards on the waves.  That was cute.  I'm just surprised that Brian figured out what Stewie and Penelope were up to so quickly, seeing as they were doing everything by themselves.  It was even better when Stewie defended his actions by saying it was nothing new for him:

[Stewie] I’ve always been about world domination.  What the hell did you think I was talking about when I said, “Victory shall be mine”?

[Brian] You have not said that in a very long time.
[Stewie] Well, I’m back on it.

I laughed at that because I had forgotten that Stewie did use to say that.  This episode reminds me of when Stewie killed Lois (in a simulation) because Brian questioned whether he had gotten soft about being evil.  Truth be told, I don't miss that Stewie too much because he's funny enough without being a mastermind trying to take over the world.  With Brian usually by his side, there's hardly any time for him to be thinking about killing his mother and such.

It was cute when Stewie kept coming up behind Brian and trying to kill him different ways, but just couldn't kill him.  We've seen enough episodes to know that Stewie doesn't give a damn about anyone when push comes to shove unless it's Brian, so it would be a little out of his character for him to off Brian now, even when he met the love of his life.  It wasn't surprising that a girl  who surpassed Stewie in evil would go off to finish the job herself.  I liked that before she arrived, the mail carrier kept looking like he was listening in on Brian and Stewie's conversation and even waiting at the door to for them.  However, he had just been killed by Penelope and was standing there dead.  Nice.

What I noticed about the Stewie and Penelope fight was that she really came prepared.  I mean, she had all kinds of gadgets and weapons ready to slash and fry someone to death.   My favorite part of their fight was when Penelope shrunk a car and Stewie later threw it at her and enlarged it to full size while it was still in the air so it would fall on her.  Too much happened that I can remember it all, but I did like her blade in her shoe.  I just kept wondering when Stewie would reveal some weapon on himself because he was a little disadvantaged.  Finally, at the end he pulled out a knife from his ankle and told her to stay away from his dog.  Aww.  He does care.  Plus, Penelope kissed him and sent him flying so the cord around him would be tied around a light pole.  It's possible she might return one day.  But I kept wondering how Stewie would get down from there.  Then again, a baby like him that can fight on top of a moving truck is capable of anything.

It was stupid at the end they had Brian ask Meg about her day, but she just opened her mouth and no sound came out.  Come on now.  Stop shoving it our faces that you don't give a damn about Meg's character.  You might as well kill her off instead of treating her like a roach.  Seriously.  It's hardly funny anymore.  It's like that damn chicken Peter fought or those vaudeville guys.

Not the funniest episode, but not bad.  I wish I could have enjoyed the guest star, but I'm not too familiar with her work, so it wasn't anything special for me.  I did like to see that Stewie could fall in love for once, instead of watching Brian's many desperate one-night stands.  That's getting old.  I wish that there had been more jokes that I enjoyed, but I guess it the stories were interesting enough that it didn't matter too much.

Peter and Brian: True Blue Friends

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.

Send That Dolphin Back To The Ocean

Family Guy, S10E14

 I had heard (through some tweets) that Ricky Gervais would guest star on the last episode of Family Guy, so I was anticipating a laugh fest.  I really wish that I hadn't gotten my hopes up at all.  While I did enjoy hearing Ricky's voice, I didn't care much for most of the jokes this time.  Something was missing, but I'm not sure what.

Peter and the boys go to fish out some recently sunk Mercedes from the harbor, but pull out a dolphin named Billy instead.  Billy gets Peter a hood ornament and owes him a favor in return.  The favor turns out to be a place to stay on the surface.  The side story was about Stewie's ghetto preschool and Brian's absent attempt to help him.

I'll talk about the side story first.  The head of the preschool, Miss Emily, turns out to be a young, attractive girl with the brains of a squid, exactly Brian's type.  Not again!  So he does his regular thing of acting like a selfish douche bag, while ignoring the horrible conditions Stewie and the other kids have to go through.  The best of these horrible conditions were a random guy coming into their school and kidnapping a baby, a little boy playing with a piece of wood and a nail, and Stewie having his arm ripped out of its socket.  You would think that when Stewie came home with an arm hanging down to the floor, Brian's conscience would come back, but nope.  He just sinks lower and gags Stewie's mouth with paper and pops his arm back into place against his will.  Although Stewie is a sadistic, evil little baby, he's really a good friend because he doesn't seek revenge against Brian for thinking with his dick rather than his heart.  Actually, he's done some horrible things to Brian before for less, but I guess sometimes Stewie has to act like a baby with little power.

There was one really good line Stewie had about the preschool.  This was when Brian was stupidly defending Emily by saying she was teaching them independence:

We're 1!  Independence means we die!

Brian only comes to his senses when Emily reveals her boyfriend.  Damn you, Brian.  You're such a sorry excuse for a dog!  When she is taken away by the police, he tells her there's a special place in hell for people like her.  If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black.  It's a good thing that Brian doesn't believe in hell because he'd have a lot of things to atone for in the afterlife.  I'd like to see Brian do something outrageous like date a good girl based on her personality, rather than her looks.  But that would be asking too much.  Stewie even thanks Brian for calling the police without making comments that he took his sweet time.  Then they do a crazy freeze frame and plan to stay like that until Lois and Peter finish their conversation.  Loved that little bit.

Peter having a house guest in the main story starts off well for him.  For me, I didn't see the addition of Billy to the Griffin household being that funny.  I almost cracked a smile when Billy said that he understood that they were supposed to all hate Meg through his excellent intuition and by Peter telling him in the hall.  But for the most part, I was bored.  Ricky had a lot of fish puns that were bad, but made me smile because it was him saying them with his infectious laugh, but the more annoying he got, the less I liked him around.  He just didn't annoy anyone in a really amusing way.  At one moment Trisha Takanawa came to harpoon him, and they had this little jingle that went "Japan!  They Kill Things That We Like!"  I had to laugh, as slightly offensive as that was.  I say "slightly" because if you've been watching this show for this many years, you shouldn't be offended by anything they do anymore because they say horrible things about everyone.

They finally get Billy to go back to the ocean when they find out he was kicked out by his wife, and they help him out.  What I found interesting about this was not that Joe helplessly dropped down to the ocean as King Neptune, but was that there was a tender moment in FG, and it involved dolphins.  I feel like it's been a while since they had a heartwarming moment in this show with any of the Griffin members.  Maybe that's not what this show is about; they'd rather be "real."  I dunno.  This is one reason I like The Simpsons better overall; no matter what bad things the characters do, they show that they love each other.  Where's the love, FG??

I was grossed out a bit when Peter smashed 2 birds wiith one big stone.  Man, I can never quite get used to those sort of things in the Seth MacFarlane shows.  All of a sudden there's something bloody going on, and you have to scrunch your face together in disgust.  However, that little moment was probably one of the best things in this episode.

I also will give them credit for being creative with their cutaways.  It was nice that they showed you the script for one of them and didn't animate the scene.  That hasn't been done, as far as I know, so I enjoyed the originality.  Wasn't that funny, but it showed that the writers are always thinking.

Well, it was stupid of me to think that a guest star I liked would necessary mean a good episode.  Thanks for letting me down this week, FG.  I won't get my hopes up again.