(S05E07)

It was great to see the return of Olivia. Her original episode "From Method To Madness" was a good one, and they continued the story of Stewie and Olivia nicely here. This one worked well all the way through. I liked lovestruck Stewie that was just beside himself with his attraction to Olivia. But his attempted makeover was even better. When he started collecting Brian's hair, you knew he had to be up to something, but I didn't see pubes, chest hair, and pit hair coming. Very funny stuff. Of course, taking advice on dealing with women from observing Quagmire was even better still. "I don't want my neighbors seeing a fat old dirty whore screamin at me on my front lawn."

If there was anything I didn't like about the story it was that bad boy Stewie was so short lived. He reverted back awfully quick once he got the date. Not a huge deal though, because the Stewie and Olivia relationship made for some good laughs. Seeing them bicker like a long term couple was funny, and I especially liked the double date with Brian and Jillian. I didn't think Drew Barrymore would be around this long, but I do like the Jillian character.

Anyway, as you know, there was no happily ever after for Stewie. Winding things up by having him set fire to the house that Olivia and Victor were in was great. And Stewie's line afterwords was nice, "Idea for a farce, cheating wife and pompous ass burned alive." That's the evil Stewie that we've been missing. Brian and Stewie also get credit for a great ending to the episode with Brian's explanation about what being gay is and Stewie's realization that "I could totally get into that." Something we all saw coming, I'm sure.

In the other big plot we had obsessive Peter. The way Peter becomes obsessed about things and jumps in with both feet and no clue is one of the things I really like about the character. And having him obsessed with chick flicks was a great idea. I liked the setup of the story with the two of them in the theater and Peter reacting to Autum's Piano, with the characters Sassy, Pouty, and Suicidey. I also liked the making of Steel Vaginas and Peter's insistence that Joe get out of the wheel chair. I even liked the screening of the movie. Joe's CGI legs were hilarious. But after all the good stuff, it just stopped. It really seemed like there should have been some kind of a payoff at the end. Something more than just everyone grumbling as they left anyway. It's also worth noting that Meg and Chris were almost non-existent this week.

As far as the non-story related goodies, a good collection overall. Only two of them really stood out as bad. The Star Wars bit was a nice recreation of that scene, and could have been really funny if there had been a joke. "Ya jerk" isn't really a joke. And unless I completely missed it, the guy with the pictures of his kids was just stupid.

On the other hand, Chester Cheetah rocking out to "Tom Sawyer" and snorting lines of cheese dust was awesome. "There is no *&%^*&* drummer better than Neil Peart." I thought the Tasty Juice tag line was funny, "Drink it, then convert it to pee." Peter made the Sandra Oh bit with his rushed admission that he thinks about her while having sex with Lois. The Mayor of Comedy hawking the "Punchlines of the 80's" was good, and left me thinking that the Star Wars joke really could have used a punch line. And Q-bert, I spent so much time playing that game that it couldn't not be funny.

Overall, another really good episode.