THEY'RE ALL COMING BACK
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Family Guy: No Meals On Wheels
(S05E14) The up and down season of Family Guy continues, and I thought this one was a bit of a valley, rather than a peak. It had its moments, to be sure, but as a whole, it was somewhat lacking. Peter summed up my feelings for this episode pretty well with his quote after seeing the opening to Maude, "That was an ordeal."That bit is a good example of what was wrong with this installment. Aside from the fact that it was a reference to a show that you have to be 40 years old, or a tv nutter, to get, it just wasn't funny. And no matter how long the song went on, it was never going to be funny. I found myself in much the same situation while watching tonight. I was just sitting and watching, waiting for it to get funny.
The problem, for me, was that it got off to such a slow start. We got to the first break and the only thing I really laughed at was Quagmire's all too brief appearance. Because of the nature of his character, I saw the "Lois' carpet" joke coming long before it arrived, but it was still funny. His question about whether she wanted him to leave a strip was a nice topper to the bit, as well. Any momentum gained by the wacky next door neighbor was killed by Electric Man and his red footy pajamas.
Was it just me? None of that worked for me. In fact, at one point it even served to annoy me because the one time Peter wasn't in his footy pajamas was when he was in bed with the money. So, a third of the episode was blown on that setup that didn't work. I was hoping it would get better when they actually got to the restaurant. And it did, but what we got of that was still rather uneven.
The scene with Stewie putting the rat puke on the steak was funny, but it was also somewhat tempered by the fact that it was in countless promos over the last week. I liked the angle of Joe's handicapped friends being the saviors of the restaurant, but not measuring up to the kind of clientele that Peter envisioned. His little bit where he applied both homosexual and native American stereotypes to the handicapped was funny.
Cripple-Tron was good. That was totally unexpected, and a pretty nice bit of animation as well. I even liked the way it ended where the whole thing came down on Peter giving him a karmic bitch slap and landing him in a wheel chair. They kind of lost me again with the Elton John backed montage where Peter learned his lesson though.
The cut-aways this week were another mixed bag. MC Escher was clever and I'd give the thumbs up to Mexican Superfriends, the OJ verdict, Patrick Stewart's voice, and Stewie doing Peanuts. I also really liked Peter's M. Night commercial for the restaurant. That was mostly because it was dead on for a Vern Fonk ad. Those of you in the northwest may have seen his insurance commercials that are done in exactly that vein. America's Next Top Model, Liza Minelli, and Ben Stiller were all just, eh.
Overall, this one just didn't work for me. It's worth a look for a couple of the bits, but not an episode I'll watch when it gets repeated. That's ok though, they can't all be gems.
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