Ok, just to mix things up, I popped this one up on the DVR first, because the premise of Brian & Stewie returning to the show's pilot (a.k.a. back when the show was funny) had me really curious.
They didn't waste any time jumping right in and it was great! The observations on FG circa '99 were hilarious and I loved watching everyone zone out as they paused for the '99 manatee gag. And most importantly, they were actually funny this week! The chat with the Kool-Aid Man, Cookie Monster inventing Facebook, and Al Qaeda missing the Gateway Arch were funny! Even the self-referential stuff with the show pretty much acknowledging their recent laziness was funny!
And there you go! A coherent story. A FUNNY story! Was this so hard?
This was a total 180 from the crappiness of the rest of the season. It gives me hope that this show is still worth watching. Terrific episode.
"What is this? "Cookiebook."
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
I didn't like it because it felt so repetitive. Stewie and Brian going back in time? Done. 9/11 jokes? Done. Except for Joe being a cyborg and Frogmire, there wasn't anything really new and funny. It wasn't a bad episode but in trying to poke fun at the critic's view that they're lazy and tired, they only ended up proving that to be true. In comparsion, the American Dad episode was solid as usual and all they needed was a 30 second bit of Roger and Steve in a bus to beat down on FG these days. Even they know how awful it's become at time recently.
I enjoyed the episode, which started off hot with the tennis ball joke and the dog. I too liked the observations of the Family Guy pilot, but for some reason was under the impression they'd spend more time there.
I don't mind repeating the "back in time" premise as long as it feels somewhat different each time they go back in time - going back in time isn't the main part of the episode, it's what they go back in time for, which is always different, so I guess that's why it's okay by me.
@gregmparks - live Tweeting of Raw and Impact, wrestling thoughts and other slices of life.
I really liked the look of "future" Family Guy, and hope it, or some other MacFarlane show, revisits/goes in that aesthetic direction for the remainder of their run.
That'll never happen because of syndication issues with the massive design shift, but one can hope.
"Tattoos are the mullets of the aughts." - Mike Naimark
I enjoyed it. The Tillman joke was both funny and in bad taste. The equation for Family Guy now is Brian and Stewie. Nothing else is working right now. I did like the callbacks to the Germany trip and the entire pilot.
The Wee Baby Sheamus.
Twitter: @realjoecarfley its a bit more toned down there. A bit.
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On this day 45 years ago British viewers were experiencing a new direction in sci-fi TV. Ten lead actors later, the Who franchise is still in pretty good shape. Interestingly, today's Wikipedia featured article is about the sadly missing episodes.