Review: Family Guy “Cop and a Half-wit”

This week’s episode should be thrown into the slammer.

Spoilers Below

Tonight’s new episode of Family Guy, “Cop and a Half-wit” was relatively disappointing – a couple of really funny spots, but overall same-y and not super original.

“Cop and a Half-wit” starts out with Peter, Cleveland, and Quagmire all talking to Joe at the Drunken Clam and finding out he has been doing really weird, tedious duties at the police station. Basically, Joe isn’t getting much respect. When Joe takes Peter along with him in his squad car, Peter busts in on some drug dealers, and Joe has to intervene.
At the same time, Stewie is feeling insecure about his masculinity, and so he joins a football team. Brian urges him to play but is really freaked out when Stewie takes a hard hit and gets a concussion.
Peter helps Joe fight more crime, but Joe can’t (and doesn’t) give Peter any credit when he gets awards for his police work. Peter, of course, gets really upset (sound like “Ready Willing and Disabled” from season 3 much? Maybe because it’s the exact same premise. Sheesh).
Brian and Chris try to figure out how to help Stewie as he suffers from the concussion, as Peter blackmails Joe to get everything he wants.
Basically, this episode starts on a couple of really weird, pretty unfunny cutaways and doesn’t get much better from there. Really, one of the funniest (one of the ONLY really funny spots) was when Peter switches out his Dave Matthews speed bag for a David Lee Roth one.
I often wish for weirder Family Guy plotlines, with more insane and hilarious things — just the most nonsensical idiocy. Sometimes we get a glimpse or two of that, but many times, the writing and the storylines have been really dull on Family Guy lately. I don’t know why this happens. I always wonder if the writers think these are really funny things (they must…?) and we’re just not getting it. Or maybe they’re just filling air time.
On a related note, there were several odd spots in cutaways and otherwise that I felt like I was just completely missing the joke. I never know if it’s that I’m too old to get the joke/reference, or if I’m too young.
Looking forward to next week’s episode, of course– there have been several great episodes this season, but unfortunately, I feel like this week’s episode completely missed the mark.
 
SCORE
3/10