Review: Family Guy “Nanny Goats”

Just terrible.

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Chore time creeps up on Peter again when the lawn needs to be mowed and, in typical wacky Peter fashion, he buys a bunch of goats to get the job done. But of course, this means the goats begin eating and tearing through the walls and furniture just in time for Carter and Babs Pewterschimdt to show up. Seeing the house in such a wreck, they hire a Belarusian nanny, Natalia. She makes an odd impression at first, mainly with Stewie, but soon enough all of the kids are well behaved. The nanny suggests Peter and Lois go on a date, something they haven’t done in years, where they begin to reconnect like they did before the kids. Eventually, they end up drunkenly planning a weekend trip together, right about when they begin to get sick of all the quality time. This isn’t helped by the rented cabin being pretty dinky, leaving the two going to bed annoyed as hell. Right about that time, Belarus agents come for the nanny, leading to an extended action sequence where she gracefully leaves by plane. Back at the cabin, Peter and Lois begin fighting and start considering ending things, but see the kids and Brian greeting them as they come home and decide to keep the marriage going.

OUR TAKE

Before we get to the main stuff, let me just mention the THREE ESTABLISHING SHOTS and FOUR CUTAWAYS within the first THREE MINUTES of the episode. These are the kind of things you don’t notice when you’re not reviewing this show.

But now, it’s time for another installment of “Here’s how this episode could have been even a little bit better if they had just put even the slightest more effort!” Remember when an essential part of Stewie’s character used to be his desire to take over the world? Well, I feel like bringing in Natalia would’ve been a great way to rekindle that, given her spy roots. You could’ve fit a subplot about Stewie choosing between going back to his old ways or staying as a regular extra smart baby, but under the cover of Natalia teaching him, Chris, and Meg to behave so Lois and Peter are out of his hair. There even seemed to be some of that already going on in the episode where Natalia kept insisting the two go out on dates, AND in the big John Wick style blowout that seemed to come out of nowhere at the end. Plus all of her joke scenes were with Stewie, so it seemed like they were forming a bond, just with nothing really behind it. You could also balance this with Lois starting unsure about her connection to Peter because of all the hijinks, and both her and Stewie having moments of crisis at the same point in the episode.

But nope, this is Family Guy. At this point, they could just send in first drafts and put it on TV within a week. Not that I mean to insult the cast and staff, but I’m here to analyze these episodes. And while I’m fine with making a 500+ short take for how little there is to look at, it would certainly be nice to have more to look at. Maybe next week?