Review: Family Guy “Saturated Fat Guy”

“Saturated Fat Guy” starts out with a hilarious gag about Netflix and its weak selection, loading times, and buffering issues. (Finally, a great intro gag!) Then, they break into the first story. Both stories in this episode flow and progress in a decent, enjoyable fashion. The first story involves Lois and the family seeing a documentary called Food Kills. The documentary inspires Lois to want to cook healthier food for the family.

Lois cooks quinoa and Brian likes it– but Peter hates it. Peter eventually sneaks out of the house and makes a (admittedly disgusting looking and sounding) sandwich in his car. The smell attracts Cleveland, who says it’s amazing– and then a couple other guys come by, and buy some from Peter. He figures he can sell them and opens up a food truck.

Meanwhile, Meg is at a birthday party at a roller rink, and a roller derby coach notices Meg’s legs- which are perfect for roller derby, he says. Chris becomes interested in the roller derby games, but then eventually becomes concerned for Meg’s safety– although she’s really good at roller derby.

Peter’s food truck has some pretty devastating consequences, but he comes to a realization at the end that Lois just cares about him and his health. It was also interesting to see Chris care so much about Meg in the second story. Along with all the great jokes in this episode, we have some really touching moments interspersed here and there. Being more health-conscious with my own diet lately, I really related to this struggle- trying to make good food that is healthy but doesn’t taste bad- it’s difficult. I’m lucky to have a wife that is excellent at finding creative and delicious recipes– unlike Lois.

The only thing I didn’t like about “Saturated Fat Guy” was all the fat jokes, which I never find funny– and the suicide joke. But fat jokes are just something Family Guy writers always seem to insert into episodes. It wouldn’t be Family Guy without at least one misguided joke or cutaway. There were definitely a cutaway or two that weren’t that funny. However, there were other great spots- about three, that were extremely successful and biting social commentary (overpaid, violent athletes, etc).

More like this, please! Family Guy writers still have it in them. Just when I seem to be getting discouraged that there don’t feel like there are too many great Family Guy episodes in recent memory, they pull out one like this. Kudos to the Family Guy team for still being able to give us tastes of comedy writing that harken back to the true essence of the show. Hopefully, there will still be a few more seasons of occasional high-quality episodes like this.