Review: Family Guy ‘Book of Joe’

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Howdy all! Welcome to the review of the second episode of this thirteenth season of Family Guy. To me, this episode felt more like the premiere since the crossover seemed more like a special event of sorts. After having mixed feelings on that cross over episode, I began to have some worries about this season. It’s sad to thing to think because the ending of last season actually had me excited about where this show may go. Sadly, this second episode in the season only confirmed my worries. Read more below.

In “The Book of Joe” while the Griffins are over at at Joe’s for a pool party, discovers Joe’s work on a children’s book. Peter encourages Joe to get the book published, but things don’t go exactly as Joe planned. Meanwhile, Brian tries to impress a girl by pretending to be an avid jogger, however he learns there is more to this jogging thing than once thought.

When I saw the title of this episode for the first time, I was pretty excited because it feels like it’s been forever that Joe has been in the spotlight. For the first portion of the episode, this seemed to be the case, but eventually Joe sort of drifted into the background. This disappoints me because while I don’t mind Peter taking some of that spotlight, I think the episode may have been more interesting if they showed some more conflict between the two. The entire sub- plot played out exactly the way you think it will, and I can I usually forgive this if the episode is funny enough. I hardly even chuckled though. So, the combination of a way too predictable plot and dry humor equals a pretty boring episode in my eyes. Brian’s subplot in this episode wasn’t that interesting either. It had some funny moments, but overall it didn’t bring very much to the episode.

I did enjoy that they brought Joe into the mix to some degree. A lot of his moments this episode were pretty funny, especially a scene when he is reading to children. The entire first act of the episode was pretty good if you ask me, but everything after that first commercial break was boring to watch. There were some alright jokes, but I don’t think I could say anything went beyond alright. I actually watched the episode twice just to make sure my initial reaction to the episode was for real. I sure hope things turn around or we’re going to be in for a long season of Family Guy.

Our Take

Overall, this may be the worst episode of anything I’ve reviewed during my time at BubbleBlabber. Thankfully Bob’s Burgers saved my evening, but that’s somebody else’s bag of cookies. I do think we’re going to see the quality of this season improve as we progress, so I’m not losing hope quite yet. Many people got off the Family Guy express a long time ago, but

I hold out hope that it can find it’s footing again. Nothing is perfect, right? But it’s one thing to get the world speaking with stunts like killing off characters and crossovers, but there is so much more that needs to go into making a show great. Things become more funny when the audience is engaged, when they feel like they are in on the joke. That’s the kind of humor that made Family Guy so popular to begin with. Fingers crossed we’ll see some of that in the future.