Review: Family Guy “The 2000 Year-Old Virgin”

Spoilers Below

It’s Christmas in Quahog once again! Last night’s new Family Guy was a strong addition to a season that I’ve been rather harsh on thus far. I can probably go as far to say that it’s my favorite episode of the season! A big part of my issue with Family Guy lately is mostly to do with the writing done on the show. For some reason it hasn’t been working for me this season, there are a few episodes here and there that I just adore, but a lot of the time the jokes feel shoehorned and not as clever as they once were. “The 2000 Year-Old Virgin” was a big turnaround for me though. I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s get this review started.

In “The 2000 Year-Old Virgin” Peter runs into Jesus at the mall, and finds out that the Son of God himself is a virgin. Peter decides to help Jesus out with the help of Cleveland and Quagmire to finally become a man.

As you may have gathered from my intro, I really enjoyed this episode. Right from the start of the episode they came out swinging with jokes, and they were consistently funny for me. The premise of the episode is a simple one, but funny, and you can just feel the energy of the writer’s room in each and every joke. The timing was on point and it felt like an old episode of Family Guy to me. It’s become the cool thing to dislike Family Guy, but it’s episodes like this that make me want to beg the world to not give up on the show just yet. Stewie wasn’t in the episode too much, but every little scene they sprinkled him into was just gold. Chris and Meg even had at least one joke each in this episode that was great.

If you read my review of American Dad last week, you’ll know that I don’t like a lot of sentiment in my Christmas specials. I enjoy those heartwarming family moments as much as the next person, but in shows like Family Guy I prefer that they stay in their wheelhouse, and they did just that. It was just as inappropriate as always, but you can clearly tell that this is a Christmas episode.

One final thing about this episode I must gush about is the animation itself. I was watching this episode and there is a joke that requires Peter to go out on a boat, and just how the water looked was impressive. The snow was also well done. There seemed to be a lot of attention to detail. After watching this episode I went back to see if there are similar cases in other episodes and there are, I probably just missed them, but I’m glad my eyes finally caught it.

As I say in most of my reviews, no episode is perfect. Even if I love something, I can usually find at least one thing to knit pick in anything I watch. I didn’t care for the use of Cleveland, Quagmire or Joe in this episode. While I found their parts funny, I wish they served more of a role in helping Jesus. It seems they were pushed into the background somewhere in the episode and they never really resurfaced. I think that may be my only complaint though, and it isn’t even really a complaint. The episode was fine the way it was but just me personally, I think they could have served a larger role.

Overall, it was an excellent episode. It’s episodes like this that give me hope for the show. The writing was great, I was laughing the entire time. I hope this momentum sticks in the second half of the season because it just makes this job more fun! If you haven’t checked out “The 2000 Year-Old Virgin” yet, I encourage you to. I think you’ll have a good laugh and maybe find a new appreciation for Family Guy. I have to keep in mind that this only one episode and for all I know the rest of the season could suck, but I have to call it like it is and say this was an insanely fun episode to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How did you like “The 2000 Year-Old Virgin”? Think I’m crazy? Love it as much as I did? Let us know! Hope you all have a safe and fun Christmas/Holidays!