Review: Family Guy ”Encyclopedia Griffin”

Posted on February 16, 2015June 4, 2020 by Tommy North

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Happy Monday! Valentine’s Day is now behind us, so don’t forget to go out and buy as much discount chocolate as you can afford! Speaking of Valentine’s Day, last night’s episode of Family Guy didn’t lack romance either. How about we jump into this review?

In “Encyclopedia Griffin” Peter and his friends start their own detective agency to find out who has been stealing random objects from the neighborhood. When it turns out to be Chris, a dark secret about Chris is revealed.”

I gave you a spoiler warning, so you’ve been warned. As it turns out the dark secret Chris has been hiding is that he’s been stealing various items so that he can assemble a makeshift girlfriend. He develops a bond with the doll, and seeing how well the doll gets treated byt Chris makes Lois jealous that Peter doesn’t do the same.

The episode was a pretty strong one. There were a lot of funny jokes, and everything flowed smoothly. At no point did I feel like anything was being dragged out too long. It was a unique episode, I don’t think I’ve seen a story like this before. The cutaway gags were probably my favorite part of this episode. They are usually hit or miss, you take them when they’re good, leave them when they’re not. That wasn’t the case this time, I really think they brought home the episode. I can’t think of one where I didn’t laugh. Unfortunately, this is where my positives end for the episode.

While unique, I didn’t feel like the makeshift girlfriend was very funny. Chris and his interaction with the doll weren’t very funny or interesting. If anything, the relationship Chris had with the doll only emphasized how bad of a husband Peter is. I also couldn’t follow who the episode was supposed to be about this episode. While by the end we can clearly see now that it was about Chris, while I was watching I couldn’t tell if the episode was trying to tell Chris, Lois, or Peter’s story. Probably a bit for all of them.

The first act where Peter and his friends become detectives was great. I don’t know why they make such awesome first acts, and then give us stuff that isn’t engaging. I could have watched Peter and his friends solve mysteries for half an hour. I think that would have been hilarious, really.

Our Take

Overall, I do still think this is a strong episode despite some drawbacks. I did find myself laughing a lot and if my only complaints about a Family Guy episode are it’s story elements, we’re not in bad place. I’ve said this before in previous reviews, but I always find that episodes are funniest when you’re interested in what the characters are doing. When the audience is engaged, that’s when you get the real laughs. Once this season is wrapped up, this will probably be one of the episodes I remember most, because of how unique it was. There have been far worse episodes in this season, so I walk away from this one happy.