Review: Family Guy “Better off Meg”

Overview:

After Meg gets her ID mixed up with another girl at the bowling alley, the other girl ends up in a horrific car accident.  The Griffins believe that they have lost their only daughter, though it doesn’t seem to impact them much at all.  Meg decides to let them think her dead and start over in a new city.

She manages to make friends and get her own apartment.  Unfortunately, she misses home and calls Chris to help her move back.  When he finds out that she is alive, he kidnaps her and leaves her for dead so he can enjoy the attention he has been receiving.

Too bad Meg won’t go down that easy.

Our Take:

Long has Meg been the brunt of Family Guy jokes.  Never once has anyone let on in eighteen seasons that they actually care for the only daughter of the Griffin family.  So, it is surprising enough that anybody even realized that the girl was gone.  Especially considering she barely appears in half the episodes anymore.  Still, is it going to be Meg’s death that finally has her family realize how important to the family she is?

No.

No, this was definitely a whole episode dedicated to making fun of Meg and how much everybody hates her.

From not recognizing her from an old wooden barrel to ignoring her completely when she proves that she is still alive, Meg is the same terrible character she always is.

In fact, this was her chance to getaway.  She found happiness and friends.  And any person with an ounce of respect would never return to her family that hates her.  But Meg is just that awful that she has to ruin her own death for her family.  It is not like anyone would have noticed her gone for at least a season.  Though then they would not have anyone to make fun of.  So, she is still important to us, the fans.

Honestly, this episode could have been funnier.  Who doesn’t love a good Meg beat-up story?  Even a whole episode about how much we hate her is always a good time.  Unfortunately, most of the episode is from Meg’s perspective and her battle with faking her death or not.  While adding to a substantial plot, we did miss out on how great life would be for the Griffins without her home.  Other than Chris, who enjoys newfound popularity as the boy who lost his sister.

This was a solid episode from Family Guy.  Once again, I am surprised that a plot hasn’t been done before.  In eighteen years, you would think the show writers would have grabbed a low hanging fruit like faking Meg’s death.  In what has been a lacklustre season, an average episode like this one sits on the right side of the curve for being a decent watch. Hopefully, we get a couple of great stories to wrap up the year, and this episode can go back to being averagely good.