Review: Family Guy “Bringing Up Brady”

Overview:

During the latest episode of Family Guy, Meg befriends an NFL star-turned-commentator, while Stewie and Brian move into a famous furniture store.

Our Take:

After getting a job at a football stadium, Meg strikes up a friendship with Tom Brady, who has returned to the gridiron as a commentator. Admitting he still needs to find his bearings, he asks Meg to help him with the help of an earpiece. As she explains, as a New England woman, she has no choice but to be a football expert, even if she never gets to talk about it.

Obviously, this plot is going to backfire on someone, and Meg is on the warpath when Brady insults her, forgetting she’s on the other line. Peter, who gets wind of this, tries to stop her, but is too late. In a clever twist, instead of just making him look like he doesn’t understand the game, she tricks him into proposing to her in public at the game. Brady honors his promise, but, as the episode’s almost over, Meg decides not to hold him to it.

One interesting running joke throughout the story is Meg waxing lyrical when sharing a story, only to be told to keep things short. The joke is kind of repetitive, but it does get a clever twist when this happens when she’s texting. And plotting her revenge against Brady, no less.

In the side plot, Brian and Stewie, while out furniture shopping, decide just to move into a local IKEA. Finally cracking the code of getting IKEA furniture you don’t need to assemble yourself, Stewie and Brian enjoy their new lives so much that they decide to celebrate with their own fancy dinner party, inviting anyone who vaguely resembles, or is related to, a celebrity.

Unfortunately, when one guest invites their Swedish cousin, who is more than aware that they are in an IKEA, they decide it’s best to get rid of her. Slowly, their plan unravels, especially as the guests start using the floor model bathrooms and Stewie can’t cook in an uninstalled oven. Granted, they could just direct the guests to a public bathroom or use the store’s working kitchen, but we should ignore that for the sake of the joke. Eventually, they cut their losses and hang out at an airport.

Brian more or less just goes with Stewie’s plan, and it’s kind of out of character, since he normally would just complain about everything. However, it kind of works for the sake of the story. Even people who’ve never been to an IKEA have wondered what it would be like to live in one, so the storyline arguably could have used more focus, too.

Ultimately, both plots could have been given more focus and at times feel a little rushed. Both ideas probably could have made better A-plots during Family Guy‘s earlier seasons. And we’re probably not meant to question the family already meeting Tom Brady during “Patriot Games.”