Review: Family Guy “The Birthday Bootlegger”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Peter’s job requires him to celebrate birthday parties for fellow co-workers at his job. That is until his new boss Preston Lloyd opts to cancel all future birthday celebrations so Peter has to start running these things like speakeasies. It doesn’t take long before Mr. Lloyd discovers the secret room and fires Peter. The other Pawtucket employees rally around Peter which forces Preston to rehire his recently departed employee

Meanwhile, back at daycare, Stewie beats the shit out of Doug and it lands the baby in detention over at the Quahog Elementary School. When Stewie gets out of the joint, he becomes a changed baby man and soon breaks down to Brian where I guess he reforms?

Cutaway Gags

JK Rowland, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, TED Talk, Bart, Tree at the Park,  Rockettes, Stewie Granddaddy

Our Take

Another solid week of Family Guy, in fact, this week I’m gonna score the show a bit higher because even the cutaways are starting to get a bit more juice in them in the comedy department. Let’s also all welcome new cast member Peter Macon (The Orville) in the role of “Preston Lloyd” who, I guess is replacing the seldom used “Bert and Shiela” (voiced by Bryan Cranston and Niecy Nash respectively) that were the previous Pawtucket managers which I’m actually happy to see because I’m not even convinced Cranston recorded new lines after their initial introduction to the show. This allows Family Guy to get another bankable setting for the show, i.e. work, so that hopefully the writers can maybe introduce some work pals and continue this excellent trend of fresh faces.

Are some of the jokes a bit gen z/millennial skewing? Sure, but the show loves it’s cutaway gags, they just can’t be eighties/nineties references anymore. That said, will the show be able to satirize an overtly sensitive audience? What’s the line and how often will the show cross it? All interesting concepts we’ll have to keep a watch on as the season progresses, but certainly questions that should be thought about as we move forward. I like the direction that the show is going in on a lot of fronts, but is it as brave as it once was to the point that it was on South Park’s level of craziness? We shall see.