Review: Family Guy “Fresh Heir”

Spoilers Below

Last night’s new episode of Family Guy was easily one of the strangest I’ve seen in quite some time. In “Fresh Heir”, Chris spends some quality time with his grandfather, Carter, and learns that he would be inheriting his fortune from his will. Feeling robbed, Peter attempts to suck up to Chris in an attempt to get him to share the money. What’s strange about the episode occurs in the last ten minutes or so, and I can honestly say I didn’t see it coming.

“Fresh Heir” is the first episode in a while that revolves around the relationship of Peter and Chris. With Chris and Meg arguably being the least popular characters on the show, they often take a back seat. This is probably for the best, but at times I feel like they are only there since they have been since the beginning. While this episode had a lot more Chris, the essence of the episode was still Peter. When characters fall into the background as much as the Meg and Chris do, the idea that this is a family begins to fade.

Some things I enjoyed about the episode was the inclusion of Chris, particularly the beginning of the episode where he is hanging out with Carter. We don’t see those characters together a lot, but I thought it was great. I’d like to see some more Grandson/Grandpa antics in the future. I also thought that there were some pretty funny jokes in this episode, overall I’d say they were hit and miss though.

Now, when I said that the essence of the episode was Peter, I meant that he kind of hijacked the spotlight from Chris during the second half of the episode. It fell back into the Peter comfort zone. The source of humor for the second half was Peter, and it kind of disappointed me. I love him as much as the next guy, but it would have been refreshing to have this episode really focused on Chris. This is why I feel as though Chris and Meg need to be invigorated somehow. Just something that would make them more interesting to the general viewer.

Overall, the episode was a little flat for me. I was looking forward to this one, but it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. I have to admit that the first ten minutes were very enjoyable. The rest of it was lackluster, and I really couldn’t wait for it to end.

So, what did you all think of “Fresh Heir”? Am I being too hard on it? Do you guys agree with my views? Let me know! I’m always interested to see what you guys have to say.