Review: Family Guy “Are You There God? It’s Me, Peter”

Who would have thought becoming so lazy that you fuse to the couch would create such issues?

Overview:

After a strange phenomenon fuses Peter to the couch, a further resulting accident puts him into a coma.  Stuck in limbo between life and death, Peter meets the big man himself, God, and the two are stuck inside an elevator together.

Peter begs the higher being to give him a second chance to become a better man and a better father.  Unfortunately, on a trip to Fuddruckers proves that Peter is simply not up for the job. But, can his faith be enough to save his life, and give him a third chance at being a decent human being?

Our Take:

I always find it risky when a sitcom puts an image of god on screen and expects viewers to subscribe to those beliefs.  Well, that is Fox for you.  But, there are many religions out there that think depicting god in such a manner is blasphemes itself.  Plenty, of viewers, myself included, can ignore the overtones and messages and not be harmed by the forcefulness of the one religious point of view.  But, this can always be a risky maneuver that has plenty of people changing the channel.

With that said, if you are going to create an overly Christian episode of Family Guy, you better make it worth it.  Unfortunately, this was a major let down.  With a whole segment of Peter stuck in an elevator with god that lead nowhere, added nothing to the story, and landed no jokes, it may have been the most frustrating five minutes of the entire season.  Not a strong note to end the year on.

Besides the idea of Peter fusing to his couch, this episode lacked a lot of humour and depth.  The message of being a decent father was lost, and it honestly feels like they were sending the message that God voices himself in the closing scene, “religion is about blind subservience to an imaginary being.”  Sounds like they threw in their own towel for this episode, leaving me questioning what was it all about then?  Did this episode even have a point, other than blind entertainment that offered no substance… Oh.  Kind of like religion…  But, that is getting complex, and not the message I think was intended.

With the offer of one day to turn his life around, you would think Peter would make an epic splash.  I mean, the character is capable of just about anything.  But, it seems a lack of creativity and time left us with a lackluster conclusion to join the rest of the failing episode.

I wish I had some more delightful things to say about the season finale of Family Guy.  I mean, most of the season was on par and has done the job of remaining relevant.  At least to a certain degree.  But, this episode was just that disappointing for me. There were countless places that the story could have gone, but it was wasted on a repeating joke of asking God about pop culture references.  The bottom line is it was a boring show.