Review: Family Guy “Big Trouble in Little Quahog”

Is this big episode enough to turn around Family Guy’s slow start to the season?

Overview:

After Brian teases Stewie for being short, the baby gets back at him by creating a shrink ray.  Shrunk to the size of a bug, Brian is attacked by a rat before Stewie can turn him back.  The little genius does the only thing he can do, shrinks himself down to help his best friend.  But, before they can make it back to the shrink ray, the pair are sucked up by the vacuum and put in the trash outside.  It takes the two working together to make their way back to salvation.  Unfortunately, they end up shrinking themselves even further.

Our Take:

Oh boy, I needed a good episode after last week.  Usually, I don’t like to let other episodes impact my opinion during a review.  However, last week’s episode of Family Guy was just that disappointing.  So, I went in this week worried that we would get a lot more of the same.  Thankfully, the writers gave us something new in the Family Guy repertoire.  This is precisely what I hope and expect every time there is a new episode, something fun and original that you can’t see on any other sitcom on television.

When the plot of the episode began to take shape I was expecting a real ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Kids’ rip-off about to play out.  And, while they did accomplish parts of that, they managed to take it a step further for the second half of the episode.  Taking them to a microscopic level, gave them an opportunity to create a world that actually looked really cool on screen.  So, they may have done a theme done in many films and shows before, but they made it fun and original.

This is what makes Family Guy tremendous and still relevant.  They can take an episode and go in any direction.  Sometimes, like last week, when they are doing something that they have done time and time again, it gets boring.  But then, a week later, they will throw something at us that is entirely unexpected, like a Star Wars parody, or a whole episode of Stewie in a psychiatrist’s office.  While the typical sitcom episodes can be very disappointing, it does open the doors for them to offer something entirely out of the norm such as this.  I mean, Rick and Morty can manage to pull off the most random of episodes, but Family Guy needs its average so that it can stretch our expectations.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy with tonight’s episode.  There was humour, adventure, and a well-written story.  It offered something classic, but original at the same time, all while keeping that Family Guy voice that we know and love.  So, far, four episodes into the season, this was the first really great show.  It reminds me, not to get to disgruntled with the boring episodes because I have no idea what to expect from this show sometimes.  I just got excited to see what the remainder of the season will bring.

Score
8/10