Review: Family Guy “Boy (Dog) Meets Girl (Dog)”

Brian will do anything to breed

Overview (Spoilers):

It is a Valentine’s Day episode, and everyone has plans, except for Brian.  Fortunately, he manages to meet an attractive show dog named Ellie (voiced by Amanda Seyfried) at the vet.  After some promising courting, Ellie drops the bomb that she is in an arranged breeding with the winner of the next dog show.  Of course, Brian enters the show in hopes of being on top, “and on top of her.”  Brian pulls it off in a surprise victory but, when it comes to doing the deed, Brian is unable to perform.

Peter and Lois have been lying to Chris every Valentine’s Day about a fictional Santa-esque character, Arthur Valentine, who brings him candy and notes on a special day.  In an attempt to tell Chris the truth they realize he may be too sensitive.  Apparently, the next best choice is to fake Arthur Valentines death, which instantly puts Chris in shock.  In an attempt to bring Chris’s spirits around Peter dresses like Arthur Valentine, which Chris assumes is a zombie.

Our Take:

It is surprising that over these many seasons, we have not seen Brian perform in a dog show before.  There was some brilliant use of common dog terminology used to make strong sexual innuendos.  The culmination of Brian being unable to perform in the sterile breeding room was great but, got better when he had to break up with his new girlfriend while she was being taken by another stud.

The Arthur Valentine storyline was a genuine look at the Santa Claus dilemma that every parent faces when their child matures.  Chris, of course, is a lot less stable than most children which he proves when he tries to kill the zombie-Arthur Valentine.

There was one significant fourth-wall breaking joke that deserves mentioning.  After Stewie makes a distasteful joke about 9-11, Brian is quick to mention that he was meant to be on that plane, Stewie quickly adds “me too.”  Of course, both these characters are voiced by show creator Seth MacFarlane, who in fact was booked on American Airlines Flight 11 on that fateful day, and had arrived late, missing the plane by minutes.

My favourite part of the episode had Billy Joel arrive to sing parodies of his hit song “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”  The reoccurring gag started with a list of things that Peter had pumped from his stomach but, the conclusion of “We Didn’t Write an Ending,” made the episode for me.