Review: Family Guy “Boys & Squirrels”

 

 

Overview:

Peter has won himself a new chainsaw. While wielding his new power tool, he accidentally causes a tree to fall injuring his elbow and leaving a baby squirrel an orphan.

Chris and Stewie agree to work together in raising the little rodent as their own. Though they are an excited pair, the eventual death of the squirrel leads to problems in their bond.

Meanwhile, Peter gets some chiropractic work done to help with his elbow. Yet after stretching his spine, Peter discovers that he is much taller than he thought he was. After learning to miss his normal height Lois helps to make Peter feel small again.

 

Our Take:

Occasionally Family Guy will surprise you with an intelligent, well thought out, provoking episode. The show carries the capacity to change the way we think about television and challenge the status quo. Sometimes it feels like Family Guy only pretends to be stupid to catch us off guard when it does something brilliant.

This was not one of those episodes.

And unfortunately, the bulk of content we get from Family Guy these days is episodes such as this one. 

A hodgepodge of storylines that lead nowhere and are only set-up to tell a joke or two. And those jokes tend to be replays of things that the show has done before, like pretend like two characters are in a romantic relationship.

Structurally, this episode is a disaster. The first act involves Peter getting a new chainsaw. Which is supposed to be enough to be hilarious and interesting. Then, Peter becoming suddenly tall is another play on Peter undergoing some life-altering physical change to make jokes for the next 20-minutes. However, the writers clearly struggled to find much material about being a couple feet taller.

The closest thing to a plot in this episode was the storyline involving Chris and Stewie raising a baby squirrel. While there were some comedic moments, the very theme is already embedded in the show with Stewie and Brian often acting as they have a romantic relationship. There was nothing original to the humour of this plot other than it involved Chris in place of the dog.

It is almost sad that the highlight of the episode was a soundless minute of Peter struggling to use plastic wrap to cover his food. While it was a relatable and funny scene, these short cutscenes are supposed to accompany the main plot, not drown it out.

While it did not offer much content or humour, the storyline of Peter gaining a new height did have a worthy punchline. It may have been tasteless to say that women have the power to belittle their husbands until they literally lose height, it was hilarious to hear Lois rip-in on Peter for a good 30-seconds.

Every season we get a few great episodes out of Family Guy that stand out and make the show worth watching. But we also get a handful of episodes that are pointless, directionless, and feel like a waste of time for viewers and animators alike. Unfortunately, this episode was the latter and could be used as an example of where this show falls apart at times.