Review: Family Guy “Bri-Da”

Overview:

Brian runs into an old friend at the bar, Ida Davis, Quagmire’s transgender father. Rekindling a one-night stand they shared many seasons ago, the pair decide to start dating. When Quagmire catches wind of the new relationship, his distaste for Brian causes him to disagree with their romance. Brian attempts to connect with Quagmire once again, but not with much luck.

Our Take:

Of all the things to pull out of Family Guy obscurity, Quagmire’s father turned mother wasn’t really expected. For an animated sitcom, Family Guy sure expects us to remember a lot of details to an ever-expanding world. Sure, we cannot forget that Quagmire’s father had a sex change thanks to enough jokes about it laid throughout the years. But, rekindling some one-night romp she had with Brian 10 (TEN) seasons ago is a massive leap. I don’t even remember where I was living ten years ago, so this whole relationship kind of came out of nowhere.

Thankfully, the episode does do a strong enough job at recapping the backstory up unto this point. However, to be rehashing old ideas from a decade ago could be considered lazy. When you consider the acceptance that has grown for transgenders over that time, maybe it makes sense to bring it back around. Though, the show doesn’t have much to say on the topic, other than the fact that Brian and Quagmire are slightly less awkward about the situation. Either way, it doesn’t feel like the show has grown as much as the world has.

What really throws this episode off is the fact that the first act doesn’t involve Ida or Brian whatsoever. The show starts with Peter, and the boys strapping body cams on themselves so that they can remember the brilliant ideas they have when they are drinking. With limitless possibilities on where that could develop, the real story came out of the left field. If I could have made 10,000 guesses on how this episode would develop, I never would have figured it out. To make it worse, absolutely nothing comes from the body cam plot. It just kind of faded off into nothing.

Two episodes into season 18 and a burning question is starting to develop: where the heck are all of the cut scenes. The sitcom known for having the most obscure cut scenes and then referencing them multiple times through the episode should have plenty of them. Having only a couple appear in the premiere was alright, sometimes it’s better to keep the show clear. But, two episodes in a row with maybe 5 cutscenes in total, I hope this is not a new basis for the series. And, if you are going to only offer a couple, make sure they are good. The two in this episode were both terrible. And, not in that Family Guy way where it’s so awful, it’s funny. They just were not good.

All in all, this was an episode for the diehard fans, and those that plan on binging the entire series in a sitting. As lovely as it is to revisit old storylines, a ten-year gap is far too drastic. This would have been a better episode at least five years ago. It would have been cheered for its acceptance of transgenders, and the context would have been relevant still. But now, it just falls flat and makes the entire series look like it hasn’t developed in a decade.