Review: Family Guy “Heart Burn”

Overview:

As Peter and Lois get themselves ready for a romantic anniversary, we are gifted with three segments. Each a retelling of the most romantic stories of all time. First is the story of Helen of Troy, with the Greek and Romans trying to settle their disputes. Next puts Peter and Lois in the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet. Finally, to top off the most beautiful of love tales is the parody of 1987’s Fatal Attraction.

Our Take:

After last week’s brilliant nineties themed episode “Peter & Lois’ Wedding” I was very much expecting a boring episode this week. Family Guy loves to follow their patterns and typically special episodes such as that one are followed up by terrible stories. However, much too my appreciation this week we have once again been given a special off-the-formula episode. Again themed around Peter and Lois and how madly in love they are.

We have seen the characters of Family Guy in all sorts of outfits, eras, and themes. Thankfully, we are given three more in this episode. The use of which character fits where has been an enjoyable guessing game since the unforgettable Star Wars parodies. There were some questionable decisions made in this one, though. Not often do we see Peter interact with his baby son Stewie, but it makes for a fight to the death in the Romeo and Juliet segment. But, the decision to use two Lois’ in the Fatal Attraction re-enactment was challenging to get behind.

The Helen of Troy parody failed to do the story justice. Attempting to fit the massive saga in under ten minutes was ambitious enough. And, it was unable to bring all of the essential pieces together. Though, it was amusing for them to have to cancel their giant wooden horse. It made for a fun spin on the story we have seen done countless times.

Romeo and Juliet, on the other hand, was done quite well. All of the scenes that you would expect to see found their way in despite the time crunch. Although done well, the jokes weren’t quite as effective as the other segments. Maybe every joke that could be said about Romeo and Juliet has already been told. But, everything that Family Guy had to say about the classic play was predictable. It’s a bit of a surprise that this series couldn’t take the tragedy to exciting places.

Finally, I love the fact that the third choice to go along with these timeless classics is Fatal Attraction. A strange decision to do an 80s period piece a week after a 90s theme. The Michael Douglas, Glenn Close movie is a random choice, which is what makes Family Guy great, especially how they went through with it completely. Brian as the beheaded rabbit, was hilarious, but young Stewie made a perfect hero.

Despite all of the fun here, the episode, on the whole, didn’t quite land as effectively as previous parodies. Maybe because a lot of these themes are exceptionally over told. I mean, I have seen Romeo and Juliet more times in my life than I could ever need. Family Guy just added to that without making it any more exciting. It’s hard not to feel like this was a history lesson, or I was back in high school English class.

As exciting as these special episodes are, mostly because they are a mix-up from the formulaic stories, this one doesn’t help those expectations. As great as some parodies can be, they should be done with more creative and original light. It is a shame when the best of these three is Fatal Attractions only because we haven’t seen it redone before. Still, I prefer this over more episodes about Brian finding a new girlfriend or the such.