Review: Family Guy “Holly Bibble”

Overview:

The Griffin family is stuck in a small motel room during Hurricane Michael Cane roles through Quahog. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, Peter decides to read a book he finds in the nightstand.

The first tale involves Peter and Lois being the first humans created by God. The pair live in paradise with only one rule of not eating the apples. Though the fruit proves much too tempting as the couple devour the bunch.

Next, Peter decides to build an arc for God. After it is completed, he brings aboard two of every animal just in time for a massive flood to cover the world. Sailing the seas for forty days, Peter/Noah finds land and resettles his family.

In the final story, Jesus is planning a big dinner with all his buddies for an Easter dinner. Unfortunately, one of his best friends is bribed into telling their enemies where they will be sharing dinner. The party is quickly broken up by the armies of Rome and one evil chicken.

Our Take:

Much like most parts of the world, the Griffins find themselves in isolation. Maybe it is just me, but I continue to find unintentional references to the Coronavirus outbreak all over media. This one comes in the form of a natural disaster forcing this family to spend time together and occupy themselves. Though most of us probably haven’t grown desperate enough to read stories out of the bible. Or at least not those of us who spend Sunday night watching Family Guy.

I must admit my gratitude for this episode, though. “Holly Bibble” is done in a format that is Family Guy at its best. Let’s be honest, most of us are not here for the serialized drama of average sitcom stories that we can find anywhere on network TV. No, Family Guy like most animated shows, is our break away from drama and reality. It is best served to us in small vignettes and simplified stories which allow room for multiple cut-aways and overemphasized jokes.

In fact, I don’t understand why Family Guy has not adopted this simplified format on a more regular basis. When an episode is broken into three or four plots such as this one the humour can fly, and the drama can take a backseat. Most episodes already follow the A-plot/B-plot formula. Why not change Family Guy into two shorter episodes where more can be explored, and nothing becomes boring? The doors are wide open for the show to improve its own rules, and a move such as that may prolong its drooping shelf life.

Who are we to say that these broken up episodes are vast improvements from a typical Family Guy episode? Just fans and reviewers. What gives us the right to say even an episode about something as cliché and overdone like the bible was still better than most thanks to the format alone? How dare we say that these vignette-style episode are the one thing keeping us coming back for more each week. C’est La Vie. Next week things will go back to the way they always are.