Review: Family Guy “Hot Shots”

Drop it like it’s hot.

Spoilers Below

This week’s new Family Guy episode, “Hot Shots” was a funny episode with some weak spots, but overall a laugh.

“Hot Shots” starts out with what I found to be a funny gag (Rational Geographic) and then segues into the funniest bit of the episode, about a bat in the Griffin house. The bat issue is seriously hilarious, and even after its resolution a little bit into the intro, they touch upon it again at the end– so funny.

The main story of “Hot Shots” is how Lois and Peter become anti-vaccine protesters after finding out what’s in the vaccines. The premise is kind of funny, and the writers really hit upon the issues that the whole anti-vaccine crowd always harps upon. I feel like the story and surrounding gags are overall solid, despite having a few weird, weak jokes (the cult one?), some unfunny groaners, and dead spots.

The episode as a whole plays out nicely. I laughed a lot. For once, in an unusual twist, Brian is actually the insightful, correct one as the rest of the family goes nuts– like he used to be in the beginning of the series. He was the voice of reason. Kind of strange to see. This never happens anymore, as Brian is now usually the overly PC, annoying liberal douche. But not tonight. He insists that Stewie should be vaccinated, for the safety of Quahog, and sure enough, there’s a quarantine.

One of my only complaints about the episode is that a couple of the jokes felt forced, or were stupid, or didn’t make much sense. For example, the John Goodman bit. However, “Hot Shots” is a nice, solid watch. It’s a “classic” feeling Family Guy that contains all the elements that usually make an episode great. The plot really involves the whole family in a good way, and the other characters are all mixed in well too (Joe, for instance).

Everything worked tonight on Family Guy, in a satisfying way. “Hot Shots” is definitely my favorite episode of the season so far, and I hope there are more on the way this season of a similar quality.