Review: Family Guy “#JOLO”

Spoilers Below

Game of Thrones wasn’t the only show making a return last night. After almost a month off, Family Guy returned last night with “#JOLO”, a play on the popular internet term “YOLO” which stands for “you only live once”. For this episode though, it’s fair to assume you’re supposed to replace “you” with Joe. So, was the episode any good? Let’s explore that question…

In “#JOLO”, after Peter saves a child and is praised as a hero by Quahog, he encourages Joe to think less about his decisions. This leads to Joe quitting his job and marriage, and taking his life by the horns.

#JOLO was a pretty decent episode. It was a strong episode for a few reasons, firstly the type of episode it was is one of my favorites. Peter’s adventures with Joe, Quagmire, and Cleveland are always my favorite episodes. The four characters have developed pretty strong chemistry over the years, and even regular between them is hilarious to watch. They also usually end up on some kind of adventure, and this time was no different with them going to Niagara Falls.

The story itself was pretty original. If you know Joe’s character, you probably know his disability often leaves him depressed. It has put his marriage on the rocks multiple times, and this episode reveals he isn’t taken too seriously by the rest of the police force. In this episode we see him try to commit suicide multiple times. Family Guy is known for stepping close to the line every once in a while, I even dare to say they step on the line sometimes. The show handles the subject of suicide like you’d expect Family Guy to handle it… not seriously at all. It’s probably for the best because when you make it a joke right out of the gate, it suddenly seems less dark. Peter, Quagmire, and Cleveland are also having a ton of fun in the midst of Joe’s downward spiral, so the atmosphere never really gets depressing.

It was a pretty funny episode, there were a lot of good jokes. A lot of great character interaction and it was paced pretty well. Never at any time did I feel they were rushing to a certain plot point or were leaving jokes too far apart.

The episode wasn’t all good though. The last five or six minutes of the episode were kind of boring. The story didn’t wrap up a snuggly as it could have. It legitimately acknowledged a loose thread at the end. Will we see if they tie it up in a future episode? Probably not. I think this will be something we’ll just have to look over. Another thing about the episode I didn’t like was the lack of scope when it came to the setting. This isn’t something I usually worry about when it comes to animation, because well, setting doesn’t usually matter when it comes to something like Family Guy; but I felt they could have made fun of Niagara Falls a little more. They just sort of used the falls as a device for Joe to kill himself, but I feel there was a lot of opportunity to inject some comedy.

Overall, it was an alright episode. I had fun watching most of it. There were some pretty good laughs had, and it took the show to a new locations and put the characters in a new situation. It isn’t the first time the show has touched on suicide. I’d say this wasn’t even the best episode that has touched on suicide. In season eight in an episode titled “Brian & Stewie”, the two are locked in a bank vault overnight, and we learn that Brian has considered suicide. It’s honestly one of the best written episodes of the show, I wish something like that could come up. I’m getting off track though, good episode, it has it’s issues but it’s a good watch if nothing else is on.

How did you like #JOLO? Like it? Hate it? Let us know!