Review: Family Guy “La Famiglia Guy”

 

 

Overview:

Joe Swanson makes the mistake of asking Peter to be the godfather to his daughter Susie. Of course, the indulgent Peter takes this as his chance to play the role of Marlon Brando. Though his performance does earn him a reputation and lands him at the head of his own mob.

Things go well until a rival gang puts a target on Peter’s head. He hopes to beat his enemies to the punch by ratting them out to the police. But, when he must wear a wire at a meeting of mafia crime bosses, Peter puts himself in his most dangerous situation yet.

 

Our Take:

Family Guy continues its 19th season with Peter becoming a mob boss. Out of the thousand and one hats that Peter has worn, this was not one that we were ever expecting.

We are no strangers of Family Guy stories that feature Peter Griffin taking on roles that are out of his character. However, during this entire episode, it was hard not to think back to one of the most memorable arguments in the show’s history which was initiated when Peter said that he “did not care for The Godfather”. The season four scene continues with Chris, Lois, and Stewie teaming up against him in favour of the classic mob story. But Peter held his ground, made some valid points, and it was marked that Peter had a distaste for the beloved film.

It does seem strange that Peter would have been so ecstatic about taking on the role of the gangster with his hatred of the films. However, Family Guy has never been the show to be limited by canonical errors. 

In fact, the show is allowed to change its tune based on what fits episode to episode without any backlash from fans. So, I guess we will have to let this one go as well.

The plot plays out much as you would expect of a loose parody. Though there were not as many jabs at the source material as the show normally fits in. Instead, the humour is focused on the violence that an Italian mob boss shows against his family. Brian specifically becomes the target as he is brutally murdered more than a couple times in the episode’s duration.

Additionally, the show seemed prepared for its November release date, making references to the Trump administration. Through self-admittance, the episode was written back in February. However, that did not hold the show back from making some bold predictions as to where we would be currently. Though something like Trump hanging himself in prison is an overly specific guess, it still sounds like something that could very well happen in the news in the future.

The highlight of the episode is the spoken Italian. Though close-captioned with the proper dialogue, the Italian voiceovers made each scene funnier than the last. Each Italian word spoken was to some reference, whether it be a pasta sauce, Mario Batali, or Di Giorno Pizza. Though this could be extremely insulting to most cultures, it surprisingly works when aimed at Italians.

While this was an entertaining episode overall that gave plenty of room for all the characters, it still feels like the show could have gone a bit further. There were no standout hilarious moments that will help this episode rise above the pack, and the story didn’t take us anywhere unsuspecting. 

The series continues to fail at packing the same punch it once did, and hopefully, Family Guy can break out of this slump of average episodes sooner rather than later.