Review: Family Guy “Mom’s the Word”

Spoilers Below

A very hectic February has come and gone and we’re finally starting to see things get back on track. Now we can finally get back to watching Family Guy and the other shows in the Animation Domination lineup.

The first episode after the break is a somber one. It seems fitting that tonight’s episode is thought provoking with the reboot of ‘Cosmos’ premiering tonight. For the second time this season we have lost a member of the family, this time seeming much more real. After learning about the death of his mother, Peter becomes buddies with one of Peter’s mother’s friends. Meanwhile, Stewie learns that he will one day die, and has a difficult time accepting the inevitable.

It is never easy losing a parent. After a crappy day at work, Peter comes home to a living room filled with his family and friends. Once hearing the news from Lois, he took to Facebook like any other twenty-first century person. After his mother’s funeral, a strange relationship forms between with one of his mother’s friends, Evelyn (voiced by Lauren Becall).

At the funeral, Brian tells Stewie that he and everyone else would one day die. Like most people, Stewie had a tough time accepting death. Stewie and Brian then went on an outing to explore different religions and how they all interpret life after death. After Brian tells Stewie about what he believes happens to people after death, Stewie becomes suicidal.

I found that this episode was a good return. The jokes were pretty hit and miss in my opinion. The timing of some of the jokes seemed off to me. At the same time a lot of the jokes this episode were pretty clever, one including Osama Bin Laden for example.

Peter’s story in this episode was kind of boring for me. It was very predictable and not very funny. Stewie’s half of the episode was definitely the strongest. A lot of funny interactions with Brian, and hilarious look at some popular religions.

The death of Peter’s mother was surprisingly low in significance this episode. This could be because we had Brian “die” earlier this season, and the writers didn’t feel it was necessary to explore the death in the family theme again. I feel it was a waste of a character. Why kill off Peter’s mother just for the sake of a boring story? It seems off to me. This is now one less character they can use moving forward in the show. Of course, as we saw with Brian, there is always a way to bring characters back from the dead.

Having a death in the show also makes the world of Family Guy seem more real. Suzy Swanson being born, Cleveland moving away, Diane Simmons being killed. These are good ways of keeping the show fresh and alive. Peter’s mother was never an important character for the show to begin with, her death could just be another breath of life and realism for the series.

Overall, I only enjoyed Stewie’s half of this episode. If they had done something a little more original with Evelyn, I would have better feelings toward this episode. The bits on religion were ones that really stuck out to me. They did a great job there. This episode won’t be a memorable one for me, hopefully next week is better.