Review: Family Guy “Movin’ In (Principal Shepherd’s Song)”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Chris helps with morning announcements the principal is overheard making fun of his weight in front of the whole school. Lois demands that the school council hold him accountable costing the principal his job.

When Peter discovers that the former principal is homeless, he convinces Lois to let him move into their house.  When it does not go as planned, the family try to kick him out.  The principal reacts by putting them in “detention,” which looks more like locking them in their basement.  Their only way out may be getting him his old job back.

Meanwhile, Brian discovers that Stewie has been publishing children’s books with his likeness.   Unfortunately, the dog in the books is a dimwitted mockery.  Brian sues the baby for defamation but loses when Stewie makes him look like a fool in court.

Our Take:

Honestly, I was hoping for one more special episode out of Family Guy before it wrapped up on season eighteen.  The batch of twenty episodes lacks any memorable episodes that will stand apart in the growing library.  Unfortunately, this season finale did not shake things up for the show that could really use some life moving forward.

One strange thing about season eighteen has been the additional usage of Principal Shepherd.  Appearing in eight episodes, he has seen more screen time than he did in the last seven seasons combined.  Forcing the bland character on us culminated in tonight’s episode where he moved in with the Griffins.  The opportunity to expand on him as a character was wasted as most of the jokes involved having a principal in the house.  Causing an adverse effect of making him come off as more one-note than we had previously believed.  He is now more unlikable for seeing him act more like a principal then he typically does.

It is a shame to see the hoops that the show is trying to jump through in this post-Adam West era. But the answer does not lay in the principal.  With Seth MacFarlane’s notoriety, you would think he would add some life in this show with some new talent.  Perhaps a more regular role for Chris Parnell who made a minor appearance in this episode.

The B-plot in this episode involves Brian suing Stewie over defamation of his character.  This side story is wasted as a background to an average episode.  This would have been much better had most of the episode been in the courtroom as Stewie tries to prove that his dog and best friend is an idiot.  With appearances from characters like Brian’s old flames, Quagmire, and Peter, it could have been one of the best we have seen this season.  Unfortunately, the court battle was limited to about one minute of screen time.

With so many disappointing attributes to this episode, it should not have been the season finale.  The last thing you want is to leave the fans with a bad taste in their mouths as we await new episodes 3-4 months away. Hopefully, season nineteen will come in with a substantial episode, but the track record for that makes it a slim possibility.  Honestly, it is time for Family Guy to reshape its formula and rethink how it can be ground-breaking in our modern world of overabundant media.