Review: Family Guy “Rich Old Stewie”

 

 

Overview(Spoilers Below):

We enter on Stewie, who is an old man that has lived a full life. He has made millions thanks to his higher intellect and has done a lot for mankind. The only thing he is lacking is family. When Brian comes to inform Stewie that his father is dying, Stewie does the right thing and goes to visit him.

Stewie finds that his old family is no better off than the way he left them with Chris wasting his life and Meg becoming a bulletproof vest tester. Yet, Stewie tries to make things right with the family he never connected with. Before his father dies, Stewie promises to give them everything that he has earned. 

Unfortunately, the family faked Peter’s death trying to deceive the youngest son out of his fortune. Thankfully you can’t con the con man, and Stewie is one step ahead of them.

 

Our Take:

Well, we’ve been waiting for it. It is about time that Family Guy dropped a special episode that is outside of their status quo. It is what this show is built on, and this season has been surprisingly lacking from these extra fun episodes. But, even for trying to do something new and unique, this one still didn’t have the same excitement as these episodes typically would.

The basis of the plot is quite interesting. We get a glimpse at what Stewie will be like in his later years. The problem is, it is pretty much as you would expect. It’s still the same characters, just in the future. Most of the jokes are aimed at ageing adults. Which isn’t even funny enough to make up for it being borderline offensive.

Even the opportunity to look at the world of the future is wasted. There are a couple of jokes that let you know that you are in a future timeline, but nothing to make it worth being an episode cast in the future. 

Some of the characters make no changes at all, including Brian and Quagmire. And, even though it is acknowledged in the show, it feels like they got lazy. 

There is so much you can do with an animated sitcom in the future. In fact, I remember one of the greatest animated sitcoms of all time involving a modern man in a future world. But this Family Guy episode doesn’t take any of those chance and misses out on any of those jokes.

There is one saving grace to the overall story. The conclusion was effective. Predictable as it was, the execution was pulled off flawlessly. The reveal of the Griffins swindling their youngest is paled by the reveal of him knowing their plan all along. And, there is only one way for Stewie to deal with that, murder them all. I suppose he finally got that vial woman.

I really wanted to enjoy this episode.  Family Guy has, for a long time, been the king of doing the unexpected and breaking down barriers. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t that interesting. Still, I will take this bad special episode over some of the more pointless ones that we have seen out of the show thus far this season. All we can do is hope that they got a couple more good ones left in the tank before the season runs out.