Review: Family Guy “Switch and Flip”

“What kind of Friday is it?” “Freaky!”

Overview:

Peter purchases a home assistant like Siri or Google Home, called Brandi.  Brian, of course, falls in love because he hasn’t had enough girlfriends by now. And what happens when Brian goes head-over-heels, things go terribly wrong.  This time his overspending leads to a collection agency clearing him out of all of his possessions.  Brian hits rock bottom, and Stewie is certain that should they switch bodies, Stewie could be much more successful than his old friend.  Clearly, the only logical place for this episode to go is for Stewie to build a body-switching machine.

The Particle Interchange Transporter is surprisingly useful for switching the characters bodies.  However, Stewie is much less capable of putting Brian’s life together than initially planned and quickly wants to turn back.  While the machine is operating Chris and Peter get in the way and next thing you know all four characters are mixed-up.

With Stewie trapped in Peter’s body, he has swept away with Lois on a sex retreat with his mother.  It is up to Brian- stuck in Chris’s body- to get things back to normal, but a further accident causes the whole town to switch bodies.  Stewie must get everybody back in order before his mother has her way with his body.

Our Take:

This Freaky Friday themed episode is so classic Family Guy that I am in shock that they have not done it before.  You have to appreciate the fact that they took the old body-switching trope and made it so much larger, involving many of the Quahog favourites.  With a talking dog and maniacal baby in the show, the body-switching story is full of opportunity.  Family Guy has covered just about every story ever by now; it is about time we had some Freaky Friday.

This is also a monumental episode.  Not like The Simpsons who are breaking television history right now, but still of significance.  I really don’t want to spoil this, and you should watch this episode for the last moments.  Typically, I do not like to spoil anything significant, so consider this your warning. By the end of this episode, Brian gets something that he has always wanted, something we never thought would happen.  Brian hooks up with Lois, while in Peter’s body, but still, that is some major Family Guy canon history.

“Switch and Flip” felt like a classic Family Guy episode.  It follows all the same formulas and jokes that have made the show successful for so long. Fans who have been devoted watchers stick it out for the major boundary-pushing episodes, but if this is a standard-norm for Family Guy than nobodies disappointed.  I am sure that there were plenty of jokes on the cutting room floor, the whole theme of switching bodies could have filled two or three episodes.  I say that, but I am glad that they don’t do as many three-parters as they used to. Like this episode, get out all the best material, and get ready for something else next week.

Score
7.5/10