Review: Family Guy “The Griffin Winter Games”

How many jokes do you think they can squeeze out about Meg being a biathlete?

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Meg surprises everyone when she announces that she has been training, and qualified for the Olympics as a biathlete.  No, not a biathlete, but in the biathlon, a mix of cross-country skiing, and target shooting.  The whole family travels to Seoul, South Korea to watch her perform.  But, how could Peter go to South Korea and not end up in North Korea somehow?  Thankfully, Meg has some mad skiing and shooting skills and is able to free her father.

Meanwhile, Stewie lands himself a date with figure skating commentator Tara Lipinski, who he believes to be his soul mate.  Unfortunately, Johnny Weir, her commentating partner, turns out not to be gay and has been faking it for years to be close to Tara.

Our Take:

For most of the world, it is pretty strange that Family Guy would drop an Olympic Winter Games featured episode right now.  I know it is technically an Olympic year, but, that was in February.  Wouldn’t it have made much more sense to release an episode like this in January?  However, I happen to live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where the Olympic Winter Games have been a source of heavy debate as of late.  In fact, just last week we held acityl vote and voted down a bid for the 2026 Olympic Games.  So, for me, and the million or so people who live here, it happens to be relevant.  Just not for anyone else in the world.

Just last week, in my review for “Stand By Meg” I wrote about how much the character of Meg is uncomfortable to watch – much so on purpose.  So, it seems kind of convenient that she would star in her second episode in as many weeks.  However, it is surprising even to fans that she would have a talent such as this, it even makes her a tiny bit cooler.  Just a tiny bit.

Even further on the Meg topic, this episode offered a special appearance by Lacey Chabert.  For those that do not know, the actress was Meg long before Mila Kunis.  She had left for mysterious reasons, but as she described it she was still in school and filming Party of Five and didn’t have the time for Family Guy.  Anyways, the scene in this episode was pretty meta, by having Lacey be jealous that she wasn’t going to the Olympics.  And, thank goodness for Peter who tells both Meg’s to “shut up”.

I know this is a heavy-Meg review, but it is all leading up to the epic conclusion of the episode.  Meg kicks ass.  I’m not even kidding.  Her ability to ski and shoot a rifle ended up being pretty badass.  The scene of her attacking a North Korean military base had all the things you would want from an action hero.  And, it all ended with a mock-up of one of the greatest video games of all time, GoldenEye.  Epic conclusion.

Overall, this was a decent episode.  I have given the show some bad reviews lately for not wrapping up plots.  Though this one had Stewie’s storyline trail off, at least we had a solid tale in the Meg plot.  And, it worked well with what was going on from the beginning.  What I am trying to say, is the writers actually put a full show together here.  It happens once and a while, but it makes watching that much more enjoyable.  I just wish they could be more consistent.  I’d love more episodes like this one.