Review: Family Guy “Wild Wild West”

 

 

Overview:

Quahog needs a new mayor. Lois backs the town librarian, Elle Hitler. But Peter thinks Quahog needs to continue the tradition of having a cool mayor. He settles on Adam West’s cousin, Wild West, “legendary cowboy and a spokesman for everything manly”.  

When Lois meets the rugged cowboy candidate, she sings a different tune, specifically while making love to Peter. This causes Peter to flip as well and try to help Hitler become elected. But when he tries to sabotage Wild West, Peter may go too far.

 

Our Take:

Family Guy has been very respectful of former cast member Adam West since his passing in 2017. The show managed a heartfelt tribute, and great callback’s through the last couple of seasons. And his work on Family Guy will be remembered almost as much as his more notable former character.  

However, the fictional town of Quahog has a been without a mayor for some time, and the series has had to over-utilize Principal Shepherd in his place. It was inevitable that a new mayor would need to step in.

Since it was already announced months ago, I am not spoiling things when I mention the new mayor of Quahog is Sam Elliott. The award-winning actor brings in a role that he is comfortable with, as Wild West, a simple cowboy folk with a beautiful voice. And much like West, Elliott is sure to have some ridiculous things to say during his run on Family Guy.

The new character is sure to make a few appearances a year without changing the show. Though the country ranch theme is something for the writers to play with, based on series history, it likely will not appear again until next season.

It is also hard to believe that the show went ahead with instilling a new mayor at all without having a main character like Peter of Brian attempt and fail at the job. Or some other predictable plot like that, but even the shows choice of mayor is unexpected.

Many fans would have been pleased if the show did as it mentioned and just hired another former Batman like Michael Keaton, or even Val Kilmer. Additionally, Alf was a viable option. Heck, it would not even have been that shocking if the show decided to give the job to the librarian. At least that way they could have repeated the “hi, Elle Hitler” joke a few dozen times, as the show does.

At least the show had a fictional election to indoctrinate Sam Elliott’s character. Playing with Peter and Lois’s allegiances was a good twist, and shockingly avoided any stabs at Donald Trump. And the concluding musical number was a highlight, including appearances from the evil monkey, Billy Finn, and Ernie the Giant Chicken.

It is great that the series has landed a new mayor to fill some giant shoes. And while the show decides on whether things are cannon on an episode-to-episode basis at times, this one will stick. How often we will see the new character is another question. For now, we can celebrate that we got a decent episode of Family Guy that was coherent and had a proper conclusion.