User Reviews

I initially liked this. I was on board with a more dialogue heavy episode. Ian McKellan was doing a great job, and I liked his character's report with Stewie. I think the photograph monologue might be one of their most inspired bits, and credit should also be given to the repeated bit about the British accent.

But things began to go downhill. The Hamilton gag really fell flat and went on too long. Then the ending completely stunk. It felt "forced" dark and not "natural" dark. It was the same problem with the Meg-heavy episode that addressed how her family treated her. They want to do something that seemed more character-driven and serious, yet copped out at the ending with a totally generated reason to return to the status quo.

This episode is an attempt to understand stewie on a deeper or emotional level. But the show feels at odds with the environment of a psychologist's office. It awkwardly struggles to define who he is more than a stream of commentary. He goes on and on, talking at Someone who is simply sitting silently.

Stewie says one-liner after one-liner, and over and over they slide off the wall. This is both the best part and the worst part of the episode. It desperately tries to be funny when it really shouldn't.

Another flaw is that it goes to extreme lengths to keep Stewie on top. It seems as though there can never be anyone smarter or better than him. Even though A child psychologist's office is a great opportunity to show some vulnerability.

The most notable example of this is in a scene when psychoanalyzes a photo of the doctor with another man. He goes on a diatribe of far-reaching assumptions, (assumes that's your boyfriend, etc.) and it would've been funnier if he'd been wrong. If the doctor would've said "no, that's my brother" or something of the sort. But of course, Stewie has to be right about everything,

I can't quite stress enough how much Stewie's diatribes fail comedically, It puts into perspective how much this is a defense mechanism. Which isn't really addressed. The lack of character he really has.

The crux of Stewie's visit is around some inconsequential thing " he pushed a kid". It doesn't get to anything about him. And here it begins to swirl into a mess

. Nothing really notable to see here. Just a half-hearted attempt at depth. The real failure of the episode is it's attempt at humor, And Stewie's so called wit turns into something stale.

This is a very unusual episode of Family Guy. Not because it has no cutaways or has a one-on-one format (that was already done with Brian & Stewie), not even because there are no commercials. No, it's because the way it's written defies any typical rules it usually goes by. There's no wackiness to the dialogue, and the humor is not as easily spelled out. There are instead many small quirks and things which are funny in a more clever way. For example the callback to Stewie Loves Lois, Stewie unraveling his "real" accent, people berating him for not talking enough about world domination. There are many fans who find they don't really recognize Stewie anymore, which we finally see them addressing in a more direct manner. The humor is almost strictly for diehard fans, which is why for some of the more casual fans they will go over people's heads. Another thing that people have complained about is Stewie ranting, sometimes about seemingly irrelevant things. To me this makes perfect sense, since Stewie has a lot of pent-up emotions inside, and sometimes ventilates them by trying to humiliate others. We see him trying to psychoanalyze the therapist by making him come off as a sad old man, but all it really does is remind him of his own repressed anger and hurt. The twist ending where Stewie poisons his therapist horrified me at first, and I thought that now they're taking it a bit too far. When he wakes up however, I realize there's a deeper meaning behind it. Stewie has a lot of darkness which is still inside of him, which he's now been hiding for years to make himself appear as a more respectable and decent person. It relates to the theme of Stewie being afraid to find out who he really is.

It's not a perfect in all areas of course, some jokes do fall quite flat, like Stewie singing with snot coming out of his nose, or the therapist's boyfriend calling and asking for a divorce. But the risk they took with the premise and how they decontructed what has become a very complex character makes me appreciate how the people behind Family Guy tries to do something out of the norm once in a while.

The artistry and tightly crafted script are amazingly executed in this episode. I love it when IM starts talking about "controversy," and there's a lot of things that are just so illuminating--for those who care and have the eyes to see it.

Yes, it requires a bit of a refined pallette to appreciate it. That's the way it is folks. Sometimes that's life.

Look, it's like such an ornate, beautiful, layered episode like a matroyshka doll. It just keeps giving and giving. I APPRECIATE this episode in the way that I might appreciate a 15 minute walk through a baroque era house, admiring the finely crafted wood, the ornate decorations, the furniture, the stairs--but it's not home.

It's just kind of not entertaining I guess (which is weird for IM, can't think of any other films of his I wasn't interested in, and I've seen Gods and Monsters). At least not the way I normally like Family Guy. Pointedly no cutaways--like, conspicuously. I like cutaways, they make me laugh. I didn't turn on family guy to see an arts and entertainment level theater production. I do however believe this could be a part of art history and theater classes 500 years from now.

I'm glad that they changing the story lines up because the plot lines were getting repetitive for awhile. The episode was very divisive, but hey even Family Guy like most shows is tired pleasing their audience. After rewatching the episode, I realized the majority of fans are ungrateful and don't respect the writers at all. Such an embarrassment to the franchise. I'm actually enjoying this whole season without 90% of the cutaway gags filling time in most of the episodes. I understand and respect your writing Gary Janetti.

We root for these characters because they have brought so much joy.

We love Gandalf. We love magical Gandalf or gay Gandalf, or Gay Magical Gandalf.

We love Stewie. He and Brian have brought much entertainment and joy.

When a cold unfunny murder takes place that is extremely calculated. It's not nearly as fun to root for that character anymore. Sure we will look past it and pretend like it never happened but still. If we can pretend like Crystal Skull was never made I'll pretend like episode 12 of Season 16 was never made.

It was the first episode I ever skipped ahead. The snot scene had zero humor value and made little to no sense. Stewie is clearly smart and smart people don't let snot hang out of their nose unchecked for what seemed like 5 minutes.

I've watched every episode of Family Guy. This is the only one I greatly disliked. First review ever written as well...great sadness and disappointment brings about action I guess. :-)