Episode 11 - Not All Dogs Go to Heaven
30 July 2009
Synopsis: At a Star Trek convention Meg contracts the mumps and Stewie is annoyed not to get to ask the cast of The Next Generation any questions. While convalescing Meg watches religious programming and becomes a fanatical Christian. She outs Brian as an atheist to the whole town and no one will serve him alcohol. Meanwhile Stewie soon becomes tired of the petty bickering of the cast.
The Good: If you liked Star Trek: The Next Generation then there is loads to enjoy here. We get fans asking the cast domestic questions instead of anything about the show. Then once Stewie has them in his room, hardcore fans will be amused by him killing Denise Crosby (just as her character was killed off early in the shows run) or by Wil Wheaton being pushed around (as his character on the show was much younger than all the others). You may also get a kick out of the cast whining at an increasingly angry Stewie as they go bowling and to a McDonalds drive thru. It’s difficult not to smile at the absurdity of Patrick Stewart complaining about having to rent bowling shoes and then holding up two balls and shouting “Look at me, I’ve got girl boobs.”
On the flip side we get a Meg plot (see Best Joke). She becomes a Christian and the show actually satirises American faith in an interesting way. The story is that some people think that atheists are worse than fundamentalist terrorists, because at least they believe in God. It’s not new ground but it’s a point well made. The conclusion of the story is sadly, very fitting. Brian convinces Meg that God can’t be the answer because why would he have allowed her to grow up in a home where no one loves her. It’s sad that that point is effective because cruelty to Meg is one of the show’s bizarrely consistent points. I did enjoy Brian’s line when a car gets thrown through the window because of his atheism. “I thought only he without sin could cast the first Prius.”
I almost always enjoy Brian behaving like an actual dog and growling while holding a cross like a bone was in that vain. I also enjoyed Peter using his turn to say grace to ask God for help with a video game (Mike Tyson’s Punch Out). Both nice twists on everyday behaviour which flow from the characters established traits.
Flashback ratio (good-medium-bad): 0-5-0
The Bad: It’s still sad that abusing Meg has been so consistent as to give her story a logical conclusion. It’s not that being mean to one character is something I have a problem with in general. But the abuse of Meg crosses all lines of plausibility and so becomes annoying to watch. In this episode Peter throws soup and milk at her. Not just throws but smashes it into her face. What’s funny about that? The first time that the family’s dislike of Meg crossed into physical abuse it might have been shocking. But it has become so consistent that it doesn’t seem remotely real anymore and therefore the humour behind it has been lost.
Now you can argue that Stewie “beaming” the Star Trek cast into his house isn’t remotely realistic. But that isn’t the point of the story. Lots of bizarre stuff happens in Family Guy for the sake of humour. I have no problem with logic being ignored for a joke as long as the story goes somewhere plausible. Here the story is Stewie getting annoyed by the petty behaviour of the cast, the lack of logic about how he rounded them up isn’t important.
However I still think Family Guy runs mundane jokes into the ground rather than try to be original, satirical or interesting. Rather like Hitler (703), Jesus (702) and OJ Simpson (709), the jokes about the Next Generation cast could have been about anyone. The pettiness of McDonalds orders and bowling alley behaviour are ok as jokes. But there’s nothing specific about Star Trek connected with them. They are just plain old jokes which I can well imagine the writers giving the Griffin family to say in a different episode. There’s something generic and unambitious about it all.
It’s worth pointing out that if you never watched Star Trek: The Next Generation then this was probably pretty dull for you.
Best Joke: Family Guy is seriously consistent when it comes to abusing Meg. She has become a pariah on the show, constantly made fun of, ignored or denigrated. Even in the show’s Star Wars parody (601) she received the tiniest of cameos as a monster. And on some level I really admire this bizarre speech from Peter to the camera just before a commercial break: “That’s right folks it’s going to be a Meg episode. Stick around for the fun. (Pulls out a remote control) There’s the clicker. No one’d blame you.”
The Bottom Line: This is pretty good. If you are looking for twenty minutes of self referential light comedy then this is it. It could try to be wittier and more interesting. But I’m just happy it’s not offensive or sickening. And for the record I have no idea why Rob Lowe and Adam West were sleeping in the same room.
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