Episode 3 - Road to Germany
29 March 2012
Synopsis: Mort accidentally travels back in time to 1939 using Stewie’s time machine. Brian and Stewie follow him and find him in Warsaw as the Nazi’s invade. They escape to England but then discover they need uranium. The only place to get it is in Berlin so they head back their in a British bomber.
The Good: The only joke that has some kind of genuine historical satire is when they meet Winston Churchill and hope to see some of his legendary wit. He promptly calls a woman a fat bitch prompting Stewie to make the amusingly accurate claim “I guess history’s just whittled it down to the gems.” Even funnier is the British guy drinking tea and laughing at Winston’s remark. He is in his kitchen sitting down but because of the bombing his wall has been knocked down exposing his kitchen to the pavement outside where Churchill is. It’s a pretty funny image in both a literal and mocking the British formality way.
Flashback ratio (good-medium-bad): 1-1-0
The Bad: Jesus last week, Hitler this week. Yet despite these major celebrity appearances the show has nothing interesting to say about any of them. Ever since the show was uncancelled (season 4), it has lost any sense of purpose. The writers have nothing to say to us and nothing exemplifies this better than this episode.
First off we have to sit through endless references. I would call them parodies but they don’t parody anything. We get Back to the Future, Blues Brothers, Indiana Jones, Hawkmen and the Little Shop of Horrors all referenced for the sake of referencing them. They don’t add anything to the plot. They aren’t funny jokes because they are just recreated, there is no amusing take or twist on their established themes.
Then we get a bunch of mildly offensive jokes about Jewish people. It feels so cheap to hit this button over and over again. And there is no point to it other than being offensive. The writers acknowledge as much with their picture of Mort which Brian comments on when they find it in Berlin ”Look at the offensive way they draw Jewish people.” Ditto priests and molesting children and of course the McCain\Palin badge on the Nazi uniform. My problem with that is it is the same joke as having a Bush\Cheney sticker on the Death Star (see 601).
Best Joke: Stewie says he got bored with a European “See and Say”. All the animals make noises dissimilar to the traditional Anglo-Saxon ones. Until the machine claims the Elephant goes “Phwamp” and Stewie concedes “Oh, yeah kind of.” It’s a plausible and amusing idea and is followed up on later when they meet a European cow.
The Bottom Line: This is a show with no soul. It has nothing to say about anything. Except apparently it’s writers can’t get over movies they saw twenty years ago. Otherwise it’s recycled jokes, pointless references and offensive stereotypes.
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