Family Guy: Season 10, Episode 2Seahorse Seashell Party (2 Oct. 2011)As a hurricane hits Quahog, Brian gets high on psychedelic mushrooms and cuts his ear off, and Meg finally summons up the courage to confront the family. |
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It's a testament to how utterly staid and predictable Family Guy has become that a SuperJail-esque scene of random psychedelic fear has been one of the most refreshing scenes in years, made with excellent animation and a complete lack of scripting, aside from the intercessions of the mandatory "Stewie is Gay" and "Meg is Butt-Monkey" scenes every episode has to have now. Sure, it doesn't really even match up with LSD's effects, let alone shrooms, but hey, it's a silly cartoon and a great change in pace. The van Gogh reference was especially great, but frankly could have been played much more disturbing than it was.
And yet, the entire second half of the episode was nothing more than a dull 10-minute speech by Meg, fake tears by Lois's voice actress; a total author on board, most likely by someone who's written a few special Mary Sue fanfics involving her over the years. It was as out of place as Gunsmoke in West Hollywood - no jokes, no changeups, they just ran flat out of ideas, just endless vilifying followed by an hokey resolution; at the very least they could have tied into the Stewie time travel episode, with Meg coming out as "Ron", which would have been a nice bone to longtime viewers. Ending with a Very Special Episode gag only works if you haven't already tuned the audience right out.
What killed it for me was the crocodile tears Lois cried; the voice acting was so bad I expected her to start laughing any second, but the speeches kept going. Obviously everyone involved knew the script burned with stupid and phoned in the worst performances in years, yet the tone deaf producers still put it on the air. Wonderful.