FOX in America refused to air this episode of Family Guy due to it's potentially offensive content dealing with abortion, which of course will peak many Family Guy fans interests in how offensive this episode actually is. Really, it's no more offensive than any other Family Guy episode, but it's also really not very funny. It's almost like the Family Guy formula for each episode is growing stale, because along with many episodes this season, this one was very mediocre.
Lois runs into a female ex-lover from her crazy younger days and she asks for a favor, which Peter assumes means a threesome. They soon learn that she wants Lois to be a surrogate mother for her, and Lois says she will. After her friend dies in a car crash, Lois wants an abortion, but Peter is swayed by an anti-abortion video and prohibits it. Arguments ensue.
Obviously abortion is a touchy subject, and Family Guy doesn't do anything particularly offensive with it. In fact, the abortion aspect of the show is a very short portion, and actually makes for a very short and unsatisfying third act. In fact, this episode seems like it takes far too long to take off, and when it does, it climaxes with a short conversation, and a speech at the end. The surrogate pregnancy doesn't come in fast enough, and really this episode just felt uneven in the time spent on each act. The whole Peter wanting an orgy thing went on way too long and wasn't very funny. And maybe some will enjoy the lengthy Road runner parody, but it was really quite stupid.
The cut aways aren't all completely random, but none were very funny. We get to see Lois pregnant with Stewie and crazy, a retarded cat racing (The worst of the gags), Meg having alone time with herself, Peter feeding people in his carpet, and Meg dating the Count from Sesame Street (Best cut-away). The gay poltergeist joke in the episode is not a cut away, but it really wasn't funny at all either.
Positives in the episode are few. The anti-abortion video was mildly amusing and purposely one sided and ridiculous. The episode wasn't very funny, but it wasn't mostly just awful. It just kind of plodded along with a straight faced reaction. It just was another middle of the road season 8 Family Guy episode. Hopefully season 9 is better!
My rating: ** out of ****. 30 mins.
Lois runs into a female ex-lover from her crazy younger days and she asks for a favor, which Peter assumes means a threesome. They soon learn that she wants Lois to be a surrogate mother for her, and Lois says she will. After her friend dies in a car crash, Lois wants an abortion, but Peter is swayed by an anti-abortion video and prohibits it. Arguments ensue.
Obviously abortion is a touchy subject, and Family Guy doesn't do anything particularly offensive with it. In fact, the abortion aspect of the show is a very short portion, and actually makes for a very short and unsatisfying third act. In fact, this episode seems like it takes far too long to take off, and when it does, it climaxes with a short conversation, and a speech at the end. The surrogate pregnancy doesn't come in fast enough, and really this episode just felt uneven in the time spent on each act. The whole Peter wanting an orgy thing went on way too long and wasn't very funny. And maybe some will enjoy the lengthy Road runner parody, but it was really quite stupid.
The cut aways aren't all completely random, but none were very funny. We get to see Lois pregnant with Stewie and crazy, a retarded cat racing (The worst of the gags), Meg having alone time with herself, Peter feeding people in his carpet, and Meg dating the Count from Sesame Street (Best cut-away). The gay poltergeist joke in the episode is not a cut away, but it really wasn't funny at all either.
Positives in the episode are few. The anti-abortion video was mildly amusing and purposely one sided and ridiculous. The episode wasn't very funny, but it wasn't mostly just awful. It just kind of plodded along with a straight faced reaction. It just was another middle of the road season 8 Family Guy episode. Hopefully season 9 is better!
My rating: ** out of ****. 30 mins.