I thought this was a fantastic ep, easily the best since About A Girl. Consistently engaging, proper character writing, a lot of great laughs (that worked in context, were character-appropriate and didn't feel shoehorned-in) plus lots of heart (genuinely earned emotion, not maudlin sentimentality), and Penny Johnson got to act - a lot. Wisely, for the second week in a row, Ed and Gordon's roles were minimized (and Gordon's sole contribution was funny while still being in character). I don't normally enjoy Brannon Braga or Andre Bormanis as writers, but their competence showed here - both the character dynamics and the humor flowed more naturally and were better-grounded than in the MacFarlane-penned episodes, which tend to be glibber and less solid, with the jokes less organic and more left-field and throwaway.
With an episode like this, when you know they're going to be rescued and everyone's going to be OK again by the end, the plot mechanics aren't the point - I had no objection to there being a shuttle crash (even if yeah, it did look too violent to have been survivable, and the cause was a little dumb). The point is the dialogue and character dynamics, and for me, those totally worked this episode - Isaac and Finn were well-written and well-performed, I very much echo Hank's comments above. Yeah, the kids were kinda annoying at the start but that was the point, and I agree with the other commenters that the parenting dynamics did feel refreshingly blunt and true-to-life. The cannibal-mutant people on the planet were the least developed part of the episode; they could have been handled better, but also worse (ie. by turning the show into a full-on zombie episode), so I'm not complaining too much. Similarly, the spatial rift wasn't developed or explored, but it was just a means to an end and I'm fine with that.
If season 2 has fewer MacFarlane-penned episodes, and takes its characters and settings as seriously as this episode does, the show can triumph and really develop. I'd like that to happen. Because I really enjoyed Penny and Mark's performances in this episode, and the material they were given to work with was solid and worthy of them. The kids too did a reasonable job and the script kept hitting the right notes - holding back when prudent, and earning its more moving and emotionally honest moments.
With an episode like this, when you know they're going to be rescued and everyone's going to be OK again by the end, the plot mechanics aren't the point - I had no objection to there being a shuttle crash (even if yeah, it did look too violent to have been survivable, and the cause was a little dumb). The point is the dialogue and character dynamics, and for me, those totally worked this episode - Isaac and Finn were well-written and well-performed, I very much echo Hank's comments above. Yeah, the kids were kinda annoying at the start but that was the point, and I agree with the other commenters that the parenting dynamics did feel refreshingly blunt and true-to-life. The cannibal-mutant people on the planet were the least developed part of the episode; they could have been handled better, but also worse (ie. by turning the show into a full-on zombie episode), so I'm not complaining too much. Similarly, the spatial rift wasn't developed or explored, but it was just a means to an end and I'm fine with that.
If season 2 has fewer MacFarlane-penned episodes, and takes its characters and settings as seriously as this episode does, the show can triumph and really develop. I'd like that to happen. Because I really enjoyed Penny and Mark's performances in this episode, and the material they were given to work with was solid and worthy of them. The kids too did a reasonable job and the script kept hitting the right notes - holding back when prudent, and earning its more moving and emotionally honest moments.