Quotable:

"In cooking, as in all the arts, simplicity is a sign of perfection." - Curnonsky

Friday, January 11, 2008

Family Guy: Padre de Familia

After starting his own anti-immigration group, Peter is determined to be a Mexican immigrant and forced to work as a day-laborer when he can't prove his American citizenship.I have to say that this episode was a dud. Something seemed wrong with the pacing (this is what happens when you get scab editors). For example, the Mary Poppins bit felt like it went on for too long. On the plus side, there was another Superman reference with Superman V: The Broken Condom (which does seem like a more logical reason that he left for Krypton when Lois Lane got pregnant. But I digress...).

I did like the beginning of the episode. I thought the uninjured veterans and future veterans were hilarious. But somehow I kept thinking that such fare is a risky thing to broadcast in the more conservative and pro-America Midwest. On the other hand, the people from the Midwest who watch the show probably thought it was funny as well.

I did wonder about the issue of marrying Lois for citizenship before it was brought up in the episode. I should have realized that Peter wouldn't remember anything about Lois. Why didn't they ask her maiden name? He certain says "Mister Pewterschmidt" enough times.

The issue I have with this episode and Family Guy in general is that the asides that are the lifeblood of the show's humor seem to have more misses than hits. Rewrites probably could have saved some of it. In this case of this episode, while the entire premise of our treatment of immigrants was a good one, the execution seemed flat.

Favorite lines: "Anybody wanna see my purple heart?" "You look like the Statue of Liberty's pimp." "Who discovered America? Dick York. No, wait. Dick Sargent."

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