Review: Family Guy “You Can’t Handle the Booth”

Who needs the fourth wall when the Griffins can add voice-over commentary to their own show?

Overview:

The Griffin family is adding their commentary to this new episode of Family Guy. The cast commentary includes behind the scenes stories and additional jokes.  The comments cover up a lot of what is happening in the episode including crucial plot points and setups for cutaway scenes.  But, there is a side plot introduced in which Lois discovers that Peter is paying alimony for his previous marriage to Sarah Paulson, who happens to drop by to add commentary to show as well.  Lois gets so frustrated she quits the show.

The episode’s plot includes Lois getting frustrated with the family and their addiction to their smartphones.  Or, maybe it is about Peter faking sick, so he doesn’t have to go to work but ends up stuck in the baluster slats.  Which then, somehow, ends up with the whole family stuck with their heads in the stairs.

Our Take:

You can say a lot of things about Family Guy, some good, maybe some not-so-good, but you have to give them credit for thinking outside of the box.  Every once in a while you will get an episode that is unlike anything you have seen before.  The animated program is one of the best for trying out entirely new formats like the memorable Star Wars trilogy, or last seasons “Send in Stewie, Please” which featured Stewie and a psychiatrist in one room for a commercial-less episode.  So, this particular episode which features the cast adding commentary on top of the show is just another addition to the long line of off-the-beaten-trail comedy Family Guy has to offer.

Unfortunately, unlike many of the other original episodes Family Guy has given us, this commentary style presented some issues.  In the sense that it was kind of confusing and hard to watch.  For some context, sometimes my 8-year-old son joins me in watching Fox’s Sunday night line-up, and about a third of the way into Family Guy he turned to me and says, “I’m so confused, I have no idea what is going on.”  And, to be fair, if I didn’t do a little homework before the episode aired, I probably would have been to.  The problem might also be that my son is from a generation that streams all of their content and he has probably never seen a directors commentary as most of this shows target audience would have.  But, at the same time, as a professional reviewer, I too was confused with how to explain the two separated plots happening at the exact same time.  Especially since one plot, you cannot hear, and the other you cannot see.  Either way, my son still has no idea what that was all about and my efforts at trying to explain it didn’t help that much.

However, despite the confusion, this was also probably one of the funniest episodes of the season.  Instead of focusing on heavy drama, both plots were open to exploring, and that means the whole episode is packed full of humour.  There are some great jokes that play on the commentary aspect that would only make sense with this style of the show.  And, cutting out the audio to the actual show made the outrageous and random things that happen all that more outrageous and random.  You also have to give the writers points for adding in a plot to the commentary instead of just making it twenty minutes of one-liners.

The fourth wall gets even more shattered when the characters are joined by the voice cast.  Seth MacFarlane, Mila Kunis, Seth Green, and Alex Bortstein all join in at playing themselves while reprising their roles in the show and commentary – which absolutely made my son even more confused.  Listening to MacFarlane explain to Brian (who has essentially an unchanged voice) about how he is a cartoon character while watching the cartoon is a whole complex juxtaposition.  Again, as a professional reviewer who does his homework, I honestly cannot tell you if this works on a casual level or not.  Though, I did love when MacFarlane explains how lucky they all are that they are cartoons, they can drink as much as they want, go to places most people will never see, and their lives are so much better than real-life, except for Meg, who played by Mila Kunis honestly got the shaft and her life is so much worse.  Even Seth MacFarlane playing himself has now ripped on Meg in the show.

This episode may take me a couple of days to wrap my head around.  I mean, I think I liked it?  But, did I?  Was it too confusing and convoluted for primetime television?  Or was it one of the most brilliant original ideas that an animated sitcom has ever attempted?  I don’t know.  But, based on the fact that I laughed more in this strange episode more than I have all season, I’m going to say that this was probably a success.  Though, I am glad it is just a one time deal.