Review: Family Guy “Jersey Bore”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Peter is headed on a business trip with Preston in the rundown casino city of Atlantic City. Fortunately for Peter, his pals hitch a ride but have to hide so as to not get caught by Preston who embarks on the trip in an attempt to save face with a local beer distributor. Eventually, Preston learns of Peter bringing his friends to Atlantic City and is introduced to the taste of Pawtucket Patriot Ale for the first time leading to the crew getting smashed and forgetting where they put Preston. Because Preston is gone, Peter has to do the presentation that Preston put together. While at first the presentation seems to be a lost cause, Peter pulls another fully-prepared presentation out of his ass and wins over the meeting.

Meanwhile, Chris wants to join the school’s production of Romeo and Juliet to impress a girl named Heather and teams up with Stewie to prepare for the role of “Romeo”. As luck would have it, Principal Shepherd steps down as the director of the play and Stewie takes over but his bossy style forces Heather to step down in the role of “Juliet”. On the night of the performance, we learn that Stewie becomes the new Juliet and the play is a hit with the crowd.

Cutaways

Atlantic City commercial, Michaelangelo,  Sebastian Maniscalco

Our Take

For a season finale, I think this week’s “Jersey Bore” could’ve been a bit more advantageous, but it doesn’t mean we got a terrible outing either. In what could’ve been a more brutal “Road to” episode, Peter’s time in Atlantic City is very rushed and doesn’t feature a whole lot of time in getting to know the locale. As a native of the Jersey Shore, I thought Peter and the gang going to the shore was going to be like a Christmas spectacle of roasted one-liners, instead, we got a few really good ones that made for more background noise than anything else. I actually love Peter Macon’s “Preston”, one of the really good recent finds in the last season or two, okay maybe a quick back seat to the wild and crazy antics that was “Clark”, and would’ve appreciated spending more time with him and seeing how Peter and the gang’s silliness could clash with his more serious undertones.

Chris and Stewie’s bit we’ve seen a thousand times before, I think every animated series ever, including Family Guy, has done some sort of stage routine. The cuteness of Stewie wearing dresses has long been overdone and with not a lot of cutaway gags this week, the “B” plot just didn’t have enough to muster up any good jokes. The Atlantic City plot could’ve won the entire weekend if it wanted to, but feels like a wasted opportunity. The depiction of the setting was 100% accurate, but with the shortness of time, not a lot of space was made available to truly dig in.

See ya next season!