Review: Family Guy “Single White Dad”

Cutaways

Orchid

Our Take

Back-to-back weeks of Artie Johann-written episodes, and actually this week’s was the best he’s written all year in my opinion.

“Single White Dad”, for me, is a love letter to comedy films about dads featured in classic movies like Ms. Doubtfire, Look Who’s Talking, and the like where the dad is really doing his best at a job that he may not be equipped for, and as a result, features a climax where all of his problems reach an apex that becomes the comeuppance for the protagonist. While we’ve seen episodes in the past featuring Peter having to watch the kids while Lois is away, largely they were more in line with focusing on Peter’s stupidity and lack of caring. One can point to episodes like “Brian Griffin’s House of Payne” and “Foreign Affairs” as examples of this to varying degrees, but I think this episode more-or-less pulls on the sweetness of Peter’s personality and it works really well here.

The episode is FILLED with laugh-out-loud humor, especially during the climax when Peter is trying to hide a potential fling with “Becky” from Lois. I mentioned the classic films before where guys think they have things all figured out until it devolves at the end, Family Guy largely sticks this landing, but cliched the ending just a tad that we’ve seen a number of times from the show in the countless episodes where Peter is able to just sweet talk his way out of things with Lois rather quickly. I personally would have liked to have seen a bit more back-and-forth with Becky and Lois, and I thoroughly enjoyed “TJ”, yet another baby to add to the gaggle of babies this show showcases opposite of Stewie that we may never see again, and would have liked to have seen more of him. Peter was the star, and Seth MacFarlane continues to show his mastery of the character.

In any event, a stronger episode of Family Guy, especially whence compared to the rest of the season thus far.