Review: Family Guy “HBO-NO”

Overview

This week’s episode of Family Guy parodies three classic HBO series including Succession, Game of Thrones, and Big Little Lies. In all three bits, the characters of Quahog depict that of the aforementioned series in yet another attempt to get some sort of Emmy recognition.

Our Take

Typically I can’t stand when Family Guy does the “three parodies” in one episode tropes that they seem to do every season and instead miss the “Road To” bits. This go-round the parodies of Game of Thrones and Succession weren’t all that great which is surprising because the show literally did a Succession joke a few weeks ago featuring Sarah Snook and even the actress seemed to enjoy it. That said, I would think Game of Thrones would’ve earned enough respect from the producers of Family Guy to potentially go down the Star Wars/ Blue Harvest route, but I suppose this is going to be the best we’re gonna get.

By far the funniest of the three parodies was Big Little Lies. Now, I haven’t seen any of the HBO series in question, but at least with the Big Little Lies portion there were enough jokes where I didn’t feel the need to really understand the limited series at all. The Wonder Years bit was well-done, and I loved that we got to meet Chris’ kid, which I’m not expecting to be canon, but wish that it was. For fans of The Cleveland Show, we DID get a Rallo appearance, but there’s been no mention of whether or not Arif Zahir will take on the role in Mike Henry’s stead, or if someone else entirely is going to. But, Donna Tubbs (Sanaa Lathan) cameo’d in one of the funnier bits in the entire episode featuring her riding around on Dino from The Flintstones. 

Other than that, if you wanted to skip this week’s episode of Family Guy entirely, I wouldn’t fault you. This show has shown flashes of growth throughout the season, but this week’s episode rehashes the same ol’ same ol’ that was never very good in the first place. Maybe Family Guy should do a bit next season where it parodies Family Guy.