TV-Reviewed

This past week’s Family Guy outing was one of the best show’s I’ve ever seen, regardless of what series. I really enjoyed this beautifully-animated comedy, which in this case, centered around Mort, Stewie, and Brian as they time-travel to World War II-era Poland.

With the family gathered around the television for the Oscar ceremony, Mort goes upstairs to use the bathroom, but he finds it occupied by Meg. Sometimes, I can’t believe what goes on on this show, and the moment Glenn Quagmire pops out from behind the shower curtain with a camera in his hand as he films Meg on the toilet, well, that was a little disturbing, albeit very funny.

Unable to use the restroom, the anxious Mort wanders into Stewie’s room and unwittingly climbs into a time machine. When he doesn’t come back downstairs, Brian and Stewie chase after him via Stewie’s time machine.

This episode is loaded with racial, religious, and political humor, much more so than usual. Stewie’s joke about being molested by a priest was great, but I loved the political jokes pointed at President George W. Bush, Senator McCain, and Governor Palin. One joke was about why the U.S. didn’t invade Germany when they knew they were building weapons of mass destruction. Brian looked at the camera and said, “maybe because they don’t have any… OIL.” The other joke was more subtle, just a McCain/Palin election button being worn on a Nazi uniform.

All the controversial stuff aside, one of the things I enjoyed the most was the nod to Back to the Future, my all-time favorite movie. As if the time-traveling stuff weren’t enough, they showed Stewie escaping the grasp of the Nazis just like Marty McFly got away from Biff and the other high schoolers: a make-shift skateboard and a conveniently-placed manure truck.

This episode of Family Guy had an entirely new opening sequence which was very classy looking. Along with the hilarious moments and a nice tribute to Back to the Future, the show had a lot of very nice action sequences. The action was all animated very well and helped make everything stand out. The only part of this episode I didn’t really care for was the confrontation with Hitler. It just wasn’t all that funny or compelling.

Rating: 9.8