The show: Family Guy
The episode: "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven"
What happened: The Griffins go to a Star Trek convention in Rhode Island. A flashback shows Peter at a previous convention asking Shatner about the episode in which he killed his wife (by drowning her in a pool in 1999).
Why it makes no sense: While it's true that Peter has trouble distinguishing reality from television (as has been abundantly shown throughout the series), he couldn't possibly ask William Shatner about his wife who died in 1999, or about anything else, because in the Family Guy universe, William Shatner himself died in 1999 when Meg accidentally ran him over with the Griffin family car. That episode, "I Never Met The Dead Man," has to take place prior to 2000 (before "Holy Crap"). This episode has to take place after 2000. The flashback could be prior to 2000, but after being asked such a tacky, thoughtless question at a convention, do you really think William Shatner would care to hang out with Peter as he does in "I Never Met The Dead Man"?
There's also the small matter of where exactly in Rhode Island the current Star Trek convention takes place at. The establishing shots emphasize that it's in Providence, but Brian later says that it's in Quahog. But since the show has been inconsistent as to the exact location of the fictional town in Rhode Island, we're just gonna have to let this one go.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
If he did it
The show: Family Guy
The episode: "The Juice is Loose," 6ACX13, first aired last night on FOX.
What happened: Peter finds a winning raffle ticket from 1989 which entitles him to play golf with a celebrity, namely O. J. Simpson. Peter fully intends to claim his prize now. He seems oblivious to the 1995 media circus surrounding Simpson's trial on the charges that he murdered Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman (given that this is Peter we're talking about, I'm not surprised he'd forget something like this). Peter at first refuses to believe anything bad about Simpson, but eventually he gives in to this attitude and then acts as if he can't break off the meeting. Joe hatches a plan to wire Peter so as to get O. J. to confess to the murders so as to send him to jail. At the golf course, after O. J. discovers the wire, Peter grows sympathetic to O. J.'s loneliness and invites him to his house. Peter even decides to throw a party for O. J., expecting a large turnout. The turnout materializes as a lynch mob. O. J. gives a corny speech and defuses the townspeople's anger. But then he randomly stabs some woman in the crowd and runs off. Peter is now fully convinced that O. J. did kill Ron and Nicole.
Why it doesn't quite make sense: First of all, who honors a winning ticket from twenty years ago? If you won $2 on the lottery and didn't cash it back then, don't bother doing so now. And don't even think about asking for compounded interest on the money. But I suppose the writers couldn't think of a more plausible way to contrive Peter meeting O. J. Simpson.
Family Guy had already said a lot about O. J. prior to this episode, some of it contradictory. To wit,
1. In a flashback, Peter runs into a house, kills two people, and exits with a bloody knife. O. J. then enters and declares his disappointment that he's not going to get the chance to be an usher at the Brown-Goldman wedding. I would think even Peter would remember killing two people so deliberately.
2. In another flashback, a drunk Stewie suggests to O. J. that he shouldn't tolerate Nicole's unfaithfulness. O. J. then leaves the bar, seemingly to act on Stewie's advice. It then appears unlikely that O. J. would be going to Nicole's house in order to ask Ron to be an usher at the wedding. Of course Stewie hadn't even been born at the time: he couldn't have been born any earlier than 1997 (and that's with some serious stretches).
Back to this episode: why does Joe think a confession can put O. J. away? It isn't one bit surprising that Peter would think this would work, but Joe's a cop and he should know something about what makes a confession admissible in court, not to mention something about the rules of double jeopardy. Joe shouldn't have forgotten that O. J. Simpson was actually found not guilty of the 1995 murders. It would take some other crime to put Simpson away.
It takes some of the fun out of nitpicking when the show has become so lame. This episode reminds me of the recent "I Dream of Jesus," in which Jesus visited the Griffins. How is it possible that Family Guy is preachier and more heavyhanded than Veggietales and Bugtime Adventures combined? Are we supposed to take away from this episode both the lesson that we didn't witness the murder and the contradictory lesson that we must be dead sure that O. J. killed Ron and Nicole?
The episode: "The Juice is Loose," 6ACX13, first aired last night on FOX.
What happened: Peter finds a winning raffle ticket from 1989 which entitles him to play golf with a celebrity, namely O. J. Simpson. Peter fully intends to claim his prize now. He seems oblivious to the 1995 media circus surrounding Simpson's trial on the charges that he murdered Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman (given that this is Peter we're talking about, I'm not surprised he'd forget something like this). Peter at first refuses to believe anything bad about Simpson, but eventually he gives in to this attitude and then acts as if he can't break off the meeting. Joe hatches a plan to wire Peter so as to get O. J. to confess to the murders so as to send him to jail. At the golf course, after O. J. discovers the wire, Peter grows sympathetic to O. J.'s loneliness and invites him to his house. Peter even decides to throw a party for O. J., expecting a large turnout. The turnout materializes as a lynch mob. O. J. gives a corny speech and defuses the townspeople's anger. But then he randomly stabs some woman in the crowd and runs off. Peter is now fully convinced that O. J. did kill Ron and Nicole.
Why it doesn't quite make sense: First of all, who honors a winning ticket from twenty years ago? If you won $2 on the lottery and didn't cash it back then, don't bother doing so now. And don't even think about asking for compounded interest on the money. But I suppose the writers couldn't think of a more plausible way to contrive Peter meeting O. J. Simpson.
Family Guy had already said a lot about O. J. prior to this episode, some of it contradictory. To wit,
1. In a flashback, Peter runs into a house, kills two people, and exits with a bloody knife. O. J. then enters and declares his disappointment that he's not going to get the chance to be an usher at the Brown-Goldman wedding. I would think even Peter would remember killing two people so deliberately.
2. In another flashback, a drunk Stewie suggests to O. J. that he shouldn't tolerate Nicole's unfaithfulness. O. J. then leaves the bar, seemingly to act on Stewie's advice. It then appears unlikely that O. J. would be going to Nicole's house in order to ask Ron to be an usher at the wedding. Of course Stewie hadn't even been born at the time: he couldn't have been born any earlier than 1997 (and that's with some serious stretches).
Back to this episode: why does Joe think a confession can put O. J. away? It isn't one bit surprising that Peter would think this would work, but Joe's a cop and he should know something about what makes a confession admissible in court, not to mention something about the rules of double jeopardy. Joe shouldn't have forgotten that O. J. Simpson was actually found not guilty of the 1995 murders. It would take some other crime to put Simpson away.
It takes some of the fun out of nitpicking when the show has become so lame. This episode reminds me of the recent "I Dream of Jesus," in which Jesus visited the Griffins. How is it possible that Family Guy is preachier and more heavyhanded than Veggietales and Bugtime Adventures combined? Are we supposed to take away from this episode both the lesson that we didn't witness the murder and the contradictory lesson that we must be dead sure that O. J. killed Ron and Nicole?
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