Family Guy – Season 12 Episode 21 – “Chap Stewie”

Another time travel episode. There’s been an abundance of these lately and I do think it’s getting somewhat tiresome.

On this occasion Stewie decides that he’s fed up of the family shenanigans and travels back in time to prevent himself being born to them so that he’s born somewhere else. Bit of a leap but hey, it’s Family Guy. Changing the past sees him end up with a wealthy British family with all the expected clichés. Naturally he’s unhappy with this change eventually and decides to undo this all. Predictable plot all around.

As for the jokes, they’re fine but this is definitely among the weakest episodes of the season, the biggest laugh came from Stewie sneaking past some guards by having a cup of tea to deflect suspicion.

Overall, a decent time filler but ultimately disposable, after a strong run of episodes I hope this isn’t the one that bursts the bubble entirely.

Friends With Better Lives – Season 1 Episode 7 – “Cyrano de Trainer-Zac”

This episode has another binary plot structure. Plot 1 is Kate’s lack of sexual satisfaction with Will’s personal trainer and Plot 2 is Bobby and Andi’s search for a nanny. There’s a subplot surrounding Jules’ wedding dress.

I actually got a few laughs out of the first plot, Will coaching his trainer into satisfying Kate produces some awkwardly interesting laughs, the revelation that by proxy it was Will that was responsible for her satisfaction was actually really funny.

The secondary plot was pretty much every other nanny plot we’ve ever seen before. First Bobby hires an attractive female nanny and then Andi hires an attractive male nanny. Most of the story involves Andi trying to look her best for him and Bobby feeling inadequate next to him due to the fact that he’s tall and good looking. Tedious and boring all around.

As for the subplot surrounding the dress, I enjoyed that too. I really liked how Lowell tricked Jules into wearing a hideous dress handed down from her family and have it turn out to be a joke all along was pretty clever, generally I would expect Lowell to be genuine about something like this.

Overall, the show might actually be getting slightly better, the characters are still mostly insufferable but I’m finding myself laughing a little more. Not about to drop this show quite yet.

The 100 – Season 1 Episode 10 – “I Am Become Death”

The focus of this episode is those on the surface, we don’t return to The Ark at all so the story entirely follows the reactions of the kids who are dealing with the crashed dropship as well as escalation on the part of The Grounders.

Not much time is devoted to dealing with the crashed dropship and the implications of this due to the fact that a more immediate threat appears. Murphy returns to the camp after being captured and tortured by The Grounders -the fact that he’s missing his fingernails is particularly gruesome and makes me squeamish just thinking about it- which causes a divide in opinions over what to do with him. Bellamy’s natural reaction is to kill him because he broke the terms of his banishment but Clarke is more savvy and wants to keep him alive due to the information he might have about his captors. They are essentially at war and gaining intel on the enemy is essential.

Murphy didn’t simply get to escape, it was all part of a plan to infect the kids with some kind of biological virus which leaves them weak and unable to function. The virus itself is well used with some striking imagery associated with it. I really liked the first symptom being the subtle bleeding eyes instilling a feeling of dread for the horrible pain that is soon to follow. Puking up blood is another symptom which is both disgusting and brutal.

The virus plot is handled well with a great deal of urgency. Everyone is greatly unprepared for it and has no idea what to do about it. It seems apparent early on that it’s going to pick them off one by one and there’s nothing that can really be done about it. I’m also glad that Raven split up with Finn which can hopefully bring an end to this tired love triangle that has come into the show.

Another thing that was really well done was the destruction of the bridge. Raven’s heroic act as she was succumbing to the effects of the virus was a great moment and the importance of the bridge is also a nice choice. On the surface, it’s literally the quickest point of contact between the two sides but beneath that it’s the site of where this war officially began, the destruction of it could signify the end of hopes for diplomacy in this conflict. I also really liked that The Grounders seemed to only use the virus to make a point about how easily they can attack, making it non lethal sends a somewhat chilling message. The use of the Oppenheimer quote in the title and in the episode was a bit extreme I thought. Basically the quote was used to signify that the human race had changed following the invention of the atomic bomb and was a specific reference to humanity now being a destructive force capable of self annihilation, I don’t really think this applies here, if anything it applied when the human race was at war and caused the irradiated wasteland that they all now inhabit.

Overall, top form for this series. It was a great episode with so much in the way of characterisation as well as telling a high tension tale where all seemed lost. The decision to not fully deal with the destruction of the dropship and the deaths of all those people was a brave one that paid off really well. I’m sure the show will return to it soon but there was a sense of realism in having the immediate crisis take priority.