Peter searches for the most elusive prize of all.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Like The Simpsons, Family Guy kicked off its new season with a themed episode tonight. Surprisingly, of the two it was Family Guy that emerged the clear winner. This series tends to have a solid track record whenever it gets unusually meta, and "Emmy-Winning Episode" was no exception.
Basically, this episode was all about the Family Guy cast acknowledging the lowbrow nature of their show and striving to deliver something actually worthy of an Emmy award for a change. But Family Guy is a series where 90% of the humor is derived from jokes that boil down to "Hey, remember this thing?". So naturally, the Griffin family had no other choice but to parody all those shows that seem to reliably rake in the Emmys year after year. So while this episode was as dominated by referential humor as ever, the self-aware quality definitely helped make it that much more palatable.
One thing that really worked in this episode's favor was the decision to combine these TV parodies into a handful of lengthy vignettes rather than tackling each show one by one. Rather than delivering one nonstop stream of cutaway jokes, "Emmy-Winning Episode" instead focused on creating some pretty clever TV mash-ups. And because this episode was predicated on the idea of spoofing popular TV programs already, there wasn't much room for cutaway jokes at all. It;s really no coincidence that this series tends to be at its best when it specifically downplays the cutaways. Though I will say that the few we did get here were actually pretty amusing. The opening "Vedder Call Saul" spoof was dumb but hilariously accurate, and that Downton Abbey parody wasn't bad, either.
Things started off strong with a frenetic mash-up of Modern Family, Transparent and The Big Bang Theory. The fact that Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen stopped by to lend their voices was a welcome touch, though neither could compare to Ty Burrell's epic, live-action chicken fight. And while Family Guy is hardly a show to be casting any stones, I did appreciate the gentle jabs it took at Transparent and its often inflated sense of self-importance. The Cheers gag was another great moment, especially with Quagmire's overreaction to discovering another person in his life is undergoing sex reassignment surgery.
The episode really hits its stride in the middle segment, as the attention turned from spoofing comedies to dramas. Here we got an extended Breaking Bad parody with dashes of The Wire and Homeland thrown in for good measure. The intentionally convoluted chronology of this segment definitely added to the overall effect. Plus, it was great fun seeing Cleveland have a go at playing Omar Little ("Hold up, are you wearing a 'The Wire'?"). All of these disparate elements weaved together well enough that this segment worked even ignoring the self-aware element.
Sidebar - this episode also apparently marks the final appearance by Mayor West, given the recent passing of Adam West. His presence on this series (as well as in general) will be sorely missed. But at least Mayor West went out on a high note thanks to his amusing exchange with Cleveland.
Unfortunately, the premise started to fray at the edges by the time the third and final segment rolled around. By this point the writers did start switching to shorter, more isolated gags, and the results just weren't as strong as what came before. The ending in particular proved pretty underwhelming. It's all fine and well to double down on the meta approach, but pointing out that your ending is weak and unambitious doesn't actually excuse it from being weak and unambitious. As much as this episode proved to be a pleasant and clever way to kick off the new season, it definitely failed to stick the landing. Though Burrell's live-action cameo definitely helped soften that blow.
The Verdict
It's too bad "Emmy-Winning Episode" lost so much steam in the final stretch, because it could easily have clocked in as one of the show's best episodes in years (if not ever). Despite the lackluster finish, the self-aware premise and the relative lack of cutaway jokes made for a very enjoyable start to the new season. Maybe the show would do well to adopt that approach more regularly.
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