Peter has yet another mid-life crisis.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Family Guy began its sixteenth season on solid ground, using "Emmy-Winning Episode" to spoof the entire TV landscape in true self-aware fashion. Sadly, this season didn't end on anywhere near that level. "Are You There God? It's Me, Peter" took a potentially cool premise and used to recycle one of the oldest plots in the animated sitcom playbook.
This episode started out well enough, with Peter becoming so lazy and slovenly that his body literally fused to the couch. That paved the way for a handful of gross but amusing gags. Even the cutaway jokes in this segment were surprisingly decent, including Oliver Platt's motivational video and the high school choir's terrible rendition of "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)". It's actually a little surprising the writers didn't just stick with the couch fusion bit as the main storyline for this episode. Though granted, it did start to wear out its welcome by the end. The extended callback to the couch scene from "Blue Harvest" didn't help. That brand of humor captures the show at its worst - overly drawn-out and interested only in making references to other things.
At some point this episode finally worked its way around to the point, with Peter caught between life and death and hanging out with god in an elevator. I was intrigued by the possibilities here. The locked room premise worked so well in 2010's "Brian & Stewie," in part because the writers forced themselves to avoid cutaways and actually tell a character-driven story. There's a lot of potential in the idea of Peter stuck in a confined space with nothing to do but ask stupid questions of his creator. That format worked pretty well for a few minutes, but inevitably it wasn't long before the episode got distracted and moved in a different direction.
And that's where the real frustration comes in. Whatever potential this episode might have had, in the end it settled for regurgitating a plot that's been used far too many times on Family Guy, The Simpsons and other shows of this sort. How often have we seen the self-centered husband and father scrambling for one last chance to prove they love their family? To make matters worse, the similarities between this plot and that of 2001's "Death Lives" were impossible to ignore. Once again, you had Peter dealing with a near-death experience and relying on a supernatural entity to help him make things right with Lois. Given the series' increasing fondness for self-aware humor, it's surprising that the writers didn't at least try to poke fun at these similarities and acknowledge that Peter's life is one giant, flat circle.
The one real difference compared to "Death Lives" is that this episode offered a much more cynical view of Peter and Lois' relationship. In the early seasons, there was always the sense that Peter genuinely cared about his family, even if he's a boorish ass 90% of the time. These days, not so much. With so much humor directed at Lois' seething hatred of her husband and Peter's indifference towards his whole family, there was little reason to believe anyone even cared about or wanted a reconciliation. Which made Peter's last-minute epiphany about loving his family seem all the more forced and predictable. Again, if you're going to recycle such a well-worn trope, at least find a new angle. Embrace that cynicism.
Balancing out Peter's storyline this week was another in a long line of Brian/Stewie road trip adventures. This is another case where the writers probably could have stretched the premise out into a full-length "Road to Boca Raton" episode, but I'm glad they didn't. There clearly wasn't much meat on these bones. Much of this subplot was wasted on the pointless Pitbull cameo and the usual array of Jewish stereotype jokes that crop up whenever Mort is involved.
The Verdict
Family Guy ended its newest season by showcasing so many of the series' familiar flaws. As usual, there were too many recycled plot points and unnecessary cutaway gags. That's all the more frustrating this time around because this episode shows signs that it could have been something more. Given a different approach, Peter's meeting with God could have paved the way for a season finale as strong as the season premiere.
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