Geek TV Review: Family Guy Season 11 Premiere

Why would a family eat a human before a dog? Certainly this question raises many more, some ethical, some logical. This is the conundrum that the Griffin family confronts in the season premiere of Family Guy. In an attempt to outdo the family of one of Lois’ old boyfriends, the Griffins decide to climb Mt. Everest. They are tired of being pushed around and treated like crap. They end up racing the Fishmans to the top of Mt. Everest in an effort to one up the condescending family. During their trek to the top, the Griffins encounter numerous obstacles that hamper their ascent. Peter seemingly falls into a cavern to his death, only to have his fall cushioned by the stack of dead bodies at the bottom. They end up making it to the top, only to find that the Fishmans have already been up there for over an hour. After the Fishmans rub their victory into the faces of the Griffins, they begin their descent back to base camp. However, prior to their descent, Brian notices a bad storm coming their way. As they try to book it down the mountain, they begin to feel the effects of the cold, and struggle with hunger due to Peter packing ESPN’S Jock Jams instead of the trail mix the Lois requested. On the way down, they come across the frozen corpse of young Ben Fishman, who had been separated from his family and froze to death. After a brief debate, they decide to eat Ben to live. After this, they make it back to base camp safely. Upon arrival, Lois feels bad that the Fishman family is still stuck in the storm, so she persuades the Griffins to go back and rescue them.

This episode was a little bit dull, lacking the all around sharpness of humor that Family Guy is usually good for. There were many jokes and cut-aways that simply fell flat, and it seemed like the writers just phoned this episode in. However, there were instances that gave me a flicker of hope that future episodes will be much better. Overall, for a season premiere, this episode was kind of a dud. I expected Family Guy to open up a lot stronger than this. So why would a family eat a human before a dog? Because that dog is Brian.