Family Guy – Season 21 Episode 1 “Oscars Guy” Recap & Review

Oscars Guy

Episode 1 of Family Guy season 21 starts with Peter spinning the wheel of luck with names of Oscar-winning movies written on them. Yes, the guesses are right, the Griffin family – along with their neighbours – are doing parodies of famous Oscar-winning movies. The first one is The Silence of the Lambs.

Lois, as Clarice, heads off to talk to Stewie (Hannibal Lecter) in his cell, and as usual, the little troublesome baby is in a mood of his own. Stewie tells her he would talk to her only if she can arrange for Mario Lopez to record his voicemail message. Weird Stewie making weird requests! Lois comes back with the recorded message, but Stewie isn’t pleased as he argues the voice should have been recorded by Lopez as Slater. Meanwhile, Chris (Buffalo Bill) has abducted Meg (Catherine Martin). The abduction is more like a negotiation with a shopkeeper.

Stewie escapes from the facility – in a way that can neither be understood nor be explained. Lois stops at Chris’ place and kills him – but not before doing a little disco dance.

Lois is awarded the honour of Lady FBI with an accompanying framed certificate with a heart and flowers printed on it. She gets a teasing call from escaped Stewie who tells her he is having an old man for dinner and hangs up with some not-suitable-for-babies slurs.

Next up is American Beauty. It starts with Peter (Lecter) narrating the situation, and he does the narration as bizarrely as we have come to expect from him. He mentions when he signed up for American Beauty, he thought it was going to be something like American Pie. Stewie and Brian (Jim and Jim), as a homosexual couple, introduce themselves to Peter’s family. Chris (Ricky) and Meg (Jane) are getting along. He tells her he is considering sending his plastic bag video to America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Peter starts having sexual feelings for Angela, Meg’s school friend. Peter gets the sack from his job and starts working in a fast food restaurant. Lois (Carolyn Burnham) and Quagmire (Buddy Kane) go to Peter’s drive-through, and Peter gets to know about Lois’ affair with Quagmire. He gives her more ketchup though. The next scene shows Peter doing bicep curls with tiny pink dumbbells. He also starts purchasing illegal drugs from Chris. Joe (Frank) arrives to meet Peter and attempts to kiss him.

Gently rebuffing Joe, Peter tells him he is straight. Peter also apologizes for exercising with pink dumbbells and for a weird interaction with Chris that might have sent wrong signals about his sexuality.

Angela tells Peter she would like to have sex with him, and reveals she is a virgin. To which Peter responds by saying, “Not a deal-breaker”. Before Peter and Angela can do anything, Chris Hansen pops up from out of nowhere and gives his introduction. Not sure about what to do next, Peter requests to be shot. The next moment, he is shot dead by Joe.

The last parody starts with a feather and a plastic bag exchanging greetings. Peter, in the role of Forrest Gump, takes people through his story. In a mocking manner, he tells an old man that he learned to run in front of the meanest lifeguard in Alabama. With his marvelous running skills, he made it into the college football team – where tacklers were required to miss him by diving a couple of feet behind him.

Peter carries on to talk about the incidents that took place during his time as a soldier in Vietnam. In a fierce confrontation with enemies, Joe (Lieutenant Dan) loses both his legs (we knew it was going to happen sooner or later). When Joe asks Peter to leave him at the battleground and save his life, Peter dumps Joe in a muddy puddle and runs away.

Back at home, Peter delivers a speech during a protest – revealing the most important thing he discovered during his time in Vietnam was the red stuff in most Vietnamese cuisines that he thinks is neither ketchup nor hot sauce. He has sex with Lois (Jenny) after he got wealthy. Then he goes on a run again – which Peter compares with the writing of a 7-year-old who just eats candies. Peter goes back to Lois – who tells him she has an illness. The name of which she whispers into his ears. She tells Peter that he is the father of her son, Stewie – who isn’t too happy because he has got only one line to deliver after 6 hours of makeup.

Lois abruptly dies, and Peter mocks the feather bit of the movie to close the curtains.

The Episode Review

In a sentence, the premiere episode of Family Guy season 21 is… fine – it’s nothing to go bananas over and not a complete downer either. However, the trouble is that the episode is only going to make sense to those who have watched the movies they parody. If you haven’t watched these movies, you are surely going to have a problem understanding the angle of the episode, and you may even go 23 minutes without a single laugh.

The episode is occasionally funny though – without much to offer. Rest assured though, Stewie and Peter are great to watch as always. The episode appears to be an effort to repeat the formula (parodies) that has proved to be successful in the past. It’s only worthy of a shot if you have watched these three movies: Forrest Gump, American Beauty, and The Silence of the Lambs. If not, you can probably skip this one and wait for the second episode.