Principal Shepherd asks Chris to help him out with the school announcements. But after he's done so, he forgets to turn off the speaker and starts making derogatory comments about his weight. When Lois hears about it, she becomes so angry that she gets him fired.
Shepherd has gotten an increasing amount of screentime over the last couple years, so it's only natural that he'd finally get his own episode. And for the most part, it works pretty well. His fat shaming remarks about Chris are funny, and him turning the Griffin home into a school provides additional amusement. The best part is when he forces Peter to eat in the "special breakfast unit" separate from his family. He then gets hit on the wrist several times by the crotchety woman Miss Judy. The bizarrely old-fashioned way he gets punished just for not doing well at an assignment is a solid punchline.
Peter acting like a macho full-of-himself teenager only to slowly reveal some odd and sometimes unusual repressed memories is highly amusing. If one of the three people you've seen naked is your aunt that's not only strange to brag about, but possibly traumatic even.
When Lois tells Shepherd to get out of their house he takes his home teaching one step further and gives them basement detention. We get some swipes at The Breakfast Club where Peter hilariously enough tries to create an unearned emotional connection between them. And I've got to say, Meg's random outburst of "Allahu Ackbar!" when everyone else says "Oh my God!" gave me a big laugh. It raises a lot of questions.
However, the real winner is actually the subplot. Stewie starts writing books which unbeknownst to Brian are all about him, depicted in the most embarrassing light possible. The name "Flunky" alone suggests that the central figure is a total doofus mutt. Angered, he decides to sue him. His line "I lawyered up, biiiiatch!" is priceless. Brian trying too hard to look cool always gets to me.
And what's neat about this story is that it's not the kind of mocking you'd expect. For those of us who love Brian dog jokes, there are plenty of them this time. When Stewie mentions "Treat Williams", Brian immediately gets excited for a treat. And when Christopher Walken comes up, he thinks he's gonna take him for a walk. I even liked Christopher Walken's following comment afterwards, maybe due to the humorous design.
Brian loses the case and is deeply disappointed in Stewie for making him look like an idiot in front of everyone. Stew argues however that as soon as he walks out of the courtroom and returns right afterwards he will forget all his anger and get giddy over seeing him again. And indeed he does. The sheer amount of joy that shines up on Brian's face and the sudden urge to impress him by spinning around is extremely charming.
But Brian doesn't let his guard down. He comes up with his own creative revenge by writing a book about Swishy, The Football Baby, whose design looks even better than Flunky's. Chris then tries to sell a book with the adventures of Flunky and Swishy, which gets turned down. Perhaps a reference to the fan suggestions of a Brian & Stewie spin-off? A good ending to a very enjoyable B-plot.
The cutaways are of mixed quality, but one made me laugh out loud. Joe tricking Peter by setting up a Facebook account posing as a hot girl and Chris doing the same thing to Joe sounds simple, but is made hysterical by all of them contently sipping their coffee.
Unfortunately, the main plot while not bad, doesn't work quite as well as I hoped for. Some of the jokes give me good chuckles, but it's also bland at times with several misses. Lois snarking at Meg for wanting to get out since it's not like she has a date to catch is a pretty annoying part. The cutaway where Peter imagines Chris as "The Biggest Boy" was awful.
Not to mention it ends abruptly. We never find out how the family gets out of the basement and Shepherd gets rehired with no explanation. Giving episodes no resolution has been an overarching problem in this season, even in the good ones. In most of the cases it only takes a minute to wrap the story up, so there's no excuse for this laziness.
Either way though, Principal Shepherd's Song is certainly a good enough end to season 18.
Shepherd has gotten an increasing amount of screentime over the last couple years, so it's only natural that he'd finally get his own episode. And for the most part, it works pretty well. His fat shaming remarks about Chris are funny, and him turning the Griffin home into a school provides additional amusement. The best part is when he forces Peter to eat in the "special breakfast unit" separate from his family. He then gets hit on the wrist several times by the crotchety woman Miss Judy. The bizarrely old-fashioned way he gets punished just for not doing well at an assignment is a solid punchline.
Peter acting like a macho full-of-himself teenager only to slowly reveal some odd and sometimes unusual repressed memories is highly amusing. If one of the three people you've seen naked is your aunt that's not only strange to brag about, but possibly traumatic even.
When Lois tells Shepherd to get out of their house he takes his home teaching one step further and gives them basement detention. We get some swipes at The Breakfast Club where Peter hilariously enough tries to create an unearned emotional connection between them. And I've got to say, Meg's random outburst of "Allahu Ackbar!" when everyone else says "Oh my God!" gave me a big laugh. It raises a lot of questions.
However, the real winner is actually the subplot. Stewie starts writing books which unbeknownst to Brian are all about him, depicted in the most embarrassing light possible. The name "Flunky" alone suggests that the central figure is a total doofus mutt. Angered, he decides to sue him. His line "I lawyered up, biiiiatch!" is priceless. Brian trying too hard to look cool always gets to me.
And what's neat about this story is that it's not the kind of mocking you'd expect. For those of us who love Brian dog jokes, there are plenty of them this time. When Stewie mentions "Treat Williams", Brian immediately gets excited for a treat. And when Christopher Walken comes up, he thinks he's gonna take him for a walk. I even liked Christopher Walken's following comment afterwards, maybe due to the humorous design.
Brian loses the case and is deeply disappointed in Stewie for making him look like an idiot in front of everyone. Stew argues however that as soon as he walks out of the courtroom and returns right afterwards he will forget all his anger and get giddy over seeing him again. And indeed he does. The sheer amount of joy that shines up on Brian's face and the sudden urge to impress him by spinning around is extremely charming.
But Brian doesn't let his guard down. He comes up with his own creative revenge by writing a book about Swishy, The Football Baby, whose design looks even better than Flunky's. Chris then tries to sell a book with the adventures of Flunky and Swishy, which gets turned down. Perhaps a reference to the fan suggestions of a Brian & Stewie spin-off? A good ending to a very enjoyable B-plot.
The cutaways are of mixed quality, but one made me laugh out loud. Joe tricking Peter by setting up a Facebook account posing as a hot girl and Chris doing the same thing to Joe sounds simple, but is made hysterical by all of them contently sipping their coffee.
Unfortunately, the main plot while not bad, doesn't work quite as well as I hoped for. Some of the jokes give me good chuckles, but it's also bland at times with several misses. Lois snarking at Meg for wanting to get out since it's not like she has a date to catch is a pretty annoying part. The cutaway where Peter imagines Chris as "The Biggest Boy" was awful.
Not to mention it ends abruptly. We never find out how the family gets out of the basement and Shepherd gets rehired with no explanation. Giving episodes no resolution has been an overarching problem in this season, even in the good ones. In most of the cases it only takes a minute to wrap the story up, so there's no excuse for this laziness.
Either way though, Principal Shepherd's Song is certainly a good enough end to season 18.
