I was completely blown away by this episode. For the last few years, I have come to expect any given episode of Family Guy to be tepid, with the occasional wrong note, and a few giggles. But this episode was SO GREAT, it unfortunately has raised the bar and made everything else look crappy by comparison. At one point, I laughed so hard that I had a choking fit and had to look away from the screen. It was so good, it makes you wonder why all the other episodes were so lackluster. It's not like it costs more to write a funnier script. 

 

Family Guy writing staff: this episode is your new standard. Live up to it!!!

 

The episode starts out with three strong elements that have worked well for the show in the past: a Brian/Stewie storyline, time travel, and making fun of itself. When I heard the gimmick - Stewie and Brian travel back in time to the pilot episode - I figured they would coast on that. This is an episode that literally writes itself. 

 

This is an episode that was written with the hard-core fan in mind. To the lukewarm, "I watch it when it's on" sort of viewer, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny. At least half of the humor exists as a sort of silent dog whistle to the obsessive fans like me. It was as rewarding as Star Wars jokes used to be to Star Wars fans, up until we hit "Peak Star Wars" about five years ago.

 

I laughed at the very first reference, which is that the instant Stewie and Brian land in 1999, the aspect ratio switches from widescreen to fullscreen. (And I was like, Did I just laugh at an aspect ratio joke?) Hilariously (to us nerds), it remains that way whenever Stewie and Brian are in the past, even when they aren't re-using actual footage from the pilot episode. 

 

The jokes at the expense of the pilot episode are pretty great, from Peter's creepy wandering eyeball to the Kool Aid Man's missed cue. The dramatic tension builds from that one small change up to the inevitable scene where Brian and Stewie return to a world at war. 

 

The scene where Brian defeats the terrorists while being a total d-bag about it? Wonderful. Brian's "pockets"? Loved it! The thing about the family freezing, seizure-like, during cut-aways (compared to now, when they text and smoke)? Genius!

 

This episode definitely ranks high on the list of all-time favorites. (I'm still a little puzzled about Ernie having a CAT scan, though. Was that just a silly/random thing to call our attention to a visual cue as to which timeline we're in? Or is it a reference I don't get?)