You all know how much I love it when the show rips Brian for being a pretentious, egotistical jerk. Well here ya go: a whole entire episode on exactly that topic. In the past, the show's criticism of Brian have fallen generally into two categories: his terrible writing, and his miserable track record with women. And here we are again.

 

On the down side, this episode didn't really bring anything new to the table that we haven't seen before. By contrast, most of the humor about Brian's writing has driven it forward, from a vague "a novel" to the colossal disaster that was Faster than the Speed of Love, an old television pilot script Stewie found in the basement, and (last I checked) a screenplay that Brian is working on. 

 

But here once again, we have Brian undone by his own failures. Predominantly his shallowness, and ely, his penchant for lying to make himself seem better, more important, or (in this case) less canine than he really is. When you base a relationship on a lie, it eventually collapses. Surprise?

 

Brian failed with Jillian because he didn't respect her and didn't really love her. He failed with Lauren Conrad because he couldn't handle being with a woman that was smarter than he considers himself to be. He failed with Rita because he couldn't handle dating a woman that much older than himself. And there have been other short-term flings along the way, as well. (Like Quagmire's transgender father!)

 

Hmm, where was I? Oh right: more of the same. Brian lies about not being a dog in order to date a blind woman named Kate who hates dogs. The correct tactic would have been to admit that he is a dog, and to ask Kate to judge him on his own merits. Facing her prejudice on the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day: that would have been quite topical, as well as engrossing, if maybe not the funniest thing in the world.

 

But I guess that "what they SHOULDA done" will have to go in the bucket with the rest of them. What they did was tread water for half an hour. Super predictable.

 

I actually got more enjoyment out of the "B-plot," in which Lois has the house's old splintery stairs replaced with a new, slick, polished staircase. It was as idiotic as it was repetitive, but I laughed every time. 

 

(Honestly, my biggest laugh of the episode was Stewie's throw-away line about Batman having built a "giant lazy Susan for your nuclear car.")