Business Guy Review

Business GuyThis is one of those episodes that surprises me with how funny it is, and suckers me into watching Family Guy all over again.  Unfortunately, episodes of this quality only happen about once a season, and the rest of the time we're treated to an endless supply of cut-away jokes and Meg bashing.

Business Guy features a truly stellar cast, including Hugh Laurie, Nana Visitor, and the two guys from The Big Bang Theory.  I don't know why they pulled out all the stops for an episode buried 3/4ths of the way through the season, but there you have it.  

I also counted only one cut-away joke, and the closest they came to repeating an old gag was the classic "Peter turns up in front of the house piloting some kind of ridiculous vehicle."  Which in this case I thought was pretty awesome, and not just because the CGI work on the corporate jet's disastrous landing was surprisingly first rate. It was no "the ambulances will have to wait for their share… for now," but it wasn't half bad.

Both of these things alone would catapult "Business Guy" to the top of the heap.  But beyond that, it was actually FUNNY.  House turns up (voiced by Hugh Laurie, in case you couldn't guess) and makes fun of his own character.  How often does THAT happen on the same network?  Sure the show enlists the guys from "The Big Bang Theory" to make fun of themselves, but that's a CBS show so I can see it.  Fox letting Family Guy mock its own hit property, using its own actor?  That has to be a first.

"Business Guy" also makes fun of Family Guy itself, with Peter's cold assertion that he could fire Lois.  He invokes the name of Lacey Chabert, who voiced Meg during the first season of the show, and was subsequently fired.  

It's always entertaining to see Peter interacting with (and in this case, briefly getting the better of) Carter Pewterschmidt.  Although in this case, if I could change one thing about the episode, I would cut the bit about Peter's unsuccessful product innovations.  The African American Heart Monitor, Jeremy Irons Cereal, and Scream in a Box?  Weak.  The jokes pretty much just laid there on the table like dead fish, but the show kept pointing them out, referring back to them repeatedly.  

Aside from that setback, overall I have to applaud the coherence of the storyline, which followed a recognizable arc.  One event flowed naturally into the next, with little frilly bits of wackiness (like the Scooby Doo riff at the end, which was simply inspired).

I tell you, "Business Guy" made so much sense from a plotting standpoint that it seemed like an entirely different show.  I like Family Guy, I've watched it every week since the first season, but I still believe in my heart that most of the episodes are written by manatees moving beach balls around in their tank.

Indeed, "Business Guy" was so coherent and well-observed that it briefly took away the sting of losing King of the Hill.  Briefly.  *snif*