"Peter-Assment"

This is probably one of the most "meh" episodes of Family Guy I've seen in years.  Let me put it to you this way: about halfway through the episode, my wandering attention spied a stack of mail nearby.  I spent the second half of the episode half watching as I sorted my mail and paid all my bills.  So there's that.

"Peter-assment" is also one of the most egregious examples of the show's "throw it to the wall and see what sticks" ethos at its worst.  The storyline is only barely coherent, and is frequently overwhelmed by the cut-away jokes, the random asides, and bizarre touches like the scene where Peter, drinking heavily in a bar, hallucinates (?) that actor Robert Mitchum is speaking to him from the bar's television.

The show opens with a play at Stewie's school.  For reasons unknown, the little kiddies are putting on a musical about Terry Schiavo's life.  Not a very good musical, but not in a funny way either.  Stewie is inspired by an encounter with Jared, the kindergartner who played Stewie's part of "The Plug" for several years running.  Jared is played as a Matthew McConaghey impersonation, for absolutely no reason whatsoever.  

Things just kind of go downhill from there.

Peter video tapes Richard Dreyfuss (that's actually Richard Dreyfuss doing the voice, by the way) then sells the tape to TMZ.  Drunk with power and wielding a more expensive camera thanks to the money he earned from TMZ, Peter decides to become paparazzi.  For about three minutes of show time.

The paparazzi sequence had real promise.  I could definitely see an entire episode where Peter goes to wackier and wackier lengths to get the video goods on local celebrities.  But no, this is all just a set-up for Peter's glasses to be broken, so that he goes into work wearing his contacts the next day, so that his boss Angela takes a sudden liking to him and starts sexually harassing him.

I gather we are supposed to think it's funny that a woman is sexually harassing a man.  Like a "world gone crazy, rain falling up into the sky, cats chasing dogs" kind of reversal on the norm.  The problem is, it's not actually funny.  It's not a funny concept, and it's not executed by the show in a funny manner.

This is about when I started sifting through the mail.

I did want to address one thing that is portrayed in the show.  Angela, saddened by Peter's rejection, decides to commit suicide by closing the garage door and letting her car run.  But although this is a classic method of committing suicide, it is no longer possible, thanks to the advances in catalytic converter technology.

This question came up on an episode of Car Talk a few months ago, and a nurse confirmed it.  Although you can make yourself pretty sick from carbon monoxide poisoning, there isn't enough carbon monoxide in car exhaust to kill you.  So be warned that if you try this method of suicide (like say if you just wasted half an hour on a terrible episode of "Family Guy") you will not be successful.  Just, you know, FYI.