"Something, Something, Something, Dark Side"

I'm going to go on record right up front by saying that "Blue Harvest" remains my absolute least favorite episode.  (Or special episode, or mini-movie, or whatever you want to call it.)  

Any given episode of Venture Brothers has at least one Star Wars reference, and I remember listening to a podcast (was it an episode of "The Sound of Young America"?) where the creators talked about the art and science of making a Star Wars joke.  They pretty explicitly called out Family Guy, saying "You can't just say "STAR WARS!" and call it a Star Wars joke."

And that was BEFORE "Blue Harvest."

So now Family Guy is back with their Empire Strikes Back episode.  In which they pretty much say "STAR WARS!" and call it a Star Wars joke.  

The only surprise to me was that they chose to air this special hour-long episode on the same night as the last episode of "Lost."  First of all, I'm surprised that Fox chose to air ANYTHING up against the last episode of "Lost."  And second of all, why air something fancy? Why not just toss a bunch of re-runs up there and call it a night?  I mean, seriously.  

It looks like reality is with me on that one, because according to Wikipedia, this episode aired in 6.13 million homes.  Which is a huge step down from last week's episode, which aired in 7.59 million homes.  (Lost's season finale aired in 13.5 million homes.)

Despite my loathing of the entire concept and the project as a whole, I did smile a few times.  Peter riffing on Han Solo's weird pause to breathe heavily during the line, "I thought they smelled bad… on the outside."  Stewie leaning out the window playing Mailbox Baseball with a mailbox labeled "Nimoy."

I also had to admire the visual quality of the episode.  Despite its simplistic style, Family Guy can really pull out the stops when they want to.  The coloring, CGI work, and background sets were top notch.

As I watched "Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" I realized why these episodes drive me up the wall.  They're written for an audience which is only vaguely familiar with Star Wars.  Thus, they stick far too closely to the original, perhaps in order not to confuse people.  When honestly, any given Family Guy viewer could probably recite the original Star Wars movies by heart.

Instead of riffing on the original movies, Family Guy basically just animates them, as a silly comedy.  You could go in a lot of different directions with an "Empire Strikes Back" episode, but re-filming it with some silly jokes tacked on is just… weak.

The meticulous care Family Guy takes with the original source material is endearing, but also tiresome.  Although some of the details were worthy of a mild chuckle, there were no real surprises.  Why bother watching an entire hour of television without a single unexpected element?  Beats the heck out of me.

This in a nutshell is my problem with Family Guy as a whole.  It's funny when it's funny, but it never seems to live up to its potential.  Family Guy is that smart kid in class who deliberately optimizes their workload to aim for a C+ or B- because they feel that aiming for an A+ is a case of diminishing returns.

In other words: Meh.