My appreciation of this episode might have been somewhat tempered by never having seen Ryan Reynolds in anything. Which is surprising, if you look at the list of all the stuff he has been in, because it's a long and extensive filmography. But it's true: I am the one person in the whole entire world who has never seen either "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" or "Definitely, Maybe."

 

Reynolds might seem like kind of a random choice to star in a Family Guy episode, but the show frequently lassoes in random stars and structures entire episodes around them. Rush Limbaugh, Luke Perry, and Lauren Conrad come to mind. (Not to mention  the recurring character of Adam West, played by none other than Adam West.)

 

Enough with the preamble. Let's get to the meat of the review: there isn't any. This episode was really boring. It pulled all of its punches. Huge disappointment.

 

Ryan Reynolds was clearly game for anything the show wanted to throw at him. I applaud the zest with which he read his lines. His enthusiasm was the only thing that kept this episode from being a complete disaster. 

 

Part of the problem is that Peter has been the target of a sexual predator several times before. We've seen it. If you want to do it again, you have to up the stakes. It's going to have to be more disturbing than the night that Lois raped Peter. More absurd than the time Peter didn't know that's how a prostate exam works. And more culturally topical than the time Jake Reynolds threw Peter a "Sixteen Candles" party in the bay window, then slapped the cake aside and flung himself at Peter.

 

Like it or not, each episode of Family Guy does not exist in a vacuum. Each episode is going to be compared to the (in the case of this episode) 168 episodes that came before it. 

 

As unadventurous as the Peter/Ryan Reynolds "A Plot" was, the B Plot fell completely flat. I literally just rolled my eyes thinking about it. Stewie steals Brian's car and wrecks it, and Brian threatens to tell Lois and Peter. Seriously? That's like a single scene at best. It's not an entire plot. 

 

Talk about pulling punches! Remember the time Meg and Chris knocked Stewie into a coma, complete with gaping head wound? Or the time Stewie invented a mind control device that he used to control Chris like a puppet? This was not like those times.

 

The only good thing I can say about this episode is that Brian started a new novel. Will this be a thing? I sure hope so, because "Faster than the Speed of Love" is one of my favorite things!