Family Guy Episode Review: "Hot Shots"

The quality of Family Guy's episodes have been going downhill for the past few years, and the show has gotten unfunny and cringeworthy to watch. The unfunny jokes, the uncomfortable plotlines, and lack of engaging stories have turned me away from the series. Believe me when I say this, I had given up on the series a long time ago.

About two months ago, however, I noticed that this particular episode, "Hot Shots" had released it's synopsis on Family Guy's own Wikia page. The episode would have Sean Penn (who supports vaccinations in real life) provide a cameo in the episode, and the episiode would revolve around Lois and Peter becoming attached to the anti-vaxxer movement, with Brian obviously serving as a foil to the both of them. This intrigued me, and from there, I decided to do a review of the episode on November 13th, 2016.

I watched the episode cold turkey, and watched it from start to finish. And after seeing the episode, I am glad to say that Seth MacFarlane rose magnificently to the occasion. "Hot Shots" serves as a cautionary tale as to what happens when we let politics and personal feelings dictate how we approach the field of science.

The episode begins with a bat occupying the Griffen residence, and Peter Griffin takes charge of getting the bat out of the house, with it failing spectacularly the first few times. He catches the bat watching softcore porn in the living room, causing the bat to panic and Peter tailing it, with Peter wrecking the upstairs in the process. He eventually succeeds with getting the bat, whom he has nicknamed Bat Damon, out of the house, but not before hitting Stewie's hand, necessitating a trip to the hospital.

While there, the doctor observes that Stewie needs to have his vaccinations done. The doctor hands Lois a pamphlet to read, which has been made mandatory because, as the doctor states, "Internet chatrooms made everyone an expert". Lois goes home to do more research on the computer, and after looking up bad information on anti-vaxxer websites. both Peter and Lois jump on the anti-vaccination train.

This pisses off Brian, who rightfully calls out the bullshit being peddled on the websites. He manages to drive the point home to Stewie, informing Stewie that not being vaccinated could kill him. After hearing this, Stewie becomes obsessed with not catching germs, and becomes a germophobe trying to keep everything germ-free in the house. Unfortunately, Stewie is the only one convinced by Brian, and Peter and Lois begin their campaign to rid vaccines from Qaohog, because one of the worries that Lois has is that vaccines cause autism.

Usually, the makeup of the Family Guy episode has Lois act as a foil to Peter when he does something rash and disastrous. However, this is one of the episodes where the two of them are on the same page. With Lois letting Peter function on his own devices uninhibited, Peter starts convincing  the townspeople to not vaccinate their children, courtesy of a fear-mongering propaganda video paid for by Meg's college fund. The video works with shocking effectiveness, as news spreads that child vaccination rates plumments to an all time low in Qaohog, much to Brian's exasperation.

So caught up is Lois in the anti-vaccination crusade that she only gets a wake-up call the following day, when both she and Peter are hit with a double whammy. First, when they go to Stewie's daycare, they show up to an empty classroom, which the teacher inside attributes to a measles outbreak exacerbated by both Peter and Lois. Second, the United States government swoops into Qaohog and quarantines the entire town, driving the point home to Lois that she fucked up royal.

It is only then that Lois decides to give Stewie his shots, but Peter reveals that he destroyed the town's entire vaccine supply during Lois's campaign, a la the Joker from The Dark Knight. This proves to be a poor lapse of judgment when Peter himself comes down with measles, due to the fact that his mother didn't get him vaccinated after she traveled back into the United States. This, coupled with Stewie's stuffed teddy bear Rupert becoming ill, is the straw that broke the camel's back for Stewie. He decides then and there to run away from Qaohog and get his shots.

Lois and Brian, the two of them now on the same page, hunt to find Stewie, and eventually catch up to him at the one bridge leading out of Qaohog, where Stewie tries to climb under the bridge to avoid being detected by the police. Ultimately, he releases his grip from the bridge before he got hit by an upside down train. Just when it looks like Stewie will fall to his death, Sean Penn, in full skydiving attire, swoops in and saves him. Penn states to Stewie, Brian and Lois that he has arrived in Qaohog to deliver vaccines to the town. He proceeds to scold Lois for her contribution to the quarantine, which Lois retorts about being lectured by liberal Hollywood and Stewie correcting that the entire ordeal was that way.

Back at the Griffin residence, Peter and Stewie have had their shots administered, and Lois states that everything is back to normal, except for the 150 people that died during the measles outbreak she brought onto the town (though she states that it is fortunate no one she knew had died). Bat Damon drops by and makes a wisecrack that Peter laughs at, thus ending the episode.

The episode did a real good job with the heavy handed material that was involved with the episode, and although several potshots at the expense of Andrew Wakefield would have made the whole experience complete, the episode was very good regardless. I was surprised at how commited that the episode was at making Lois an unsympathetic antagonist throughout, with her carelessness bringing about an epidemic to Qaohog, and her lack of caring that people had died because of her crusade.

This episode was a vast improvement of the content Seth MacFarlane has produced with the show in the past. I do not feel that he pulled any punches for this episode, and I believe that he made the concept work. This episode shows off the consequences that occur when we trust the Internet with blind loyalty and assume that we know all the answers. I encourage readers of this article to watch this episode and see what conclusions that they come to.

So until next time, in the immortal words of Edward R. Morrow, "Good night and good luck".