Family Guy's Season Premiere: "And Then There Were Fewer" is quite good

Hulu episode here.

I would strongly recommend people track down and watch this episode. A semi-serious homage to Agatha Christie's works, the season premiere of Family Guy is a strongly devoted hour long murder mystery. It's well written, full of twists and turns, and containing a satisfying denouement.

And here's where the stakes get interesting: The whole story is canon. Whoever dies stays dead, and whatever revelations are made will remain in future episodes. Once this sinks in, the entire episode becomes legitimately tense, as every character featured in the episode has a cult following. The chips get put on the table and the dice start rolling halfway through.

What makes it even better is that the comedy aspect is completely intact, tighter than ever, and doesn't hinder the momentum of the main story. No cutaways or nonsense gags. Just pure character motivated one-liners and actions.

All in all, the episode felt like a sort of reboot. The entire time I was watching it, I could practically hear Seth MacFarlene saying "This is how well we can do when we really try, and this is the bar for Season 9." Whether he follows through on that is a separate issue, but it completely reinvigorated my interest in the franchise.

So, go watch it. Report back.

********** SPOILERS FROM THIS MOMENT FORWARD**********

Didn't see it yet (was watching Boardwalk Empire) but Seth's already shown that he can expand beyond just non-sequiters and sight gags...remember the ep. with Stewie and Brian locked in the vault? Sure, started with a poo joke, but was a serious study on the two characters. The man is more talented than a lot of people give him credit for.

It's on Hulu for those who can access it.

Great episode!! I saw it last night and I kept thinking it was going to be the monkey. Either him or one of the other characters they killed off. Though they do have a good habit of keeping characters dead they are dead. I don't think we have seen the last of the killer though. They did not show a body when they died.

The last line was brilliant btw. I just hope it signals a returns to his roots for said character. I miss that part of the show from the early years.

I was kind of hoping that the killer was going to turn out to be the giant Chicken, but I still loved the episode. I am, however, dissapointed that they killed off one of my favorite characters.

Also, Patrick Stewart as the cat was awesome. I also applaud them for having the stones for this episode to be cannon.

What I do miss about this show is the clever writing. This episode (and the aforementioned Brian and Stewie episode) shows they can still do it. Other things I miss is how Peter and the family used to give a damn about Meg. I loathe the way she is treated in season's past.

is this show still basically flash back jokes that have no relevance to the plot?

Didn't figure out who the main killer was, but I did figure out the savior at the end.

Though, do you really think they'll stay dead? Was this said?

Another one of those "expanding the characters"bits I really liked was when quagmire finally explains to brian why, in great detail, he doesn't like him.

I agree, I was very surprised with the quality of this episode (especially next to the poor, poor showing from the Simpsons, speaking as a longtime Simpsons fan). I think Family Guy has learned its lessons with being "too silly" and "too serious" (the Brian & Stewie episode being an example of the latter, having been criticized for how completely serious it is). I'm not saying that this is the new norm for the show (though I can dream), but I think every now and then we can get a nice treat like this episode. I admit that I watch FG for cheap, cheap laughs, and I usually get that and nothing more. This was a nice surprise from McFarlane and I hope he is smart enough to keep going when he's hit something good.