Fresh off the crossover episode with The Simpsons, Family Guy returned Sunday night with a brand new episode.
In this new episode, while at the Swanson’s house, Peter discovers Joe’s children’s book about a handicap squirrel called “The Hopeful Squirrel.” It is a book that Joe has been working on for nine years, but he has not been able to get it published due to a lack of confidence. Nonetheless, with Peter’s advice and support, Joe gets the book published under the name David Chicago, a name he chooses so his co-workers at the police station would not tease him because “they don’t like anything artistic.”
After getting his book published, Joe’s publisher has Joe read the book to a herd of children and their parents at a book store, but it turns out to be disastrous as the children are frightened by Joe’s voice and begin to leave. Luckily, Peter saves the day by demonstrating to Joe how he should be reading the story to the kids, and the children love the softness of Peter’s voice, so they stay to hear the rest of the story.
This leads to Peter becoming the new story teller of Joe’s book, and Joe’s publisher grants Peter the name David Chicago and tells Joe to only write the books, while Peter becomes the reader and public image of them. Abruptly, Peter becomes popular, and people begin to think that he is the author of the book and ask him for autographs. Peter even earns himself a guest spot on a talk show, and he does not give credit to Joe for writing the book. In fact, he teases handicap people, which it irritates Joe because that is not the purpose of his book.
Out of frustration towards Peter, Joe quits writing, leaving Peter to do the reading and writing by himself. When the publisher asks Peter to write another book about the hopeful squirrel, Peter turns to Quagmire and Cleveland for answers. The three put together a few ideas and create “The Hopeful Squirrel 2.” However, the book does not succeed as the children and parents dislike the new story after Peter reads it to them, leading to the publisher firing Peter. Knowing that he fails as a writer, Peter apologizes to Joe for what he did, and Joe forgives him.
Meanwhile, Brian is trying to hook up with a girl he has taken interest in, a girl named Chloe who enjoys running. To impress her, Brian portrays himself as a supposed track star and earns himself a dinner date with her.
However, as Brian goes to Chloe’s house to pick her up, she suggests that they should go out for a run before eating. To keep his lie a secret, Brian accepts, and the two set off for a run. Being out of shape, Brian is exhausted and is barely keeping up with Chloe, who tells Brian that once he hits his “runners high” at the top of the hill, his endorphins will kick in. Once at the top, Brian does suddenly feel his runners high and is pleased with the feeling. He ends up spending the night at Chloe’s house after a successful evening with her.
Brian later gets obsessed with running and exercise as he sheds a lot of weight, a whole lot, to the point where he is all skin and bones. To push his obsession further, Brian elects to run in a marathon, but it does not go well. Right from the start, he breaks his scrawny leg and is put in a cast. The episode concludes with Stewie attempting to irritate Brian about his new cast, and Lois encouraging Peter for making up with Joe.
This was a decent episode. It was not a total bore. There were some enjoyable moments, but it was probably not the best of Family Guy.
Family Guy Episode 2 – Overall Grade: 6/10
Tune into FOX next Sunday for an all new episode of Family Guy at 9/8c.
