A Shot in the Dark (Family Guy)

A Shot in the Dark (Family Guy)
Just because Peter accidentally shot a black kid doesn't mean he's racist.
Series: Family Guy Part of Season: 14 Episode Number: 9 Air Date: December 13, 2015 Writer: Mike Desilets Director: Brian Iles Previous episode: "Brokeback Swanson" Next episode: "Candy Quahog Marshmallow!"

"A Shot in the Dark" is the ninth episode of the fourteenth season of Family Guy.

Plot

Peter forms a neighborhood watch group but is arrested and charged with a hate crime after shooting an intruder climbing into Cleveland's house.

Why It Got Shot

1. The episode is extremely mean-spirited, even by Family Guy's standards.
2. The conflict is extremely forced: Peter accidentally shoots Cleveland Jr. and out of nowhere, Cleveland accuses him of racism.
3. It's a torture episode for Peter because he was accused of being racist after he accidentally shot Cleveland Jr.
4. All of the characters (except for Peter, Brian, Stewie, Meg, Chris, Quagmire and Joe) are unlikeable in this episode.
   • Cleveland is very unlikeable and extremely out-of-character in this episode, he refused to forgive Peter after he accidentally shot his son, calls him racist and claims the accident was a hate crime, which caused everyone to hate him.
   • Donna is also unlikeable here, she also accuses Peter of being racist and she also claims its a hate crime after he accidentally shot Cleveland Jr. Additionally, she never apologizes to Peter at the end for her actions.
   • Lois is also unlikeable here, In one scene, she abuses Peter by beating him up with a magazine because Peter was trying to going into the middle of the town square, getting naked, and painting himself brown.
   • While likable, Peter caused Cleveland's house to catch on fire and screams for The Browns to get out of the burning house, however, it was an accident since Peter accidentally dropped a cigar in the beer causing fire to come out of the bottle, however, this was maybe an accident.
   • Carter is also unlikeable here, While he was helping Peter to bail him out, He bribes the lawyer to make Cleveland Jr. a criminal by using the lyrics from Jay-Z's "Threat" and Cleveland Jr's. the last name is the same as Chris Brown's, making him racist.
     • This isn't helping that the writers intended to imply that Carter is a racist.
5. Some of the jokes can go from unfunny and bland to offensive and disturbing, like The Gay Aborigines cutaway, which is offensive to African Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and to those who are gay.
6. The Quahog townspeople never apologize to Peter or Cleveland at the end for their actions.
7. It never explained if Peter got the family couch back after he took it outside.
8. Bad/Unamused Ending: When Peter apologized to Cleveland Jr. for shooting him, He threatened Peter by saying that he's next, claims he is joking, then immediately returns to an aggressive tone to suggest that he may not be before happily saying bye and skipping away.
9. The fact that that the cause for all of the episode's drama is because Cleveland issued a rule for his son to enter his house through a window instead of a front door because he's afraid that might run up the air conditioning bill is utterly stupid since people who are unfamiliar with the rule might take the situation the wrong way as Peter did in the episode.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Peter was likable in this episode as he didn't mean to accidentally shoot Cleveland Jr., and he wasn't flanderized like he usually is.
   • Brian, Stewie, Quagmire, Joe, Meg, and Chris are also tolerable characters.
2. The town turning on Peter further after he accidentally starts a fire actually makes sense in context, since his shouting towards Cleveland made it look like he started the fire on purpose with the intent of a hate crime.
3. Cleveland finally forgives Peter at the end after realizing that Peter only shot Cleveland Jr. due to his stupidity and not by being racist.
4. The first act of Peter forming a Neighbourhood Watch Group was decent.
5. The ending, while bad, could be considered funny to some.

Reception

Although the episode is poorly-recieved and controversial, "A Shot in the Dark" was given a 7/10 rating on IMDb.

Trivia

• This episode was originally produced under the title "Stand Your Brown".
• It was originally set to air on November 15, 2015, but was replaced by "Peter's Sister" following the November 2015 Paris attacks. The second planned airing was supposed to be December 6, 2015, but it was again replaced, this time by "Brokeback Swanson" following the 2015 San Bernardino shooting.

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