Christmas Guy (Family Guy)
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 What's the point of killing Brian Griffin if you are just going to bring him back to life anyway?
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"Christmas Guy" is the eighth episode of the twelfth season of the animated comedy series Family Guy, and is the third and final episode of a three-part story arc revolving around the death of main character Brian Griffin.
Plot
Carter Pewterschmidt decides to cancel the annual Quahog Christmas Carnival solely because he himself hates the holiday. In order to save the event, Peter needs to find a way to force him into the Christmas spirit. At the same time, Stewie goes to great lengths to bring Brian back from the dead, as it is what he wants most for Christmas.
Why It's No Christmas Guy
- The title of the episode is unoriginal, as there are already tons of episodes that take the name of the show and replace the first word or change a letter in the second word.
- Besides, it can make trying to look up episodes to watch somewhat difficult.
- This episode completely tosses the character of Vinny out the window.
- In fact, when Season 12 was announced, writer Steve Callaghan even mentioned "killing a character off" from the beginning. Considering that this episode basically voided that claim by bringing Brian back to life, it could be viewed as manipulating viewers to watch the show.
- The scene where Kevin McCallister from Home Alone gets shot in the head by a robber (no, not Marv and Harry) is a bit disturbing for some people, especially since it aired one day after the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, which can come across insanely bad timing. To be fair though, it's not the writer's fault for that joke aging badly.
- All it takes for Peter to get Carter into the holiday spirit comes across as an anti-Semitic joke, which completely wastes the potential of the main plot for this episode.
- Peter is unlikable in this episode as he forces Carter to get into the Christmas spirit, then pushes him to do disgusting things like chug an entire quart of eggnog and masturbate in front of him.
- Speaking of Carter, he is no better than Peter because he cancelled the Christmas Carnival because he hates Christmas for no reason.
- This episode is the catalyst of an even worse episode; the part where Stewie asks, "Brian, are we pregnant?" inspired "Stewie is Enceinte", which is confirmed in the DVD commentary for this episode.
- Due to Stewie going back in time and negating the timeline where Brian dies, the plot with Peter and Carter is also rendered completely pointless.
Redeeming Qualities
- The ending is very heartwarming.
- The way they set up Brian's resurrection with the solution being hidden in a cutaway is really clever.
- The "Gluten-free Santa" cutaway gag is pretty funny, as well as the scene where Vinny gives Stewie a foot and an Italian mob a toy train, and they try to name who they think they killed.
- Stewie and Vinny are likable in this episode.
- Brian is honestly likable here, since he thanks Stewie for saving his life and for everything, telling him he’s his best friend, and that he loves him, and he isn’t flanderized like he usually is.
Reception
Despite being considered mean-spirited to the Christmas tradition, the episode somehow has a rating of 7.6/10 on IMDb. It may be possible that most of the reviews are sarcastic.
References
Family Guy: The Complete Twelfth Season DVD commentary for "Christmas Guy"
↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3358430/</nowiki>