Foreign Affairs (Family Guy)
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 "Sacre Bleu! Zis episode is ze vaste of ze time!!"
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Foreign Affairs is the seventeenth episode of the ninth season of Family Guy.
Summary
When they travel to Paris together, Bonnie does not tell Lois beforehand that she is looking for an extramarital affair there.
Why It Had A Bad Affair
- This is where Bonnie's morality is guillotined. She starts having an affair in Paris with François. This could be considered the episode her character that started her flanderization. In fact, she is arguably at her worst here.
- Later episodes would have Bonnie blowing up her house or making other moves that discriminate against people in wheelchairs.
- Similar to "The Juice is Loose!", the episode steals a music video. This time, its “Dancing in the Street” by David Bowie and Mick Jagger. The entire music video was played (not a few seconds, or minutes, the entire music video) making a good portion of the episode nothing but filler.
- Unlike "The Juice is Loose!", where the inclusion of the song was reasonable and justified, the only reason why the music video was put into this episode was for the joke: "1985 brought us the gayest music video ever," and the weak punchline of Peter saying "we let it happen."
- Not only that, but the music video isn't even credited in the credits, so it's more or less plagiarizing.
- The song itself is also annoying to listen to, with Bowie and Jagger just showing off thoughout the entire video.
- Unlike "The Juice is Loose!", where the inclusion of the song was reasonable and justified, the only reason why the music video was put into this episode was for the joke: "1985 brought us the gayest music video ever," and the weak punchline of Peter saying "we let it happen."
- The episode overuses French stereotypes, making the episode slightly a bit racist.
- While the Muppet-styled sightseeing is a cool montage, Lois announces it before it happens, which partially ruins it.
- The subplot is bad. Peter taking the kids out of school over some concern over "goat flu" doesn't seem necessary.
- His teaching methods aren't enjoyable, which include multiple boring cutaways, ripping off the Desert scene from The Doors, and of course, the stolen music video as mentioned above.
- The way Joe convinces Bonnie to come back to him near the end of the episode is very shameful and manipulative. He deceives Bonnie into thinking he can walk again by taping Quagmire to his back and having him do all the walking for Joe, which is very uncomfortable to watch.
Redeeming Qualities
- The cutaway involving the American Dad! intro but with Stan replaced with Joe is hilarious.
- Even though the joke was explained before it happened, the scene where Bonnie and Lois go Muppet sightseeing is at least a nice scene to watch.
- Lois is likeable as she tries to tell Bonnie that what she's doing is wrong, and she isn't flanderized like she usually is.
- Chris, Meg, Brian, and Stewie are also tolerable. And this is one of the times where Meg is in her original personality in Seasons 8-14.
Reception
"Foreign Affairs" was given a 6.4/10 on IMDb. Much of the criticism according to reviewers comes from the use of a music video to drag the episode.[citation needed]
William Angell gave the episode a 2/5 in his Family Guy season 9 review, praising some of the jokes and the Muppet-styled sightseeing, but criticized it for the plot and usage of the music video. HenryBean also gave it a 6/10 in his Family Guy scorecard.
Trivia
- Bonnie’s actions in this episode yield negative consequences in later ones, as seen in the episode “Internal Affairs”, which is considered to be a sequel to this episode.