Jerome is the New Black (Family Guy)

"Jerome Is the New Black"
What was supposed to be a good way to introduce a new character into the canon ended up being ruined by outside forces, mainly of the mutt-detesting variety.
Series: Family Guy Part of Season: 8 Episode Number: 7 Air Date: November 22, 2009 Writer: John Viener Director: Brian Iles Previous episode: "Quagmire's Baby" Next episode: "Dog Gone"

"Jerome Is the New Black" is the seventh episode of the eighth season of Family Guy. It aired on November 22, 2009.

Plot

Peter brings in a new black guy named Jerome to replace Cleveland in his group but begins questioning his new friendship when he discovers that Jerome once dated Lois. Meanwhile, when Brian learns that Quagmire has it out for him, he tries to find out why.

Bad Qualities

1. The biggest issue people have with this episode is that Quagmire's complaints against Brian, while valid, are utterly hypocritical and makes him come across as the worst person in the episode. Examples include:
   1. Saying that Brian hits on Lois constantly despite being married to his best friend when Quagmire proves to be no better, if not even worse, since he creepily stalks Lois and is desperate to sleep with her. An episode that shortly came after this, "Big Man on Hippocampus," had him trying to take advantage of Peter's amnesia in order to have sexual intercourse with Lois. Not to mention that he also ruined Cleveland's marriage with Loretta and tricked Joe into letting him have sex with Bonnie in "April in Quahog".
   2. He calls out Brian for constantly taking dumps in Peter's yard. What do you expect, he's a dog!
   3. He accuses Brian of being a bad friend to Peter but this is not entirely true. Sure Brian is not a perfect character but he has also done some genuinely wholesome things for Peter like when he helped him to expose McBurgertown when Peter had a stroke in "McStroke" and when he was willing to sacrifice his life to save Peter in "New Kidney in Town".
   4. Claiming that while he dates women to satisfy his lust, unlike Brian, he considers himself to be honest about it while Brian pretends to be an intellectual to charm them. This falls flat because Quagmire has actually proven to use underhanded methods to sleep with women, like when he drugged Brooke in "Brian the Bachelor", pretended to be a priest to take in woman and use his home as a shelter in "Peter's Daughter" and a later episode shows that his declaration of honesty is bogus because he faults his mother for how he is, something that Brian throws back in his face. The worst Brian has done compared to all of that is take advantage of a girl's blindness in "The Blind Side" and pretend to be a millionaire in "The New Adventures of Old Tom".
   5. Stating that despite Brian's complaints about stuff like marijuana not being legalized and big business crushing the underclass, he's never done anything to help stop that while Quagmire works at the soup kitchen, all of which aren't credible on account of how we don't see Quagmire working at the soup kitchen and Brian actually puts effort in getting pot legalized in "420" and even once used a tank to destroy an underclass-destroying business in "Hell Comes to Quahog".
   6. Talking down to Brian for being an atheist and seeing a religious person as an idiot when Quagmire can't even call himself religious due to his chronic involving in sexual intercourse. Also, as stated before, he pretended to be a priest to trick girls to come to his house to have his way with them, which could be seen as a form of blasphemy. Let us also not forget that Quagmire also tried to have sex with a woman in church in "Boys Do Cry", which led to him rightfully being slapped in the face.
   7. Says that Brian's a bad father to Dylan when literally just one episode ago, Quagmire has proven to be no better at fatherhood and Brian at least tried to be a good father to Dylan in "The Former Life of Brian" and latter made ammends with him while on the other hand, Quagmire literally gave away his baby girl in order to keep his sex life going.
   8. Finally, he states that he could overlook Brian's flaws if he wasn't such a big, sad, alcoholic boor. You spend most of your time drinking yourself!
2. The sudden revelation of Quagmire’s hatred for Brian causes this episode to kick-start the infamous Brian and Quagmire feud, which becomes the center focus in many later episodes to the point where it became annoying and cliched and caused both Brian and Quagmire to undergo further flanderization and character derailment.
3. Peter is also unlikable in this episode as he lets his jealousy over Jerome consume him, causes Jerome's house to be on fire, tries to scare away Jerome with a Klu-Klux Klan costume, throws him out of his house and even bluntly states his apathy when Jerome confesses to molesting Meg. Apart from Lois calling him out, he suffers no retribution for it. Granted he realizes his mistake with Jerome and goes to make amends with him, but that's just a slap on the wrist. Also, in the 'people who never shut up about their kids' cutaway, he was utterly unsympathetic to the fact that a couple who he and Lois went on a double-date with has a dead kid who they are still grieving over and wanted them to acknowledge his new sweater and haircut.
4. Some offensive racist humor like the above mentioned Klu-Klux Klan scene and Stewie seeing Jerome for the first time and thinking he's trying to rob the family.
5. A domestic abuse joke: Brian sees Brenda at Quagmire's house and mistakes her for one of his one-night stands, even making fun of her haggard appearance. Quagmire angrily corrects him about it and to further pour salt on the wound, Brenda's boyfriend Jeff comes to beat her up and rather than stop him or call Joe for help since he's a cop, Quagmire wastes his time reprimanding Brian for his tasteless joke instead of actually helping his sister.
   • It doesn't help that this wouldn't be forgotten in another episode two seasons later.
6. The London's Gentlemans Club cutaway is a lazily dragged-out joke of just three British men reading newspapers and clearing their throats.
7. Continuity error: Quagmire states that one of the reasons why he hates Brian is because Brian defecates in the Griffin family yard constantly, yet in "Bill And Peter’s Bogus Journey", Lois and Stewie attempted to potty train Brian and since then Brian stopped using the family yard as his bathroom and has instead moved to using Adam West’s yard.

Good Qualities

1. Brian is likable in this episode as he tries to form a genuine bond with Quagmire, though in all fairness one of his tries involved lying to Quagmrie about going on a date with Cheryl Tiegs and mistaking Brenda with one of his one-night stands.
   • Jerome is also a likable and sympathetic character who is nice to Lois and holds no grudge against Peter for his jealousy.
2. Some funny scenes like Stewie not knowing that Chris Farley died a long while ago and Peter making Joe's new parrot repeat cripple.
3. The ending where Stewie consoles Brian over failing to get Quagmire to befriend him is rather touching and relaxing.

Reception

The episode received mixed reviews from critics. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club stated that it "started out well before sort of just petering out as the episode went on", comparing it to South Park's attempt to replace Kenny McCormick, before ultimately reintroducing into the series. In the conclusion of her review, VanDerWeff praised Quagmire's monologue, commenting that it is "certainly amusing that the show is spending all of this time tearing down the one character who's a mouthpiece for the creator." Ahsan Haque of IGN criticized the episode for its execution, stating, "Auditioning friends to replace Cleveland seemed like a better idea on paper." Haque praised Quagmire's tirade against Brian, however, as "completely unexpected" and "mildly amusing," but ultimately gave the episode a 6.4 out of 10. In a subsequent review of Family Guy's eighth season, Ramsey Isler of IGN listed "Jerome Is the New Black" as "remarkably unfunny, with lazy and unoriginal writing."

Despite this, however, the episode received positive reviews from audiences, as it received a 7.1/10 on IMDb.

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