Trollheart

FG0103: “Chitty Chitty death bang”

Basic plot: As his first birthday approaches, Stewie fears that the celebration is in fact an attempt by Lois to have him returned to her womb, and sets out to defeat her. Meg joins a suicide cult.

Title Thoughts
Already we’re looking at this and spreading out hands. What the fuck does “Chitty chitty death bang” mean, other than as a way of referencing the cult movie? It has nothing to do with the episode. What is the point?
Score: -10

The Good, The Bad and the Stupid

The Good
Sign: “You must be at least this high to ride”. Shows a hippy completely out of it.
Score: 10

Peter playing “Virtual Stuck Behind a Bus”.
Score: 8

Stewie’s misinterpretation of “the man in white”.
Score: 10

The “Dukes of Hazzard” voiceover
Score: 7

Peter’s somewhat creative description of what happened down at Cheesy Charlies’s…
Score: 10

Brian’s magazine: Doggy Style!
Score: 8

Peter doing his three little pigs routine. The UPS tagline just seals it.
Score: 10

Stewie encasing the airline guy in carbonite.
Score: 10

“Hey Lois look! The two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant and a big fat white guy who’s threatened by change!”
Score: 8

Peter trying to get the monkey off his back --- literally!
Score: 10

The Bad

Nothing really that I’d class as “Bad”, for once.

The Stupid

Brian chasing some sort of miniature covered wagon across the floor?
Score: -10

Cutaways
1.
Stewie’s birth, which shocks Peter, is terrible, but then the doctor says “Oh I don’t think we’re finished here” and takes out a map of Europe, marked with various “bomb here” notes.
Score: 6

2.
Lois remembers all the work she had to do for Meg’s first birthday party, and all the things she missed because of it. All this does is to highlight what a lazy, selfish jerk Peter was even back then, not offering to even help. Not remotely funny, and given how dismissive he became of his daughter, almost ironic in a not at all funny way.
Score: -10

3.
Peter taking part in “West Side Story”. Pathetic.
Score: -8

4.
Hanson’s bus breaks down outside the Griffin’s house and Peter mistakes them for the "Children of the Corn", shooting them all with his shotgun.
Score: 10

5.
Stewie’s memories of his “Star Wars”-esque attack on the egg inside Lois.
Score: 10

6.
Peter farting in the lift. Sigh.
Score: -9

7.
Jesus turning water into funk. Double sigh.
Score: -10

I just knew that would happen!
Um, no I didn’t. When Peter goes to see the circus parade and looks at one of the signs pointing the way, I, like probably everyone, thought he was just going to redirect the parade, but he picks up the sign and hits the bandleader over the head, taking over. It’s funny and unexpected, but unfortunately it again copies the Simpsons, when Homer wanted to get in to the Superbowl. Still, it’s a decent, unexpected twist.
Score: 8

Character usage
Main
Peter: 10
Lois: 10
Stewie: 10
Chris: 3
Meg: 8
Brian: 4
Total: 45

Supporting
None
Total: 0
Grand total: 45 (Of a possible 60)

Did the storyline work or make sense? Why?
Main plot
Yeah, the storyline was hilarious, very clever and the two plots dovetailed really nicely. One of the better early episodes. Little bad to say about it. Peter's attempts to pull together a party at the last moment are quite funny.
Main: 7
Subplot
What can you say? Inspired. Stewie thinks he's going to be stuffed back inside Lois and mistakes the cult leader Meg met for "the man in white" (well, he is wearing white!) and kills him. Superb.
Sub: 10
Total: 17

The Annoyance Factor
Not much really. Zero in fact.

The Guest Factor
There’s a mention of Waylon Jennings playing himself, but I can’t see it, unless he does the “Dukes of Hazzard” voiceover? Rachael MacFarlane, who would go on to voice Francine in American Dad, and is Seth’s sister, voices Jennifer, Meg’s suicide cult member friend.

While I feel Jennings was totally underused if the above is the case, Rachel voiced Jennifer well and was used well, so overall
Score: 7

Evolution/Devolution
At times Peter behaves almost like a proper father and husband, mostly though he’s an insensitive annoying jerk who does not deserve Lois. Here I’ll be scoring him on each episode as to how well or badly he does.

With his realisation of the importance of Stewie’s birthday being more for Lois than the baby, Peter finally gets it, and his screwup at Cheesie Charlie’s is superceded by his mini-epiphany. And he did get the circus to come to their house!
Score: 8

Good or bad ending?
A good resolution, with Stewie killing “the man in white” --- “It’s a boy!” but the actual last scene, where they weakly tie in with the cutaway to Jesus is quite pointless. Still, the ending has to be agreed to be good.
Score: 9

Episode Grand Total: 138

AD0103:”Stan knows best”

Basic plot: Tired of Stan’s many rules, Hayley moves out of the house and into Jeff’s van. She then gets a job as a stripper. Roger pretends to be a disabled sister of Steve so he can get some.

Title Thoughts
Decent enough, and captures the essence of Stan Smith perfectly.
Score: 10

The Good, The Bad and the Stupid

The Good
Stan tries to use a “trigger word” on Hayley --- it’s supposed to make her go kill Walter Mondale --- but it doesn’t work. A moment later we see Steve in the background, walking glassy-eyed with a rifle. Good joke, and it presages one of the Christmas specials, where Stan buys Steve his first gun. You probably read it in “Christmas on the Couch with Trollheart”. What do you mean, you didn’t?
Score: 10

Roger: “Fine! I’ll go back to the frigid attic! I’m supposed to bring pneumonia back to my home planet anyway!”
Score: 7

“Hey Stan! Did you hear? Sanders just killed his first dictator! Well, first he was a US ally, then a dictator!”
Score: 6

Sign: Mentally deficient young women --- formerly Crazy girls!
Score: 5

Customer to Hayley as a stripper: “Oh yeah! Who’s yer daddy?” Stan: “I am!”
Score: 4

Roger getting lost in his first real role as a teenage girl, something that will lead to his many disguises and personas. It all starts here!
Score: 10

Stripper fight!
Score: 8

The Bad
“Most girls your age have to go through chemo to get a wig this nice!” Not at all funny; quite insensitive and offensive, really.
Score: -10

Francine’s “this isn’t about Tina” rant. Too long and pointless.
Score: -5

Hayley’s wig falls off and the patrons are grossed out? After the kinds of things they've fantasised about? Probably.
Score: -8

The Stupid
Steve’s efforts to get a date are just sad and annoying. Doesn’t he realise that when a girl kicks you in the crotch it’s an indication she’s not interested? (Or is it?)
Score: -5

Cutaways
None

Character usage
Main
Stan: 10
Francine: 7
Steve: 7
Hayley: 9
Roger: 7
Klaus: 0
Total: 40

Supporting
CIA: 6
Jeff: 6
Snot: 4
Toshi: 4
Barry: 2
Total: 22
Grand Total: 62 (Of a possible 110)

Did the storyline work or make sense? Did it succeed or fail, and why?
Main plot
It did, and for once it was not a rip-off of “Simpsons”. The striking out of an independent young woman on her own comes to something of a screeching halt when she realises the alternative to living under her domineering father’s roof is to live in a van with her boyfriend, but she handles it well. At the end, things are sort of back to the way they were though, but Jeff is properly introduced here and Stan learns something about his daughter.
Main: 6
Subplot
As ever, any subplot with Roger is worth watching, and his initial intention to pose as Steve’s horribly disfigured sister takes on its own life as he gets lost in the role. As I said above, this kicks off the whole idea of Roger having various personas, and also provides a plot device to allow him to get out of the house, which is just as well because let’s face it, they could hardly keep coming up with stories with him in the house.
Sub: 9
Total: 15

Evolution/Devolution
Stan is the typical tyrannical father --- “While you live under my roof you’ll obey my rules” --- and goes to extreme lengths to impose his will here. Cutting off Hayley’s hair because he doesn’t like the colour she dyes it is only the start. He then has her captured by the CIA from a party, pulls a gun on her, laughs at her efforts to leave home and ends up in a fight with her fellow strippers when he orders her home. By the end, he has learned to loosen the leash a little, but he is still having her followed by the CIA when she goes out, so what has he learned really? Little I would say.
Score: -7

The Annoyance Factor
Because of his intransigence and strictness, he is annoying but not as much as in the previous episode.
Score: -6

The Guest Factor
Zooey Deschanel is good as Kammie, the girl Steve tries to impress by pretending Roger is his sister.
Score: 5

Episode Grand Total: 107

So there's a very marked difference here, as Family Guy clearly beats American Dad by a clear thirty points. Much of this is of course down to Stewie, as much of the higher scoring episodes of the other series will be thanks to Roger.

Apparently, the first season of each show is very short --- seven episodes each --- and so that brings us to the halfway point. Let's see how we're doing.

Total score for Family Guy: 354
Total score for American Dad: 326

So there's a decent enough lead for the original show, but we'll see how things stand at the end of the season. Apart from anything else, there are supporting characters yet to be introduced in each, which may swing the balance one way or the other.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018