Family Guy Season 13 Episode # 1 "The Simpsons Guy" - Recap and Review

Peter starts a cartoon strip “For Pete's Sake” in the local newspaper. His anti-feminist tone gets him in trouble and the Griffins are forced to leave Quahog, Rhode Island.

On their way, their car gets stolen. The Griffins discover that they are in Springfield, home to arguably the most popular animated family - The Simpsons.

The Griffins run into Homer Simpson at Kwik-E-Mart. Homer offers them accommodation and takes Peter to Chief Clancy Wiggum to have a missing report filed. As is his wont, Clancy tries to get bribe money and Peter's refusal results in Wiggum refusing to file his missing car report.

Back at the Simpsons' house, the family members get acquainted with each other. Brian is surprised that Santa's Little Helper (SLH) is nothing like him. He is just a docile and sweet dog, in other words a regular family dog. He and Chris take SLH for a walk and Brian mistakenly unleashes SLH. SLH promptly runs away.

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Lisa tries to help Meg regain her sense of self esteem. After making a checklist of items (most of which Meg is not good at), Lisa finally suggests playing the saxophone. To Lisa's surprise, Meg proves to be a superior player.

The most interesting interactions are the ones between Bart Simpson and Stewie Griffin. After making a suitably epic entrance, Bart introduces Stewie to his all powerful weapon - the slingshot.

Mystified and awed at Bart's simple arsenal, Stewie starts hanging out more. Bart teaches the art of skateboarding to Stewie.

They run into Nelson Mandela Muntz, the local bully. As usual, Nelson pushes Bart around and an enraged Stewie kidnaps Bart's tormentor and looks set to inflicting some true horror movie style.

Homer and Peter decide to take things into their hands and try to recover the latter's stolen car. Homer suggest that they should think like a car to find one. This results in both of them drinking gasoline at a gas station.

When this strategy fails, Peter notices a lady filling gas in her car. These shenanigans results in a porn video that proves to be quite popular. They also organize a car washing service and then take to the skies.

Things go smooth for Peter and Homer, until Peter introduces the Pawtucket Patriot Ale to his new friend at Moe Szyslak's bar, “Moe's Tavern”. Homer claims that the ale is a copy of his favorite Duff Beer. The discussion soon becomes unfriendly and a legal case is filed by The Simpsons. 

The judge, Fred Flinstone (“The Flinstones”) awards the case in Simpson's favor.

The Griffins leave Springfield shortly, but not before Homer and Peter have had a Family Guy style chicken fight.

This was one of the funniest The Simpsons/Family Guy episodes I have seen. As Chris correctly commented about crossovers, this episode did indeed bring out the best in both these shows.

Here are some of my favorite moments from the episode:

1. Jaden Smith reference
2. Bart's entry
3. The Griffins discussing about which state Springfield belongs to.
4. Homer's entrance at Kwik-E-Mart
5. Peter referring to Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon as a “funny sounding Cleveland”
6. The final punch between Homer and Peter as well as green colored weapon used by Peter was a reference to the Superman-Doomsday fight from “The Death of Superman”
7. Stewie kidnapping Nelson, Jimbo and Principal Skinner
8. Comic Book Guy's appearance and his comment - “Worst Chicken fight ever”
9. The closing scene with Stewie writing on the blackboard.

The best part was the court scene in which the similar counterparts from both shows were seated together. As much as I like Family Guy, The Simpsons are in a class of their own.

It was a great episode that finally acknowledges how much Family Guy has been inspired by The Simpsons. Must watch for fans of either show. 

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Image Sources: 20th Century Fox Television, Film Roman Productions, Fuzzy Door Productions, Hands Down Entertainment

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The Strain Season 1 Episode # 12 "Last Rites" - Recap and Review

This post discusses the episode in detail. Readers yet to watch the episode are recommended to skip it, if they wish to avoid spoilers.

Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel) pays a visit to the sick business tycoon, Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde). Eldritch reminds him that The Master owes him in return for all the help he has done as per the deal. Thomas responds that the Master does whatever he pleases. Eldritch claims to be still having faith that he will get his due.

Flashback to Albania in 1967. The younger Abraham Setrakian (Jim Watson) is still in pursuit of the German strigoi, Thomas Eichorst. Miriam Setrakian (Adina Verson) is concerned about her husband's obsession with tracking down the German tormentor.

Abraham is fooled into a trap laid by Eichorst and his wife is turned into a strigoi. Abraham makes the difficult choice of killing his beloved Miriam and then carves out her heart as a reminder and inspiration to continue his quest/mission.

Back in the present, Dr Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) tries to comfort Abraham about their failure to end The Master's life

Gus Elizalde (Miguel Gomez) gets the drop on Alonso Creem in his car. Gus needs money, ammunition and has decided to procure his supplies from Alonso. Things get out of hand, when they come under attack by vampires.

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Quinlan (Stephen McHattie), the hooded guy dressed in black (we saw a long time ago), reappears just in time to save the day. His crew kidnaps Gus.

Dutch Velders (Ruta Gedmintas) returns to the pawn shop and explains her plan to broadcast Eph's message to the world.

Just as Eph finishes his first ever speech, Eichorst leads an attack on Abraham's pawn shop. The turned Gabriel Bolivar (Jack Kesy) attacks Nora's mom, Mariela Martinez (Anne Betancourt) with his stinger. As the good guys make their escape from the shop through an escape door, Nora decapitates her now infected mother.

In the closing scenes, The Master arrives at the Stoneheart Group building and secretes his body fluids into Eldritch's mouth. Eldtrich quickly regains his vitality and is able to walk and enjoy the rain on the patio. His assistant/bodyguard Mr. Fitzwilliams (Roger R. Cross) is surprised and concerned with this sudden change in his employer.

The Strain has got to be one of the most pondering shows on TV. Having read the novels on which the series is based, it baffles me to as to why the show has been scripted this way. Things have been moving too slow right from the beginning and this episode is no different.

Nothing much happens of note, except for Gus' kidnapping and the death of Nora's mother. On the plus side, at least we have one less unnecessary character, thanks to Gabe.

The scenes showing the budding romance between Vasiliy Fet and Dutch Velders feels like more of the filler material that we have been seeing as part of the show. To his credit, Kevin does provide some humor in his interactions with Corey Stoll's character, Eph Goodweather.

Jim Watson gives a good performance as the younger Abraham Setrakian. Credit to the make up department for making Jim's Setrakian look like a credible younger version of David Bradley's older one.

Another nice touch was Thomas Eichorst's reflection vibrating in the mirror.

Hopefully, the season finale will ratchet up the tension that has been sorely missing so far in a show about vampires and humans racing against time to stop a fast spreading infection.

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Image Source: FX Networks

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