Episode 'Family Guy' Season 9, Episode 13 - 'Trading Places' Recap

It starts, as most "Family Guy" episodes do, with Peter doing something completely unrelated to what will eventually be this week's story. Peter wants a used dirtbike, and wins it in a "hands on a hard body" competition. When Chris and Meg wreck the bike, the "you guys have it easier than we do" argument begins, and the switch is on.

It's a story that's been done before of course, but FG gets some good jokes out of it in this episode. Even Meg has some good zingers ("I suggest you suck it") and Stewie & Brian's commentary on the side lets us know that the writers are aware of this slightly tired idea.

As the experiment progresses, Chris finds himself under more and more stress from work until he finally succumbs to a heart attack. Lesson learned, being an adult isn't actually easier than being a kid. Quick question, though: what happened to Meg and Lois switching? Meg seemed to be doing a great job!

It seems that "Family Guy" is continuing the trend I mentioned last week about using fewer random cut-aways and sticking to finding jokes within the story. I never had as much of a problem with the randomness of "Family Guy" as others did (say, Cartman from "South Park"), but it's good to see these writers maturing a bit.

I use the term "maturing" loosely though, of course...that joke about school shootings was completely uncalled for. Yuck.

Cut-aways of the week: Peter as a police sketch artist.