Episode 'Family Guy' Season 9, Episode 18 - 'Foreign Affairs' Recap

After a Brian and Stewie-centric episode last week, this week's episode of "Family Guy" gave us an episode almost devoid of the duo. That's usually not a great sign.

There were two competing storylines for the episode. In one, Peter sees a shocking news report about goat flu and decides to home-school the kids. That's a comedy gold mine, and sure enough there were some bits that played well (I especially enjoyed Peter and Chris' exchange about historical dates), but others that seemed a bit of a cop-out. Yes, the "gayest music video ever" was pretty funny, but did we have to see the whole thing? Nevertheless, references to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Dead Poet's Society" (sort of), and "The Doors" were abound.

The other storyline involved Lois and Bonnie going on a trip to Paris together. Upon arrival, Lois discovers that Bonnie is actually there to have an affair with a French guy (she winds up with François, a handicapped French guy) and attempts to talk her out of it. There's really very little humor in the story as these two characters aren't the funniest on the show...they can be great in short doses, but can they hold an episode?

In the end, Lois succeeds, but only after Bonnie pretty clearly sleeps with this French dude. That doesn't seem to be a problem for Joe, who flies all the way out to Paris to get her back...and he walks! Well, he kinda walks. And we find out what Meat Loaf was talking about in "I Would Do Anything For Love."

There were some good laughs here, but mostly on the Peter side of things...in any case, we should be back on track soon with the third installment of the trilogy of "Star Wars" spoofs coming up!

Cut-Aways of the Week: Peter as a boxing coach, Peter as an Olympic gymnast, Muppet-style sightseeing, "American Dad" opening with Joe, old west settlers, Henry the VIII, Joseph Smith, gayest music video (Mick Jagger and David Bowie "Dancing in the Streets," the entire thing), doing peyote in the desert (a reference to "The Doors"), mime on mime violence.