'Family Guy' Season 10, Episode 8 Recap - 'Cool Hand Peter'

Perhaps I've been watching too much "Community," in which an homage is practically a remake, but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more "Cool Hand Luke" in "Cool Hand Peter." After all, "Family Guy" is the show that brought us some fantastic "Star Wars" spoof episodes, as well as an amazing homage to "The Shawshank Redemption."

But this wasn't a spoof episode in the sense that those were. Rather, Peter, Joe, Quagmire and Cleveland (who is in town for a week because apparently "The Cleveland Show" needs a little cross-promotion) find themselves in a similar scenario to "Cool Hand Luke" when a road trip to regain their independence from their wives leads to trouble down South.

It seems a long way to go to set up the chain gang setting and get the gags therein (such as Peter's jetpack, which had a nice tag from Cleveland), and it was odd that the Sheriff character had such a large role in the end, when he was basically replaced by the Warden as the bad guy for most of the episode.

Still, there was some fun stuff here, such as the lengthy game of "would you rather" and Joe's diversion, which was uncomfortably true. But the best moments were from the ever-increasing sense of self-awareness from the show. They have, of late, acknowledged openly how lazy they're getting, but the "I'm just going to do the cadences" bit at the end was the icing on the cake.

Bonus points for breaking the fourth wall with Quagmire's beads and with the approximated fast food restaurants. Like "Community," "Family Guy" characters seem to be increasingly aware that they're on a TV show.

An odd little episode, but not a terrible one. Still, I feel as though there was a lot of opportunity with the "Cool Hand Luke" theme. There's a classic movie with a tremendous history and some very recognizable moments, but they didn't make much use of it. Too bad.

Cut-aways of the week:

-Peter selling candy bars: B- (we've all been there)

-Joe's tire tracks: C- (I think they've done enough handicap jokes to last a lifetime)

-Quagmire's single guy fridge: B+ (truth, and a classic creepy Quagmire tag)

-Jury of "Simpsons" peers: B+ (nice to address that rivalry, you forget sometimes that they're on the same network)

-Sleeping like a log: B- (delightfully weird, but not much of a punchline)

-Colonel Goatbanger: A- (the name was funny enough for an easy laugh)

-Taking candy from a premature baby: C- (mostly relying on shock factor)