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No spoilers. In my mind Season 4 has always been the best in the series... this season might be better (depending on the finale). Everything this season has been firing on all cylinders. Nothing felt like filler - I've felt invested in every minute of each episode. All of the actors have been great (some are annoying, but so is real life). Every one is compelling, interesting to watch and move the story forward - there are no superfluous characters or boring exposition. The writers have taken all the snacks we love about the show and made a viewer buffet! This is great viewing.

First let me say, I liked it. But I get why some people watching this episode didn't like it. If I were watching this show when it aired, instead of binging it now (and could only watch the show once a week) this episode would frustrate me... a lot.

We tune in to see the charismatic leads deal with each other and mental illness, instead we get a couple side characters... a whiny ginger and a hateful blonde... dealing with each other, mental illness and an ongoing semen grift.

Since the show has been off the air for years you're binging it and don't have to wait a week for it to air again. That makes it easier to relax and enjoy this little dive into the side-characters stories. So watch away... your favorite characters will be right back.

I love when comedy shows rip on politicians like Bush and Trump, because politicians are narcissistic windbags. While Obama had many foibles, Family Guy (and SNL and late night shows) never really went after him. When they did it was simply a little hand slap with a wink and a nod.

Once you know the writing bias of a show, the conclusion of a joke is much more obvious, rendering the story much less funny.

For instance, in this episode (no spoilers) Trump makes advances on a young female in the Oval Office. Trump claims every President did it going back to Washington. The cutaway examples after Washington are Truman and GW Bush instead of Clinton and Kennedy. In defending the joke the writers might note JFK and Clinton are too obvious. While certainly less obvious, it's easy to predict the political party of the Presidential examples since political jokes only go one direction, so the payoff isn't a surprise.

At one time Family Guy would go after politicians across the aisle and handle political disagreements in creative ways (see Season 9 Episode 2, Excellence In Broadcasting).

Allowing bias to control the writing makes the jokes much more predicable. Funny is based on misdirect and that's much harder once the writing becomes predictable.