This episode is surely the most memorable from my childhood. Adult Swim will forever be a classic channel for airing Family Guy and giving it a 2nd life!
One of my favorite Christmas episodes. This episodes provides all the humor that you want while avoiding all the clichés of other Christmas sitcom episodes.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-12-20T23:24:03Z
7.2/10. It's funny what ages well for your tastes and what doesn't. Family Guy was never my absolute favorite show or anything, but I did watch it pretty regularly on Adult Swim back in the day, and I often found it pretty hilarious. Revisiting it (oh god I am old) ten years later, and it still has its moments, but isn't quite the laugh riot I remember.
The trademark Family Guy cutaway gags are still there (the highlight being the Three Wisemen arguing over one of them bringing too great of a gift), and the random, outsized, pop culture-referencing gags are still there too (the highlight being the show's clips from the fictional, but close to the real thing Kiss Saves Santa movie). But overall the episode was much more hit or miss in terms of the comedy than I'd remembered.
The highlight is really the B-story where Stewie chafes at the idea that Santa is always watching him, and eventually tries to be good in order to get some plutonium. It's the right balance between Stewie's megalomaniacal (and Lois-hating) tendencies and his still being a naive baby. His reflections on what it means to be "good" and the premise of people being good only because they're being watched and expect reward, not to mention his paranoia, were solidly amusing.
But the A-story, with Peter just trying to watch TV and drink beer and inadvertently being roped into various holiday events and causing lots of problems in the process, fell somewhat flat. There's a casual cruelty on the show that never really bothered me before -- it's part and parcel with the series's weightless universe -- but just makes it hard for me to invest now. A decade hence, the character motivation and story progression feels really haphazard and threadbare. The twist that the infinitely patient Lois faces the straw that breaks the camel's back when there's no paper towels is kind of amusing, but otherwise the episode is kind of meandering and scattershot.
Overall, there's enough laughs, and enough of a story to make this a solid if not overwhelming episode, but it does make me reevaluate my affection for the show back when I was a more regular devotee of it.