Well, that was uncomfortable.

Really, that's the best way to describe this episode of Family Guy, "Friends Without Benefits".

Start with Meg’s arc: she’s weirdly obsessed with this one guy, lampshaded as a new character who is unlikely to show up again because his name is “Kent Lastname." And the show then goes to some dark places to try and get over her obsession with him. I mean, some really, really dark places. Trying to roofie one’s brother just to get him to sleep with a guy so she could potentially hear about the experience?!?

Girl needs a therapist, and maybe a family that doesn’t hate her.

I know Meg has always been the punching bag for the other characters, but this went to places that were less funny and just disturbing for her. Physical mistreatment of her is one thing; this was sheer emotional torture. An episode where Meg seems to finally confront her family’s mistreatment, only to then half-heartedly take it back in the name of family “peace” just showed how damaged this character is, and this episode is that damage coming out in terrible ways. It takes one show of affection from Chris to try and get her back on the straight and narrow path, but even then it backfires on her.

Stewie had a part in this episode; let’s just call it inconsequential and leave it at that.

Maybe the series is making intentional strides towards occasionally being a disturbing display of the lack of humanity that can be seen from Quahog’s residents. But it often just falls flat because the show is generally so misanthropic that even more ‘serious’ affairs just come off as not being funny, rather than poignant in any way. There were some funny moments in this one, as collected on our Family Guy quotes page, but overall, the less said about it, the better.