Family Guy Season 22 Episode 9 Review: The Return of the King (of Queens)

Family Guy Season 22 Episode 9, “The Return of the King (of Queens),” is a clever take on streaming vs. cable featuring some genuinely funny moments and dialogue.  

This episode, written by Seth MacFarlane, David Zuckerman, and Alex Carter, is disguised as a Christmas episode, but the holidays only make up a small part of the plot. 

This last episode of 2023 contains probably more pop culture references than one can count and even includes noted sitcom star Kevin James. 

Family Guy’s characters continue to be the main draw on “The Return of the King (of Queens),” mainly focusing on Peter. Despite its Christmas theme, much of what transpires is unrelated to the holidays, aside from a funny bit towards the end. 

It makes sense that Peter would be the focus of an episode about cutting the cord, seeing as he’s rather old-fashioned and is quite addicted to network TV. 

Also, it’s easy to believe that Peter would want to get back at Lois after she sells his TV. It’s pretty unfortunate for the character of Lois (and for Alex Bornstein) to have the loss of the fridge be such a throwaway joke. 

Like the recently-rebooted Futurama, Family Guy has often included modern technology on its episodes, focusing on both the negatives and positives of certain types of technology, almost always in a jokey way. 

Though Peter is undoubtedly the focus here, a handful of moments are given to other characters that should satisfy fans. For example, we see a bit of jealousy from Brian when Peter claims that Brian is his favorite dog, but Peter is thinking about his past dog, Bartholemew. 

Another hilarious moment is when Brian admits to using Quagmire’s Netflix account. It’s even funnier to see several dog-related programs and then some “overlap.”

This can be related to how Brian and Quagmire usually don’t see eye to eye, except when it comes to a couple of things.

We also see Kevin James, although the actor himself does not voice him. It’s distracting for him to be voiced by someone else, as every time he speaks, the much lower voice quickly throws us off. It’s not unheard of for Family Guy to feature celebrities voiced by the people themselves, so it’s disappointing that this wasn’t the case.

That said, seeing this version of Kevin James navigate a post-cable world is very topical and interesting. Having his limbs fade- a la Marty McFly in Back to the Future — is a unique representation of sitcom stars fading away into irrelevance. 

As has been the case throughout the season, there are a plethora of pop culture references, few of which are subtle. But, then again, Family Guy has never really been known for its subtlety, which is one thing that makes the show unique. 

Aside from a few Christmas-related references like Frosty the Snowman, Peter mentions many TV shows, ranging from older to newer shows (such as Chicago Fire). 

Actually, at one point, Peter mentions an excessive number of shows. It’s common for jokes/bits to go on for a long time, such as the well-known clip of Stewie calling out to Lois for much longer than usual. 

While it’s annoying that Peter rambles on, our annoyance is the point; we are meant to be as frustrated with him as the other characters. 

Perhaps this episode’s best pop culture reference is at the end when “old sitcom stars” come out of a field, evidently mimicking Field of Dreams. While it’s a dated reference, it’s one that most viewers should recognize and hopefully even appreciate. 

Stray Observations:

• A desert vulture cutaway is funny and effective in its few seconds onscreen, making cutaways on Family Guy worthwhile. 
• There’s another cutaway showing people in the Florida Panhandle who won’t help Lois when she’s choking, which is very in-your-face with the show’s thoughts on the Sunshine State and its inhabitants. 
• It’s a bummer we didn’t get to see more of Meg and Chris’ “Full Frontal Fridays,” which was probably the point, especially as their privates were (cleverly) concealed by Christmas decorations. 
• A brief reference to Scientology goes unexplored, although this show is hardly known for exploring deeply philosophical topics. 
• A cutaway about The Gap and its shoppers feels a little dated; even though this store still exists, it doesn’t feel popular enough in 2023 for this joke to work.
• Also, frequent references to an “old movie” that involved pushing people out of a medieval tower did not work, especially as this reference was repeated multiple times.
• There’s also a funny bit about “non-judgmental interns” when Kevin is being examined, which fits in with Dr. Hartmann’s typical attitude of being ignorant of medical issues but fascinated with complex and/or more dire patients.

 

What did you think of this episode of Family Guy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Family Guy airs Sundays at 9:30/8:30c on Fox.

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