Meg and Quagmire

"Meg and Quagmire" is the tenth episode of the tenth season of the American animated sitcom Family Guy. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on January 8, 2012. In the episode, Meg celebrates her 18th birthday, but no one comes to her party except Quagmire, who starts dating her and plans to have sex with her. Peter tries to stop Quagmire, but Lois urges him to back off because she does not believe anything will happen.

The episode was written by Tom Devanney and directed by Joseph Lee. It features the guest performances of Alexandra Breckenridge, Johnny Brennan, Colin Ford, Ralph Garman, Julius Sharpe, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, Joe Vaux, and John Viener. It received mixed reviews from critics for its storyline.

Plot

When the family plans a surprise party for Meg's 18th birthday, the only person to show up is Quagmire but his intentions to seduce Meg become quite clear. However, when he leaves without incident Peter lets it slide. Quagmire continues to flirt with Meg and talks her into going out with him. When Quagmire shows up for their date, Peter objects but Lois allows her to go out with him, telling Peter it's just a ploy for attention and she'll rebel if they try to stop her as Lois herself did against her father. After their date where Quagmire fails to score but considers it just a temporary setback, he arrives in his home to find Peter waiting for him. Peter orders him to stay away from Meg but Quagmire points out that she's 18, legal and ripe for the picking and Peter vows to stop him.

As Quagmire continues his attempts to get into Meg's pants, Peter manages to keep them separated. Peter tries to talk some sense into Meg but she complains to Lois who again tells Peter not to push her into rebelling. Lois changes her tune when she finds out later that Meg and Quagmire went off to his sex cabin to be alone and she and Peter set off to stop them, admitting that Peter was right not to allow Quagmire to have a free shot with Meg. They arrive as Meg and Quagmire are in their underwear and Peter orders Meg to the car. Meg tries to stand up to Peter by pointing out she is 18, but Peter puts his foot down and tells her that he is still her father no matter what age she is. Peter then yells a stern order at Meg to get in the car while Lois threatens Quagmire to stay away from her and her family for at least a month or cut off his "thing" and feed it to Brian and demands use of the cabin for a week every month. The morning after, Meg thanks Lois and Peter for stopping her from doing something she would have regretted.

Reception

In its original broadcast on January 8, 2012, "Meg and Quagmire" was watched by 6.23 million U.S. viewers and acquired a 3.1/7 rating in the 18–49 demographic.^[1]

Reviews for the episode were polarized. Kate Moon of TVFanatic.com gave the episode a 4.5/5 rating in her review. She wrote of the episode, "It was a nice touch for the show to involve more of the Griffins in the budding affair. In contrast to their normal lack of affection for Meg, both Lois and Peter acted like good, concerned parents tonight. Peter was up in arms at the thought of his daughter dating a “wiener” like Quagmire, while Lois played her “wise mother” card." She also wrote that "Quagmire’s text-seduction of Meg and his impressive ability to act like a generic teenager was both unnerving and funny."^[2] In a much more negative review, Kevin McFarland of The A.V. Club gave the episode a D, stating that the episode was full of clichés such as the "not drawn yet" segment that has already been used in everything from Monty Python to SpongeBob SquarePants, and long time-wasting moments that made the episode disappointing.^[3]

References

External links

• Full episode on FOX's website