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Fifty five
seconds in, I'm not kidding, fifty five seconds in, "Family Guy" manages
to meet my expectations in the sense of laziness concerning the writers.
Does this show still have writers? Are they just floating around in big
pools compiling scripts on cocktail napkins now? Do they even care
anymore? Within the first minute, "It's A Trap!" squeezes in a joke
about the nineties, before the Griffins experience another blackout.
Just like "Blue Harvest." Except with the aforementioned special, there
was some set-up. Here the family groans at the black out and Stewie asks
"We're doing Jedi now, aren't we?" to which Peter groans and declares
"Let's just get through this." So... what's the joke here? Were the
writers obligated to finish off the trilogy? Are they making it heard to
their fan base that they don't even want to do this final installment?
Are they echoing our thoughts on yet another "Star Wars" satire? Does
the fan base even care that the writers aren't even trying anymore? The
first page of the script: The Griffins are watching TV at home, cue a
cutaway, and then we begin with "It's a Trap!" Let's get writing. So
that's all the fan base is given for their loyalty? A lazy set-up to a
drawn out finale? And are they going to tackle the prequels after this?
Well in either case further exemplifying my opinion that "American Dad"
is the better show, "It's a Trap!" is a one hour satire of... either
"Family Guy" satirizing "Star Wars" or "Return of the Jedi,"
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I'm not actually sure about
this. The opening scroll reveals pure and simple what "It's
a Trap!" is. Seth McFarlane wanted to make his talking bear
movie (that's going to be a masterpiece) and FOX made them
create this spoof of "Return of the Jedi." They
explain it
to the audience explicitly and don't hold back any facts
about McFarlane basically being forced in to this satire. So
why should we watch "It's a Trap!" if the creator of "Family Guy" didn't
even want to do this? Why is this show so popular, again?
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People keep asking me
"Why do you watch this show if you hate it so much?" but this series is
something of an anomaly because it's the perfect representation of a
show that doesn't even care to try and still is a success. Shows in the
past tried for big success and continued to want to please fans. But for
the series to admit to its loyal fan-base (still in denial):
"We don't want to be
here, we have to be here, we don't even care, but please buy the DVD
anyway," is just despicable. Meg is the Sarlacc monster allowing Mila
Kunis two lines of dialogue to free up time for making quality films
like "Black Swan," Seth Green continues collecting paychecks while
filming a better animated show, and the one hour special rehashes a lot
of the random "Star Wars" jokes we saw in non-Wars oriented episodes
including Billy Dee gags, Boba Fett jabs, riffs on Jabba's language, the
incest undertones between Luke and Leia, there's another riff on Yoda's
long death, more gags about the added effects for the special editions,
and they even manage to squeeze in a pun about a Han job. Get it?
Because it sounds like hand job. There are plenty of fart jokes. Another
Conway Twitty interlude. No seriously, I'm not just listing the
episode's jokes, there really isn't a plot beyond the basic structure of
"Return of the Jedi" and beyond that the writers manage to squeeze in
cameos with characters from "The Cleveland Show," and--my
favorite--"American Dad." Oh and the entire episode ends bashing show
creator McFarlane. I just enjoyed that bit even if it's a self-aware jab
at the show's bashers for the fans still in denial about the quality of
McFarlane's series.
It's rather ironic to
watch a show mock George Lucas for submitting to his own greed and
inevitably losing touch with the vision of his own work, only to end up
being motivated strictly by cash and its creator's obvious loss of
vision with his own creative work. "It's a Trap!" is a lazy and
exhausting rehash of the "Star Wars" gags that doesn't even try for
clever or original, so you're better off creating your own gags or just
watching the "Robot Chicken" specials that somewhat aim for
entertainment value. Or maybe just getting over the fact that "Return of
the Jedi" kind of sucked and moving on with your life? How about that?
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