Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (2009)

this second (of three)Star Wars parodies from the Family Guy crew pokes fun at the second Original Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.and for me,like Empire,this is the best of the trilogy.it's even more outrageous than Blue Harvest,which i thought was a riot.it's more funny and clever,and faster paced.i laughed a lot during Blue Harvest,but i laughed more during this episode.there isn't a lot more i can say other than if you haven't seen this episode,or Blue Harvest for that matter,you don't what you're missing.better yet,pick up the DVD collection containing Blue Harvest,this episode and the final episode,entitled It's a Trap.for me,"Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" is a 9/10

This is the second of Family Guy's double length episodes, and like the first, Blue Harvest, is based on the Star Wars franchise. It should be a barrel of laughs but it is more like scraping the barrel.The one thing which made Family Guy stand out from the crowd were its cutaways. These are entirely absent here. So too is that other mainstay of FG, the interplay between Brian and Stewie. Deprived of these sources of comedy, the writers fall back on the same old recycled gags and in-jokes which have worn so thin.This was somewhat true of Blue Harvest too but that least managed to raise a few laughs. This present episode relies too much on audience recognition of its overly familiar characters and thinks that someone is going to think "oh look that's the evil monkey" and find that amusing in its self. Its not, its pure laziness.

So I'll pretty much repeat what many others have said in these reviews. In comparison to Blue Harvest (the first Star Wars Family Guy parody), this is actually quite bad.The plot basically plays out exactly like The Empire Strikes Back, expect shorter, and with Family Guy characters, and with some jokes thrown in that really aren't all that funny...sure there are some "ha ha" moments, but when I saw Blue Harvest, I was rolling on the floor and my sides were splitting with laughter. Every scene was set up perfectly, and the jokes just kept on a-rollin'. It was (and is) a classic. This sequel feels like a rush job and it feels like there is little enthusiasm, much like the most recent seasons of Family Guy. Either the writers have changed, or they've run out of steam, kinda like Led Zeppelin near the end.I bought this on BluRay and paid way too much for it. Don't waste your money. Get it on iTunes if you can...or rent it.

I had very high hopes for this episode, given the wonderful job Seth and the team did with Blue Harvest. Unfortunately, the seem to have lost sight of what they were doing and ended up with a product that felt rushed, and wasn't funny at all.The first Star Wars Family Guy episode was for dedicated Star Wars geeks who enjoyed pointing out inconsistencies or flaws in Lucas' film. The gags in Blue Harvest were funny and relevant, from Stewie's questioning about the meter-wide exhaust port being a big flaw to Herbert's portrayal of Obi-Wan. The jokes were funny, because they lovingly picked on the original story.The new episode isn't like that. Instead, you get what feels like The Empire Strikes Back done with Family Guy characters, with minimal changes to dialogue. The jokes are weirdly out of place, many just aren't funny at all, and they lack to satirical quality the jokes in Blue Harvest had. You get lames jokes like a guy on Hoth trying to give out bags of ice, or Peter inexplicably punching out Lois when she calls him a nerf-herder, claiming "that's our word." In short, this episode goes for shock effect to get it's gags - either from random violence and swearing to just out of place jokes - instead of good old satire like Blue Harvest did.I hope the next will be better; God knows Lucas had enough bad material in Jedi for Seth and the team to work with, without resorting to mindless and out of place jokes to get laughs.