Watch or Bypass: ‘Family Guy’ Halloween Fun on Hulu

The Family Guy Halloween Special, now streaming on Hulu, continues a series tradition of All Hallows’ hijinks, which makes sense, because its release also marks 25 seasons for Family Guy itself. (A Christmas-themed episode has also been announced for season 23.) And as the Griffin family and the town of Quahog celebrate Halloween, it’s with jokes about the retail costume biz, a Sonny & Cher-themed side quest for Stewie and Brian, and an ongoing feud involving pumpkin cultivation, Joe Swanson (Patrick Warburton), and episode special guest Glen Powell. Family Guy also stars Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, and Arif Zahir.  Â

Opening Shot: “The Griffins are proud middle-of-the-aisle try-on people.” And as Peter Griffin (MacFarlane) makes this pronouncement in the costume shop, Lois (Borstein) proves his point. “Take a look. I don’t care.”

The Gist: All of Quahog is excited about Halloween. For Chris (Green), it’s an opportunity to reach new levels of hyperactivity with the swinging around wildly of novelty nunchucks. For Meg (Kunis), it’s a nurse’s costume, complete with urine samples. And for Peter, the holiday means only one thing: getting Joe Swanson to stop talking about his pumpkin. But there’s no way that happens. Every year, Joe enters a pumpkin-growing contest. And every year, he gets beat by Patrick McCloskey (Powell). “The guy’s got the best soil in town,” Joe tells Peter, Cleveland (Zahir), and Quagmire (MacFarlane). McCloskey’s also got a PUMPKING license plate and the best hair in town.

Joe’s 307-pound pumpkin is big enough to contain the pumpkin spice of an entire season. But naturally Peter and the guys are gonna mess with it, and naturally that means disaster is on the verge of striking. It’s lucky that Peter also weighs 307 pounds. And before you can say “Sam Elliott is the judge of the Quahog Great Pumpkin Contest,” Joe suddenly has a better chance than ever before of finally ending McCloskey’s winning streak.

Elsewhere in the Family Guy Halloween special, Stewie and Brian argue over their respective plans for the big night. While Brian searches the “Find My Friends” feature on his iPhone for any signs of life, Stewie’s Cher costume comes with a long black wig, halter top, and all of the Instagram likes. And you know what? If Brian’s gonna turn his back on trick-or-treating with his one true friend, then dammit, Stewie will have to take drastic measures. Those drastic measures include but are not limited to: hogging all the electricity and bandwidth in the Griffin home, channeling Gene Wilder in Young Frankenstein, and stealing mustaches from living faces.

What Shows Will It Remind You of? This October Hulu also features the latest Halloween special from Solar Opposites. And it sounds like Family Guy’s Seth Green, through his work with animation studio Stoopid Buddy, will also be involved with the Simpsons’ latest “Treehouse of Horror” extravaganza.

Our Take: Is it possible that Family Guy has mellowed out a little as the animated comedy enters its third decade on the air? Because while its Halloween theme permeates, this special to open the series’ 25th anniversary season is actually a little surprising in how not crass it is. Halloween is a target-rich environment for low-brow humor, or the way in which the writing on Family Guy always loves to personally zing a character. But when Joe Swanson describes his dedication to and adoration of the enormous gourd growing in his front yard, the laughs Peter and Cleveland and Quagmire direct their friend’s way feel mostly gentle instead of cheap and cutting.

Maybe it’s not so much a mellowing as it is an understanding. While Family Guy has always fed off its own brand of irreverence, and there are fans who will faithfully tune in forever for exactly that, wouldn’t any twentysomething series want to explore a little growth? When the chronically overweight main character of your show makes his usual fat joke, only to follow that up with the observation that maybe the bit went too far, it seems like that could count as growth, right? Then again, Family Guy observing its own sense of humor from a distance could also be another way for the already cutaway-obsessed, meta-humor-addicted show to build in yet another layer of self-aware jokeability. Anyways. Family Guy’s mostly gonna keep being Family Guy. And for now it’s funny to hear Peter’s commentary from inside the walls of Joe’s giant pumpkin.Â

Sex and Skin: You mean beyond the handful of insensitive, unfunny jabs at subjects like marital infidelity and sexual assault that Family Guy can’t ever seem to resist making? Then no, nothing.

Parting Shot: Whether or not Stewie actually has the power to imbue his stuffed animals with life, it’s pretty much a guarantee that he’ll converse with Rupert as if the teddy bear was his IRL bff.

Sleeper Star: The traditional, show-within-the-show quality of what Brian and Stewie get up to on Family Guy continues here, with their antics run through a Spooky Season reference generator. (This includes bits about mad scientists, graveyards, “80s Halloween boob movies,” and somehow, present-day Anthony Kiedis.)

Most Pilot-y Line: Joe’s feud with Patrick McCloskey gets funnier as it gets more absurd. “All I hear are whispers from all the pumpkin bloggers saying McCloskey’s reign is over.”

Our Call: Stream It. The Griffins do a Halloween special much as you’d expect – with their usual couldn’t-possibly-work gags and frequent cutaway bits, all customized for Scary Season. And for Family Guy lifers, the Halloween theme also celebrates the arrival of the show’s 25th season.

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