The Finer Strings

"The Finer Strings" is the thirteenth episode of the fifteenth season of the animated sitcom Family Guy, and the 282nd episode overall. It aired on Fox in the United States on February 19, 2017, and is written by Shawn Ries and directed by Joseph Lee.^[1]

Plot

A talent show at James Woods High School consists of 65 performances as the Griffin family attends. Meg and Ruth do a rap act about Monsanto, only for Ruth to hijack the rap and turn it into a platform against killed bees by GMOs, causing Principal Shepherd to end the act. Patty comes on in a car cut-out only for Meg to tell them that the act has ended. During the performance, Lois notices that her father Carter is blind due to his cataracts. Upon denying Lois' help, Carter heads to the bathroom where he unknowingly goes on stage and urinates on a football player during the football team's act, mistaking him for a toilet. Prior to this incident, Peter hears an 11-year-old Korean girl play her violin and is amazed by it.

At the Drunken Clam the next day, Peter tells Glenn Quagmire, Cleveland Brown, and Joe Swanson about the performance he heard and they get the idea to form a violin quartet.

Carter has cataract surgery at the hospital. While he recovers, Lois dumps Brian on him to be his seeing-eye-dog, much to Brian's reluctance. At first, Carter annoys Brian with his behavior, but Brian soon gets used to being affiliated with a rich man due to some of the perks. During rehearsal, Peter plays the violin terribly, much to his friends dismay. They soon decide to form a string quartet, but learn that Peter has yet to practice. When Carter's eyes heal, he gives Brian the brush-off after he suggests they go get some ice-cream, citing that now that he can see again, Brian is no longer needed, much to Brian's disappointment. Venting to Stewie, Brian decides to butter-up Carter to be his pal, but Stewie tells him he's in denial since he's only interested in the money.

The quartet gets their first gig at playing at a wedding, but Peter's lack of practice causes him to be booted out of the group. Lois tells Peter that she agrees with Peter’s friends for kicking him out because Peter didn’t take it seriously and didn’t practice. Realizing she’s right, Peter decided to practice the violin so the guys can welcome him back.

Carter once again brushes Brian off when he visits, so he gets an idea to blind Carter again so that he can be of use to him. Stewie wants no part of it, but reverses his choice when Brian lies to him by claiming that Carter insulted him.

Peter takes lessons from Asian dry cleaner Mr. Washee-Washee, but he proves to be an abusive teacher as he uses an iron on Peter's back. Quagmire watches this after picking up his shirt. Feeling sorry for Peter, Quagmire tells Cleveland and Joe about this. They visit Peter at the Drunken Clam where they welcome him back into the quartet. At Carter's country club, Stewie squirts contaminated water from Flint Michigan into Carter's eyes, but it leaves a severe blister all over his face, making Brian feel horrible for letting his greed get to him. Stewie pulls a lever to move the story along and it cuts to the trio having made up with Carter's face healed. They state they learned a lesson from all of this as the scene pulls away from them.

At the wedding, Peter gives an outstanding performance with the violin, but promptly decides to quit it due to Washee-Washee's abuse. He and his friends are then shown through wedding photos making spectacles of themselves after drinking a lot of alcohol.

Cultural references

At the talent show, Brian stated that most of the acts will be girls dancing to songs from Frozen. When Carter arrives at the auditorium, he points out Jessica Chastain in the audience, only to have Lois complain that he is obviously blind as the woman he was pointing out is Bryce Dallas Howard. A cutaway instructs viewers to guess which of two pixellated photos are Jessica Chastain, but both turn out to be of Carrot Top. Meg's talent show song is set to "The Next Episode" by Dr. Dre. When Brian is reading the comics to Carter, he reads The Wizard of Id. Peter's fake ID turns out to be of actress Kathy Bates.

A Toy Story themed cutaway features Woody walking on Buzz Lightyear in bed with Bo Peep, who quips, "You've got a friend in me." In order to enlist Stewie's help in getting revenge on Carter, Brian tells Stewie that Carter said he wouldn't fit in as a member of One Direction but would possibly be a member of O-Town. In the final scene, during the montage of wedding photos, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons plays in the background.

Reception

The episode received an audience of 2.26 million viewers, an increase from the previous episode.^[2]

Jake Beamer of Bubbleblabber, in a mixed review, gave the episode a 5/10.^[3]

References

External links

• "The Finer Strings" on IMDb
• "The Finer Strings" at TV.com