Seahorse Seashell Party (Family Guy)

Seahorse Seashell Party is the second episode of the tenth season of Family Guy. It aired on October 2, 2011, as part of the Fox Animation Domination block's "Night of the Hurricane" event.

Summary
Following the events of The Cleveland Show episode "The Hurricane!", Hurricane Flozell has hit Quahog, trapping the Griffins inside their own home. This results in Brian taking magic mushrooms to pass time while stuck at home and Meg finally losing it over the rest of the family's poor treatment of her.

Why This Party Sucks

 * 1) It has way too much filler for a single episode. It's filled to the brim with it, making it a total bore to get through.
 * 2) Misleading Title: There's nothing about seahorses or seashells, and no parties are had in this episode.
 * 3) Peter, Lois, and Chris are all unlikable for trying to justify Meg's horrible treatment throughout the show. This is one of two episodes where Peter is at his absolute worst (the other being "Fresh Heir").
 * 4) The entire episode takes place in Griffin household, which is uneventful and boring.
 * 5) Most of the jokes in this episode are lazy, serve no purpose but filler, and are all weak attempts at humor.
 * 6) *Peter talks nonstop while the family plays charades.
 * 7) *Peter makes “dad noises” for sixty seconds straight.
 * 8) *The family plays with handgun gestures and says they’ll fingerbang each other, but when Meg joins in, they stop playing to insult her for no reason.
 * 9) *Peter hums the opening chase them from "Indiana Jones and the last Crusade", annoying the family, this scene drags on for almost a minute, and when Meg opens a soda can Peter yells at her for being "annoying", which is hypocritical.
 * 10) *The sound of Brian lapping water is loudly audible in the background. The episode even interrupts Meg scolding Chris to focus on Peter laughing at Brian drinking in the other room.
 * 11) *The “Italian man and black woman” and “Irish Bar Fight” cutaways have nothing to do with the rest of the episode.
 * 12) *Stewie advising the viewer to not do drugs and go to a library seems rather forced.
 * 13) Speaking of "the scene where family fingerbang each other", That scene rips off a South Park joke.
 * 14) The episode tries to portray Meg as in the wrong for standing up to her family and splitting them apart when they actually deserve it.
 * 15) Plot Hole: Chris is shown to be annoyed at Peter’s humming, but later says he find it entertaining.
 * 16) There's a scene in Brian's subplot where he has a drug trip, and the imagery is very surreal and extremely horrifying.
 * 17) *There's a bit in his drug trip where Peter is seen as a pig roast while singing "Wheels On the Bus", which is very disturbing.
 * 18) *Then out of nowhere, Stewie does a jump-scare that only exists to transition into a disturbing filler scene.
 * 19) *Before that, there is a scene where Brian cuts his ear off, a la Vincent Van Gogh. This seems very imitable and even for a TV-14 show, it's not appropriate.
 * 20) Extremely lazy writing that is lazier than any other Family Guy episode.
 * 21) Brian, while tolerable earlier, is unlikable towards the end, when Meg wonders if she would be the "lightning rod" of the family, he said he agrees on that because he said she's the "strongest" person in this house.
 * 22) Awful Ending: After Meg realizes she was the "lightning rod" of the family, She apologizes to her family for standing up to them, and instead of accepting the apology, The family starts blaming her for the fight.
 * 23) *Not to mention that Meg calling out her family only to go back to being their punching bag makes this entire aspect of the episode pointless.
 * 24) Terrible moral: Stay in an abusive relationship so the person abusing you will be happy. Abuse is not okay, and if you're in such a relationship, don't stay in it. Instead, communicate with someone you trust and leave the abuser.
 * 25) *What's worse is that the very next episode is about how you shouldn't do that, showing hypocrisy.
 * 26) *This episode teaches another terrible moral: Standing up for yourself is wrong. This is shown when Meg stands up to her family but when she does so, the standing up is portrayed as bad because it causes the family to fall apart and tear into each other, leading her to apologize for standing up to them.
 * 27) This episode was seemingly made in response to criticism towards the show for constantly resorting to mean-spirited tones and plots often. In this case, this episode resorts to mocking fans who criticize the show for constantly abusing and tormenting Meg.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Meg and Stewie are the only likable characters, and this is one of the few times that Seasons 8-15 Meg has her original personality.
 * 2) *And Brian was somewhat okay before telling Meg she should go back to being the punching bag.
 * 3) Meg finally stands up for herself, which is very satisfying (although at the end where she apologizes to her family for standing up to them), and calls out her family for all of their wrongdoings.
 * 4) *She calls out Chris for never willingly trying to help her out and joining in on the horrible treatment of her.
 * 5) *She calls out Lois for arrogantly having superiority over her life when she is no better for being a drug-addicted adult film star who cheated on Peter more than once, and a kleptomaniac who lets her suffer, leading Lois to break down crying, which is nothing short of satisfying.
 * 6) *She calls out Peter for treating her the most and being a reckless, irresponsible, and immature drunk who thinks he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it and makes Peter run away and cry.
 * 7) Say what you will about Brian's drug trip, but the character designs are pretty imaginative.
 * 8) Stewie gets a few funny moments. Depending on your view, the scene where he suddenly gains a live-action mouth (which is a technique known as Synchro-Vox) and quotes Time Bandits, along the "Stewie Just Said That!" line can be funny.
 * 9) The G.I. Jose show cutaway is pretty hilarious, and relevant to a scene in the episode.
 * 10) Unlike other episodes, this is one containing relatively few cutaways.
 * 11) Peter singing the "Indiana Jones" theme can be funny, depending on your point of view.
 * 12) While the actual moral is bad, the moral Stewie gives about trying out drugs is at least not meant to be taken seriously. Despite being out of the blue.

Reception
Seahorse Seashell Party was critically lambasted by fans, audiences, viewers, and critics; it has a 6.4/10 on IMDb. The A.V. Club's Kevin McFarland gave it a D+ for "shifting to a much more dramatic bottle episode and reaching for emotional payoffs...too late" into the show's ten seasons on the air, claiming this did not work because they had never tried to establish an emotional connection between the audience and the Griffins the way The Simpsons had successfully done with their characters; he also believed the subplot was only slightly better.

Trivia

 * It spawned the “You guys always act like you're better than me” meme.
 * The name of the episode is a reference to a popular YouTube video called "Drinking Out of Cups" about a man on acid who talks about various images such as seashells and seahorses.

Videos
 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tzK6WSV9e_I  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqZE7ZKcQA  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hLAjwLymCbY  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fME5bhdcoFE