All images used in this review are from FOXFLASH, Fox’s press release site. Family Guy ©2019 by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. They are used with their permission, as they are publicity images.

Episode summary: Quahog is divided on who they should appoint to be Mayor, so Peter seeks out the deceased Adam’s cousin Wild West to be the new mayor. However, Lois is opposed to this. When Peter gets to Wild’s ranch and asks, he declines, so Peter decides to bring Lois over so he can win her over for Wild’s consideration. While there, Lois is impressed by his calm nature and his craftsmanship and approves.

But when Peter and Lois make out, Lois chants his name multiple times. Upset that she’s sexually into him, Peter decides to tarnish Wild West’s reputation. All Peter’s attempts fail, but one of them starts a fire on Quahog’s public library, and a librarian (for some reason has the same last name as Adolf Hitler?) is trapped into the burning building. Wild West is here to save the day, apparently, as he “levitates” above the ground to catch the falling librarian. The towns people applaud him for his bravery and courage, and Wild West becomes the new mayor of Quahog.

My thoughts: As my first article on this site, I decided to go back to every Family Guy episode in 2020 and pick one to review that I enjoyed the most. Family Guy is a show that I’m very torn upon for many reasons. One of them being that the show has fallen from grace since its early days. I find myself often bored watching. However, they do tend to have their good episodes every now and then, which is why I still tune in to watch the show. One of them is “Wild Wild West”. “Wild West” is a somewhat hybrid of the typical Family Guy fare and an average episode of an animated sitcom, mainly because it contains a lot of the wackiness and over-the-top vibes of Family Guy, but the episode itself is more plot-structured than a typical Family Guy episode, putting the story over most of the jokes.

And this, in my opinion, is how new Family Guy episodes should be, because many of the recent episodes either show how unlikeable the characters can be to the point where you’re actually pissed off (“Better off Meg”), how many jokes they can shove in 22 minutes, no matter how unfunny it is (“La Famiglia Guy”), or a rehashed, boring, by the numbers plot that does nothing to make it different or unique from other episodes so it feels like a waste of time (“Boys & Squirrels”). It’s very rare that recent Family Guy hits for that reason. Recent episodes like “A Lot Going on Upstairs”, “Dog Bites Bear”, “Big Trouble in Little Quahog”, “Switch the Flip”, and “Throw it Away” all did really well because they invested plot over jokes. In sitcoms, there almost always will be at least one unfunny or failed joke. That being said, jokes and comedy can be either hit or miss, but at least a good plot and direction can outweigh unfunny jokes. If there’s no funny jokes, and also, a weak plot device, then the entire episode falls apart.

That being said, in the episode itself, there were some dumb stuff like the Hitler joke, how Wild West can levitate with literally zero explanation, or Peter telling Wild West how many men he’s killed according to Reddit, but the episode’s twist with Peter being upset at Lois during their make out time doesn’t derail the episode and it ended overall quite nicely with a song even, no bullcrap even. I even think that Peter has good tastes as he did enjoy the Jasmine Oolong tea. I also liked seeing him play with the moving mustaches at the ranch and his relatable hand writing.

“Wild West” was a pretty good episode that feels like some of the older episodes. I would say this episode is more of a milestone than “Stewie’s First Word” or “Cutawayland”, as this one introduces a new recurring character and managed to be better structured than those. In fact, there’s not a single cutaway in this episode. If they can do more episodes with the same quality like this and less like “Better off Meg” or “La Famiglia Guy”, and I might start caring about Family Guy again.

Overall score: 7.5/10