Fifty five seconds in, I’m not kidding, fifty five seconds in, “Family Guy” manages to meet my expectations in the sense of laziness concerning the writers. Does this show still have writers? Are they just floating around in big pools compiling scripts on cocktail napkins now? Do they even care anymore? Within the first minute, “It’s A Trap!” squeezes in a joke about the nineties, before the Griffins experience another blackout. Just like “Blue Harvest.” Except with the aforementioned special, there was some set-up. Here the family groans at the black out and Stewie asks “We’re doing Jedi now, aren’t we?” to which Peter groans and declares “Let’s just get through this.” So… what’s the joke here? Were the writers obligated to finish off the trilogy? Are they making it heard to their fan base that they don’t even want to do this final installment? Are they echoing our thoughts on yet another “Star Wars” satire? Does the fan base even care that the writers aren’t even trying anymore?
The first page of the script: The Griffins are watching TV at home, cue a cutaway, and then we begin with “It’s a Trap!” Let’s get writing. So that’s all the fan base is given for their loyalty? A lazy set-up to a drawn out finale? And are they going to tackle the prequels after this? Well in either case further exemplifying my opinion that “American Dad” is the better show, “It’s a Trap!” is a one hour satire of… either “Family Guy” satirizing “Star Wars” or “Return of the Jedi,” I’m not actually sure about this. The opening scroll reveals pure and simple what “It’s a Trap!” is. Seth McFarlane wanted to make his talking bear movie (that’s going to be a masterpiece) and FOX made them create this spoof of “Return of the Jedi.”
They explain it to the audience explicitly and don’t hold back any facts about McFarlane basically being forced in to this satire. So why should we watch “It’s a Trap!” if the creator of “Family Guy” didn’t even want to do this? Why is this show so popular, again? People keep asking me “Why do you watch this show if you hate it so much?” but this series is something of an anomaly because it’s the perfect representation of a show that doesn’t even care to try and still is a success. Shows in the past tried for big success and continued to want to please fans. But for the series to admit to its loyal fan-base (still in denial): “We don’t want to be here, we have to be here, we don’t even care, but please buy the DVD anyway,” is just despicable.
Meg is the Sarlacc monster allowing Mila Kunis two lines of dialogue to free up time for making quality films like “Black Swan,” Seth Green continues collecting paychecks while filming a better animated show, and the one hour special rehashes a lot of the random “Star Wars” jokes we saw in non-Wars oriented episodes including Billy Dee gags, Boba Fett jabs, riffs on Jabba’s language, the incest undertones between Luke and Leia, there’s another riff on Yoda’s long death, more gags about the added effects for the special editions, and they even manage to squeeze in a pun about a Han job.
Get it? Because it sounds like hand job. There are plenty of fart jokes. Another Conway Twitty interlude. No seriously, I’m not just listing the episode’s jokes, there really isn’t a plot beyond the basic structure of “Return of the Jedi” and beyond that the writers manage to squeeze in cameos with characters from “The Cleveland Show,” and–my favorite–“American Dad.” Oh and the entire episode ends bashing show creator McFarlane. I just enjoyed that bit even if it’s a self-aware jab at the show’s bashers for the fans still in denial about the quality of McFarlane’s series.
It’s rather ironic to watch a show mock George Lucas for submitting to his own greed and inevitably losing touch with the vision of his own work, only to end up being motivated strictly by cash and its creator’s obvious loss of vision with his own creative work. “It’s a Trap!” is a lazy and exhausting rehash of the “Star Wars” gags that doesn’t even try for clever or original, so you’re better off creating your own gags or just watching the “Robot Chicken” specials that somewhat aim for entertainment value. Or maybe just getting over the fact that “Return of the Jedi” kind of sucked and moving on with your life? How about that?