After releasing its first Hulu-exclusive special– entitled “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Cheater”– for Halloween back in October, the Seth MacFarlane-created animated sitcom Family Guy is back on Hulu with an all-new holiday special called “Gift of the White Guy” (a riff on the title of O. Henry’s 1905 short story “Gift of the Magi”), out today. Below are my brief recap and thoughts on this installment of the show.
After the classic Family Guy opening title sequence (which is not in any way altered for this holiday special), “Gift of the White Guy” begins with Stewie Griffin (voiced, as always, by creator Seth MacFarlane) writing a letter to Santa Claus. His instinct is to be complimentary toward Santa first before asking for gifts, his first choice being a blouse once worn by Timothy Chalamet. Here’s where the family dog Brian (also MacFarlane) enters and informs Stewie that he is most likely on Santa’s naughty list, but Stewie insists that’s the old Brian– “I haven’t tried to kill Lois for I don’t know how long.” Brian lists other things that Stewie has done besides trying to murder his mother, including not seeing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the theater on opening weekend. So Stewie becomes determined to get on Santa’s nice list at the last minute, much like one of the Three Wise Men picked up a gift from a store called “Myrrh ‘n’ Stuff” at the last minute for Jesus’s birthday.
Next we see Peter Griffin (Seth MacFarlane again, naturally) at work where a meeting has been called to inform employees of this year’s White Elephant gift exchange via an informational video hosted by Jeff Goldblum. Peter’s boss Preston Lloyd (Peter Macon) lets him know that this exchange is mandatory and in fact will be factored into his evaluation for the year. At home, Stewie throws away all his weapons, including those he purchased in a fire sale from Rick and Morty, and then we cut to an "unspecified date in December” when Lois Griffin (Alex Borstein) wants to begin decorating the Christmas tree, and that reminds Peter that his White Elephant gift is due at work the next day. In a panic, he rummages through his bedroom closet until he comes across a Christmas tree-shaped brooch. Cut to the next day, with the White Elephant exchange getting underway. One woman gets a Brad Garrett book, and then Preston draws the Christmas brooch. After getting a desperate text from Lois looking for her beloved brooch, Peter vows to himself to reclaim the item, but he immediately gets distracted and goes for a Cameo message from Jeff Goldblum instead.
At the Griffin home the next morning, Stewie is attempting to be nice to everyone– including Meg (Mila Kunis)– by paying them compliments. We even see a flashback wherein he gives a $1,000 tip to a Starbucks employee who turns out to be the company’s CEO doing an episode of Undercover Boss. Lois explains to Peter why the brooch was so important to her and why it’s so upsetting that it’s now missing, and Peter suggests simply picking another one up at a “cheap lady chaos store.” Next they have to attend Lloyd’s holiday party, where Peter notices that Preston has given the brooch to his elderly mother. He tries several strategies to get it off her, but nothing works, despite the encouragement from a moose head nearby that Peter only hears talking to him because he took a pill that he found on the ground outside. At home, Brian interrupts Stewie’s “anniversary dinner” with the teddy bear Rupert to “run a few philosophical notions” by him after he smoked a joint, a hardship Stewie must endure in his continued efforts to be good. Meanwhile, Peter follows Preston as he drops his mother off at a nursing home, but stops because he believes he will have a hard time getting past the guards.
We see Stewie drafting another letter to Santa Claus when Meg enters with one of the vaporizer rifles he threw away. Stewie scrambles to get it back from her, but in the struggle the gun goes off, turning Meg into a pile of dust. “I hope Santa doesn’t hear about this,” cries Stewie, but we cut to the North Pole and an elf getting a fax, which he grabs and races through the workshop to hand to old St. Nick, who is in the process of getting a massage from another elf. Stewie tries to enlist Brian to help fix things, and then we’re at the Drunken Clam, where Peter is also seeking a little help from his friends. It takes some persuading, but Cleveland Brown (Arif Zahir), Glenn Quagmire (MacFarlane, natch), and Joe Swanson (Patrick Warburton) all sign up for Peter’s plan to break into the nursing home and steal back Lois’s brooch. At home, Brian learns that part of Stewie’s scheme to cover up Meg’s death is to start dressing up in disguise as her, and also hire an actor– possibly Kevin Smith– to replace her on a more permanent basis.
At Rikers Acres Maximum Security Nursing Home, Peter and his three best friends sneak in with a Werther’s hard candy truck and then disguise themselves as exterminators who are there to “spray the urine aroma.” Upon entering Lloyd’s mother’s room, Peter is easily able to take the brooch off of her, prompting Cleveland to comment, “This really was not as hard as you made it out to be.” At home on Christmas Eve, Stewie finally finishes his letter to Santa, concluding that he’s been “a perfect angel” and deserves “lots and lots of presents.” But then he notices Meg’s stocking hanging above the fireplace and changes his mind, confessing to the accident and asking only for Meg’s return instead of any gifts for himself. After a magical overnight snowfall, Home Alone-style, Stewie wakes up and comes downstairs to find Meg hogtied under the Christmas tree. She doesn’t remember anything about what happened, but seems physically fine except her legs are on backwards. “Eh, close enough. Rush job. Busy night for Santa,” remarks Stewie. Then Peter runs down the stairs and is thrilled to find a stick under the tree, though Lois reminds him that’s for Brian.
Here’s where Peter gives the brooch back to Lois and, after some prodding, admits to what really happened. “So your Christmas gift to your wife is something that she already owned,” Lois points out, but then she acknowledges that there’s not enough time left in the episode for her to be annoyed. The camera zooms out of the living room to reveal Meg, legs still on backwards, playing fetch with Brian and his new stick outside. Later that morning, Lois decides that Mrs. Lloyd was the only one who didn’t get what she wanted for Christmas, so they go back to the nursing home and pin the brooch back on her in her sleep. Then Lois berates Peter for never having seen It’s a Wonderful Life while Mrs. Lloyd bleeds to death in the background from the hole the pin has punctured in her skin, despite the doctors’ attempts to resuscitate her.
It’s a dark ending, though not out of character for Family Guy as an example of contemporary adult animation. But as far as this “holiday special” goes, “Gift of the White Guy” feels a whole lot more like a standard Christmas-themed episode of the regular series that just got dumped on Hulu because FOX decided not to air this season of the series as part of its fall schedule. If I had to put money down on how these two Hulu specials came to be, that would be my bet. At the same time, this installment of Family Guy isn’t necessarily better or worse than the average episode you’d see if you tuned into FOX (I haven’t been a regular viewer of the show in about 15 years, but I catch one every once in a while). It’s definitely nothing to write home about, but it’s diverting enough for what it is and has a few decent laughs along the way.
The 25th season of Family Guy is set to premiere on FOX in the spring.