Family Guy: Something, Something, Something Dark Side

With Blue Harvest, Seth Macfarlane and his team did what every lightsaber-owning Family Guy fan had been waiting for - a Star Wars-focussed special. However, while their retelling of A New Hope offered up a few brilliant observations and some laughs (the "Red Leader Standing By", "Simply Red Standing By" still brings a smile to the face), it was also a bit hit-and-miss. Thankfully, the force is stronger with the sequel, which 'does' The Empire Strikes Back...

Following a power cut in the Griffin house, Peter (Macfarlane, voice) tells his family the second part of the Star Wars saga, only with Family Guy characters in the roles instead.

Like Harvest, Something, Something, Something Dark Side - named after a joke from the show about the discovery of how to write Emperor dialogue - is bursting with detail and a clear love for the world George Lucas created. Made with the full blessing of Big George and Lucasfilm (no small feat) we get the same score, plot and sound effects while many of the shots are frame-for-frame recreations of the actual movie. The casting is mostly the same as Blue Harvest (evil toddler Stewie as Darth, odd teen Chris as Luke), but this time we also get Peter's nemesis The Giant Chicken as Boba Fett. Plus, the uses of wheelchair user Joe and perma-wallflower Meg are genius.

What this all means, though, is that this is a feature which will only be truly appreciated by Star Wars fans who know the movies inside and out. Sure, there's a few unrelated chuckles to be found, but without a really intimate knowledge of the material (such as Han taking ages to say "and I thought they smelled bad... on the outside") many gags will go over viewers' heads. Regardless, Brian's observation about Lando's wardrobe is fantastic.

Still more for fans of Star Wars than Family Guy (although being both is ideal), Something, Something, Something Dark Side is an improvement over its predecessor.