YMMV / Family Guy S 7 E 11 Not All Dogs Go To Heaven

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Some people believe that after Stewie killed Denise Crosby to show them he wasn't screwing around, the rest of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast decided to act as annoying and unbearable as possible on purpose so Stewie would send them home sooner. If so, this was a pretty big Batman Gambit on their part, since Stewie could essentially kill them whenever he wanted.
• Anvilicious: The "religion is bad" message could not be more heavy-handed than it is in this episode. In fact, whenever the show is criticized for this trope, chances are extremely high you'll hear about this episode.
• Broken Base: While most thought it was So Okay, It's Average (they hated the main story because it was deemed to be obnoxious in its preaching, but loved the Star Trek story and some of the jokes), some considered it to be a low point of the show.
• Don't Shoot the Message: The intended morals of this episode ("Fundamentalism and willful ignorance in religion can be dangerous" and "Sometimes religion doesn't have all the answers to mankind's unanswered questions") are fairly good ones. But sadly, due to how the episode plays out, the message comes across more as "Believing in God is a waste of time, especially if you're from a family that treats you like crap and your life sucks," and "Atheists know what they're talking about when they say that there is no God and no reason to follow religion." Ulimately, the moral falls flat as Brian comes across as a massive jerk, basically saying Meg not living up to her perception of beauty proves God doesn't exist.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The scene of Brian's Prius being thrown through the house is a little more disturbing given the news of Toyotas being recalled for faulty brakes (for those who don't know, Prius is part of the Toyota brand).
• Jerkass Woobie: Brian, since his treatment initially was unfair. At the same time though, his reaction is still quite dickish, and his reasoning for his lack of faith is rather shallow.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Due to this episode's reputation, some watch this episode solely for the subplot of Stewie meeting the Star Trek cast and skipping over the main plot.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: More like they wasted some perfectly good guest stars. It’s kind of hard not to feel disappointed by the guest appearances of the cast of “The Next Generation”, since their presence was heavily used in the marketing for the episode, yet they’re only here for the side plot that doesn’t really go anywhere. It doesn’t exactly help that the episode’s main storyline is one that’s often criticized.
• Unexpected Character: Suffice to say, no one was expecting Calvin to get a cameo. Rob Lowe comes out of nowhere, too.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The scene mentioned in Drive-Thru Antics on the main page becomes dated after 2016, when McDonald's started serving breakfast all day.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Though Brian is right to stop Meg from burning books, the manner in which he stops her leaves a lot to be desired. His Breaking Speech convincing Meg that God doesn't exist is portrayed as if it's a beautiful moment of logic, but it's been derided as depthless and incredibly mean-spirited. And while this can be chalked up to Brian being Cruel to Be Kind, that's offset by the fact that he didn't need to resort to this speech, as he could've just as easily appealed to her morality, noted that God would disapprove of this behavior, or speak of how religion and science can coexist. To his credit, he does initially try to convince Meg that what she's doing is ethically wrong, but it's only a brief moment and he clearly could've tried to do more with that option. There's also the matter of hypocrisy in his actions, as he talks about how awful Meg's life is, but his choice to shatter her belief instead of guiding it to be a better path takes away one of the few things in her life that that brought her actual happiness.
• The Woobie: Meg can be difficult not to feel sorry for since Brian mocks her for being religious (though she, along with the rest of the town, was being intolerant of Brian's atheism) and argues against the existence of God based solely on her being considered unattractive and living a crappy life.

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