Family Guy Season 24 Ranked: Every Episode from Skip-Worthy to Must-Watch
Family Guy just closed the book on Season 24—now comes the real fun: crowning the episodes that ruled Quahog. With Fox shake-ups still rippling through the series, we break down the year’s can’t-miss standouts.
Family Guy just wrapped Season 24, which was shorter than usual thanks to Fox sliding the show to midseason as part of its tweaked Animation Domination lineup. Short season, yes, but not quiet: the series blew past its 450th episode, wandered out of Quahog a few times, dabbled in multiple anthologies, and even went full alternate universe. Some swings landed, some face-planted. Here’s how the episodes stack up, counting down from 15 (roughest) to 1 (best).
The season at a glance
With fewer episodes, the show clearly tried stuff: experiments with format, a couple of reality-breaking anthologies, a time-warping finale, and a full-on Western detour. If you like watching the writers toy with the form, this season scratched that itch.
The ranking
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15) Man-Fest Destiny
Peter and the guys crash on Fire Island, and then... not much. The show leans on the same old bits about Peter’s sexuality and drags it out with a clunky musical number capped by a cheap Bowen Yang gag. The B-plot has Stewie discovering memes, publishing a book, and Brian getting jealous again. We’ve seen sharper versions of both ideas, which makes this one feel recycled and flat.
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14) Bringing Up Brady
Meg teams up with Tom Brady to call games, which is a fun swing in theory. Brady holds his own, Meg figures out what’s really happening, and thankfully it doesn’t spiral into one of those Meg-goes-nuclear revenge tales. That restraint also keeps it from being super memorable. Meanwhile, Brian and Stewie move into IKEA for a bit, which starts cute and kind of goes nowhere.
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13) Phony Montana
Brian suddenly talks like Tony Montana with a Cuban accent. A single-joke premise that eats the episode, even with a solid callback to Cleveland’s legendary tub fall. On the side, Peter and Lois try to hook up with swingers, which at least gives them some new character designs and accidentally strengthens their marriage. Unfortunately, Brian’s bit hogs the spotlight and the runtime.
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12) Pumpkin Spice Girls
Lois gets Meg hooked on pumpkin spice lattes, complete with trippy visuals, and the two spin up a whole smuggling ring to keep the supply flowing. A rare Joe-and-Quagmire duo tracks them down, and the whole thing stays lively. Best running joke here: Stewie is basically forgotten for months because Mom and Sis are too busy chasing foam and cinnamon.
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11) Lower G.I. Joe
Peter has a super-rare G.I. Joe figure lodged in his colon (you read that right), which comes to light when the guys all prep for colonoscopies together in a rented cabin. Once the figure exits stage left, everyone wants a cut of the big resale payday. There are laughs, but the hook is thinner than it sounds. Brian’s side story about accidentally killing Mayor West’s cat is more grim than funny.
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10) Dear Francis
Peter’s adoptive father returns to the conversation in the most awkward way possible: Peter blurts out 'Francis' in bed with Lois. Instead of admitting it’s the new waitress at the Clam, Peter goes with the wildly worse option: claiming he wanted to sleep with his dead dad. He keeps digging until Lois catches on, and the waitress gets dispatched in a way that’s ice-cold but very, very Family Guy. Squirmy, unique, and committed to the bit.
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9) Scent of a Woman
Brian and Meg episodes usually go deeper because he’s one of the few who actually sees her. Here, Brian gets involved for scumbag reasons, then he and Meg become convinced she has terminal breast cancer and rush to finish her bucket list. Meg eventually gets selfish, Brian’s anger doesn’t entirely land, but the pair’s bond carries it. One of the better Meg outings this year.
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8) The Edible Arrangement
Episode 450 goes small and talky on purpose: Lois and Stewie sit down for some actual honesty, poke at long-running fan theories, and Stewie even cops to those early-days murder plots against Mom. It’s a neat experiment that resets at the end like nothing happened, which keeps it from hitting the top tier on sheer rewatch fun, but the milestone swing is appreciated.
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7) Friend's Best Man
Stewie plans to marry Rupert (again), and Chris crashes the party as chaotic third wheel while Brian gets pushed to the curb. Eventually Brian realizes he’s just afraid of losing his best friend, and the episode restores the Brian/Stewie status quo in a satisfying way. Peter and Lois’s awful sex tape subplot quietly delivers some of the season’s best gags.
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6) Tall Stewie
Two half-stories that work better together than apart: Brian and Stewie discover that stilts make them taller and mysteriously more appealing, while Peter and Lois join a dating app to chase attention. Neither premise could anchor a full A-plot, but the episode trims both to the funniest beats and bails before either wears out its welcome. Smart pacing masks thin premises.
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5) Play Time
One of three anthologies this season, and easily the loosest. Quahog residents perform classic stories in one night — think 'The Odd Couple' with rowdy detours — and the show keeps breaking the plays with winky asides. It’s not as faithful or focused as past anthologies, but the stage-play format lets them be sillier in a way that mostly works.
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4) High School History
The season finale is a tight anthology framed by Brian teaching us history as part of community service for a crime the episode keeps teasing. Three big eras — the French Revolution, the Civil War, World War II — each get a loose, punchy retelling with a running joke threading through all of them. It hits the major beats, has fun with the messiness, and feels like classic anthology form.
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3) Viewer DMs
A modern riff on the show’s early 'Viewer Mail' format, and it’s a blast. We speed-run a Lord of the Rings parody, put the Griffins on the Oregon Trail, and sample a Quagmire spinoff. The Quagmire bit is the weakest and it closes the episode on a softer note, but the package is strong enough that I’d happily see them bring this format back more often.
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2) Let the Good Times Walk
Joe quietly became one of the show’s most reliable characters, and this episode shows why. Instead of hammering his depression, it reframes him as a true 'Average Joe' — bland hobbies, dependable presence — until sleeping pills turn him into 'Joey Goodtimes,' the life of the party. The guys realize they actually miss the old dynamic. If Joe spotlights keep looking like this, do more of them.
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1) A Few More Ways to Die in the West
Seth MacFarlane has been chasing a great Western for years, and this alternate-universe detour finally nails the tone. Peter becomes 'Quiet Burp,' hunting the train robber who stole his money — surprise, it’s Lois — while Brian and Stewie chase a quick fortune on the side. It feels like the most fully dialed-in production of the season: confident, playful, and packed with jokes. If the show wants to do one big genre-bender like this every year, yes please.