Brian and Stewie Hit the Right Notes

TV SPECIAL REVIEW
Family Guy Halloween Special: A Little Fright Music
TV-14 -     

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Musical, Holiday Special
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 22m
Cast: Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Arif Zahir
Where to Watch: premieres October 6, 2025, on Hulu and Disney+

RAVING REVIEW: FAMILY GUY may be past its 25th birthday, but this Halloween special proves the Griffins can still make mischief feel fresh. A show that’s never shied away from blending parody with musical theater, FAMILY GUY doubles down on that formula in its new Halloween one-off, A LITTLE FRIGHT MUSIC. Debuting exclusively on Hulu, the special serves as a mission statement for the series' enduring appeal: irreverence delivered with precision, bolstered by a willingness to skewer both pop culture and suburban mundanity. For a series now past its 25th anniversary, the decision to anchor a holiday special in original music is both a nod to its history and a reminder that the show can still surprise.

The central conceit is split between two parallel storylines. Brian and Stewie, ever the show’s odd-couple duo, decide the world has a deficit of Halloween-themed songs. Their quest to pen the next “Monster Mash” becomes both a parody of the music industry and a self-aware riff on FAMILY GUY’s own musical legacy. Meanwhile, Peter, Quagmire, Joe, and Cleveland stumble into a plot about trick-or-treating gone awry, where a simple white lie spirals into darker consequences. The contrast works: one half satire on creativity, the other a twisted take on small-town rituals.

The music isn’t just a gimmick but a driver of narrative, with fully staged numbers that parody Broadway spectacle while maintaining the show’s signature wit. The orchestrations have weight—you can feel the production leaning on the Emmy pedigree of its music team—and the commitment to the humor is palpable.

Voice performances continue to carry the bulk of the load. Seth MacFarlane toggles between Peter’s cluelessness, Stewie’s melodrama, Brian’s sardonic skepticism, and Quagmire’s sleaze with a bite that hasn’t dulled. Alex Borstein remains the show’s secret weapon, grounding the chaos with Lois’s exasperated asides, while Seth Green and Mila Kunis add familiarity as Chris and Meg. Arif Zahir, now settled into Cleveland’s voice, ensures the ensemble doesn’t feel fragmented. The interplay between MacFarlane’s characters alone could sustain a half-hour, but the full cast elevates it into something sharper.

From a critical perspective, the special’s biggest strength is how it leans into FAMILY GUY’s longevity. By choosing Halloween, a holiday steeped in tradition and reinvention, the writers can both revisit old tricks and poke fun at themselves. That said, the special isn’t flawless. The “deadly consequences” subplot wobbles, occasionally veering too far into shock for shock’s sake. Some gags feel like sketches that could have landed harder if given more depth or tied back to the musical throughline. The animation quality is reliably on par with expectations. The production knows how to stage a musical, and the choreography of characters—even in exaggerated cartoon form—has a sharpness. Halloween imagery provides the animators with plenty to work with: pumpkins, costumes, spooky lighting, and visual gags that riff on horror tropes without compromising the show’s house style.

As a Hulu exclusive, the special also represents the streaming era’s willingness to treat long-running network series as cross-platform properties. For FAMILY GUY, which has always thrived on reruns and its rewatchability, this makes sense. The series may not carry the same cultural dominance it did in its early seasons, but this special shows there’s still juice left in the tank, especially when leaning on music and holiday theming. There will always be something special about a series with roots like this one.

A LITTLE FRIGHT MUSIC is less about breaking new ground and more about reminding audiences why FAMILY GUY persists. It’s crude, clever, musical, and just self-aware enough to turn its excesses into part of the gag. After 25 years, the show doesn’t need to reinvent itself, but it proves it can still deliver a themed half-hour that feels both familiar and alive. It’s nice to see the series being able to understand its origins while trying to give fans what they want in the present day. Twenty-five years in, FAMILY GUY still knows how to sing its old tricks with new teeth—crude, clever, and undead in all the right ways.

#FamilyGuy

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[photo courtesy of HULU, 20TH TELEVISION]

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