‘Family Guy’ season 12, episode 8 review: Is Brian back from the dead?

When Seth MacFarlane and the team behind “Family Guy” decided to kill off the Griffin’s family dog Brian the internet completely imploded.

Not only is Brian gone from the show, but he’s also gone from the opening credits and replaced by their new dog Vinny and while there’s nothing really wrong with Vinny (and in fact he’s actually kinda funny), fans want Brian back. So is there any hope that he might be coming back?

There have been rumors that Brian might be coming back tonight, but would it be through a request from Santa, a Christmas miracle, or not at all? Also if Brian does come back what exactly is going to happen to Vinny… will this be a two dog family?

This Christmas themed episode focused on Stewie missing Brian and how upset he is that he is going to be celebrating his first holiday without his best friend. He asks a random mall Santa to bring him Brian for Christmas, but it’s not looking good. Vinny feels terrible that Stewie is depressed over Brian and dresses up like Brian trying to cheer him up. When that doesn’t work, he takes Stewie to the toy store and offers to buy him anything he wants. While at the toy store, Stewie sees a version of himself that he sent into the future and realizes that if he can mug the future him of the time machine in his back pack that can alter the course of time before Brian died to save him. Unfortunately this means that Vinny would have never existed.

So did it work? It did and Brian is now part of the family again… unfortunately there’s no more Vinny, which is a bit of a bummer since we really liked what he brought to the show and to the family. As far as Christmas episodes go, this was pretty great… Stewie, the Griffins and “Family Guy” fans all got Brian back and everything is as it’s always been. Grade: B+

Are you happy to see Brian back on the show or were you hoping that Vinny would still be part of the family? Leave us a comment and tell us what you thought of tonight’s “Family Guy” episode. Also, click here to see what Seth MacFarlane had to say about this decision.

Photo: Fox