Season 1, Episode 12: The Cleveland Show’s The Hurricane

January 17, 2022

The Cleveland Show is an animated sitcom and spin-off show of Family Guy. The Cleveland Show is a painfully mediocre show trying to ride off the success of Family Guy. The only positive attribute is that it is better than its previous show because it does not depend on shock humor, cutaway gags, and pop culture references. In the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 54,461 people identified themselves as nonreligious. Only 19% of nonreligious people face discrimination, but 42.9% of atheists and agnostics face discrimination. The majority of atheist discrimination is from the house because adolescents are vulnerable due to the lack of control of their home life. The Cleveland Show fails to tackle atheist discrimination in their worst episode called “The Hurricane.”

In the beginning, the episode shows the fundamental flaws of the Cleveland Show. Cleveland takes all the food out of the refrigerator and puts it in the sink. The action is similar to Peter Griffin because he does stupid activities without thinking about the consequences. In the old version of Family Guy, Cleveland is a calm person and the voice of reason of his friend group. The changed personality of Cleveland makes Cleveland Show unable to stand out from Family Guy.

The episode has filters. The first time is when the cruise gets canceled over Hurricane Flozell. The family pretends to be on a cruise. The only significant part of the scene is to establish there is no food. The pretend cruise scene can be replaced with one that quickly shows the conflict. The scene could have been replaced by having the family being hungry and going to the kitchen. The second time is when the family sings a song to convert Junior into Christianity. There are no logical arguments of God’s existence; instead, it is about how cool Jesus is, and Junior will go to Hell for not believing in God. Junior has never changed his mind, and the previous scene shows his family discriminating against him over their beliefs.

The family is the worst because they never get punished for discriminating against Junior over his religious beliefs. Donna is out of character because she is an idiot even though she is smart in previous episodes. Donna provides twenty-four hours of food every day because she wants a hung-out place. She forgets about emergencies or a situation where she cannot cook. If she wanted to hang out with her friends in the grocery store, she could have stayed there and bought nothing. Donna does not understand her religion. She states the church is for the need and uses an analogy of a healthy person going to the doctors. The analogy is stupid because healthy people can go to the doctors for a physical exam. Also, the church is a place for worshiping God. When Donna tries to convert Junior, she makes another terrible analogy comparing faith to the force. Star Wars is a fictional movie franchise that is not based on reality. Religion is a belief based on historical events and linked to the accurate world. Faith is the belief without any evidence which makes sense in a non-realistic world. Cleveland belittles his son for being an atheist. Even though Junior does not mock his family members over their religious beliefs, Junior politely refuses to participate in prayer. Junior has a logical reason for not believing in God because Loretta states Jesus forgives her for having an affair with Quagmire, which is an easy way to resolve a conflict. Life never has simple solutions for difficult problems like cheating. The scene when Rallo converts Junior shows Rallo fails to understand Christianity even though he successfully converts everyone in his school. Rallo makes a story about him drawing in the walls causing him to be in timeout and gets forgiveness from Jesus. Junior states Rallo drew on the wall the next day, which shows Rallo believes forgiveness is a free pass to sin.

Forgiveness is a second chance to past mistakes and seeks redemption. The family falsely accuses Junior of hoarding food. There is no reason for the accusation because Junior does nothing wrong for the entire episode and tries to help his family. The only times Junior acts harshly to his family is when he refuses to give them food, which is justifiable. His family outcasts him over his benefits.

The climax and ending is an awful conclusion for the episode. When a tree breaks the roofs and traps Cleveland, the family blames Junior for the atrocity because he made God mad. Cleveland is responsible for getting himself stuck because he is not prepared for a hurricane causing him not to create a safe place. When Junior makes a contraption freeing Cleveland from the tree, the family thanks God for the action for giving Junior the idea of the contraption. The family has not thanked Junior for building the contraption or apologized to him for gaslighting him.

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