2. Vinny Is A Terrible Replacement
Going back to the "Sane Character As An Anchor" theory, we can easily rule out Vinny as a suitable replacement for Brian. Right on his first meeting with Peter, he's schmoozing his way into the family with promises of stolen goods that have "fallen off the truck". (Vinny is also a borderline, if not completely, offensive character when it comes to Italian American stereotypes, but that's the subject of a whole other article.) Instead of pointing out Peter's excessive and insane behavior, it looks like Vinny is not going to like enabling Peter to be even stupider than usual... he's going to love it! Since it's early days still, no one knows how he'll interact with Chris, Meg, or Lois; but the most important relationship was put to the test in Sunday's episode, and it didn't quite pass muster. While Vinny and Stewie did bond over mutual tragedy, the gradual integration of the two characters could have been MUCH better grist for the comedy mill. Think about it, Stewie and Vinny could have had a great adversarial relationship, stretched over half a season or two, which ultimately would have yielded tons of fun gags and an eventual catharsis like the one that was shown in half measure this past weekend. Instead, the show runners brought the Griffins a new dog just as quickly as they killed the other one off, and they did so with as much depth and reverence both times.