There are three overall complaints I have about this episode: The Cleared Up Complaints, The Wasted Potential Complaints, and the General Complaints.
1. Cleared Up Complaints: These are things I was going in ready to whine about. As in stuff I feared I would have to complain about, like say Lois's death or even the whole ending. However instead of a predictable Dues Ex Machina of say God or Death or anyone expected, Lois ended up being saved by a fish-man and had an actual story (even if it was fairly unfunny) on where she was during the year. It at least makes sense in the FG universe so there's no use complaining about it. Then there's the ending. Obviously we knew it'd be some sort of cheat, and at first the whole virtual simulator ending felt like it was taken from Aqua Teen's "Super Birthday Snake" but then they had Brian and Stewie talk about it and have Brian mention it did feel like a pretty bad cheat and have Stewie argue that as long as you're entertained by it that it's okay. And of course ending with the Sopranos ending joke was a nice touch so yeah desptie being a cheat it was an enjoyable cheat.
2. Wasted Potential Complaints: These are the things I saw in the preview wondering how they'd handle in the actual episode. Specifically the two crossovers. I suppose the American Idol crossover works for what it is (a minute cutaway parodying an audition's response to being judged by Simon, Paula and Randy) but the American Dad crossover felt really wasted. Okay yeah I know they want to potray it as two different shows and just had Stan and Bullock here with Stewie going into the C.I.A, but really it's just a kind of quick cameo we've already seen with FG refrencing AD. Do something more with it. Like have Stan and Bullock try and help Lois pentreate security or something like that. So it dosen't feel like a full on waste of a show.
3. General Complaints: Pretty much like every Family Guy there are some jokes that just don't hit off with me. You know the ones: They aren't really too funny and go on for too long. For example besides the man fish most of the rest of Lois's story was rather meh, as was Joe's search for Stewie (I mean did we really need another appearence by that spanish maid? Wasn't funny the first time writers aint going to be funny the second time). Such as the Rob Schinder rumor (with all the stuff you could make fun of as celebrity rumors, that's kind of stupid. And I dont' even think that was suppose to be the point of it), Willam Dafoe under Stewie's bed (maybe if they had made a Spider-Man joke but Nooo that'd be referncing something more current wouldn't it?), Disney DTVs (I liked the idea but not only is it outdated since they supposedley aren't making those DTVs anymore but Jafar needing glasses? That's not funny espically for how long they were doing it), The Total ad (haven't they already made fun of Total) and pretty much everything else of the Stewie in office stuff.
That's not to say that there weren't moments of this episode I enjoyed. I liked the Opening with Allie Williams (even if his stint is getting old), Stewie beating up Peter for not remembering his picture, Brian having to insult Joe (I don't think they needed to do it twice though but FG does that a lot: Repeat good jokes to make them less funny. Or I admitt sometimes somewhat funnier), Chris not being tied up but not mentioning it for 14 hours, Lois and Peter switching bodies (guess thaty could be an ep in itself if they wanted to), the annoying paper clip showing up, Peter punishing Meg for Chris throwing apples at him (I don't like Meg bashing humor normally but that worked for me oddly enough), and of course the whole Stewie vs Lois fight (espically Peter coming in at the end with his non working action lines). I mean it wasn't a bad episode but it still hade a lot of blah moments for me. I think for the impact it had (and for the fight scene) I'll say it was a decent one.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.