Main cast: Anne Meara (Greta Pignon), Jerry Stiller (Victor Pignon), Robert Clohessy (Stanley Offal), Amy Stiller (Anya Pignon), and Karen Shallo (Agnes Peabody)
Director: Alex Zamm
Ooh, Ben Stiller’s parents and sister show up in One Wolf’s Family—maybe they were all available for hire at a special 3-for-1 rate just for Monsters.
Victor and Greta are getting ready to welcome their newly engaged daughter Anya and Anya’s fiancé for a family dinner. Victor has killed a jogger to be served at dinner just for the occasion.
There’s just a catch: Stanley “eats” a little different from them. That’s right: he’s not a werewolf like them, much to Victor’s horror.
Worse, he’s a werehyena—a “miserable, giggling, lowlife scavenger” according to the horrified Victor.
This episode starts out with comedy Jerry Stiller yelling and shouting at the top of his voice, and the rest of the cast shouting and screaming back at him. I start to brace myself as I anticipate having to endure another unfunny Monsters “comedy” episode, but fortunately, things get a lot better once Stanley shows up.
From that point on, Victor begins to prod and insult Stanley, as he being the self-styled alpha wolf wants to find out for himself that Stanley has what it takes to stand up to him—that will be evidence, in Victor’s eyes, that Stanley is worthy of Anya despite being a werehyena.
Mr Stiller is clearly the star of the show, as he steals every scene he is in for better or for worse. However, his character becomes bearable and even funny once the show allows him to stop yelling like a cartoon character and start delivering real zingers.
Robert Clohessy manages to hold his own against Mr Stiller’s over the top performance, as he manages to capture the annoying mannerisms of a cartoon hyena very well.
Poor Amy Stiller doesn’t have much to do here aside from playing the sweet besotted daughter, but Anne Meara and her husband make for an entertaining couple with her being the sensible one that patiently talks some sense into him and he being a softy where she is concerned.
In the end, the reconciliation can be seen coming from a mile away, but there are some sweet family interactions, some genuinely amusing moments in the later half of the episode, and a cute take home message about how everyone can be free to be what they are in America.
Well, that last bit aged like milk when one looks at the current state of that country where you’re not allowed to be white, straight, born female, Christian, Harry Potter fan, right-leaning, or whatever their social and mainstream media consider a no-no of the moment, but still, the episode has its heart in the right place.
