Family Guy Thread (Ladies and Gentleman, Mr Conway Twitty!)

[Andrew]

They've gone about as far as I'd care to see them go with the Brian/Lois idea. There's been two episodes about it and plenty of one-time references or jokes concerning Brian having feelings for Lois, they don't need to go any further.

[BIG GREEN]

What? no one likes dog on female beastiality?

[el badman]

What? no one likes dog on female beastiality?

Indeed, this forum's going down the drain...

[Andrew]

I guess I've been exposed as a prude.

[Sauru]

They've gone about as far as I'd care to see them go with the Brian/Lois idea. There's been two episodes about it and plenty of one-time references or jokes concerning Brian having feelings for Lois, they don't need to go any further.

i would say the joke is a bit old now also, but then again that entire show has been known for taking jokes wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy beyond the point of funny

[BIG GREEN]

The pot shots on celebs and other shows kinda iritate me also....the writers are comming across a bit too conceited and "holier-than-thou".

[Andrew]

Glad to know I'm not the only one. They'd be less intrusive if they were actually funny or perhaps more accurately, less hypocritical. I mean, all the shots at Robin Williams suggesting he's repetitive or that Jack Black's movies all follow the same formula are the same kinds of criticisms that can be made of Family Guy. They really do come off as holier-than-thou, conceited and exceedingly smug which pretty much sucks the humour out of those gags.

[benji]

I'll be a dickhead, and bump this to jump on the bandwagon and lament Family Guy. I don't care about celebrity shots or cutaways, because that's just evidence they don't have any smart writers and are indeed using manatees.

If anything, the worst part of Family Guy is its moralizing. It is entirely simplistic and elitist, compared to the more nuanced and depthful South Park. A good example, I saw this week back-to-back, are the Wal-Mart episodes.

Family Guy just depicts it as this grand evil that destroys Quahog and they're all powerless (literally) to its evil until Peter and Brian destroy it. South Park mentions the "great deals", that the heart of it is "you" and shows the townspeople as doing the same thing to Jim's Drugs and implies they will to True Value. South Park follows this philosophy in "Gnomes" and many other episodes.

Another Family Guy example is the simplistic Texas episode, where it depicts the entire state (which is in reality a mini-US) as cowboy racist crackers. "Ha Ha! I'm superior, and this cartoon show confirms it" can only supply so many laughs.

Yes, I understand its supposidly just for comedic effect and humor, but tell that to fans who think Family Guy joins the Daily Show as some sort of social/political commentary that is unmatched historically.

[Andrew]

I think their explanation of why they can't really write for Meg also demonstrates their limitations. Fair enough, I can't identify with being a teenage girl either but you look at shows like The Simpsons that also have a predominantly male writing staff that have been able to do episodes that focus on the female characters and utilise them effectively. As noted in the DVD commentaries, David M. Stern made writing for Marge, Patty and Selma his niche on the show even though he obviously didn't have any firsthand knowledge of what it was like to be a woman in her 30s like Marge or 40s (presumably) like her sisters.

[Andrew]

Synopsis for "The Former Life of Brian", set to air on April 27th:

Brian discovers that he is the illegitimate father of an old flame's son. Brian takes it upon himself to raise the child and takes him home, who proves to be more than a handful for everyone. After learning Brian's parenting approach is too self-centered, Peter and Lois decide to teach him a lesson.

Kind of a disturbing idea as I'm guessing the old flame will be a human female and not a dog, though probably no more so than the Brian/Lois or Brian/Gillian plots they've done. I don't think they need to go down that road anymore ("Love Blactually" would seem to share a similar theme if the preview is accurate) but I suppose it's something we're supposed to put out of our minds.

[cyanide]

Kind of a disturbing idea as I'm guessing the old flame will be a human female and not a dog

I really, really think so too. If that is the case, then what the child will look like would be even more disturbing.

[Oznogrd]

I really, really think so too. If that is the case, then what the child will look like would be even more disturbing.

Like Ted Turner and a greyhound is my guess...

[Andrew]

That wouldn't be so bad but how many times can that gag be funny? We're probably meant to overlook things like that when it comes to Family Guy but it's getting a bit much for my tastes.

[Oznogrd]

Well for myself being from the area where Ted Turner used to be God i find them pretty hysterical, the rest of the country barely even know who he is though.

[Andrew]

Sure, but the gag's been done now. If they repeat it in the next episode it probably won't be as a funny.

[el badman]

I thought last night's episode was a big letdown. I guess that even in Family Guy, there's only up to some extent that you can accept complete absurdities. Most of the time, it's done in a detached and funny manner but in that episode, having a son that is older than Brian just seems to ruin the whole concept. Especially if the son turns out to be the stereotypical rebel kid who hates everyone, and when Brian dealing with it becomes more irritating than anything. Terrible episode with painfully weak writing.

[Andrew]

It really was a bottom of the barrel episode. The pre-emptive strike in Brian's line ("Why don't you get on the Internet and complain") probably made a lot of people laugh at the expense of Internet geeks anywhere but it doesn't change the fact it was a poor idea for an episode and badly executed. Family Guy should really cut out the lengthy and repetitive swipes at other shows and movies. Right now, they're like Deshawn Stevenson taking shots at LeBron James; if they're going to do that, they better bring their A game and right now, they're definitely not.

The cutaways have always been a staple of the show but they pretty much all fell flat. The Matthew McConaughey is a perfect example of a really bad cutaway, lasting way too long and not being incredibly funny to begin with. I'm not even a fan of Matthew McConaughey, I've never seen one of his movies and I have no argument against the shots taken at him, nor any idea how accurate they may be, but after the first 15-20 seconds, you're left thinking "OK, you don't like him, you think he's a bad actor. We get it. Now get over it."

[el badman]

The cutaways have always been a staple of the show but they pretty much all fell flat. The Matthew McConaughey is a perfect example of a really bad cutaway, lasting way too long and not being incredibly funny to begin with. I'm not even a fan of Matthew McConaughey, I've never seen one of his movies and I have no argument against the shots taken at him, nor any idea how accurate they may be, but after the first 15-20 seconds, you're left thinking "OK, you don't like him, you think he's a bad actor. We get it. Now get over it."

Yeah, if they do take shots at other celebrities/shows, I think the shortest ones are usually the best. The one with McCaunaghey was just embarrassingly weak and annoying. But I was even more annoyed with Brian becoming the over-concerned dad who's afraid of everything when it has to do with his son. Just from smoking a joint with him, that transition was just lame as hell.

[Andrew]

It's even worse when the shots aren't justified. I feel those kinds of zingers are a lot better when the person has brought scorn upon themselves or the show/movie really was terrible. But even with the McConaughey cutaway where I really have no opinion on whether it was justified or not, dragging it out was pointless and awkward.

Brian did become annoying towards the end though the whole premise was terrible to begin with so for me it was just a small annoyance in an awful episode.

[cyanide]

The Office, American Dad, and now Family Guy... the new episodes have been letdowns. I hear great things about South Park and Robot Chicken, but I haven't been able to justify full cable yet.

Let's hope House doesn't disappoint.

[Andrew]

The South Park episodes are available to watch on the official website these days if you wanted to check them out. I've been a bit underwhelmed by their current season myself but I'd probably place it above the latest efforts by The Simpsons and Family Guy.

[el badman]

Yeah, I've been watching the new South Park episodes online (some links are on the 1st page of the SP thread), and so far I haven't been disappointed at all, unlike the other series. A couple of episodes were not phenomenal, but the rest is top notch as always. At least, one of these series is getting it right this season...

[[Q]]

the new episode wasn't that great. However, the Mexican funeral had mw dying of laughter but other than that, not so great. I was a little weirded out by Stewie acting a little more openly gay too. usually the subtle innuendos did thte trick but it was too much this time

[Joe']

I thought this week's episode was a bit weak too. A part from the Mexican funeral and the two foreign guys at the coffee house bits, it was just average.

[Andrew]

Synopsis for the season finale:

Peter buys a pet parrot and begins to believe he is a pirate. Not surprisingly, it all goes to his head as he literally becomes the scourge of the neighborhood until he accidentally kills his beloved bird. Meanwhile, Chris takes Brian to the vet and falls hoplessly in love with an intern whom he meets there.

A bit more promising in terms of the plot but if the cutaways and pop culture swipes are anything like the last episode, it won't matter much.