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

[ixcuincle]

Best episode in a while, although it's another one of those "Time Travel" episodes.

[el badman]

Yeah, I thought I was watching a rerun at some point...Kind of a weird episode but they took shots at their own cutaways and other jokes, and the episode certainly had some funny moments to it. Pretty good overall.

[Andrew]

Agreed, that was actually a pretty clever concept and fun episode. I thought they overdid some of the 9/11 stuff but to their credit they did a decent job of at least making it relevant to the plot so it wasn't just cheap controversial humour for the sake of it. I also liked them riffing on their own cutaways, comedic style and the early character models and animations. As someone who finds the smug tone that the show's jokes have developed since the revival very offputting at times, it's enjoyable when they engage in a little self-deprecation for a change.

With that in mind though, I can't help but wonder...if they're aware that a lot of cutaways are shallow excuses to deliver lengthy potshots at assorted shows and celebrities that don't go much deeper than "You suck", why do they keep doing them? I suppose I'm speaking as someone who's grown tired of those jokes, the majority of FG fans may well love them, but if you know you've run a certain gag into the ground, why not move on?

In any case, good episode and easily my favourite of the season so far.

[ixcuincle]

Family Guy is supposed to be a comedy, but there really wasn't anything funny about the last episode.

[el badman]

Pretty lame episode indeed. A few chuckles here and there, but very mediocre to say the least.

[Andrew]

I actually kind of liked it. The commentary on pro-war and anti-war sentiment/patriotism they were going for (I guess) was a bit hamfisted, though at least Brian didn't go overboard in his usual role of author avatar. The Mayor West stuff worked as it usually always does and I liked the missing/replacement cutaway joke amongst a few others, though the "son-died tomatoes" gag was a really bad attempt at distasteful humour. Compared to the first few Season 10 episodes and some of the other low points post-revival, I thought it was OK. One of the better eps so far this season.

[ixcuincle]

Mayor West always provides good humor "I should tell you something...I have AIDS"

"Yeah, they're right there", and he points to his aides.

The episode was too serious though, and touched on the war in Iraq. Family Guy is a comedy. I want to laugh, not ponder Kevin's decision. Got to admit, the end was funny though. It was like the whole Arman Tamzarian thing.

[Andrew]

There's no rule that a comedy series can't be serious and/or offer an opinion or commentary. I'd agree that it's not Family Guy's forte and they don't necessarily need it, but the problem with their usual gag-a-minute approach is that when they are having more misses than hits with the jokes - an all too common problem in recent years - it's a painful half hour of television.

Animated shows that have traditionally had or have more substance - The Simpsons, Futurama, King of the Hill - are all comedies and have had hilarious moments during their respective runs. The thing is, even when they have an episode isn't jam packed with laughs, at the best of times the story is interesting and engaging, there's empathy with the characters, etc. It's harder for Family Guy to pull off with their characters and style, more so these days than the earlier episodes, but they can make it work. Like I said it was a bit ham-fisted but they did a decent job breaking it up with some jokes.

[Andrew]

Another enjoyable episode in my opinion. Nothing really stood out as being particularly bad, more hits than misses with the jokes. I do feel I have to defend Eric Bana though as his early career in comedy here in Australia was pretty good. Probably a fair call on his more recent work though.

[Andrew]

I didn't enjoy "Cool Hand Peter" quite as much as the last couple of episodes but on the whole it was palatable. There weren't any particularly terrible jokes but there were a couple of overlong ones that would've been much snappier and funnier if they'd ended sooner. I liked the Simpsons cast appearing in court and the peers/"I don't think they see it that way" joke, as well as the gag earlier on at The Cleveland Show's expense. As I've said before, I'm a fan of self-deprecating humour and given some of the smug swipes Family Guy takes at times, it's refreshing to see them poke a bit of fun at themselves and their spinoff franchise from time to time.

The stuff with Lois, Bonnie and Donna was pretty pointless and a good example of how the writers can't really handle female characters but the Brian stuff was a funny visual and Stewie's line was a nice payoff to those scenes. It could've been worse. Mayor West was good for a laugh as usual and Quagmire's beads joke was probably the funniest thing they've done with him for a long time. On the whole, good enough.

[[Q]]

i hope the appearance of Cleveland is signalling cancellation of the spinoff? wishful thinking, perhaps.

[Andrew]

I doubt it. Just a way of trying to get the show more exposure, as per Peter's tongue-in-cheek line.

[benji]

Peter was in and part of the main plot of The Cleveland Show season premiere and then they did another crossover with the Hurricane episodes.

Also, the show was given a fourth season way back in May.

Wait! I don't have a wife!

[Andrew]

The wife joke was another good one. Not entirely original, but it was well done.

[benji]

It's when he said it. That's what he realized in that situation and was his only reaction.

[Andrew]

Agreed, great timing.

[benji]

We've discussed this before, the "glory days" of Family Guy were when it was taking the standard family sitcom and tweaking it slightly to subvert conventions. In that case it's a standard joke, pretending to be the wife and it's revealed. Then you have the second layer joke where after a minute the guy realizes "I don't have a wife!" And then this was a case where they add the third layer and he realizes it not from finally remembering he doesn't have a wife, but from four convicts falling out of the closet. And rather than "Wait! You're the escaped convicts!" You get the use of the other joke. That was the fun writing and timing that they used to love.

But somewhere the show got away from trying to add those third layers to the sitcom notion.

Oddly, I liked last season enough and have enjoyed this season. They'll still have completely horrendous A or B plots at least one of out of every three episodes. But it seems like there's writing back in the series. Except for the Ryan Reynolds stuff and the Meg bottle show basically every single episode this season has actually had a focused plot. And many of them have gone long stretches in the same scene plus all the snarking on the cutaway gags. They may have shuffled out enough of the older but second group of writers to where the show is changing slightly again. They might even have that thing some of the Simpsons people have talked about over the years (I think Matt and Trey have mentioned this as well, longer run stuff like Star Trek have tons of tales about this) where they get writers who were fans of the show at one point in time so they try to write to that version. It has been on the air for over a decade now. A college kid who watched the first couple seasons and loved it before being cancelled would be hitting his 30s now for example.

One thing I've noticed. The 80s-centric (or late 70s kids show) references have started fading away compared to their complete dominance of every episode for a couple seasons a few years back.

Peter was killing it in the Thanksgiving episode and didn't even need to setup any cutaways to do it. He was saving that otherwise terrible episode until the ending.

Also, nice touch on Back to the Pilot using the different aspect ratios. They had to do it because of the old animation but they kept it even for the new frames they did set in those times. They have some people obsessed with authenticity on the staff and I love that. Even when it's doing something I don't care for like Stewie's replacing Jerry Mouse to dance with Gene Kelly or many of the musical or extended recreations, they have people who want to get it perfect. Clear labors of love vs. "lol remember this" throwaways.

Evidence it has improved, from about three years ago:

Like the pirate episode, another one that proves Family Guy should limited to ten minutes.

EDIT: Two years ago:

The problem with Family Guy is not the jokes, cutaways, celebrity bashing, etc. It's that they're just interchangeable to the plot/episode. 95% of them you can take from any episode and put them in any other episode. The plots are absolutely shit and horrible.

And now the plots are at least passable and the show has become more watchable, amazing!

[Andrew]

That's been the frustrating thing with Family Guy in recent years. They are capable of good humour and as you said, passable plots, even with characters that have become shallower post-revival. If The Simpsons are the former All-Star that should've hung it up while they still could've gone out on a high, Family Guy has been the rising star that landed a fat contract then gotten lazy and started phoning it in. When they're on their game, Family Guy is a really entertaining show and downright hilarious. At their worst, it's really painful television for a show that still has a lot of potential.

[ixcuincle]

Episode did have a few funny moments but was largely mediocre.

- Adam West
- R Lee Ermey guest starring

[Andrew]

Agreed. The stuff with Adam West rarely misfires and I did enjoy the scene with Peter and Carter being afraid of ghosts but other than that, another episode with more misses than hits in my opinion. I cringed at the 9/11 joke, another one of those "Oh yeah, we totally went there LULZ" attempts at shock humour. Too many lengthy cutaways with a poor payoff and not enough else in the episode to make up for them. The rambling "joke" (for lack of a better word) they ended on fell completely flat. It wasn't Family Guy at their worst but mediocre is definitely a good word for it.

[[Q]]

i thought the joe/fiona apple joke was hilarious as was the adam west bits

[benji]

I cringed at the 9/11 joke, another one of those "Oh yeah, we totally went there LULZ" attempts at shock humour.

It was probably a shot at Seth.

[Andrew]

That too, I guess. Didn't he once say they'd never do 9/11 jokes?

[ixcuincle]

Last night's episode was okay. They keep having these joke segments which are way too long. Like Peter going on and on about Meg to Quagmire.

Not really much to remember from last night's episode other than Stewie kicking Quagmire, "LAY OFF MY SIS"

[[Q]]

the episode had a strange vibe to it with Quagmire and Meg as the core of the story and with Brian & Stewie in the background