by Andrew on Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:47 pm
I'd call the latest episode pretty awful. The "sock Lois" scene was about the only funny part for me, everything else fell flat. Family Guy can be very funny when it's on, but at this point it doesn't seem like they're trying. I hate to make the inevitable Simpsons comparison, but even in their post-post-classic era, it still feels like they're trying and it usually means a pretty decent episode at least once in a while. In fact, compared to other recent seasons, Season 24 of The Simpsons has been reasonably good for the most part.
Family Guy, though? They're really phoning it in and the latest episode was as good an example as any. Peter farts on Meg's head for the millionth time. We get a few more wheelchair jokes at Joe's expense. There's another couple of uninspired Jewish jokes, which has become a "once an episode" affair for them. We have Peter and Lois being horrible to their kids and lousy people in general, yet we're supposed to care about their marital problems...probably, they seemed to be going that route with the plot at any rate.
This is why I really dislike it when the show takes swipes at other shows, actors and the like. Aside from being lazy humour and a crutch for them, they're in no position to comment on the quality of other shows while putting out rubbish themselves. Perhaps if they spent a bit more time coming up with jokes and freshly funny stories and situations involving their characters and less time bashing things the writers don't like, Family Guy would be more consistently entertaining. Again, when it's firing on all cylinders, it's very funny and doesn't necessarily need great storytelling. Right now though, they're phoning it in, in all respects.