Family Guy and The Clevand Show Miss the Mark
Nicholis Bills
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Fox has some of the most popular cartoon shows on television: "American Dad," "Family Guy," "The Cleveland Show," and "The Simpsons." However, has their recent season been going so well? Let's talk about "Family Guy" and "The Cleveland Show."
Starting with the show most people enjoy referencing, "Family Guy;" it started its season off quite well with an episode about multiple universes. We saw different types of animations used, from a Disney style to a grotesque stick-figure type, and even a real-world, non-cartoon universe! The season begins with Stewie and Brian getting stuck in a universe where dogs and humans switch roles as owner and pet. The next few episodes were not as groundbreaking. Lois finds out her mother is of Jewish ancestry, so the Griffin family goes through yet another religion war, and the episodes following had no clear plot. That is to be expected of "Family Guy," but there were very few good jokes to save it. After those two clunkers, the next few episodes were decent, from Brian dating an older woman to Stewie meeting Hannah Montana. They threw in Quagmire becoming a parent, which ended up being quite a lackluster episode; the side-plot about Stewie making clones was more interesting. The last episode was about Peter finding a new friend to fill a hole in the group where Cleveland used to be, and he finds that friend in a man named Jerome. That episode managed to be what we expect from "Family Guy."
Overall, I believe the show is bouncing from good to bad as of late, trying to capture the original allure that brought them back from cancellation, but is trying too hard to repeat the same style of jokes over and over. There used to be an actual plot to episodes that was followed. Lately, the jokes center around breaking the fourth wall and being completely random. Sometimes that is a good thing and makes an episode great, and other times it just gets annoying and in the way of the plot. I generally am not a fan of the newer episodes of "Family Guy" and wish it could manage to regain the balance their old seasons had, but I guess that is not what Fox wants from the show. After all, those are the seasons that got "Family Guy" canceled.
Starting with the show most people enjoy referencing, "Family Guy;" it started its season off quite well with an episode about multiple universes. We saw different types of animations used, from a Disney style to a grotesque stick-figure type, and even a real-world, non-cartoon universe! The season begins with Stewie and Brian getting stuck in a universe where dogs and humans switch roles as owner and pet. The next few episodes were not as groundbreaking. Lois finds out her mother is of Jewish ancestry, so the Griffin family goes through yet another religion war, and the episodes following had no clear plot. That is to be expected of "Family Guy," but there were very few good jokes to save it. After those two clunkers, the next few episodes were decent, from Brian dating an older woman to Stewie meeting Hannah Montana. They threw in Quagmire becoming a parent, which ended up being quite a lackluster episode; the side-plot about Stewie making clones was more interesting. The last episode was about Peter finding a new friend to fill a hole in the group where Cleveland used to be, and he finds that friend in a man named Jerome. That episode managed to be what we expect from "Family Guy."
Overall, I believe the show is bouncing from good to bad as of late, trying to capture the original allure that brought them back from cancellation, but is trying too hard to repeat the same style of jokes over and over. There used to be an actual plot to episodes that was followed. Lately, the jokes center around breaking the fourth wall and being completely random. Sometimes that is a good thing and makes an episode great, and other times it just gets annoying and in the way of the plot. I generally am not a fan of the newer episodes of "Family Guy" and wish it could manage to regain the balance their old seasons had, but I guess that is not what Fox wants from the show. After all, those are the seasons that got "Family Guy" canceled.
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