The Fall of Family Guy
Hey guys from Planet-M, this week I’ve decided to do a blog not on a Top 5 list, but on a show that I’ve wanted to talk about for a while now. It is a show that since its 7th season has rapidly declined in both its writing and humour, today I plan to say what is wrong with it and why. So let’s get started on the Fall of Family Guy.
Now before I start I’d like to say that I’ve always thought that Family Guy was very interesting show, it wasn’t quite The Simpsons and it wasn’t quite South Park, but it offered a place in-between those two shows by giving us its “Tounge and Cheek humour” while also offering its “in your face humour”, but like many shows Family Guy has gone down in terms of quality from when it started to right now and in some cases it has gone down in the worst ways, so today I will be explaining how far the quality has gone down in 3 different categories, Episodes, Animation and Main Characters. Please remember that this is just my own opinion.
Episodes:
To start things off let’s talk about the original Family Guy episodes like Brian: Portrait of a Dog, North by North Quahog and Road to Rhode Island these episodes of the early seasons have many things in common such as not so many cutaway gags, a cohesive story that brought characters involved full circle with what they were trying to achieve such as with Brian wanting to confront his mother while at the same time him and Stewie are trying to get home and jokes that were applied to the situation in a manner that applies to the plot even through some are cultural references such as with Peter asking MacGyver to help break Brian out of prison, nothing was done for the sake of wasting time or shock humour.
Now let’s talk about some of the later episodes that show the quality has gone down from the shows beginning, Seahorse Seashell Party, Fresh Heir, Brian’s a Bad Father and Brian Griffin’s House of Payne. Much like the episodes mentioned previously these all have something in common, they are episodes that do not show the main characters in the best light such as in Brian’s a bad father where he uses his son (one that he never sees) as a way to get himself a writers job, in Brian Griffins House of Payne Stewie receives a head injury (due to Chris and Meg arguing) and instead of taking him to the hospital they spend the entire episode covering it up and even Peter and Lois at different times go along with this in an attempt to try and place the blame on someone else.
In Seahorse Seashell Party the entire family gangs up on Meg because she decided to call her father out on the fact that he was being annoying and in Fresh Heir Peter tries to marry his son in an attempt to inherit millions (as Chris had been made the heir to a fortune in that episode), these kinds of episodes go as far as to make the main characters Inhuman and irredeemable and when they are the main characters of the show you don’t want to make them that way. I can honestly say that I never found these episodes funny as all they do is emphasize violence in an attempt to get shock humour from the audience and the worst thing about these new episodes is the fact that by the end the show puts everything back to normal as if nothing had ever happened with the family just forgiving each other.
In the end these episodes are not isolated incidents as there is dark humour in modern writings of Family Guy which can come off as very mean spirited an example of this is seen in the character Joe Swanson, at beginning of the series Joe was a Cop who was able to do his job despite his disability, yes he had stories where he was put to the test, but always came out on top, but in later seasons the show pokes fun at Joe’s disability and in the episode JOLO Joe divorces Bonnie (his wife) and tries to kill himself, it incredibly hard to see this show as good if it’s willing to go to such extreme’s with one of its characters.
Animation:
Now for the animation of the show, I will admit that the switch from hand drawn to digital animation has greatly helped the show in producing more episodes, has allowed them to correct errors that the pre-digital seasons had and has also allowed them to straighten up the character models so that they remain consistent throughout each episode.
But that doesn’t mean the new animation style is without faults of its own, in the original series the animated style of violence was slapstick that knew when it went too far and it was toned down depending on the situations in some episode, but with the new series forms of violence are regularly in the same level, not as slapstick, but as full on violence that can range from the vile to the detestable, with characters beaten or mutilated into a bloody pulp with their innards hanging out or in some cases their brains splattered across the floor.
But not only is violence over emphasized through the animation, but forms of the grotesque are as well. In an episode called Herpes the Love Sore you see Brian, Chris and Stewie infected with the disease in some very vile imagery (I will not be showing the image of herpes from this episode), but this isn’t the only occasion in the a later episode titled Peter, Chris & Brian, Chris (for no reason other than the episode portraying him as stupid) intentionally gives himself a nose bleed, the imagery around the scene is animated to look vile. Here is a video that shows the scene if you need an example of the animation, the scene starts at 3:42.
Now in terms of the animation I can say that it has both improved the show while at the same time made many scenes in the show unwatchable to the point where I fear of losing my lunch, nuff said on that.
Main Characters:
Now for the characters, this is where the show has changed the most drastically, in the beginning the show presented us with a dysfunctional family quite similar to many shows whether they are animated or live action, but over the course of a few seasons the characters have changed from a family that cares about each other to a group of people that you the viewer would wonder why they even live together as they commit acts that make you question whether they are a family or not.
Meg Griffin:
Ok to start things off we have Meg Griffin with her character there isn’t really possess any negative traits, at the start of the show Meg is shown as a self-conscious teenage girl who struggles with her social life and her life at home, that part of her character has remained relatively the same. What has really changed over the years is the way she is treated by her family, originally whenever Meg was mistreated by her family it was usually just Peter who was just too stupid to realise what he was saying was hurtful, but in later seasons Meg is used by the family as the “lightning rod” for all there abuse, the abuse being verbal by the rest of the family and sometimes physical abuse by Peter. In an episode titled Seahorse Seashell Party Meg finally stands up for herself, but in the end Family Guy goes back to the status quo and unfortunately Meg becomes a victim of her family’s abuse once more, this abuse of the character has to stop as I can definitely say that it’s not really funny.
Lois Griffin:
Originally Lois was the level headed member of the family and in some cases that has not changed, but as mentioned in the video above she has done things throughout the series (along with joining in the Meg abuse) that damages her character making her less responsible, other than that there’s not much more to talk about, she’s just there in most episodes with not that much to do except in episodes that focus on her. But as Peter changes over the course of the show so does their relationship as husband and wife, as peter becomes more stupid and in some cases more violent you do wonder why these two would ever stay together.
Chris Griffin:
Now Chris was one the characters that got an overhaul in his personality in the original episodes he was designed to be a rebellious teen trying to find what was for him in fact in an earlier episode Fore Father he pursues a career as an artist something that was brought up previously in The Son Also Draws, but in later seasons Chris doesn’t really have much in terms of personality and is shown less rebellious and more stupid, but kind hearted in some respects, basically Chris is really just whatever the episode needs him to be.
Stewie Griffin:
Stewie has also been changed as well, but in some cases his character has been changed for the better, in fact by changing him from an evil genius into a more flamboyant, but eccentric character has made him more developed and complex than any other character on the show and the episodes where he is paired with Brian in the “Road to…” mini-series are some of the best episodes this show has made, I really got nothing bad to say about the character in all honesty.
Brian Griffin:
Now we get to Brian, the family dog. Much like Chris Brian’s overall personality has been given a complete overhaul in all parts that made him a great character, in the beginning Brian was not just the family dog, but also the voice of reason, he reminds Peter of the stupidity in his schemes and his character came off as naturally intelligent. In later seasons Brian is Egotistical to the point where it makes Sheldon Cooper look modest, he is pretentious, hypocritical and goes on and on about being writer even though nothings come out it. Brian’s character simply these days either revolves around trying to find a girl friend or being a tool of Seth MacFarlane.
Peter Griffin:
Now we get to Peter Griffin the main character of the show, I have to admit that I have no liking for the character the way he is now, I liked him from season 1 to season 6 after that his character was changed to point of no return, in the beginning Peter was the simple minded protagonist with many episodes centered around his misogynistic and idiotic escapades with the outcome always being that he learned his lesson in the end, but in later seasons Peter has now become a straight up idiot and the situations that he gets himself into make his character in some cases cruel minded and a danger to all around him as shown in Brian’s a Bad Father where he intentionally shoots Quagmire in the arm with a loaded gun, honestly there is nothing more I can say about the character, so Megs words from Seahorse Seashell Party should be enough.
In the end Family Guy doesn’t really know how to make its characters sympathetic, because in later seasons no matter what happens to Peter Griffin I cannot feel sorry for him after the things he’s done previously I know that Family Guy follows a status quo, but what would be good if there was an episode where some of the characters actually had to answer for their actions.
Conclusion:
In all honesty I think Family Guy has been broken beyond repair, the characters are at the point where if change were administered we would still not be able to find them sympathetic or worth sympathising with. The episodes have gone into the realms of mean spirited and even sadistic story lines with stories that are not capable of tackling serious matters like domestic abuse in Screams of Silence and yet they want to be (in some case) taken seriously yet they have continued to create non-sensical episodes like Fresh Heir or Vestigial Peter. The animation (for lack of better words) has become vile and gruesome, so I do not recommend watching new episodes on a full stomach.
A few weeks ago I read that FOX had silently renewed Family Guy for a 16th season, after which I could not help but ask myself why? The show’s ratings have dropped in the years since its first season from 12.80 million to 3.93 million, yes I know that is still enough to keep a show going, but such a drop should indicate that many people have lost interest. Maybe Family Guy should end after its 16th season, that way it could end properly (maybe even end more dignified) and FOX can divert more attention to maybe something more original or towards Macfarlane’s more successful shows like American Dad or to the possibly successful Star Trek parody The Orville, whether FOX cancels or renews the fact is clear that a choice must be made with Family Guy and it all depends on us, the viewers.
Well that is it for now. I hope you have liked this week’s blog. I will be back around the end of September and once again thank you for reading.
