From those who wonder if the well of reality shows has been tapped dry we bring you “More to Love” on Fox. A show that mixes “The Bachelor” and “The Biggest Loser” into a smorgesboard of…well, smorgesboards. Yes, someone pitched a dating show for fat people and got it picked up by a major network. Now I am all for reality shows featuring people who are, you know, actually real. We don’t need to see the vapid barbie dolls on the dating shows unless it is The Rock of Love Bus where they really are needed to keep the skank factor at an appropriate level. But can we do it with a little more subtlety and tact? Do we need to identify the contestants as losers at the start?
So when I listed my influential television shows last night I specifically left off Family Guy. That might come as a surprise to some people as I clearly find the first few seasons of the show to be exceptionally good. The problem is, and last night’s episode really showed it, that the quality of the show has just fallen off a cliff recently. There is a pretty good reason behind it. With much of the writing staff siphoned to American Dad (and the horribly ill-conceived Cleveland spin-off) they just don’t have the same group of people working in the pitch room.
But really what the show is doing wrong is that they are going away from the sure fire comedy and trying to be cutting edge but only being offensive in the process.
Last night they had the entire cast of Star Trek The Next Generation on as guest voices and instead of featuring them they were reduced to being a part of the sub plot. Exactly why they were placed in that role, when they were the focus of all the advertising and promotions, is beyond me. If you can’t write a 22 minute plot featuring Stewie and Star Trek you probably shouldn’t be working in Hollywood. I can’t really complain about what they wrote either as those scenes were the funniest of the night. And yes, I do want a McDLT.
But mainly the main focus was on Meg and the classic abuse Meg scenarios that have been taking place for years. And to be honest, if you beat up on a character for long enough it stops being funny and simply becomes mean. Because at some point that character must win and Meg will never win. Peter will just be mean and abusive and at some point in starts being more abusive than funny. Homer can choke Bart because Bart gets the upper hand. Bad things can happen to Cartman because we know Cartman deserves what is coming to him. But Meg’s flaw is being stuck in a show with writers who have no clue what to do with her character so they just abuse her. It actually makes the show difficult to watch.
Add in the times they go over the line with some of the other jokes (yes, the Shatner joke was tasteless) and Family Guy just isn’t nearly as good as it could be. We need more Brian and Stewie. Comedy is really tough to write and it is a fine line you have to toe but I hope the show gets back to being what it used to be.
Showing posts with label Family Guy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family Guy. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, September 27, 2007
This is how we do it in my neighborhood...
Vanity License Plate of the Month: REDRGN. I have no idea how I didn’t think of that one first. Now I’m going to have to buy it off the guy.
Ok, I have to tell the story about what I saw while driving to work today. I was in my typical morning zone, half awake and just trying to muster the courage to head into the office. On the trip in I found myself behind a truck, much like one of those ones that tend to carry panes of glass. You know, the ones that seem to have something like scaffolding poles on the side where you can carry things. In this instance they were paintings of pets and it was pretty much a movable advertisement for this guy’s “Fingerpaint Portrait of Your Pet” business.
First off, these paintings were like four feet by six feet. These were seriously large paintings. I’m not sure who would need a painting that large of Fluffy but it’s nice to know that they are available. In terms of the actual quality of the paintings themselves…ok, now I can’t say for certain how these pets looked in the first place. I assume that it is technically possible that all of these dogs were possessed by the devil and had eerily soulless eyes. But seriously, I wouldn’t hang these paintings in my apartment unless I wanted to have night terrors for the rest of my life. They were freaky and not in that campy level of bad way. It was literally scary to look at these things while driving. And the dude wanted $200 per painting, which is even scarier.
I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t written about Family Guy yet but I guess all of The Pick Up Artist posts have kind of gotten in the way. The Star Wars episode was just all different levels of awesome. First of all, the animation was just awe inspiring at times. There were a lot of shot by shot recreations and as someone who has seen the film more times than I can recall it was actually freaky to see it animated. It was like my eyes couldn’t process seeing the same image that was in my memory but being slightly different. It’s kind of like hearing your favorite song off by half a key.
Great lines in the episode as well. My personal favorite was the two guys who had to sit next to the laser for the Death Star complaining about not having a railing. That and the “What, are we paying by the laser now?” “Shut up, it’s not like you have to do the budgets” exchange. Oh and the bullseyeing womprats reply of “You shoot animals for fun? That’s like the first sign of being a serial killer.” I had honestly never thought of that in all of my years of watching the film and I’ve argued the efficiency of the trash compactor. Though they still would have been better off by keeping one wall fixed and just using the other as the compactor.
I’m not sure as to whether Family Guy has jumped the shark or not. The show doesn’t have the same brilliance as it had early on but it is still one of my few must watch television shows. Their biggest problem is when they came back they relied too much on the “remember that time…” non sequitors. They’re brilliant but when entire episodes seemed to be missing things like plot it really just became a bunch of gags tied together. Not that that is a bad thing, it’s what Monty Python was, but since the show is still built around a sitcom premise it really needs a plot. They seem to have fixed that now and as long as Stewie and Brian bring the funny, I’ll watch the show.
Ok, I have to tell the story about what I saw while driving to work today. I was in my typical morning zone, half awake and just trying to muster the courage to head into the office. On the trip in I found myself behind a truck, much like one of those ones that tend to carry panes of glass. You know, the ones that seem to have something like scaffolding poles on the side where you can carry things. In this instance they were paintings of pets and it was pretty much a movable advertisement for this guy’s “Fingerpaint Portrait of Your Pet” business.
First off, these paintings were like four feet by six feet. These were seriously large paintings. I’m not sure who would need a painting that large of Fluffy but it’s nice to know that they are available. In terms of the actual quality of the paintings themselves…ok, now I can’t say for certain how these pets looked in the first place. I assume that it is technically possible that all of these dogs were possessed by the devil and had eerily soulless eyes. But seriously, I wouldn’t hang these paintings in my apartment unless I wanted to have night terrors for the rest of my life. They were freaky and not in that campy level of bad way. It was literally scary to look at these things while driving. And the dude wanted $200 per painting, which is even scarier.
I’m kind of surprised that I haven’t written about Family Guy yet but I guess all of The Pick Up Artist posts have kind of gotten in the way. The Star Wars episode was just all different levels of awesome. First of all, the animation was just awe inspiring at times. There were a lot of shot by shot recreations and as someone who has seen the film more times than I can recall it was actually freaky to see it animated. It was like my eyes couldn’t process seeing the same image that was in my memory but being slightly different. It’s kind of like hearing your favorite song off by half a key.
Great lines in the episode as well. My personal favorite was the two guys who had to sit next to the laser for the Death Star complaining about not having a railing. That and the “What, are we paying by the laser now?” “Shut up, it’s not like you have to do the budgets” exchange. Oh and the bullseyeing womprats reply of “You shoot animals for fun? That’s like the first sign of being a serial killer.” I had honestly never thought of that in all of my years of watching the film and I’ve argued the efficiency of the trash compactor. Though they still would have been better off by keeping one wall fixed and just using the other as the compactor.
I’m not sure as to whether Family Guy has jumped the shark or not. The show doesn’t have the same brilliance as it had early on but it is still one of my few must watch television shows. Their biggest problem is when they came back they relied too much on the “remember that time…” non sequitors. They’re brilliant but when entire episodes seemed to be missing things like plot it really just became a bunch of gags tied together. Not that that is a bad thing, it’s what Monty Python was, but since the show is still built around a sitcom premise it really needs a plot. They seem to have fixed that now and as long as Stewie and Brian bring the funny, I’ll watch the show.
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