At issue:
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The series continues to devolve into a platform for the writer's religious and political views rather than trying to actually be funny.
The increasingly cruel treatment of Meg.
It just isn't funny anymore. All of the jokes are nothing but shock value, random 80s references, and the usual race stereotypes that are barely above Carlos Mencia in terms of wit.
I don't think even Carlos Mencia would steal this material. Heh-heh!
Stewie. Turned from a funny and sophisticated Enfant Terrible with some baby traits into a wimpy Camp Gay man in a baby body.
In one episode, Meg does what many fans have been dying for and calls her family out on how they treat her. Just as we're celebrating the fact that she's grown a backbone and stated the "horrible" truth about how they're all humongous jerkasses, she goes back on her words because she realizes that her family supposedly needs someone to be a deliberate ass to else they fall into dysfunction (she made them all cry and now feels bad about it. The only one who had her back was Brian).
The writers took what could have been a sea-change moment, finally giving us some hope regarding Meg and flushed it down the toilet in the span of 2 minutes. THAT is my one and only complaint on Family Guy and it took 10 seasons to get to that point.
Not All Dogs Go to Heaven. In two (three?) words, it could be described as "non-Atheists suck!" Even worse is the ending, where they compare theists to Nazis, (book burning).
That everyone uses Seth as a scapegoat when he hasn't written a episode since it was uncanceled.
The massive character flanderization like Peter becoming a cruel sociopath, Brian becoming a liberal douchebag, and Stewie being constantly used for gay jokes, the constant use of one note characters like Herbert, the cruel tasteless jokes just to shock and offend people, and the overly long musical numbers.
Conway Twitty.
I'm surprised nobody's complained about the increasing reliance on overly long gags. It was funny for a while, but every episode seems to need at least one to fill the time now.
The writers seem to have caught on to many fan complaints and have started addressing them, but there's one on which they doggedly refuse to budge: Since the series' un-cancellation, the references themselves rarely seem to include any kind of joke anymore. They're just... there.
They used to actually do something clever with references, like having Peter work as a Ghostbuster and vacuum up Patrick Swayze, whereas nowadays the writers will take a scene from, say, Caddyshack or Ferris Bueller's Day Off, recast it with some of the show's characters (though almost never going beyond just replacing the main character with Peter), and simply plop it into an episode as is. I can't imagine what sort of person finds this lazy crap hilarious; all it really does for me is serve to remind that I could be watching Caddyshack or Ferris Bueller instead. The filmmakers already created those funny, memorable scenes so that Family Guy wouldn't have to, and if the show isn't going to do anything unique with them, then what's the point of having so many references, besides to fill up the run time?
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Conway Twitty!"
The excessively mean-spirited aura of the show in general. Everyone above is complaining about its potshots at religion. The complaints are valid, but the whole show is just taking potshots at people in general, not just at religious people. The characters repeatedly behave like sociopaths to each other (and to Meg especially), and unlike The Simpsons very few of the characters have enough redeeming qualities to make up the difference (for example, Homer isn't nearly as bad of an asshole to Lisa as Peter is to Meg; Homer cheers Lisa up a lot of the time in fact). It's about as constructive as watching a show consisting of nothing but people beating each other up. What's the point?
Also, I'm probably the only troper on this entire website who DIDN'T agree with Quagmire's The Reason You Suck Speech, mostly because it was riddled with logical fallacies. Brian's a hypocrite, so that automatically means his advice is wrong? Would you also argue that if a father tells his son not to smoke but the father smokes himself, that makes it a good idea for his son to smoke because the father was a hypocrite about not doing it? Brian has a "textbook liberal agenda," so that automatically means liberals who have more complex ideas don't deserve a fair and serious hearing as well as a rational critique of their flaws that isn't an insult of their characters? Brian does bad things, but that automatically makes Quagmire's OWN bad behavior perfectly acceptable?
In general, it's not really about that particular speech. The problem is that television can USUALLY be used as an escape from reality. Family Guy is also an escape from reality, but it's an escape to a MUCH WORSE one.
The irreverent and unceasing mockery of the disabled and the LGBT community.
Stewie and Brian's Spotlight Stealing. When you already take into account those two are the most flanderized of the show, it makes it that much more painful.
The long musical numbers. Does anyone enjoy it when they keep going long after you get the reference?
The damn writers don't think all their stabs/jokes through; In "Road to the Multiverse", the Sistine Chapel exists in a universe where Christianity doesn't exist. Seriously? Did they honestly not think that through? It's like they made an active effort to not make sense. Furthermore, Brian has become an annoying character that I honestly would not mind seeing taken out of the show - he used to be a simple word of wisdom for Peter, now he's an annoying character who treats all religious people, conservatives/republicans, people who disagree with him usually outside his family like they're stupid.
Meg was funnier when she was just the angsty teenage girl - now that she's the local punching bag added to all the other things, I actually feel SORRY for her and feel her view of life is actually justified. Sometimes the picking on her is funny, but sometimes it goes to such extremes that it's like the writers themselves have a vandetta against her. Honestly, this element made it so I actually found satisfaction in the episode Dial Meg for Murder.
Not All Dogs Go To Heaven bugged me in particular - not Brian's religious views, so much as everything else. A brilliant sketch involving the cast of Star Trek plays second banana to Brian being a dick. At the end, it treats religious people like ignorant, nazi-esque fanatics with closed minds (ironic considering that Brian himself displays the tendancies of a fanatic of logic, and completely shuts himself off from the ideals of religion and treats anyone who doesn't share his views as idiots.) Then, Brian puts Meg's faith down with some very shallow views - citing her less-than-attractive appearance when compared to her mother as a justifiable cause of disbelief. Furthermore, it treats this personal attack on both a physical and spiritual level as if it was a GOOD THING.
And what happened to Stewie being evil? I know we hear it a lot, but dammit, he was funnier when he was trying to kill Lois, making plans of world domination, and always seemed sinister - he's just kind of annoying now. I find it very disturbing that he's a SEXUALLY CHARGED INFANT.
The show also makes it a point to glorify Liberals and Democrats and similarly Demonize all Conservatives and Republicans - both indiscriminantly. I found the "John Mc Cain Experience" joke to be in extremely poor taste considering I don't care what your political affiliation is, that is disrespectful to a man who suffered for his country. Comparing it to them putting Obama on a golden pedestal and making it like he's some sort of unwavering good, the political views of the show are HORRIBLY onesided.
Really, I'm left wondering where the comedy went. I stopped watching it about a year or so ago cause I finally thought to myself "This show just isn't funny anymore." Really. I don't see any active attempt at humor. It's literally just shock value now. I consider South Park far wittier and funnier than this dribble, and I've had episodes of SP that have horrified me (particularly the one where all the kids get beat up by grown men playing hockey.)
This show used to be funny, but it becomes uglier with every new season. The sooner they take it off the air, the better.
I feel as though, if you take an episode from before their first cancellation and compare it to an episode after the second cancellation, you can see the difference. Before they were able to make a joke on the character in a cutaway like when Peter farted in an elevator and blamed it on the only other person in the elevator - the joke wasn't in the fart, it was in Peter being dumb. Now we're treated to jokes like Horton hears domestic violence and doesn't do anything about it. So we're treated to a shot of Horton reading a book while a woman is horrifically beaten in the background. If Seth wants to save this show he's got to get back into the business of working with his characters instead of making them joke generators.
Compare Family Guy to American Dad!. Do the characters in Family Guy seem like actual people with real thoughts and feelings? No, not really. Do the people in American Dad seem like actual people? Yeah, because they show emotion, not tell it.
Nothing I can add about "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" will really change anyones minds outside of saying that for the reasons that people hate this show, (Seth's super liberal look at church and people involved with the church) drove me away far sooner. Luring me back with Star Trek bait which was the B story of the episode with the whole TNG cast and all it did is expose me to this dreck.
If Seth is so brave to put down religion, lets see some more jokes at the not so safe religons and not just Christians and Jews. Family Guy can't work into that realm of "All things are open game and thus everything is funny" working in that context.
Anti-religious episodes? Cool. Legalizing marijuana? Cool. ANOTHER episode or five against religion? Fine. These episodes are fine by me and I agree with them.
Except for the fact that those aren't comedy scripts, those are some guy submitting his forum posts as episodes.
Consuela the cleaning lady. Seriously, I hate her. Made even worse when she was in their telling of episode V, when even Darth Vader didn't just shut her up by force choking her. Not to mention she's a walking Mexican stereotype.
Herbert the Pervert squicks me beyond belief.
The end of the episode where Brain sleeps with Quagmire's father (who had undergone a sex-change). Now, I get that Quagmire hates Brain, but does that even come close to justifying charging into his house and beating him senseless? It wouldn't bother me nearly as much if it weren't for the fact that there was no way that Brian could have known who he had slept with. Hell, even upon finding out, Brian was so revolted that he threw up.
Basically, what I'm saying is that, while I understand perfectly that Quagmire would be pissed off upon hearing about it, did he really have to take it that far?
The fact that the show seems to think that having some dialog go on way too long is a good substitute for a joke. Like the scene where Stewie looks at the things in Lois' parents' candy jar. Car keys aren't candy, I get it, move on to a joke now.
The fact the show doesn't do anything else than relying on its offensive humor and its violence. It could be such a better show otherwise.
Brian's Increasing Jerk Ass tendencies.
I definitely am pissed off that Meg is getting treated worse and worse. And my other big complaint? My brother is agreeing with them! They're basically saying it's okay to treat your sister like fucking shit! And of course, Louis acting like a bitch when Meg "came out". That episode was HIGHLY OFFENSIVE to me because uh... I'm gay and STILL haven't come out of the closet. Fuck you, whoever is writing this bullshit. Fuck you.
Quagmire's hatred of Brian. It started out being a very well deserved Take That, Scrappy!, but as the gag ran on, he began freaking out on Brian for things he had no idea (the christmas special where he though his cancerous neice was a boy, how the hell was he supposed to know?), to him beating up Brian for sleeping with his recently transgendered dad (again, he didn't know) to the point of Brain crawling away to try and escape, only to get dragged back into it.
Logical conclusion was reached when, after it looks like they've finally reconciled, Quagmire got in his car and ran Brian over, fully intending to kill him (there's no way it was an accident, he smirked).
Also, don't forget the fact that he's just as guilty as Brian when it comes to getting women....ESPECIALLY in terms of Lois. Sure, Brian might've sexually assaulted Lois, and Peter, justly, kicked Brian's ass for it and they made up. Meanwhile, in previous episodes, Quagmire stalks Lois until Lois finally catches him in a Women's room stall. What really bothers me is as the other characters are totally disgusted at his behavior, why does Peter even bother vouching for him after the fact?
Where to begin, the preachy episodes about how anyone who would ever believe in God or lean anywhere right of center politically is at best a moron or more likely an active sociopath trying to undermine civilization, or the way all of the characters have been flanderized into complete douchebags?
Oh I know, how about the way that way that half of the jokes aren't even funny. *cough Consuela cough cough* The sermons and the vastly mutated characters I could live with if at least the jokes were funny.
In "Meg and Quagmire." I feel like they missed an opportunity at what could have been a decently nice episode, for Meg at least, by Quagmire going from the caring guy who was actually nice to Meg specifically to the pervert he is for other women. Or, at least, according to Lois and Peter, who suddenly give a fuck about Meg, literally out of the blue. What's even worse is, in the final scenes, we learn their entire argument against letting Meg date Quagmire is basically "we're still making your decisions for you so fuck you".
Instead of an episode where Meg found some individuality and maturity with turning eighteen, it turned into another "Meg's wrong about everything she's doing because she's Meg" episode. Kind of like "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven," but with sex instead of religion.
In "And I'm Joyce Kinney," Joyce finally gets her revenge after Lois humiliated her in high school. But once Lois owns up to it, everyone suddenly loves her again. Am I the only one thinking that was hugely unfair? Or can it just be chocked up to Lois being a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing?
When they aren't drawing jokes out, they spend several minutes explaining why they're funny.
It tries to hard to be satire. And it fails, horribly. Take any religious, political, or cultural episode and chances are its just obnoxious Take That!. Plus, most of it makes no sense and is purely their to remind viewers of controversy they probably don't care about(maybe its because we don't have any oil?).
The very fact that it could be so much better than it currently is. SO MUCH BETTER.
Excessive use of out of nowhere violence Like the previously mentioned Quagmire busting into their house just to beat up Brian. While it was rarely used when Mc Farlane wrote, the new writers have milked this joke for all it's worth.
The main reason I don't watch the show anymore (I did think it was originally clever and, although not one of my favorite shows, a good way to kill a lazy Sunday night) is because the humor is needlessly mean-spirited, especially when it comes to the way everyone treats Meg. However, my biggest issue with that is that they finally had her call her family out on being jackasses (awesomely, from what I've read) and then totally ruined it by having her apologize for it and having nothing change at all. It's like the writers are thinking "Character development? What's that?" And I'm tired of the "hard to write for a teenage girl" excuse; it's not all that different or more complicated than writing for any other character.
There are many reasons why this show ticks me off, but I think the biggest one is something most people overlook: Peter Griffin is a Mary Sue, at least post-cancellation.
Let's see: he gets away with being an abusive ass and has murdered people, Lois literally can't function without him, Meg actually calls him a decent parent minutes after she essentially said he should be in jail, he wins his kids back after he said he did not like them by buying them an Xbox 360 and then hogging it from them, the show tries to justify this by making him a legal retard, and his pop culture references follow Macfarlane's.
Now I'm not talking about the character pre-cancellation - back then he was a well meaning idiot with moments that show he may be a savant. Now, he's just a simple-minded Jerk Ass.
After Quagmire's "The Reason You Suck" speech and this season's episode in which Bill Maher and his panel disparaged Brian's book, Brian has been completely derailed. Now when I watch an older episode, I look at Brian completely differently and being aware of his flaws has turned him into a character I now hate.
Let me sum up the problems with Family Guy at the moment:
Family Guy when it first came out in 1999 might have been misconstrued as a Simpsons rip off, but in all honesty, it wasn't! When it first came out, and it's hard to believe now that it was ever like this, it was an original-animated sitcom, whilst being about a family added new things to the concept, like for example a baby with a high IQ and Rex-Harrison's voice bent on world domination and killing Lois, and Brian, a sophisticated dog that was looking out for Peter and tried to prevent him from doing anything wrong. The characters were somewhat dysfunctional, yet likeable, but FOX at the time, hardly gave the show a chance, as well as Futurama, they pushed both shows aside and put them on at difficult timeslots! The show was originally cancelled in 2000, brought back in 2001 and then cancelled in 2002!
The long-awaited second revival happened, believe it or not, due to the huge success of the DVD sales, and without the support of the original fanbase, the show wouldn't be on as of now! During the break, they started to change the premise of the show, trying to make it the next "South Park", however, I know alot of people hated the revival, but I'm going to be honest, seasons 4 and 5 didn't live up to seasons 1-3, but they stayed true to the original characters! They didn't focus much on Stewie's evil-side, but we all know that he was still somewhat evil inside and was going to return to his evil-ways someday, Peter and the majority of the family started to pick on Meg more, but despite THAT, we all know that they cared about her deeply inside, and they weren't such bad characters, sure they changed, but they were still the likeable ones we've come to know and love!
THEN came the downfall of the show and this is when Seth left the writing department and due to the writer's strike(although the first half of season 6 was great), they completely changed the premise of the show! They have been making it more like "South Park" for years, but it seems like they don't completely get South Park, as South Park is much more than swearing and sex jokes!
The characters' flaws became more apparent and more frequent since Seth left, Stewie has lost any evil-element to him and now is a homosexual-stereotype that acts as if a soccer mom phoned in and complained about the fact that he was an evil baby bent on world domination!(You have to admit, the evil baby thing WAS pretty cool, why they got rid of that aspect I don't know and it's a complete insult to the original fans) If you've seen the episode "Hannah Banana", Stewie reveals that he's a huge Hannah Montana fan and it is SO cringeworthy if you were a fan during the original run!
Brian, you're going to be surprised here, but I don't think Brian is that unlikeable, but I think they're trying to make him out to be, "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven", they were basically ridiculing him for not believing in God, but it was really his opinion and at the end of the day, Brian had to express his opinion on why he doesn't believe, he's the only one that shows any sympathy for Meg in the more recent ones, I agree, they shouldn't make Brian out to be Seth's cartoon character-puppet, but to me he's still pretty likeable, despite the flaws! I hated how they turned him completely cocky in "Brian Writes a Bestseller" though, as Brian is usually WAY more mature than that!
Lois, who once was probably one of the best cartoon moms, now comes across as a little slutty and a bit of a bad parent, although she is more caring than Peter actually is concerning their family, she's not completely unbearable, but why does she bash on Meg too?! Lois used to defend Meg alot, and she's supposed to be the sane one!
Chris, who used to be a naive, happy-go-lucky teenager has turned into some bitter-angry, foul mouthed cynical teenager that acts like some kind of smartass and is quick to overreact, and he seems kinda mean-spirited now! This is since season 8, and a similar change happened to Quagmire!
Quagmire, who used to be slightly mild-mannered, I know he was a pervert, but at the end of the day, was a likeable person, despite his flaws, since season 8, has turned REALLY cynical and all he does is bash on Brian and start shouting at him whenever he appears on screen! Plus the Cheryl Tiegs backstory just doesn't WORK for Quagmire!
Also, the show is overdoing the swearing and the sex jokes, if Seth was still at the writing department, it'd be controlled better, and also I don't consider seasons 6-present canon!
The show has been getting rather darker lately, also disturbing.
In "Internal Affairs," Joe is pressured into cheating on Bonnie after she acted cold to him at least the entire episode and believed she had cheated on him in "Foreign Affairs." When he's found out, she screeches like a harpy at him, saying that she never cheated on him in Paris and that he betrayed her. The problem here is that even if she didn't go through with it (she was only stopped by Joe showing up), she still ATTEMPTED TO DO IT! She also seemed to forget that she HAS cheated on him before, as revealed in "Go Stewie Go." Of course, THERE, she claimed cheating was a healthy way for a woman to explore her sexuality or some bullshit like that.
It cant handle any issue, even ones the writers support, with any sort of tact, class, or respect.
Consuela. Good God, I just HATED her.
Also, the Conway Twitty cutaways really irked me.
And I really don't see the problem with Meg. She seems fine.
The fact that even one or two of the show's many references have devolved into just saying the name of what they're referring to multiple times (i.e. "Laura Bush killed a guy" or "Starlight Express!").
Brian always being right about something.
When bad things happen to Lois, it's all played as a sad event, but when bad things happen to Meg, it's perfectly fine. Am I the only one who hates this Double Standard?
Whenever the show tries to teach a message... and fails at it. For example, in the episode Friends of Peter G, it proposed the moral that if you're an alcholholic, it's better to go behind your family's back and continue drinking rather than asking for help from your family. I'm sorry, Family Guy is a comedic show, you can't really take it seriously.
The fact that liking Family Guy seems to have become a stoning offence. At this point, they could do the best episode of any TV show ever, and people still wouldn't be pleased.
To quote Gary Oldman, EVERYONE!
Seth Mac Farlane considering Ida Quagmire the 'most sensitive portrayal of a transexual ever' despite the fact she's used for cheap jokes.
Instant Expression, Just Add Eyelid.
Not the "Quagmire hates Brian" thing in itself, but because of the fact that it has become his only character trait. It's clear that they saw the positive reaction to him telling off Brian and are using it to grasp for any hold they can get. Granted, this is a relatively small problem compared to the other issues on the show, but those have already been covered.
Double Standards
It's not funny, AT ALL. Just because a person is a woman doesn't make them automatically better than a man, Peter may be a sociopath, but at least that's because he's mentally retarded and has an implied bad-history! Lois meanwhile gets scot-free in everything, the worst that happened in her life is her father being a controlling, overprotective being. She's always treated like a saint, no matter what she does, she even ENCOURAGED HER OWN DAUGHTER TO COMMIT SUICIDE! Bonnie cheated on Joe just to escape her unhappy life of living with a cripple. Loretta cheats on her husband, Cleveland, just for being a pushover, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!! Cleveland was such a nice person who wouldn't hurt a fly, and she took advantage of that kindness and left him for Quagmire, now he's turned more violent and bitter because of what she did. Angela sexual harasses Peter, and nobody, not even his friends and family, does anything about and told flat in his face that a man should suck it up and endure it, if a person doesn't like to be sexually abuse, then they don't like it, don't force them to just ignore it, let them say it out! Women may have gained their rights, but shouldn't mean they're right to abuse it, men are people too, and we shouldn't forget that. The ONLY exception to this rule is Meg, the resident Butt-Monkey who everyone uses as a physical, verbal and psychological punching bag. Brian, for all his flaws, is right, this society is cruel and unfair and is too strict with their standards and laws without seeing the bigger picture in life.
The fact that most of the characters have become unlikable. It's pretty sad.
That the show seems perfectly aware of the heavy downgrade it's had but rather than legitimately trying to fix anything, just continues on the same path (if not worse), but with excess Self-Deprecation humor about how bad it is. The gags are vulgar and cheap, the characters are becoming interchangeable sociopaths, but hey, if they just Lampshade it all, it automatically makes them funny again, right?
Where in the Hell does Fox get off making "Life of Brian" the last new episode of 2013? "Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays! We're killing your favorite dog! Go off someplace and cry! Happy New Year, motherfuckers." That's a horrible way to die. It's the same way that Pearl Burton died.
The Meg abuse. I get it, they can't write for a teenage girl, but is it REALLY necessary to make the universe play hit-the-target with her? They could've just had her get so sick of the family she moved out of the house and just...pretended she started a whole new life somewhere and didn't talk to them anymore except for Brian. And maybe Chris and Stewie.
Pretty much Peter, Quagmire and Joe.
Peter is a misogynic, psychopathic, pedophiliac, unconscionable jerk who only cares about his own pleasures and shouts down anyone who dare challenge his "caveman" views of the world. He wants sex every night with Lois, but when Lois turns him away – usually after Peter has been behaving badly – he never gets the hint. His mind is constantly in the gutter, thinking of sex, sex and more sex every second. To him there is no such thing as consequences for actions. He goofs off at work. He needs to be locked up and kept away from everyone.
Quagmire is portrayed as an all-around good guy, but he is also ephebophiliac (concentrating mainly on teenagers), openly admits he uses GHB to drug prospective sexual partners and thinks sex in the most banal of situations. He also is a danger to the community.
Joe, a police officer, lets this all go, and also lets his friends' other criminal activity – ranging from blackmail to theft to arson to murder to assault to child abuse and so forth – and ought to be removed from the force as a cop and blacklisted. They say that a man's character is told by who you hang with, and that is so true with Joe.
There's so much wrong with Family Guy now. Where do I even start? The show's nature in itself has gotten progressively dark. The characters have now become sociopaths and all have some kind of dirt on them to make them significantly unlikable.
For example: Lois went from a caring, hardworking housewife to mean and slutty.
Peter went from a likeable idiot with at least SOME values to a sadistic, emotionally unstable, violent, murderous sociopath who treats his wife and children like utter trash.
Brian went from a well-grounded voice of reason and wisdom, to a depressed, suicidal, alcoholic, raging liberal who can't handle criticism, nor can he respectably accept views that aren't his own. All he does is wallow in self pity while at the same time being pretentious like the narcasist he is.
Stewie went from a humorously evil and sadistic baby (not in the way most characters are now. Like, he was supposed to be a villian) who has a straight forward, concrete mind and sense of self. Now he's a walking gay stereotype (who might I mention I can't tell whether he's really gay or not because the writers keep going back an forth with his sexuallity) who keeps being sexualized even though he's an infant. He was a strong spoken, GENIUS baby who's last thought was sex or his appearance, but now he's just a casual character who's personality has been watered down to almost nothing. He no longer makes cool gadgets or speaks in such a sophisticated way, which I personally loved.
Meg went from a normal teenage girl who's just trying to find her way in life as a teenager. She was a sweet girl who was a dreamer and hopeful in her outlook in life. Now she's the only character who I can justify for being so messed up. Now she's a punching bag for literally every character. The writers took her innocent personality and turned it into a mentally unstable train wreck. You'd never even think she was as ugly as she's portrayed now if they hadn't made her out to be like that. I feel bad for her. They give her absolutely no mercy and to be honest, she has the most reason to have the outlook on life as she does now.
Chris went from a naive, simple, awkward boy to an aggresive masochist. He's just disturbing now. Rather than being awkward he's angry and mean-spirited.
The sense of humor has become dark and violent. Unlike the first few seasons, it was enjoyable and at least a little more light hearted. Its funny references are gone and now they use old memes to appeal to what seems like old parents who are late to the internet party. Its rare when the show makes me laugh anymore. The fact that the latest episode was about Joe almost committing suicide multiple times in front of his friends is disturbing. I'm not even going to get into the way too long overused gags like peter fighting the chicken and Conway Twitty. The many episodes that shove Seth Mc Farlane and the other writer's beliefs down your throat have become many. The only likeable character in the show now is Jillian. She's a sweetheart and they haven't managed to mess her up. How long will it be until that happens though? And she's not even a main character.
Three words: The Cleveland Show.
There's nothing wrong with using a medium as a platform for your views and to express your opinions. BUT, I find the jokes in there show were usually funnier when they didn't do that. The social commentary only bogs it down. And they can't pull it off as well as South Park has.
The show went from Simpsons-like cynical but ultimately well-intentioned humour to just plain mean spirited. Watch the newer episodes: you will noticed that every single one of them includes either abuse, murder or some other sort of tragedy (e.g. the show hammering home the irreversability of Peter's smoking addiction, Stewie effectively dying in one episode and the others trying to hide it) played for laughs.
The recent trend of making jokes at Joe's expense. They're not even funny, they're just some variation of "haha he's a paraplegic, he hates his life and everyone hates him!" multiple times an episode. Actually, that's my problem with just about everything on Family Guy now...not that it's "offensive", but that it's NOT FUNNY.
This might be covered under Overly Long Gag but the prolonged scenes of violence just annoy me like Stewie beating up Brian for money or Peter's recurring fights with the Chicken. I can't imagine that they are supposed to be funny so they just seem like padding to me. And unlike the show's other Overly Long Gags, these scenes can go on for several whole minutes of the show.
I wish the number of episodes about Peter doing something stupid didn't vastly outweigh the number of episodes about the other family members. I get that he's the main character and all, but characters like Stewie have room for real character development. I don't hate Peter episodes (I wouldn't watch FG if I did), they're usually really funny, but I wish they would balance it out with alternate character episodes.
Speaking of Stewie, my other gripe with this show (the fandom, actually) is that a lot of the old fans hate *gay* Stewie. I'm glad that the writers found a way to get rid of Stewie's blandness without taking him off of the show. In the old days, he was just a baby version of a villain with one overused joke of him wanting to kill his mother. Now his evil is played in a more subtle fashion, and his sexuality is played with in more creative ways than his evilness was.
The fact that they're actually going to kill off one of the main cast. I love all the characters, and i really don't want any of them to die honestly. Even if someone like Chris or Meg died, the show wouldn't be the same, it's been 12 whole seasons. :(
That said, if they decided just to kill and replace a character for only season 12, and bring them back in the season finale so they'd be in season 13, then i would be fine with that. If the writers did that, they could easily get away with killing ANYONE, including Peter himself.
Let's see:
- QUAGMIRE. Seriously, the guy was a cold-blooding pervert before tacking on his hate of Brian, and the fact he's practically a rapist doesn't help. The worst thing is that he never changes nor does he ever get any punishment
- The cruelty towards Meg has become too much. It comes off less slapstick and more the writers getting their sadistic impulses out on her
- The treatment of gays. In spite of being a supporter of gay rights, Mc Farlane uses every camp stereotype in the book. Even if it is for laughs, the fact you're resorting to the fact that they're gay as humor comes off as really homophobic
- The general abuse that happens. Made worse in that it's mainly directed to women. I think they'd know that domestic abuse and rape AREN'T FUNNY, and the fact that men aren't met with as much buttmonkeying makes me wonder if the writers have issues
- Of course, the numerous racist jokes. Though I have a feeling that's just to mess with us-which may be just as bad
- My biggest problem, and what I see the core flaw with the show? Almost every single character is a jerk in some way. Which is made worse when they try to sympathize them-it just comes off as tacky and an attempt to make them seem anything other than the callous cretins that they are. Even sympathetic characters end up having asshole moments, such as Meg's attempted date-rape of her own brother?In the end, there's no-one to properly root for, and I can't even get some semblance of cathartic release because they'll never pay for their behaviour. Why should I care?!
Jeez... where do I begin? One of the first moments that ticked me off was 30 seconds of Stewie just yelling Lois in the season premiere of season 5, then the cool whip joke, then episodes where Meg didn't appear.
Then of course we have too many episodes that are about relationships, instead of a good plot like in the first 4 seasons like Peter and his friends fighting over a trophy, an episode where Peter lied to a charity corp, and Meg being a singer.
Additionally, I don't ever want to see Stewie as a female in a newer episode - that crap needs to end now, and it wasn't funny the first time. I also don't like Lois now - her ANNOYING laugh, and her sex-loving attitude is just making me want to use her for an archery target.
Brian, Stewie, Peter, and Lois tend to hog the show all the damn time these days, leaving no room for character development of Meg and Chris.
Many of the titles of the episodes are just a pun on Family Guy now (Examples: Farmer Guy, Amish Guy, Family Goy, Christmas Guy, Ratings Guy, Family Gay, Padre De Famila) - knock it off, Seth!
Oh and one more thing! There's this dramatic slow zoom effect that's been used zillions of times in probably about every single episode from Season 6-today. Cinematography? What's that?
There's just so many problems, but I can't name 'em all at once.
Killing off Brian and then introducing Vinny only to undo it. Why introduce a new dog, who actually had a fairly interesting personality and an emotional introductory episode, only to later pretend he never mattered? Killing Brian off and bringing him back episodes later would have been fine on its own, but to get viewers emotionally invested in Vinny only to abandon him as a character was frustrating.
The show's actual hilarity is continuously extinguished by its excessive sadism. I love Black Comedy, but Family Guy's now taking it farther than anything Dave Willis, Seth Green, or Trey Parker could ever come up with. For example, in one episode where Peter's obesity causes a roller coaster to slide back down and crash, would have been funny enough on it's own, but then one of the writers felt the need to have a woman scream "MY SON IS DEAD!!!". Back in the old Family Guy, the comedy could be dark but still humorous. Peter ignoring an old lady who claims her purse was stolen? Funny. Peter taking a baseball bat to beat a couple with the mother going into labor? Um, no. It's basically to the point where it's theme song is more hypocritical and ironic than that of South Park.
Plus, the show is now constantly trying to satire Christianity, but it falls flat on its face. You get a cutaway, where two men are talking. They both say to each other, "I like you and have no reason not to." Then a man walks up to them, tells them about Jesus' birth and they all spontaneously turn into Ax Crazies and begin stabbing each other. That's not satire, that's just alienating your Christian audiences for no good reason.
The fact they had to remake the entire original Star Wars trilogy just because they were too lazy to come up with anything of their own. Seriously, I'm all for parody but this was just a scene-for-scene retelling of Star Wars with the boring Family Guy characters thrown in and stupid references from the 1980s. In fact for something that uses the characters, plot and settings from Star Wars it actually has little-to-nothing to do with freaking Star Wars. All watching those did for me was remind me that I could be watching Star Wars instead.
I'd actually love to see a decent show parody Star Wars because it could be great, like South Park has done some awesome parodies over the years. But they tend to actually write their own stuff rather than blindly copying the original work and throwing in irrelevant references like FG does.
Their uninspired Plagiarism. While other shows also like a parody now and then it's usually short and down to the basics, complete with a punch line and not the focus of the entire episode. They even try to fit it into the story. In "Family Guy" references are the main selling point of the series. They appear randomly, often without a point or a joke to them or any attempt to fit them into the storyline. Either it's a Cutaway Joke, a pop culture character walking in or scenes from other films, commercials or TV shows that are literally rotoscoped frame by frame. Sometimes the actual footage is even thrown in. That's not funny in itself. It's merely lazy, uninspired writing used as filler to pad up things.
I'm actually amazed nobody so far has brought this up. Either they probably aren't aware that about 95% percent of what they see in "Family Guy" is stolen from other franchises, or, they just enjoy it, "because it brings back nostalgia". In both cases this is horrible. Think about it: the writers are so uninspired that they can't even fill up 20 minutes of material without blatantly plagiarizing scenes from more talented creators. Cut all that reference stuff away and look at the actual ideas or jokes that the writers thought up themselves: it's not going to be much.
As for the "nostalgia" factor. How sad is it that many viewers merely watch it to be reminded of other franchises that they recognize and enjoy far better than "Family Guy" itself? Such people would be better off watching a nostalgia themed TV show, instead of a bastardization where the original actors or characters are just replaced by "Family Guy" characters.
The way the jokes seem to be sinking into taking shots at celebrities for no particular reason, just to fill up a few extra seconds. It's not even clear why the writer doesn't like them. Are they just not pretty enough to be a celebrity?
Also, too many of these shows focus on Brian and Stewie going somewhere while nobody notices that they've gone anywhere and no explanation, while they don't get any actual development.
I feel like there is such a lot that could be done with Meg and Chris' relationship - like they could turn into a kind of team against their parents - but Chris just remains dumb and Meg just keeps getting tortured.
Connie D'Amico's last appearance involved her pelting Meg with dodgeballs. As a result, fans expecting her to get sweet karma in "A Fistful of Meg" was Jossed in favor of a male bully.
They stopped doing Rhode Island in-jokes aside from the obvious ones.
The certain episodes that seem like they can't go at least five minutes without a Cutaway Gag, Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, or a Shout-Out of some kind, in an obvious effort to disguise the fact that the writers could not fill out enough material for the 22-24 minute runtime.
The fact that as a pretty obviously liberal show they will take any excuse to bag the crap out of the LGBTI community and the disabled - all their gay characters are stereotypes; Stewie in later seasons is the closet camp gay, Brian's brother, Herbert. Their one redeeming feature for these communities is Joe who is a badass quadraplegic but I hesitate to give the writers the credit - initially he was in a wheelchair just to serve the plot of an episode and his voice actor is so amazing I think they've written the character around him. This show does more good for conservatives than liberals.
Season 12
"FOX-y Lady"- Peter rejected an offer to greenlight his pitch for the series Handiquacks without any Executive Meddling. He said no because of his insane stupidity and made the "A" plot of the episode a "Shaggy Dog" Story.
The extremely irreverent 9/11 jokes.
The whole episode "Life of Brian". Because he had become one of my least favorite characters of the show (he became nothing but Seth Mac Farlane's political voice) I was actually glad to see him go and for them to introduce Vinny in his place. I actually liked Vinny when they first introduced him. He was a very caring and interesting character and the whole episode did a good job getting rid of Brian and replacing him with Vinny. But then they had to ruin it a few episodes later by bringing Brian back in a way that erased the Vinny storyline from the show's universe. I was somewhat a fan of the show, even the newer episodes, until that happened.
The fact that even after they stated Brian's flaws via Quagmire, they still won't make him better.
The fact that they don't seem to care anymore.
I like Family Guy and my favourite character is Stewie, even though he's less of an "evil Rex Harrison" than he used to be. I like his more evil side (although I didn't like his evil clone) but I'm glad that they've made him uncertain about his sexuality and shown that he genuinely loves Brian (either as a friend or romantically; they've left that up to the viewers interpretation because I don't think Stewie really understands adult relationships but likes to pretend that he does) because those traits make him much more than just the series' infant villain. However there are a lot of horrible characters in the series.
I find Peter rather funny but he's a terrible husband and an even worse father, especially to Meg. He's really abusive towards her and not too great with Chris and Stewie either, although unlike with Meg he doesn't go out of his way to make their lives miserable. Furthermore he has literally gotten away with murder at various points in the series. That said he does at least love Lois, even though he openly stated he "can't stand being around the kids" but he obviously has no idea how to be a good husband and most of the time he acts more like Lois is his mother than his wife.
I don't know why Lois is so popular among men. Nice torso I suppose, but her head is too big, she's got a massive nose and I don't like her hair (although I've got nothing against red heads in general). A lot of people consider Lois to be a MILF but I don't find her particularly attractive. I don't think she's really a great deal prettier than Meg who is renowned for her ugliness in the Family Guy universe (ironically Meg's voice actress, Mila Kunis, is renowned for her sexiness in real life). Furthermore Lois is a slut, a bad mother, arrogant, vain, selfish, uncaring about her children especially Meg (although to be fair Lois did care about her kids in earlier series) and overall a bitch. And her voice is whiny and annoying; even she doesn't like it!
Glenn Quagmire is just an animal and I think he knows that. My theory for why he hates Brian is that he sees himself in Brian because they've both slept with countless women, have illegitimate children and are interested in Lois. I think Quagmire's hatred of Brian is born out of self-loathing because he knows how disgusting he is. As well as being a pervert and rapist, Quagmire's so depraved that he even engages in necrophilia. He's more than just "a little messed up" as Peter puts it and he's certainly not a good guy, although I wouldn't go so far as to call him downright evil.
I actually quite like Joe but the one thing I don't like is that he turns a blind eye to all the crimes Peter and Quagmire commit throughout the series. He's their friend but he's also a cop and Peter and Quagmire have both done things that in the real world would get them thrown into jail for at least a decade and probably a lot longer (I'm not quite sure what the maximum length of a jail sentence is).
I like Brian and Meg, although not as much as Stewie, and I don't mind Chris. I think all the abuse Meg receives is really cruel and unfair. She might be the only truly good person in the entire series, except maybe Brian who's the only person who treats Meg like a person on a regular basis, but truly good people get treated like crap in Family Guy.
The episode where Meg gets sent to prison and returns tough-as-nails. She immediately proceeds to brutalize Peter, but the horrifying thing is that despite the fact that the whole thing made me cringe I was on her side. For that! The fact that the current state of the characters has made me wish violence on what Peter has become is what I find wrong with the show.
Everything this show does is for shock value. Give a baby herpes, kill off a major character, get a male baby pregnant, have Peter try to marry his own son, gore upon blood upon abuse upon unfunny rape jokes, they thrive on controversy. I wonder if Seth is just allowing this because he no longer gives a shit about Family Guy and dares the writers to get it cancelled.
Also the only characters who are remotely likeable to me anymore are Meg and Joe. MAYBE Chris and Stewie once in a while. And Cleveland, if he was allowed to go back to being the sane man after leaving Stoolbend.
How poorly the show's many lessons about tolerance mesh with its addiction to stereotype humor. Literally All Gays Are Promiscuous and Camp Gay, All Jews Are Cheapskates, All Abusers Are Male, All Muslims Are Jihadist, All Christians Are Intolerant...
really nasty and unlikable characters, obnoxious and low brow humor, pointless pop culture references and character cameos that are big lipped alligator moments at best, and the incredibly mean spirited tone.
The needlessly cruel and mean-spirited humor that tries so hard to be shocking, it becomes boring. Not to mention the characters being a part of said shock humor that makes them completely unlikable.
Meg's fluctuating sexuality. First she was a straight girl who couldn't get a date, then she was said to become transgender in the future, Now she's being written as a lesbian? What the hell is that? Sexuality does not work that way!
David Bowie and Mick Jagger. The entire Dancing in the Street video. Doing that shit once, with Conway Twitty, was quite amusing - strange at first and when it doesn't stop Andy Kaufman-esque. Everybody knows the Dancing in the Street video or can see what it's like after about 5 seconds. Hahaha the 1980s sure were funny. And they claimed point of showing the video was that it's "gay", so well done for the homophobia. If you don't have enough budget to make a full show, there are many better ways of filling the screen, maybe an infomercial for one of those hair-cutting vacuum attachments?
The "You have AIDS" song.
DUPLICATE—ignore
On Quagmire's Quagmire, a cutaway gag compares Quagmire's laptop purchase to being the first in the neighborhood to own a Model T. The following gag shows a steam car with a steam car joke. It doesn't make sense for a car that could reach 40mph to travel at a snail's pace. It isn't my biggest complaint, but it really "grinds my gears."
Shapoopy! Shapoopy! The show has gone to shit!
IGNORE
It exists
The Star Wars Specials after Blue Harvest. Granted Blue Harvest wasn't great, it still was funny and had some good moments. It was charming and you really felt like the writers were actually trying.
But II and III? Horrible. Seriously, one named after a bad joke no one really liked in the first place and another after a really old internet meme? There was almost nothing redeeming about either feature. It was all just lazy.
I just hate when they make fun of celebrities that don't deserve it. Matthew Mconaughay, Sharon Stone, Miley Cyrus and of course Justin Bieber are fine. But John Goodman, Gwen Stefani, Jason Mraz and Kathy Bates? Seriously?
Family Guy itself
The show encourages hate and death.
