Post by avariadragon on Oct 9, 2011 5:03:09 GMT -5
(this article is opinion based, what little fact is actually here will be flanked by more opinions. comments and opinions are appreciated but lets keep it calm. also im sorry in advance for all the swearing)
i know, i know, macfarlane isn't a part of adult swim, and neither is family guy but honestly? adult swim would not be what it is today without shows like futurama and family guy. besides its an excuse for me to take a swing at this show and I've just been aching to do that.
now i know this show has spawned locked threads before but i would like to again start out by saying this is not about dwelling on all the offensive crap macfarlane decided to put into his show. that isn't to say i wont bring it up, its a part of the show its hard not to, it's just to say my focus is more so on what family guy was like, how it changed, and why it no longer works. this entry might be a bit short, ill try to add in as much detail as i can but i don't want to waist time repeating myself.
what can i say about how family guy was? it was hilarious, in fact i could probably say that it made me laugh harder then the Simpsons ever did. not to say it was better but still. its style of humor and even the random nature of each show, made it one of the funniest shows on air at the time. the cast was likable, a bit based on other shows, but still likable. with how good the show was it was a shock when we heard it was getting canceled, and the fans demanded more! due to popular demand, it was remade and we're still regretting it.
but why? what really changed, what made it worse? well despite what everyone might think i am here to tell you its not the humor. family guy is just as funny as it used to... when it wants to be. no i think that the main reason this show fails now? the characters. for starters, they all changed, no longer are they the same characters we knew and loved.
first we have peter, when we first met him he was a loveable moron. yeah he always got himself into trouble and often times he deserved the trouble that he got into. but he always tried to set things right, success did very but he at least tried. now? well now they kinda forgot the loveable part. oh he is a moron, they at least got that one right but now he's an asshole. often times not giving a shit about anyone around him. he just doesn't care, he doesn't even learn anything at the end of the episode. he just farts around being a moron and an asshole. i know I'm saying this a lot but still.
how about Lois, she wasn't really a main focus of many of the earlier episodes but she was there trying to do her best in any situation. now she's just a waist of space, she doesn't really do anything, like at all. she contributes nothing to any of the stories unless it specifically requires her to, she also doesn't care and is a bitch. then again she's so bland now its hard to tell
how about my favorite character, Brian. he was obviously the voice of reason and it's the reason i liked him so much. always there to give advice when need be (plus he has a sexy voice XD). so of course that should turn him into a liberal douche. is it wrong to be liberal? hell no, honestly I could probably consider myself liberal. but Brian is the kinda of "liberal" that even liberals have to shake their heads at. it's annoying to see MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, turned into a dick. its bad enough that they decided to make him racist, but now he's so preachy you have to roll your eyes every time he talks. worst of all? he's not even that liberal! he's liberal when others are doing something that's "wrong" but when something happens to him that having an open mind would make it easy to look past, suddenly he drops all that (ill give an example in a bit). worst of all he's not even a snarky bastard like he used to be. his quips are so much more volatile, less subtle, its like he's not even clever anymore. also he's a physical punching bag, constantly put into situations where he gets his ass beat. that's what i want to see, animal cruelty.
how about Stewie, he used to be an evil mastermind. now? he's gay, i mean what the hell is that? how can stewie be gay? okay one second, i have no problem with gay characters in fact i actually really like to see open gay characters in shows and movies, not the stereotypical kind either the ones that actually contribute more then comic relief. i like to see them because it makes me realize how much we have improved over the last few decades. but the thing is, stewie wasn't gay, no really, he actually had quite a few episodes that had a quick poke at how he was straight. hell he had an entire episode dedicated to him "marrying" that other girl (don't remember her name). the reason this pisses me off isn't because he's gay, its because they basically turn him gay over season. its also because they basically completely throw out the other personality in favor of him being gay. his character was assassinated and replaced. yeah he may have been a rip off of jimmy corrigan but no body even knew who jimmy corrigan was, and they probably still don't. there was no reason to make such a drastic change to the character.
lastly meg griffin. i don't even have to tell you what she was like because it doesn't even matter in the eyes of Seth Macfarlane. meg griffin was reduced to a running gag, she barley has any screen presents and easily got the biggest shaft amongst all the characters. she doesn't even count as a main character anymore.
as for Chris i never really payed a lot of attention to him, so its hard for me to pin point how he changed, but i can tell you this: he's more of an asshole now, and that's more then enough reason to hate what he's become.
notice something interesting? all of these characters are unlikable now, they have almost 0 redeemable qualities amongst them. so i have to ask the question, if no body else cares about these characters why should we? THAT right there is the main problem at least I have with this show now. it doesn't even care, i mean not even a little bit.
lets take Futurama for a few seconds here, you know the cast? you know how pretty much all of them are complete assholes? they constantly do mean shit to each other and have little care for it. yet, i can easily say i like ALL of them better then the entire cast of family guy. because even if they are assholes, they do good things from time to time, they have reasons why we don't completely hate them. even bender who is nothing better then a criminal, is probably the favorite character of a lot of us from that show, AND HE'S PROBABLY THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE, at times.
meanwhile family guy just doesn't care. here's another thought, you know those moral lessons at the end of every episode of certain shows? they were really dumb weren't they, always telling us shit we pretty much already knew. but i think they had a different purpose, to let us know that the characters are learning things. even if its obvious to us, it wasn't to the main characters. now im not talking about the bullshit shoehorning of lessons that sitcoms like to do, that just makes everyone look stupid. im talking about giving an idea near the end of the show to let people know that they are growing as characters. or at the very least fool us into thinking that. needless to say family guy never has that.
it just feels like family guy is a skit show now, like the "story" (if it can even be called that) of every episode is just a means to get out more random jokes. which reminds me of one of my favorite new annoyances. the minute of incompetence, if you've seen recent family guy you've probably run into this one once or twice to. its a point in the show where the entire show screeches to a halt for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or more. during this time an unfunny gag is played. by the end of it you will be looking at your non existent watch on your wrist. here's a scene depicting this one
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTiW5Zx6mo
this dedicates 40 seconds to him screwing around with a dead frog. if it was funny, or it had a punch line or something it wouldn't be so bad, but all it is, is him fing around with a dead frog. no one should be able to get away with this kind of shotty writing, it is literally the worst kind of padding because nothing interesting even happens during. want another one?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Rnn2hUfq8
this one is just full of taste, oh it gets even better with this one. not only do you get the pleasure of seeing Brian barf for 30 seconds straight, like you really wanted to. but the reason he's barfing? he slept with a transgender person, someone who had a sex change. i guess being a liberal has nothing to do with having an open mind... suppose i should consider myself independent then.
oh but it gets better. this entire episode feels like it was leading up to this joke. if it was any other show i would swear that it was the episode concept that spawned this joke but because its family guy and i know better. i know that this joke spawned the episode.
OH but we're not done yet, immediately after this scene we get to see quagmire (because the person who had the sex change was his dad) come over and beat the crap out of Brian, HORRAY two family guy cleches in the last 5 minutes? family guy you spoil us...
the only thing funny in this last few minutes of that show was when brian after getting his ass beat stands at the door and says "hey.... i fucked your dad" AND ITS NOT EVEN THAT FUNNY! how do you do this? how do you get away with that? that joke was not worth it, it was throw away at best, and when your throw away jokes are funnier then the rest of them? you really need to rethink how your writing your show.
i think the last thing that pisses me off is the fact that i know it could still be good. I've seen plenty of his good humor in that show still, its still funny in fact its probably still just as funny as it used to be. but he bogs it down with so much bullshit that it's just not worth it.
i don't think you need me to tell you this show sucks, you probably already knew that. but i just wanted to try to explore into a good reason as to why? i would like to think i gave that good reason. i would also like to post two links to articles on cracked about this very thing, i might have repeated a few things they say but they do have other things to say about it and i suggest you check it out.
www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/
www.cracked.com/funny-3882-5-examples-family-guy-going-downhill/
now that i got my shameless plug in out of the way (if only i got payed XD) i would like to thank you for reading my rant. i would like to try to get these out weekly but my interest in this has waned a bit ill will try harder next week but im not making any promises.
i would again like to apologize for anything offensive and my excessive use of swear words, i'd rather not make the swearing a habit here but i was a bit more steamed up about this one.
till next time
i know, i know, macfarlane isn't a part of adult swim, and neither is family guy but honestly? adult swim would not be what it is today without shows like futurama and family guy. besides its an excuse for me to take a swing at this show and I've just been aching to do that.
now i know this show has spawned locked threads before but i would like to again start out by saying this is not about dwelling on all the offensive crap macfarlane decided to put into his show. that isn't to say i wont bring it up, its a part of the show its hard not to, it's just to say my focus is more so on what family guy was like, how it changed, and why it no longer works. this entry might be a bit short, ill try to add in as much detail as i can but i don't want to waist time repeating myself.
what can i say about how family guy was? it was hilarious, in fact i could probably say that it made me laugh harder then the Simpsons ever did. not to say it was better but still. its style of humor and even the random nature of each show, made it one of the funniest shows on air at the time. the cast was likable, a bit based on other shows, but still likable. with how good the show was it was a shock when we heard it was getting canceled, and the fans demanded more! due to popular demand, it was remade and we're still regretting it.
but why? what really changed, what made it worse? well despite what everyone might think i am here to tell you its not the humor. family guy is just as funny as it used to... when it wants to be. no i think that the main reason this show fails now? the characters. for starters, they all changed, no longer are they the same characters we knew and loved.
first we have peter, when we first met him he was a loveable moron. yeah he always got himself into trouble and often times he deserved the trouble that he got into. but he always tried to set things right, success did very but he at least tried. now? well now they kinda forgot the loveable part. oh he is a moron, they at least got that one right but now he's an asshole. often times not giving a shit about anyone around him. he just doesn't care, he doesn't even learn anything at the end of the episode. he just farts around being a moron and an asshole. i know I'm saying this a lot but still.
how about Lois, she wasn't really a main focus of many of the earlier episodes but she was there trying to do her best in any situation. now she's just a waist of space, she doesn't really do anything, like at all. she contributes nothing to any of the stories unless it specifically requires her to, she also doesn't care and is a bitch. then again she's so bland now its hard to tell
how about my favorite character, Brian. he was obviously the voice of reason and it's the reason i liked him so much. always there to give advice when need be (plus he has a sexy voice XD). so of course that should turn him into a liberal douche. is it wrong to be liberal? hell no, honestly I could probably consider myself liberal. but Brian is the kinda of "liberal" that even liberals have to shake their heads at. it's annoying to see MY FAVORITE CHARACTER, turned into a dick. its bad enough that they decided to make him racist, but now he's so preachy you have to roll your eyes every time he talks. worst of all? he's not even that liberal! he's liberal when others are doing something that's "wrong" but when something happens to him that having an open mind would make it easy to look past, suddenly he drops all that (ill give an example in a bit). worst of all he's not even a snarky bastard like he used to be. his quips are so much more volatile, less subtle, its like he's not even clever anymore. also he's a physical punching bag, constantly put into situations where he gets his ass beat. that's what i want to see, animal cruelty.
how about Stewie, he used to be an evil mastermind. now? he's gay, i mean what the hell is that? how can stewie be gay? okay one second, i have no problem with gay characters in fact i actually really like to see open gay characters in shows and movies, not the stereotypical kind either the ones that actually contribute more then comic relief. i like to see them because it makes me realize how much we have improved over the last few decades. but the thing is, stewie wasn't gay, no really, he actually had quite a few episodes that had a quick poke at how he was straight. hell he had an entire episode dedicated to him "marrying" that other girl (don't remember her name). the reason this pisses me off isn't because he's gay, its because they basically turn him gay over season. its also because they basically completely throw out the other personality in favor of him being gay. his character was assassinated and replaced. yeah he may have been a rip off of jimmy corrigan but no body even knew who jimmy corrigan was, and they probably still don't. there was no reason to make such a drastic change to the character.
lastly meg griffin. i don't even have to tell you what she was like because it doesn't even matter in the eyes of Seth Macfarlane. meg griffin was reduced to a running gag, she barley has any screen presents and easily got the biggest shaft amongst all the characters. she doesn't even count as a main character anymore.
as for Chris i never really payed a lot of attention to him, so its hard for me to pin point how he changed, but i can tell you this: he's more of an asshole now, and that's more then enough reason to hate what he's become.
notice something interesting? all of these characters are unlikable now, they have almost 0 redeemable qualities amongst them. so i have to ask the question, if no body else cares about these characters why should we? THAT right there is the main problem at least I have with this show now. it doesn't even care, i mean not even a little bit.
lets take Futurama for a few seconds here, you know the cast? you know how pretty much all of them are complete assholes? they constantly do mean shit to each other and have little care for it. yet, i can easily say i like ALL of them better then the entire cast of family guy. because even if they are assholes, they do good things from time to time, they have reasons why we don't completely hate them. even bender who is nothing better then a criminal, is probably the favorite character of a lot of us from that show, AND HE'S PROBABLY THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE, at times.
meanwhile family guy just doesn't care. here's another thought, you know those moral lessons at the end of every episode of certain shows? they were really dumb weren't they, always telling us shit we pretty much already knew. but i think they had a different purpose, to let us know that the characters are learning things. even if its obvious to us, it wasn't to the main characters. now im not talking about the bullshit shoehorning of lessons that sitcoms like to do, that just makes everyone look stupid. im talking about giving an idea near the end of the show to let people know that they are growing as characters. or at the very least fool us into thinking that. needless to say family guy never has that.
it just feels like family guy is a skit show now, like the "story" (if it can even be called that) of every episode is just a means to get out more random jokes. which reminds me of one of my favorite new annoyances. the minute of incompetence, if you've seen recent family guy you've probably run into this one once or twice to. its a point in the show where the entire show screeches to a halt for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or more. during this time an unfunny gag is played. by the end of it you will be looking at your non existent watch on your wrist. here's a scene depicting this one
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTiW5Zx6mo
this dedicates 40 seconds to him screwing around with a dead frog. if it was funny, or it had a punch line or something it wouldn't be so bad, but all it is, is him fing around with a dead frog. no one should be able to get away with this kind of shotty writing, it is literally the worst kind of padding because nothing interesting even happens during. want another one?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Rnn2hUfq8
this one is just full of taste, oh it gets even better with this one. not only do you get the pleasure of seeing Brian barf for 30 seconds straight, like you really wanted to. but the reason he's barfing? he slept with a transgender person, someone who had a sex change. i guess being a liberal has nothing to do with having an open mind... suppose i should consider myself independent then.
oh but it gets better. this entire episode feels like it was leading up to this joke. if it was any other show i would swear that it was the episode concept that spawned this joke but because its family guy and i know better. i know that this joke spawned the episode.
OH but we're not done yet, immediately after this scene we get to see quagmire (because the person who had the sex change was his dad) come over and beat the crap out of Brian, HORRAY two family guy cleches in the last 5 minutes? family guy you spoil us...
the only thing funny in this last few minutes of that show was when brian after getting his ass beat stands at the door and says "hey.... i fucked your dad" AND ITS NOT EVEN THAT FUNNY! how do you do this? how do you get away with that? that joke was not worth it, it was throw away at best, and when your throw away jokes are funnier then the rest of them? you really need to rethink how your writing your show.
i think the last thing that pisses me off is the fact that i know it could still be good. I've seen plenty of his good humor in that show still, its still funny in fact its probably still just as funny as it used to be. but he bogs it down with so much bullshit that it's just not worth it.
i don't think you need me to tell you this show sucks, you probably already knew that. but i just wanted to try to explore into a good reason as to why? i would like to think i gave that good reason. i would also like to post two links to articles on cracked about this very thing, i might have repeated a few things they say but they do have other things to say about it and i suggest you check it out.
www.cracked.com/funny-316-family-guy/
www.cracked.com/funny-3882-5-examples-family-guy-going-downhill/
now that i got my shameless plug in out of the way (if only i got payed XD) i would like to thank you for reading my rant. i would like to try to get these out weekly but my interest in this has waned a bit ill will try harder next week but im not making any promises.
i would again like to apologize for anything offensive and my excessive use of swear words, i'd rather not make the swearing a habit here but i was a bit more steamed up about this one.
till next time
