4 Reasons Brian Griffin Has Become The Worst Family Guy Character

2. His Character No Longer Has Much Purpose

It's important that characters have some minor function or underlying agenda. It makes them interesting and, in some respects, relatable. Even if their whole personality derives from them being bumbling yet lovable idiots (Homer Simpson being one of the most famous examples), we still root for them each episode. Brian's purpose in the original few seasons was to keep the Griffin family (Peter in particular) grounded to earth. He was the voice of reason, often siding with Lois who would call into question Peter's antics. In later episodes, much of his motivation seems to come from the desire to bed a slew of women, hang out with an evil genius infant and pretend his life revolves around the pursuit of writing (more on that shortly). It was largely ignored that he was an active member of family who didn't seem to contribute much. Maybe we let it go because he was quite charming. Now his presence seems to inspire criticism from the rest of the family, not to mention Glen Quagmire who took him down a peg, perhaps to the praise of a lot of viewers. Actually, you can probably just watch that clip for a summary of why Brian's character has been reduced to nothing more than an irritating thorn in our collective sides. Wait! Hang on. Before you do that, there is one more thing we need to discuss. Something that isn't usually touched upon in any detail: