5. Its Gone On Too Long
The end of the upcoming 11th Season will bring the shows episode count up to 212, which, for almost any character based comedy, is far too many. Once again, lets look at The Simpsons as an example. After twenty three years and five hundred and eight episodes, its haemorrhaging quality with moronic stories (E.g. Moes bar rag telling its life story), a lack of fresh jokes, and an overreliance on guest stars. The last one notwithstanding, its practically like looking into Family Guys future. The shows 11th Season will have plots including the family climbing Mt Everest, Quagmire kidnapping Lois, and Chris accidentally launching the family into space. When your stories hit that level of stupidity and desperation, its a clear sign that the show is flatlining creatively. The cutaways are still rumbling along at a sluggish pace with relatively consistent quality, but the story-based humour isnt as funny or creative as it once was. My personal view is that Family Guy has simply reached the end of its life and that, like Candys dog in Of Mice And Men, its time to take it outside and shoot it in the back of the head. Of course it makes far too much money for that so its almost a certainty that it will continue for many years to come.