Family Guy: 5 Reasons Why Brian's Death Kills The Show

5. Brian Was "The Sane One" In The Family

Griffin Family Ver 1 In any dysfunctional family sitcom, there's your basic crazy family and there's the one member that occasionally gets into trouble because of/on the behalf of the family. Their antics are designed to keep them exciting and to make episode fodder, but ultimately the sane one returns to their position as the anchor to the ship that is the family. The whole point of the "sane" character is for the audience to have an effective surrogate in the story, and to be able to better observe and laugh at the absurdity of all the other characters. As we've seen with Arrested Development's fourth season though, when you let "The Sane One" become as screwed up as the rest of the family, it ruins the balance of the show's chemistry. With Brian dead, the balance is gone and the family has no one to anchor them with their sanity. Without that anchor, the antics of the family aren't as interesting because there's no one to put them in their place after they've gone to far.
In this post: 
Family Guy
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Mike Reyes may or may not be a Time Lord, but he's definitely the Doctor Who editor here at What Culture. In addition to his work at What Culture, Mr. Reyes writes for Cocktails and Movies, as well as his own personal blogs Mr. Controversy and The Bookish Kind. On top of that, he's also got a couple Short Stories and Novels in various states of completion, like any good writer worth their salt. He resides in New Jersey, and compiles his work from all publications on his Facebook page.