4. Killing Brian Takes Everything Away From The Show, But Adds Nothing
Think about it: killing Brian off will generate a few weeks of arguably interesting episodes - how do our characters deal with the death of such an important cast member? Okay, fine. But after that, then what? What have we gained from killing off a character who was in no way asking to be killed off? Had the writers killed off Meg or something, I could understand: what has Meg offered Family Guy for the sum of the last 10 years except for jokes made at her own expense (funny, sure, but Family Guy could go on without them, right?). What's more irritating about this, though, is that the whole ordeal seems to contrived to bring ratings and attention back to a show that is clearly flagging. Whether or not MacFarlane and friends thought that it would help to mix things up now that the show's on its twelve season doesn't really come into play - Family Guy is ultimately a comedy sitcom, one that has no respect for continuity, its - rather annoyingly - own set-up... what business does it have bringing in a purely sentimental storyline at this stage? Now it suddenly wants us to take it seriously?