But what's that phrase? You can't kill a bad thing? On the back of fan pressure and more to the point pretty phenomenal DVD sales Fox took the decision to resurrect the show and for now it's still running. At first all was okay: season four, the first to be released after the official cancellation, stood up pretty well. The standalone Road To... episodes made a comeback, and the relationship between Brian and Stewie developed over these. I've very little really bad to say about season four or five, but the first episode of season four did nothing for me, with its sledgehammer wit concerning Mel Gibson and his Passion Of The Christ movie. However after that the show settled down reasonably well, and in season six they kicked off the first of three parodies of Star Wars. Okay, so Robot Chicken had already done this - a fact mentioned by Chris in the episode - but I still thought Blue Harvest was hilarious. But that was where it stopped. The second one was forced, almost as if they felt they had to put it out but weren't that interested and by the third and final one, It's A Trap, the whole idea had just fallen apart and it wasn't even mildly funny. Mind you, season six also had the two parter when Stewie tries to kill Lois, and that was good. In fact, if memory serves (and if memory does not then Wikipedia shall) it was only in season seven that the cracks began to show. With The Juice Is Loose McFarlane latched onto the by then very old story of OJ Simpson and really did a fine job in writing a tasteless and unfunny episode, with an ending that would become a repeated style over the next few years, where basically it looked as if the writer had run out of ideas and had no clue how to end the show and just threw something together. This I found very annoying. They've done it on the Simpsons too. I find it no less annoying. Characters were killed off or phased out over the next few seasons. Some I did not miss: Hubert, the "lovable" old paedophile, had never made me smile once. I know you can say in comedy everything's up for grabs or nothing is, but I have always found it hard to laugh at someone who hurts or is sexually attracted to children. In fact, when he was onscreen I usually fast-forwarded the scene. But I think the killing of Diane Simmons was a bad move. She was a great foil for Tom Tucker, and her replacement has lacked any spark or zing, with the result the insults the two traded and the sexual innuendos are now a thing of the past. The one thing that holds Family Guy together in my opinion is the continuing and developing relationship between Stewie and Brian. Initially sort of best enemies, and politically diametrically opposed (if a baby can be said to hold political views) their dependence on each other has grown to a point now where they really are, mostly, friends. This kinship has been developed over the course of the Road To... episodes, not to mention their various jaunts forward and backward in time, culminating in the episode where they are both sealed in a bank vault over a weekend (how they didn't run out of air I don't know) and come to appreciate each other and even admit to feelings for one another. If there's one team in this show that should not, cannot be split up it's Stewie and Brian. But the rest of the family, Peter excepted, more or less just play supporting roles now. Meg is, and always has been, there for the express sole purpose of being taunted and abused, Chris as the local idiot, Lois as the one who tries to teach everyone morality though she occasionally lapses herself. Remove those three and really the show would not be all that much different. In many ways I wouldn't have been that surprised had Fox demanded a spinoff series starring just Brian and Stewie. Even the "main" support cast has been cut back. Cleveland of course has gone (though I never thought he brought anything to the party anyway, and how he got his own show...) but Joe and Quagmire tend to feature less and less. Even Glen's celebrated sexual deviancy is being toned down in recent times. Peter has long ago ceased to be "lovably stupid" in a Homer Simpson way: now he's just annoying. His refusal to accept certain facts or change his views come across as nastier and often either offensive or indefensible. In season five's No Meals On Wheels his bigoted attitude towards the disabled (despite the fact that his friend and neighbour has been in a wheelchair since he knew him) blinds him to the fact that they are his best customers. In the episode Extra Large Medium in season eight, his pathetic attempts at convincing himself (and everyone else) that he is psychic - although obviously a not-so-sly dig at television celebrity "psychics" - yeah, South Park did it first, and better - results in his wrong-footing the police and ending up a pointless nuisance who delays their investigation and leads to the death of the kidnap victim. And speaking of kidnap? Stewie's kidnapping of the Star Trek NextGen cast in Not All Dogs Go To Heaven hit a new low in quality entertainment for this show. And yet, it hasn't all been bad. Episodes like Long John Peter, Peter's Two Dads, Peterotica, Petergeist and more have been really well written and funny episodes. But many of these are, as it were, in the rear-view mirror now and the latest batch have left me with little if anything to smile about. These days, I sit down to watch a new FG episode with the sinking feeling that I'm going to be losing a half-hour of my life which I'll never get back, and in most cases I am unhappily proven correct. To be fair, in many episodes I can pick out a scene or joke or sequence which makes me laugh, but typically the rest of the episode that surrounds it is very much of a lesser calibre, and you can't enjoy a show on the basis of a few good jokes here and there every now and again. Between rehashing of old ideas, new concepts that stretch credibility to its breaking point (like Quagmire's transexual dad) and attempts at movie homages (And Then There Were Fewer) it really looks like Family Guy is running out of ideas, if it hasn't already done so. And who is to blame? Surprisingly, though he's the creator and executive producer, and responsibility must ultimately lie with him, Seth McFarlane has written few episodes, and with a team of writers on his staff you would think they would come up with better storylines. But what are we left with? Brian's Got A Brand New Bag. Spies Reminiscent Of Us. Dial Meg For Murder. Business Guy. Oh yeah, and Quagmire's Dad. The only episodes I can stand now are ones with Stewie, Brian or preferably both. And note to Seth: laughing at yourself only works up to a point. Yes, it's funny to point at your earlier work and chuckle about how basic it was - Simpsons did it too, you know - but it's not quite so funny when you stop and realise that some of that work beat the pants off what you're putting out now. It's also not good enough to just shovel any old tripe out and think the viewers will eat it up. Although, I suppose I should pause and reflect, because despite everything I've said above, Family Guy still managed to be nominated for, and win, awards, and the last such was garnered in 2008. Mind you, the last nomination (which it failed to win) was in 2009, four years ago now, so perhaps after all that tells its own story. The thing is - and I understand this - being funny is not easy. I doff my cap to anyone who
is funny, because it's
tough to make people laugh, especially in these hard times. But you can't keep recycling the same old joke and hope it's going to keep getting big laughs. People will eventually see through the facade. Even Bart Simpson, in a recent episode, remarked that he was running out of ideas for his blackboard opening sequence. There comes a time when you either have to rethink what you're doing, or bring it to a - hopefully dignified - close. Let the series rest, and be remembered as something that knew when its time was up and went gently into that good night. Otherwise, you're in danger of ending up with a lumbering zombie on your hands, mindlessly tramping through the schedules laying waste to satire and good taste... what's that you say, Seth? That would make a good episode? For the love of --
Agree that Family Guy is past its prime? Think it deserves to keep going? Let us know in the comments section below.