Family Guy Season 12: Brian is Dead, Long Live Brian

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Family Guy Season 12: Brian is Dead, Long Live Brian

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Really, this was just a peculiar decision. I was sure it was Meg or Chris who was going to die, as they're kind of useless characters. I don't quite get this though. There's future episodes with Brian in the summary, and there's even one with him in the title, "Brian the Closer".

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 07:19

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:37

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

escape artist posted:

Actually...
That episode is now titled "Vinny the Closer", and the episode mentioned earlier, "Brian's a Bad Father" is "Vinny's a Bad Father"

Where do you see this?

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 10:24

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

escape artist posted:

Are you loving kidding? Seriously. Just don't even post anymore because you aren't watching the show. You think this show tried to make Rush Limbaugh look good? That's the dumbest loving thing I might have ever seen posted in this forum.

And you know what? I'm sick of you all acting like Family Guy's glory days were 10 years ago. Oh yeah, we gotta return to the halycon days of Peter licking his nipples in a public pool, and finding cheetos in his manboobs. High brow stuff right there. What a profound character study, this used to be.

The Rush Limbaugh episode was a critique of people who are quick to switch sides and jump on bandwagons. Kind of like how you hopped on the "gently caress Family Guy" bandwagon, because you turned 20, I guess.

I basically agree. I mean, I don't think the show's as good as it was, but it's not like some kind of massive fall from grace either. It's just kind of a standard slow down that any sitcom experiences. The hate this show gets is unfounded; it's a joke-machine show and it does its job reasonable well (most of the time).

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 10:42

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Pleasant Friend posted:

I don't think I want to get into seriously analyzing Family Guy episodes in this thread, because that sounds just awful, but I'll stick with my assessment, Excellence in Broadcasting went out of it's way to make Rush Limbaugh look good.

Honestly, the last time I saw that episode was when it aired, so I might not recall it correctly. However, I don't really think its mission statement was to make Rush Limbaugh look good. I think the mission statement more was "Isn't this crazy? We have one of the worst right wing assholes on our incredibly left wing show. Are you laughing?" Whether or not you laughed is irrelevant and is personal to you.

On a more current topic though, assuming this change sticks on the show (and I am not sure it will), I really feel like future episodes are going to feel incredibly awkward. It's a clear breaking point in the show's basic structure, that feels cheap and soulless. Even by Family Guy cartoon standards. Brian and Stewie are essentially the show's protagonists, after all.

Nichael fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Nov 25, 2013

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 17:05

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Pleasant Friend posted:

I don't blame you for thinking that, it's incredibly popular to think Family Guy is incredibly left wing. Maybe you're right. But I just disagree. In my opinion it used to be liberal/libertarian, very much so, but from what I've observed it's slowly changed it's leanings to conservative/libertarian, and characters that used to be the voice of reason were turned into hypocrites and examples of why liberalism is wrong, Brian especially.

I don't really care which way Family Guy leans politically, I like conservative cartoons like South Park and dislike liberal cartoons like the Simpsons. I hope people understand I'm only bringing it up to make sense in the context when I say Brian isn't Seth's liberal mouthpiece (especially since he hardly does anything on the show but voice the characters anymore).

I'm just not seeing the evidence though. Every time the show commits itself to an issue, it's thoroughly to the left side of it. They'll have instances where Brian is made fun of by the family or Quagmire or something, but (obviously I don't have hard numbers) those instances overwhelmingly seem to be aimed at Brian's pomposity, not his politics. I'm fully willing to admit, however, that I might be blinded by my own biases, and am reading too much into it, out of some kind of subconscious wanting the cartoon to agree with me.

The closest I feel the show comes to being sort of right wing are Consuela and Ida. Even then though, I don't really think the show is committing to a political idea in those instances so much as being lazy. Which is a pretty deserving critique of latter day Family Guy in general.

Nichael fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Nov 25, 2013

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 17:36

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Pleasant Friend posted:

I really don't want to create a laundry list of specific scenes that might be supporting conservatism or might be ironic, especially in a series so large. But off the top of my head some of the more overt episodes include Turban Cowboy, The Giggity Wife and Quagmire's Dad.

I totally forgot Turban Cowboy. That has to be one of the worst of the series, and is a good example of your point. The other two just seemed to be jokes for the lowest common denominator; not really sincere. That's impossible to say for certain though without literally being in the room of writers.

Pleasant Friend posted:

In general, and I realize this is almost impossible to quantify or prove, the show feels a lot more "sincere" when it makes offensive jokes than it used to. With the old show they might say a racist joke ironically, but now more often it's "I'm joking, but not really", the kinda thing you get in real life from a lot of unclever dickheads who want terrible opinions but also want friends.

I'm wondering if you're perceiving an aging show that is going for easy, cheap laughs by dealing in not-very-clever "shock" humor as sincerity. I even still like the show, but it's been obvious to me for years now that it thoroughly prefers going the easy route to get to a joke a lot of the time. As I said earlier in the thread, I think that's pretty typical of a lot of shows late in their run. Remarkably, I think American Dad has held up extremely well despite also being on the air for quite a while now, but I think that can largely be attributed to being a sort-of under the radar show, that lets its writers experiment. It has always gotten just enough viewers to stay on the air, but never quite enough to be a touchstone of the general population's pop culture like Family Guy became. Without as much attention as Family Guy has gotten, it seems much more free to do as it pleases. Again though, I could be talking out of my rear end. None of us have any idea what occurs in any of these writers' rooms.

Nichael fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Nov 25, 2013

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 19:26

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Anime Sandwich posted:

Was on the way to work this morning and started tearing up a little. Why? Why??

The episode wasn't great, and Family Guy's record on "dramatic" episodes is spotty at best, but Brian and Stewie are essentially the only actual characters on the show. I can see being depressed by his departure.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 19:53

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Gaunab posted:

I can understand where Pleasant Friend is coming from. The offensive jokes do feel sincere and the writing has gotten lazy.

You guys are certainly not alone in feeling that it has become sincere. I still disagree, but considering just how common I find this complaint now, I think it'd be great if the show tried to rectify that.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 20:04

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Dr Tran posted:

So Cleveland came back? What happened to his family?

He and his family are being reincorporated into the Family Guy cast this season.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2013 20:19

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Mister Kingdom posted:

We've been on for years!

What was the full context of this joke? I can't make out what Stewie's saying.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2014 09:46

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Mister Kingdom posted:

Mom's the Word

After Peter�s mother (formerly voiced by the late great Phyllis Diller) passes away, he forms a special friendship with her longtime pal, Evelyn (GV: Lauren Bacall), who attempts to seduce Peter.

Meanwhile, Stewie is distraught when he understands the reality of death for the first time.

Okay, normally I'm pretty understanding of the non-continuity of Family Guy, but we literally just had an arc where Stewie dealt with a very personal death.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 03:13

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Medullah posted:

Well...not really. Because of Time Travel...he didn't.

Right. Sorry, I had a momentary lapse of cartoon continuity ignorance.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2014 21:52

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 08:37

Nichael: Mar 30, 2011

Helpimscared posted:

Lets hope these go up with season 13, or looks like we could be on the road to cancellation again

That's really not true at all because it doesn't take into account many, many factors, such as Family Guy's comparative performance to Fox, and TV as a whole, as well as Family Guy's strong web performance, and merchandising. The ratings the show got when it was canceled in its third season would be coveted by many network shows today.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 06:51

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