Season Review: Family Guy Season 22

The 22nd season of Family Guy went through a lot of changes even if most of them weren’t creative. Thanks to the WGA strike, we were treated to five fewer episodes of Family Guy than we’ve had in years’ past. Moreover, FOX opted to move the series from its comfortable Sunday Night slot to that of a Wednesday Night slot leading to a drop in the overnight rights by almost 50%. That’s not to say the series isn’t still watched by all as the franchise single-handedly keeps the lights on for Disney-affiliated networks like FX, FXX, and Freeform which I actually think contributes to any ratings decline for the original premiere episodes for Family Guy. The series is also one of Hulu’s biggest franchises and is a tip-of-the-spear brand name that Disney then uses to dominate international markets with Disney Star and still sells the series outright in other markets.

Did producers of the series opt to rush a bunch of episodes so as to have some in the bank for what became the eventual strike ergo causing some fluctuation in show quality? Well, Family Guy’s 22nd season is going to score lower than the show’s 21st season and that’s going to be because for all of the episodes that were pretty good this year, there were a few that were bad…like really bad. “SNAP(PLE) DECISION” comes to mind as a truly unoriginal effort followed by “Take This Job and Love It” which was just as unoriginal and was really just a true homage to the variety of episodes that this series makes that I can’t stand.

That’s not to say the entirety of season 22 was a wash for Family Guy. I do think the air around the fear of comedy writing in a post-woke era is starting to subside a bit and as a result you’re starting to see the likes of Quagmire become his old self again and the show taking shots at actors. Still though, I miss some of the freshness that came with the show’s 21st season introducing new characters and making fun of apps. Moreover, we get another season of forgetful cameos from The Cleveland Show to the point that the Family Guy writers are even aware of this factoid and will often throw in a gag here or there to drill the point home.

As for solid episodes, we had some good efforts come through.  “The Return of the King (of Queens)”, “Baking Sad“, and “Fertilized Megg” were all standouts for Family Guy as 2023 came to a close and then both “Fat Actor” and “Lifeguard Meg” helped kick off things on the right foot for the series in 2024 that still has quite a few more episodes premiering later this on FOX plus two holiday specials announced for Hulu. Seth MacFarlane seems pretty reinvigorated for the franchise and there hasn’t been a lot announced for the prolific producers’ plate in 2024. Whether this means Seth plans to take on a more holistic approach the series remains to be seen, but overall the series is still solid if not quite the legendary status the series’ early seasons currently enjoy.