Season Review: Family Guy Season 18

 

 

O, Family Guy. O, Family Guy.

Long gone are the days of Star Wars parodies and thirty-seconds of Peter Griffin soothing a bruised shin. These are not even the days of sex changes or gay marriages. No, Family Guy is an old man when it comes to animated sitcoms.  

18 seasons is an accomplishment. Where I am from, Family Guy is old enough to vote. Unfortunately, with wisdom, age also means that the best days are far behind us. Yet somehow Family Guy remains the little animated show that could. Low ratings, bad reviews, even a cancellation have not been enough to hold this series down. And with no end in sight, it seems like Family Guy will never die.

A lot of credit is due to Seth MacFarlane who built this series from scratch and has managed to keep it afloat with a fresh batch of episodes annually since 2005. Season 18 concluded just short of the 350th episode. A number that puts the series in elite company when it comes to adult animated sitcoms under The Simpsons’ 679 but edging out South Park’s 307.

On the other hand, Seth MacFarlane has become a much busier man than he was in the early years of the series. One of the hardest working men in animation has been able to juggle multiple projects in the past, but he continues to add more onto his plate. Currently, MacFarlane writes, produces, and performs on three shows, which is nothing new. However, animation’s powerhouse also recently signed a massive $200 million/5-year contract with NBC Universal to produce multiple content. What he is working on is unknown, and so is the impact that this new deal will have on MacFarlane’s current projects.

Further, Family Guy is walking on a thin line when it comes to contracts with Fox. 2009 saw MacFarlane earn a 10-year deal that kept the show airing through the last decade. However, season 18 was completed on a one-year contract that did not see a renewal for another year until May 2020. This may be a sign that Family Guy’s impressive run is soon to be coming to a close.

Typically, all of this back-door drama is just excess noise as the series continues to produce year after year. However, season 18 can only be defined as a real lull in the Family Guy empire. Viewership continues to decline equivalent to the amount of effort being put into the majority of episodes. Where the show used to mock cliché lazy writing, Family Guy has declined into its own worst enemy.

Season 18 is peppered with great concepts and story ideas. The writers are doing as great a job as ever finding new places to take the Griffin family. It is how the show has handled those ideas that things fall apart.

Comedy sitcoms require a collaborative effort by many talents before they reach the screen. That includes a solid script. Scripts go through multiple rewrites as they try to whittle down a coherent plot with enough humour. Often a slew of jokes are inserted to reach a certain amount of laughs per minute. Additionally, voice actors throw in their own improv to help elevate the humour. Unfortunately, many of the episodes this season felt like they were a first pass at a script that never got any extra love.

Faking Meg’s death, making Peter a social activist, or having Brian lose a tentacle should have had much bigger pay off then how each of those episodes resulted. The season premiered on an episode that lacked structure and was all but nonsense, and its follow-up did not fair much better. The season finale was a boring rendition of a theme we have seen multiple times. That finale even had a quality story involving Brian suing Stewie for defamation of character but pushed it back to a B-plot that did not get nearly enough airtime. The whole season is contaminated with episodes that could have been much better than the final product.

To be fair, there were some substantial episodes in the first half of the season. “Peter & Lois’ Wedding” was a surprise hit that took us back to the 90s. An edgy and provocative Christmas episode featured Meg orgasm on Santa’s lap. The highlight of the season came when Family Guy explored the concept of rebooting under the Disney label. The delightful episode took us on three potential directions for the series including the average storytelling we received most of the year.

One of the things that has kept audiences coming back is that every once in awhile, Family Guy changes the game and delivers a special episode that does something different. In place of family drama and sitcom storytelling, the show will treat fans to new concepts and formats. “Disney’s The Reboot” is a prime example of how that pays off. Unfortunately, the other special episodes we received this season were not as exciting. A three-part retelling of stories from the Bible is lazy writing at its worst. And a Valentine’s Day bonanza showcasing classic plots of love was just as ineffective at recycling someone else’s stories.

 It brings me no joy to rip apart one of the greatest animated sitcoms ever released. Yet it shouldn’t be ignored when a show becomes stagnant and unimaginative. Except for the few previously mentioned shining episodes, the season was bogged down with average plots that can be found in all corners of television.

Family Guy has lost its edge and that is okay. The same thing could be said about The Simpsons. Unlike their more successful counterpart, Family Guy has not grown and adapted throughout the years. In fact, the series has lost a lot of the things that made it special. Cut scenes are much fewer and farther between. The social commentary is outdated and derivative. Worst of all it doesn’t feel like the showrunners care about breaking boundaries or rewarding fans any longer.

It is not all done for Family Guy. There is still hope.  

There just needs to be a shift. The series can take a few directions right now including rethinking their format and considering a change in direction. With Seth MacFarlane’s capabilities, the series could handle a complete redesign and be successful. The only thing that is for sure is that if this show continues to produce seasons of this calibre the fan base will continue to dwindle.